Another Cabin Work Week has come and gone – the 6th annual event, and we are in awe of the work accomplished with one of our smallest teams of volunteers.  ​

Unlike previous years, we had access to our work site well in advance of the project start, and its proximity to our storage building for supplies, made some of the logistics much easier to handle. But the talent and flexibility of our volunteers enabled the project to accomplish more than we could have hoped for as we sat down for the project kick-off meeting on an Indian summer Sunday at the end of October, down on volunteers and facing more termite damage than we had seen at any other site. ​

The teams were a blend of returning volunteers, some that had been returning every year since the first project, and new volunteers – the newest of which were recruited only a couple of hours before our kick-off meeting. They blended their efforts and expertise, and we tried to fill in where we could to keep things running.


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The teams also tackled some “special projects” that included replacing the steps on the lodge and putting a new siding look to the bathhouse along with more repairs to doors and access panels. We managed to have some fun as well, and benefited from generous donations for lunch.

​By the project end, we felt we had a lot to celebrate, not the least of which was that this was the 6th and final of the park’s remaining group cabin sites. We had made the full circuit over the 6 project events, and the completing the cycle gave all a lot of satisfaction.  ​

Cabin Work​

With Joe’s arrival just after the month began, carpentry repairs began in earnest. He put his efforts into a shed that has become the “garage” for the park shuttle golf cart that we use often during our stay at the park. The doors were sagging, and the front siding was in need of repair. Before the first day was over, the doors worked much better. However, over the course of a week, the front was transformed and the shed is now a sturdy (and clean) place to store the shuttle.

Back at 2nd Branch, we held a rescheduled cleaning day, which was badly needed to remove a year’s worth of dirt and animal activity. The enthusiastic team made a huge difference in getting the cabins ready for the project. We continued to paint boards and re-position wood and supplies from their storage in the Well House to the work site.  This was a luxury we didn't have in prior years, because we have access to the 2nd Branch Cabin site in the weeks before the project.  By the time our pre-week team arrived, the supplies were distributed among the site's now much-cleaner cabins, and this year's smaller team could focus on starting the work. 
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​Joe moved over to the cabin site to start replacing some damaged siding, along with Fred, a local volunteer. They made a big improvement on the first cabin, but their efforts uncovered more significant damage from termites that had been hidden. This caused us to look more closely at other cabins, only to find there were more that needed more repairs due to the insect’s boring.  

Our afternoons often find us on the computer with emails, lists, project plans. Or we might be out shopping for supplies. We meet weekly with the park’s Chief Ranger for volunteerism to coordinate with the park on our efforts. One week that meeting resulted in a change of vehicle. We were given access to a GEM, which is an electric vehicle that has a bed for supplies and even a ladder rack. But there are 2 features that make it especially nice. It will travel at the park’s 25mph speed limit and the cab is fully enclosed. That will make our morning trips to the work site faster and much less chilly.  ​

Covering Up
Our new truck needed one more upgrade to finish making it functional for us. That was to put a new tonneau cover over the truck bed. We had used a Truxedo, low-profile fabric cover on our Ram. However, this time we went with a Gator SRX that functioned almost identically, except that it was made of a vinyl material. The installation was as easy as the videos showed it to be, and we had it on in about 30 minutes.

And, of course, we still had a little bit more paperwork to complete on the truck. We needed a Florida title, which also meant paying Florida sales tax. Once again, we needed to get original documents to the Florida tax collector’s office. While our first set of documents actually arrived on time in overnight mail, the dealership had mistakenly had Dave sign the wrong box on the title application. So, we sent a 2nd envelope by certified mail to Florida. That didn’t go so well. After 5 days, we started calling the post office. This caused something to happen. Three times within 8 hours, we were notified that it had “left” the Richmond Distribution center. Finally, 9 days later and 1 day before our temporary tags expired, we received confirmation that all had been processed, and we could install our tags on the new truck. Way too much drama for a simple transaction. ​

Wonder how long it will take for the actual title to arrive?

RV Stuff
We had time for a few small projects over the past couple of weeks. Over time, the veneer on the side of our bed support had come loose, and our attempts to fix it with the tools we had didn’t work too well. While at the park, we had access to the right tools, and the veneer went back on within a few minutes.
It was also time to have the roof checked out. We had a mobile RV service come to inspect the roof and re-seal the fixtures on it.
​And we finally found the fix to our backup camera, that had stopped working back in NY. It turned out to be the simplest fix of all. We simply had to re-pair the camera with the monitor, but the key was to turn the camera off and back on during the pairing process. Simple. And it helps to read the instructions sometimes.

Truck News

Dave has been researching a change in our truck since shortly after we purchased our Cougar RV. His interest in switching to a 4-wheel drive truck stepped up a notch after our 2-wheel drive Ram was stuck in the mud at a campground in Indiana the next summer. And while we had accepted a longbed truck in 2018 when we were desperate for a truck, we never liked its lack of maneuverability and the space it took up wherever we went. ​

So, we were serious enough about switching that we ordered not 1 but 2 trucks in December of ‘21. They didn’t arrive until late July of ‘22 when we were 1200 miles away. Not surprisingly, we let those go. Successive attempts to order another truck last fall didn’t go well either. As the market was changing, we decided to start looking for trucks on the lot. Dave also had zeroed in on the 2024 GM trucks which weren’t becoming available until early summer. 

Now that we had the new Chevy, we just had to sell our old 2018 Ram.  This transaction had more drama than it should have. We discovered that we had an electronic title in Florida. This would have to be turned into a printed title to complete the sale in Virginia.  And the only way to get a printed title was to show up personally at the Florida DMV or to give someone in Florida an original signed Power of Attorney document to request it for us or wait a couple of weeks for the mail to catch up.  Pastor Barry agreed to make the trip to the DMV, and we calculated that with next day mail each way, the documents should arrive a couple of days before we needed them.

Not so fast.

The southbound POA document was mailed overnight mail on Friday morning, but didn't arrive in Jacksonville until Tuesday evening. Hmm. . . Isn’t that 4 days? Barry wasted no time and had the title in the mail before 2pm the next day. This time, our “next day” mail arrived 2 days later on Friday. Luckily the buyer had delayed his arrival until Saturday morning, and the local DMV had Saturday hours. Of course, he drove through Ophelia’s fury to pick up the truck, but other than that all went well. And 2 days later, he was on his way in the truck on a long trip to Wisconsin.
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It all worked despite the nail-biting about late deliveries.

Fitting out the New Truck​

The new Chevy had 4-wheel drive, but that meant it was even taller than our 2-wheel drive Ram. And one of the things not already installed on the truck were running boards. After only a few rides hauling ourselves into the truck, we had some running boards on order. Our grandson Droz was staying with us and provided some helpful extra hands to get them installed. They went on pretty quickly and make the first step up not so challenging.

​However, the real test was to hitch up to the RV. The truck bed was higher than the Ram, and the hitch looked like it was sitting higher in the bed than the Reese did. Would we even be able to raise the RV up high enough to hook up? Despite all of our concerns, the RV connected easily and was within a fraction of a degree of being level once connected. Droz was especially happy, since it meant he didn’t have to take the hitch apart to adjust its height.  

Cabin Work
​While the rain and wind that came with Ophelia made for a rainy day to sell our truck, it was a mixed blessing. That same weather caused us to cancel a planned workday that was scheduled for the same time that we were to meet Jim. However, the next week we were joined by one of our local volunteers, Kevin, staying in the park for the week. He helped us tie up some loose ends from last year’s project by staining a deck in the 3rd Branch cabin group that had been built during the final days of last year's project, and painting the back of another building that had repaired in the spring, but needed some touch up.  

​And we had another workday scheduled for the next weekend. So, Kevin and Droz moved enough boards to from storage to the work site to ensure the local teen volunteers weren’t likely to run out of painting work. Unlike the previous weekend, this Saturday was warm and dry. And we had enough volunteers that we not only had them priming boards and screen trim, but cleaning some of these very dirty cabins. 

With the responses coming in from recent emails and social media posts, we managed to increase our numbers of volunteers for Cabin Work Week. And the work on other fronts continued as we planned activities, purchased supplies, and continued other preparations for the main event at the end of October. ​

His help was appreciated when we had to clear out the bed of the Ram and assemble and install running boards and the new hitch. And we enjoyed having some time together, whether it be over dinner or around the campfire. ​

Parting Shots

We did some exploring over our weekend in southwest Virginia, crossing into Tennessee to see the Bristol Caverns and the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.  ​

Cabin Work​

The primary reason we need to be back in the park in September is to prepare an order for the rough cut lumber that we want delivered during the fall project. Since this year we will tackle the last of the 6 Group Cabin sites that remain standing, and our wood order is primarily for next year’s project, we needed to understand what 2024’s project would look like. After some discussion with park management, we worked out that plan, and were able to assemble this year’s order.

And we did a little work ourselves too. There are many historic buildings in the park, not just in the group cabin area. They are in the day use area, the CCC field and even in Maintenance. The focus of a few weeks of effort was the Baker office building in Maintenance. The entrance had a small platform approached by a couple of stairs and a ramp. This needed resurfacing. Maintenance started the work, and a pair of our long-time volunteers called out of the blue and volunteered to finish the ramp and stairs. Greg, who runs monthly work days when we are not around, pressure-washed the building, and set up a work day to stain it. On that Saturday, we joined Greg and his volunteers to stain the building. The 7 volunteers made short work of the building, and left it looking better than it had in years.  ​

Unlike Saturday, the following Monday was going to be scorching hot, so we gladly accepted an invitation to visit with Bonnie’s family for some good food and good times together. Grandma Cathy and Taylor went several rounds solving Cat Crimes, and Troy tried to match his virtual road racing vehicle to Grandpa Dave’s truck. It was a great day, and we were glad to get the time together after so many months apart.​

Riding the Rails​

Being a railroad buff, Pastor Barry clued us into a couple of excursion trains in central PA. He had plans to see one of them, the East Broadtop, the day after our lunch together. It was going to be a long trip, so we hesitated at first, but finally signed up to join him. Meeting him very early on a Sunday morning, we drove an hour to Carlisle for the Carlisle UMC early service. By 10:30, we were pulling into the East Broadtop depot in Rockhill PA, another hour west.  

East Broadtop is an all-day event. This narrow gauge railroad served the iron ore, coal, and timber businesses from the mid 1800’s until the 1950’s, when the last worker walked off the site, leaving much of the site intact. A roundhouse, line-shaft driven machine shop complete with tools and machines, engines and rail cars were all left behind, and with investment over the past decades have been telling the story of this town’s rail history. A short excursion train runs behind one of the original steam engines. A tour through the shops includes firing up the line-shaft drive and some of the machines it powers. And there is also a trolley museum included with a trolley ride. ​

You can take in much of what we saw in our videos from that day.

​When it was time to move on south, we pulled into Shenandoah River State Park near Front Royal VA on the last Monday of the month. This beautiful park gave us the chance to hike by the river and along the ridge, enjoying the soothing sound of the water and the breathtaking view of the valley below. Making our way along the trail to the park’s Visitor Center, we enjoyed its interpretive displays and cooled off in the patio with a view of the valley and, what else, some ice cream. 

Getting Ready for Cabin Work

Since our next stop would be Pocahontas, we took some of our time at Shenandoah River to spray our work clothes with Permethrin, hoping to keep the ticks and chiggers away both on our hikes in the park and when working around the cabins. The need to keep the bugs away was reinforced by Cathy’s recent bite during the East Broadtop visit. A painful yellow fly bite turned into a minor emergency when her arm began to turn red and swell. A week’s course of antibiotics did the trick, but a little more prevention is always a good thing to avoid a repeat trip. ​

Dave continued to communicate with Pocahontas about on-going work and planning for the fall project. We ordered some replacement hoses for the Cabin Work days and arranged from some deck work on one of this year’s buildings.

By month’s end, we were on our way to Pocahontas State Park, which would be our home for the next few months as it has been in the fall for many of the last few years. Time to start working on the Cabin Work Week preparations in person. ​

FMCA Northeast Rally – Herkimer NY ​

Although we weren’t FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) members, we made plans several months ago to attend the summer rally in Herkimer NY, because Pat and Fred planned on attending. Over the course of several conversations with the NE area president, Dave signed us up serve as Safety Officers for the event and managed to convince Fred and Pat to do the same. It would work well, he thought. We would have little scheduled duties and access to a golf cart. Pretty sweet. In the intervening months, he reached out to Mary and Angie, friends we had met at Pocahontas who now lived near Syracuse. They decided to join the event as well, and signed up to do some volunteering as well.  

The next day, we were asked to each drive golf carts to guide RV’s to the parking attendants, checking for distance compliance when necessary through the day. But confusion reigned, and we found ourselves sitting around much of the day, looking to help but not getting much direction. We did manage to guide Mary and Angie into a spot near us and then Pat and Fred to one on the other side. And there was the occasional distance problem that was reported back to the head of parking. However, when we were just about ready to call it quits for the day, we suddenly learned we had a new responsibility. The state inspector had arrived and given several new requirements that needed to be communicated to every rig. We split up - Pat and Cathy in one cart and Fred and Dave in the other. We stopped by each rig and repeated our spiel – awnings 5 ft away, open flames 10ft away. After making the rounds, we were glad to call it a day.  ​

But the opportunity to spend time with our friends did materialize, and we had a great time with Pat and Fred and Mary and Angie. Despite our enhanced duties, we had lots of time to socialize and we really enjoyed the reunion. While we don’t see an FMCA membership in our future, the event did give us this time together which was the best part of it. ​

Silver Valley Campground – Saylorsburg PA​

The next morning we headed out for Pennsylvania. We would be staying once again at the Silver Valley Campground. Since we had been there before we weren’t too worried about our route. However, that changed when we turned down the road toward the campground and saw a “5-ton limit” sign. Apparently a bridge had been restricted since last year. Since we weigh closer to 9 tons, this wasn’t going to work. Calling the campground, we worked out another route, but it meant we had to turn around on this road. We were lucky that there were 2 open paved driveways that were available for us to back into and turn around. We made our way around to the campground using the other route successfully.  

Losing Weight​

No. This isn’t about our daily checkup on the bathroom scales. We have been concerned about the weight of the RV as we continue to search for a new truck, trying to ensure we can match our weight with a new truck’s payload. We have made considerable efforts over the past year to cull out extraneous stuff and reduce our overall weight. Since the rally took place next door to a truck stop with a CAT Scale, we decided to see how well we’ve done. The good news was that we have lost weight. The bad news is that with all of our efforts, the combined weight was just 20 lbs less than the last time we ran across the scales 2 years ago. Maybe we need to work more on that number on the bathroom scales instead.  

​Enjoying more of our in-between time after seeing Jayden off, we stayed in the Central NY area while seeing some sites and taking it easy. Our stop at the Utica RR station had given us some ideas, and we were back to take an excursion train north to Tupper Lake. There are a lot of creeks and canals in this area, and we enjoyed one by boat and the other by tube. And the weather cooperated throughout all of them.

Adirondack Gateway Campground​

We found this campground to be one of our favorite stops on this trip. It was easy to get into, had a beautiful setting, and had more to do than we expected. We enjoyed their hiking trails and a swim in the pool each day. They even had an arcade with a few free games, such as hoops, which was a fun distraction. We didn’t choose to take advantage of the driving range, but it was huge. 
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Riding the Rails Again​

Utica has a devoted group of railroad enthusiasts who have been organized and working for more than 30 years at restoring the rails and rail cars to take passengers from Utica up into the Adirondacks. This past February, the Adirondack Scenic RR opened its longest route to date, traveling round-trip to Tupper Lake. When we saw that our timing was right to take the trip, we jumped at it.  

Tubing on West Canada Creek
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On a hot summer day, what better way to cool off than float down a lazy river? We found just the place at nearby West Canada Creek Campground. They run a tubing concession on the creek that borders the campground. We chose to join the “4-hour” float trip. Loading up with lots of water and sunscreen, we made our way to the shuttle at the campground. Driving a short distance upstream, the shuttle carried us and another group to the put-in point along the river. We each picked up a tube and gingerly climbed down a short, but steep path to the water.  

Then we picked a couple quarts of blueberries at a nearby Amish farm, shortly before heading to the Herkimer County Fairgrounds for the FMCA Rally.​

Truck Stuff​

When we found our tires spinning in the grass at a campsite a couple of weeks ago, Dave started looking more closely at the truck tires. He finally concluded that he would upgrade the rear tires by buying a new tire and pairing it with our full-size spare. Since the tires being removed still had life in them, we had the best of them mounted as the replacement spare tire. Watching the service tech remove the spare tire was very enlightening, and made us hope we never have to repeat the process on the side of the road.

Lightning Strikes Twice​

Just when we thought all was back in service for Faith’s internet, a violent storm took out the church’s power and created a number of failed devices in the church’s network. We first were alerted to the problem when Pastor Ricardo called with a problem one Sunday evening. But we didn’t fully understand the scope until the next day. Nelson was recruited to help us walk through the network and get it working again. But between the 2 outages this summer, we were running low on switches, so it was time to order more. Fingers crossed that we can survive the rest of the summer.

Arriving in Massena on July 1st, we spent the next 2 weeks visiting with our grandson Jayden, helping him start his college search and setting him on his way for a long train ride to Missouri to see his dad. ​

Robert Moses State Park

As our plans developed to visit our grandson in Massena, we knew we needed to make reservations at the nearby Robert Moses State Park. Given that it would be July 4th week, we were a little late to get one reservation to cover the entire 2 weeks. So, we ended up having to move 2 times while we were there. Situated on the St. Lawrence River, the park is close enough to Canada that our cell phones kept telling us we were in Canada. That also put us closest to the Canadian wildfires, so the smoky haze covered us for several days while we were there.  ​

Jayden joined us for several days at the campground. We also hit the road with him to Potsdam and Canton to visit colleges that were on his list of possibilities. His mom and siblings joined us for a picnic one Saturday, and we even managed to get him to an eye exam, which was much harder to arrange in this small town than we ever thought it would be.  ​

Changing Plans

We had been working for several weeks on making travel plans that would connect several events – a birthday party, a train trip and a campground within reach of both. With some coordination between family members in 4 states, we had a plan. We would move from Massena to a Boondocker’s Welcome host near Utica on Friday, the 14th. On Saturday, we would drive 2+ hours to Lake Peekskill on the Hudson River for the birthday party. On Sunday, we would drive north to Albany, where Dave and Jayden would board the Lakeshore Limited headed west. While Jayden would travel its length to Chicago and then on the Southwest Chief to Missouri, Dave would get off in Utica. Cathy meanwhile would drive the truck to meet him and we would complete the circuit back to the RV. It looked like it would all work.

Until things changed.

First, one of the birthday girls (Dave’s mom), couldn’t make the trip to Lake Peekskill. While the birthday party would continue, we decided that it didn’t make sense for us to travel so many hours over the weekend, when we would be able to spend more time with Dave’s mom and sister in August. We decided to change our campsite from Utica to one nearer Albany. We found one about 45 minutes away. It should work well. ​​

We pulled into the Adirondack Gateway Campground north of Utica at 7pm. Thanks to the long summer days, we had enough daylight to set up, and the pull-through site was easy to enter. This was a grass site, but the gravel underneath meant it was solid. We were finally set after a very long day.


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The Lakeshore Limited has 2 origin points – Boston and NYC. The 2 trains combine in Albany. Due to a fortuitous stroke of luck, Dave and Jayden got to board the train early before the trains were joined. They got to watch as the 2 sections were coupled together. Heading out about a half hour late, the Lakeshore Limited had a few stops before reaching Utica, but never made up the time. The NYC half of the train was missing the cafe car, so as soon as it opened, there was a bit of mad rush. By the time the train arrived in Utica, Jayden had just made it up to the counter, but Grandpa missed out. We waved goodbye to Jayden and drove back to the RV, grateful all had started out well for Jayden’s trip west, but glad to be at the end of another long day. We uploaded a video of Dave’s portion of the trip here. ​

Monitoring the train’s progress, we ensured all went well with Jayden’s transfer in Chicago and on to Missouri the next day.  

What’s that alarm?

The first time, the message on the truck’s message display disappeared too fast to read. But after it displayed again and again, we knew what it was saying, but not what to do about it. Dave found the nearest Ram dealer and arrived as the service bay opened the next morning. The message was an ABS brake warning light. We had replaced a pump on this system a couple of years earlier. Could it have failed so soon?

The diagnosis was swift, but the solution wouldn’t be. It was the same part that had failed before. Ram had no replacement parts available. We were asked to call back in a week to see whether any were available. When we did call, we were told he parts would be in by the time we were back in Hamlin. So, the Monday after our return, Dave was up early again to get into the service queue. After several hours, the truck repair was complete, and the bill was mostly covered by our warranty. ​

We were ready to go again, which was a relief that our travel plans were still on track.

Boonville, NY: ​

Leaving Hamlin on a Thursday, we were heading to a stay at a Boondocker’s Welcome location in tiny Boonville NY, a little north and east of Rome NY. Through advance discussions with the host, we were able to extend our stay from 3 to 4 days to cover the gap in our schedule between Hamlin and a reservation at Alexandria Bay in the 1000 Islands.  

​We chose to visit the canal museum on a rainy day, mostly as something to get us out of the RV. But we were pleasantly surprised at its offerings. A docent gave us an introduction to the canal’s history, above a diorama of the canal boats loading the various natural resources for transit. It was followed by a movie, then a hands-on display where we operated the locks to raise and lower our canal boats to a high point and back down. They had a life-size canal boat and blacksmith shop with antique equipment and carriages. We were blown away. All this for a donation. The local supporters do an amazing job.  

1000 Islands – Alexandria Bay​

Moving north from Boonville, we planned to stay at a private campground near Alexandria Bay in the 1000 Islands. With a pull-through, full hook-up site, we were well-situated, but the campground’s biggest attraction was just outside. The Gal’s Place was a popular local destination for – you guessed it – ice cream. Similar to Lugia’s in Rochester, the small ice cream was plenty, and the large was ridiculous. But most importantly, the ice cream was great, making it a required stop each day.  

But today’s Boldt Castle has been beautifully restored. You can envision the family and servants living here. Each of the main floor and 2nd floor rooms has been restored with care. A beautiful stained glass dome that was part of the original vision has been installed. The outbuildings – a yacht house, power house, Dovecote tower and a game house – have been stabilized and open for touring. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and the statues and fountains restored. It is truly an amazing transformation, and one that is on-going.  We put together a video of our tour there. ​

Through Pennsylvania​

Since our motivation for moving north in the summer months is to seek cooler temperatures, we were a little dismayed that our first couple of days in PA found us in the mid 90’s. Since we had electricity at both of our stops, we were still cool. We retraced last summer’s travels a bit as we made our way to a Harvest Host, Armstrong Valley Winery in Halifax. Unlike our last stay, we had only 1 neighbor during our 1 night stay, since there was no festival this time. However, the hospitality was just as warm, and we enjoyed a “charcuterie box” and wine slushies on their deck overlooking the vineyards that evening. 

​Our next stop was one of our favorites – Ives Run Campground, which is an Army COE park on the Tioga Reservoir near the PA-NY border. We made our requisite trip to Jones Kones for some ice cream while we ran some errands. We had the unusual experience of buying fuel for the truck in NY, walking across the parking lot to PA to do laundry and then back across the same lot to NY to get a slice of pizza from the convenience store where we had just fueled up. During our stay, the heat dissipated, and we enjoyed pleasantly cool temperatures for most of the next couple of weeks.   

A few days later, we were headed 30 minutes further west, visiting with Kathy and John at their house on Lake Ontario. The cool temperatures coaxed us inside for the first time on our visits to enjoy a delicious meal and even better company. The Canadian smoke was easing enough that we finally were able to snap a sunset picture over the lake.  ​

Our friends, Joanne and Ralph, from our cruising days invited us to join them for breakfast and a sail on Lake Ontario on their boat. The forecasted rain held off long enough to give us a beautiful sail in a light breeze.  ​

Niagara Hartland RV Resort (Gasport)​

“You should go to the Lockport Cave.” That was the top recommendation for things to do as we moved to a small campground about an hour west of Rochester in Gasport. We were near the Erie Canal a short distance from Lockport, famous for its original “Lockport Flight” of 5 locks. Using some rainy day downtime on the day we arrived, Cathy started learning what the caves were about to plan a trip for the following day. That is, until the search results started proposing stories about “Lockport Cave tour boat capsizes” from 34 minutes earlier. As she started to read, it became apparent that this was an unfolding story that was getting national attention. The center of Lockport was closed down as rescuers were trying to reach the 29 people who were on the boat for its noon tour. While 28 were rescued with only minor injuries, one person was caught under the boat and did not survive. It was unsettling to say the least, since a day later, we would likely have been on that boat.
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Instead, we found other things to do.  

We found some ice cream and fresh tomatoes at the Harris Farm Market, some beef on weck ( a local favorite of Dave’s) at Canalside Inn, and some warm fresh caramel corn at Chenez’s in Lockport. We had traveled through the locks and visited the historic locks beside them when we came by boat back in 2014. This time, we explored the Erie Canal Discovery Center, a stop on the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. We even had some BBQ and strawberry shortcake at the Christ Episcopal Strawberry festival. It was a bit disappointing since there were no fresh strawberries. Apparently the NY strawberry harvest was damaged by a May freeze and local strawberries weren’t going to be available until late June.    ​

Personal Stuff

Since we were in one place again for a longer time, we ordered our mail and, for the first time in several years, had it sent “General Delivery” to the closest post office in the small town of Hamlin. We made sure this was a service they offered, and started tracking the package as it moved from Florida to us. It seemed to arrive on schedule, but we were scratching our heads when we got the notice that it was “out for delivery”. Hmmm. . . Then curiosity switched to concern when the next message said it was “returned for insufficient address”. What?

We made our way to the post office and asked about our package. The first postal clerk tried to help us, but couldn’t find it. He encouraged us to wait, since he was not normally working this office, and the regular clerk would be back shortly. When she arrived, she began looking for the package, and seemed to be having the same trouble. Our anxiety was high about the package because Cathy’s passport was in it (which had taken 6 months to get renewed). Finally, the clerk pulled the envelope from the outgoing mail, which luckily wasn’t scheduled to be picked up until 5. As she handed us the package, we asked what we should have done differently. She said it was correctly addressed. OK. But not too reassuring.


Faith Work

It’s summer in Florida, and, not surprisingly, Faith had another lightning strike that took out the internet. So one Sunday morning, we are walking Pastor Barry through the network to find the damaged switches and replace them in time for the service. While we got the basics done to begin streaming, there were many more that needed to be identified.

So, Nelson agreed to come back the next day and walk through the network. He called at 1pm. By 4pm, we were just finishing up, but the network was back up and running, with 1 small exception. Also, Dave was able to make some simplifications to make any future outages easier to address. Some phone calls with the IT support for Kim’s Open Door and Beyond 90 ensured they were going to be fine as well.

All of this took place the morning that the church’s new Youtube channel went live. We broadcast an announcement on the prior channel to let viewers know that the service had moved. It seemed to work for most viewers, but it is always a little hard to tell.

Parting Shots
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Traveling north during early June, we got to enjoy many more flowers decorating the roadsides and the campgrounds, especially pretty were the rhododendrons in full bloom at Ives Run.  Here are a few: