28th August, 2015

I have been a bit of a Lollygagger lately. Finally got the wherewithal to get cracking on the blog.  New Hampshire was a bit of a bust for us.  To many trees in those White Mountains and the trails were STEEP and also in the trees. We actually drove the car to the peak of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. ( Highest peak at 6288 ft in the Northeast US.)  Our plan had been to ride this cog railway train to the top and hike down but rain and Deans tender ankle derailed the idea.

On to New York State.  I always thought of New York as being New York City and the OTHER bit. Well the other bit is pretty darn large and also very pretty.

Our biggest highlight was a call from Dean’s sister Minita, asking where we were one day and finding they were just 30 minutes away.  A quick detour and Minita and Ana stayed in our campground overnight. They are living full time in this cute camper and working on the road. I think we have given out the good vibe of full time camping.

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We stayed for a week in this campground. If there is FREE produce to be harvested, we are all over it.  Dean picked, peeled and cored the apples and I made up the applesauce for the freezer.

Our nightly walks around the campsite always ended up in this spot by the river.  There was a nice bench and we enjoyed a glass of wine contemplating the view.

Dean, always on the search for breweries found this cute one. The owner also distilled his own vodka.  Dean thought the beer was OK but the vodka was great so we now have a bottle in the cupboard.

There are so many wineries, breweries, cideries and cheeseries up here. We have been doing our best to keep them in business.

We have been surprised on how many Amish are here in upstate New York. These folks stocked up at the local supermarket.

I got this shot as we were driving in the country. I guess they would get better fuel milage than us. It is very rural area with large farms and the primary crops seem to be corn and soy beans.

I have been taking these good closeups just with my iPhone.

Some pretty striped trees in these parts.

We went on several water fall hikes that were very pretty.

Then on to see the beast of them all.  Niagara Falls of course. We stayed a couple of nights in a casino parking lot within walking distance of the Falls. A big thank you to our friends Deb and Bill for the heads up on the great free parking spot.

I last visited Niagara Falls in 1977.  This is my dad and me in the rain gear supplied including wellies.  These days you get a disposable cape.

We took the boat trip to the base of Horseshoe falls.

We walked across the bridge to see the Falls from the Canadian side. I took my American passport this time and all went smoothly.

Niagara Falls, Canada side, sure had some beautiful flower displays. I enjoyed walking around the gardens as much as the Falls.

An evening trip to see everything lit up was nice. I could not resist the cute bow. Dean was a good sport walking around with me all lit up.

Moved on down the state a bit.  Had to get ourselves stashed over Labor Day weekend. Have found a great group of pickle ball players and they are kindly letting us play with them.