Home at last

We packed things up and headed back toward home on Wednesday morning. The weather promised to be better and we figured to make it a two day trip on the way home. Our preferred route was to come down I79 to Rt. 19 and then to I77. Coming that way takes us over the New River bridge, so we stopped at the visitors center.

This bridge is the highest bridge east of the Mississippi and is closed to pedestrian traffic. Except for one day a year when it closes to vehicles and is opened to pedestrians. This year it's October 15th. It's called "Bridge Day" and is another local spectacle with vendors and food and arts and crafts. But the thing that makes it special are the BASE jumpers who jump off the bridge and try to land on a target below. I just can't imagine it. Why would anyone jump off a perfectly good bridge? But, they do!

From the bridge, we traveled on down to Beckley and to Tamarac, which is billed as "The Best of West Virginia". And it certainly is in terms of craft articles. They have furniture, books, textiles, pottery, wooden ware, wine and much more. The prices reflect the quality so we looked and bought a cookbook and then moved on.

We wound up for the night at Wytheville, on I81, at a Cracker Barrel. It was a good stop with a pretty good place to park until the morning delivery truck rolled in and ruined the rest of the night. Oh well.

Thursday morning we left early and headed down I77 only to get off at Fancy Gap so we could cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while and stop at the Blue Ridge Music Center. This museum of country music is quite new and they have done an excellent job of illustrating the origins and growth of early country and bluegrass music. If you like Bluegrass at all, this is the place to go to learn about the "Crooked Road", a music trail that winds through the mountains.

We kept on the parkway until Boone, a distance of about 80 miles, with a quick stop at the Northwoods Trading Post and the shops at Glendale Springs. Then it was down Rt. 421 to I85 and home.

Our trip took us a total of 2445 miles and we managed 11.3 mpg on fuel. We never paid for a night of lodging, either boondocking at a store or staying in the yard of relatives. We saw lots of neat things and spent valuable time with our relatives. And, of course, we ate our way across the northeast. We can't wait to do it all again.

The Buckwheat Festival

The last scheduled stop on our trip was at our daughter's home outside of Masontown, WV so that we could attend the annual Buckwheat Festival in Kingwood. It seems that buckwheat was a major local crop in years gone by and is the theme for the annual fundraiser for the local fire department. It is a BIG DEAL locally and attracts exhibitors and attendees from a wide area. The event starts on a Thursday and goes until Sunday afternoon and each full day features a parade with a different theme. We went on Friday when the two hour parade focused on the local schools and athletic teams. There are the local bands,

and, of course, the King and Queen.

There were trucks of all kinds,

It was fun watching the little folks, who took their rolls very seriously.

It sprinkled a little during the parade and turned decidedly cooler and we felt sorry for some of the girls riding in the floats in strapless dresses.

After the parade we decided to tour the grounds and get something to eat. The skies turned ominous just as we got to the barbecue chicken.

And then it started to rain. And rain. And rain. Which, I guess, is a tradition for the festival. But it never stopped raining until the next Tuesday afternoon, turning the fairgrounds into mud hole. We never went back.

Our daughter stayed at the fair almost the whole time as our grandsons had entered the pigs they had raised in the competition. They took fourth and fifth in their divisions. The pigs were then auctioned off on Saturday. She has a camper she stayed in and it was still there awaiting extrication when we left on Wednesday.

We enjoyed what we saw and got to partake of some food but I sure wish it hadn't rained the way it did.

On the move

We left Rochester Monday morning and started to head back South. Up to that point, we had traveled a little over 1100 miles. We went down across the Finger Lakes on route 96, a really great road, as much of it has been repaved recently. We went though Phelps because I had read on http://www.roadsideamerica.com/search/tip about a two story brick outhouse. Sounds like something worth seeing, right? Well, I looked really hard going through town but I missed it. They had highway work going on and no place to park so I just kept on going. We wound up back at Mano's Diner in Ithaca for lunch and had another of their delicious omelets. From there, we made our way down Rt. 13 to Rt. 17 and then to Corning to the Corning Museum of Glass.

I'd love to have a bunch of fabulous pictures to show you of this terrific place but just as I got into the welcome center, my camera died. Boy, did I feel stupid. But, we'd already paid our money and the experience is not to be missed. In fact, all of Corning really deserves a full day, at least. We had arrived about 2:30 and the Museum closes at 5:00. Not nearly enough time to do it justice, figure on getting here in the morning. There are many static and dynamic displays of all of the facets (pun intended) of glass, from its history across the ages to its uses in art to its scientific applications. Did you know that the fiberglass in the space suits is only 2 microns thick? Way smaller than a human hair. They also have several demonstrations throughout the day, such as glass blowing and heat forming and this is why you have to get there early. It gives you a chance to spend the time on the displays that they deserve without having to rush to see the demos. Of course, they also have an extensive gift shop and a lunch bar.

After the museum, it was time to find a place for the night. I had looked at http://www.allstays.com/c/wal-mart-locations.htm and found a Walmart that might work. When we got there, they had lots of signs saying NO RV PARKING, but I went in and asked anyway. It seems that officially, they forbid parking to keep the local campground owners happy, but unofficially, no one bothers you if you stay anyway. We were joined by a couple with a van/trailer heading South and, in the middle of the night, by a great big orange semi who parked along side three feet from us.

We awoke to rain and fog and got on the road a little before 9:00am. I had thought about getting to the  Lake Erie shore and maybe seeing some wineries. The rain lasted for about two hours and then the clouds lifted and the day kept getting better and better. The road was great. Very scenic with sweeping curves and rolling hills and it was a very pleasant ride. Until we hit the area that runs through the Seneca Nation Territory around Salamanca. While almost all of Rt. 86 has been repaved and is very nice, this section has the original concrete slabs that tilt and thump. When you hear the term "bone jarring and teeth rattling", think of this stretch of road. Thankfully, it only lasted about 20 miles, but by then everything that could be shook loose, certainly was. Thank goodness, I didn't bring the good china!

We arrived at Erie by 1:00 and found that we would have had to backtrack about 30 miles to see the wineries so we decided to keep pushing on for our next destination outside Morgantown, WV. We pulled into Morgantown about 4:30 after a fuel stop for the coach and then stopped to fuel ourselves at a Bob Evans (breakfast all day). Then it was up the hill to Gabriel Brothers. We've been going to Gabe's for years. It is a small chain of clothing stores that specialize in factory seconds and over runs. Very cheap prices but you have look the prospective purchase over carefully for defects. I once bought a pair of pants only to get them home and find one pocket sewn shut halfway down.

We ended the day by pulling in here at our daughter's home in rural Masontown. The last couple of miles of road are only wide enough for one vehicle but luckily we didn't meet anyway heading the other way. We'll be here for the next few days to take in the world re-known, or at least locally famous, Buckwheat Festival.

Country Craftsman

We have spent most of the past week camped in the driveway of my cousin Harold O'Brien and his lovely wife, Jean. As have I, Harold has rediscovered woodworking in his retirement years. Unlike me, he has made a lot of wonderful and unique things.

Harold's interest is in using the weathered wood from broken down barns in the area to create unique expressions of the life he grew up in or read about. He resaws the pieces to get two thin pieces from each slab, each with one weathered face. He then designs and builds cars or trucks or tractors or houses.

Some times the inspiration is a picture or an illustration. More often, it is Harold's memory and imagination. Each piece is incredibly detailed, from headlights and license plates to girl's hair blowing in the wind and expression of the faces of the characters included. Because most of items, and all of the transportation related ones, have people riding, driving, smiling and enjoying themselves.

These are certainly not toys, nor are they models. They are true artistic creations. They are made for the joy of the creating and are not sold, just sometimes passed on to the family, but mostly occupying shelves and tables around the house.

And for those of us who are woodworkers, always lusting after a larger shop or another tool, here's a look at the total of Harold's shop and the tools he uses to make all these wonderful things.

Thanks Harold and Jean, for your terrific hospitality and a memorable visit.

Curds and Cider

This is dairy country up here. The whole county is covered with dairy farms and barns and fields of corn to feed the cows. One huge commercial operation has over 5000 cows. They even sell overseas. Two of our hosts sons have dairy farms and we've been hearing about them, and even visited them, and learned that farming has changed a whole bunch since I was a kid. The cows don't go outside anymore. Instead, they stay inside in "freestalls". They don't stand on concrete, however, as that would make their legs lame. So instead they are either on thick rubber mats or even thicker "mattresses". Their food is delivered to them from wagons and is a protein rich mixture of chopped hay, alfalfa and corn. A good cow may produce 100 to 120 pounds of milk a day. Being inside and not our walking on the stony ground means their hooves need a pedicure once a year.

There is a tremendous amount of hand work on the farm but running a farm would not be possible without the many machines and some automation. They have giant tractors with enclosed cabs with heat and AC. Some of the milking apparatus is semi-automated, self storing the equipment when the cow is done being milked. They don't use silos. Instead, the chopped hay, "haylage", and the chopped corn is stored in bunkers. These are concrete pads surrounded with precast concrete walls, like a three sided garage. The haylage or corn is dumped in and pushed together and packed down and then covered with white plastic tarps held down with tires. Most farms have several huge bunkers.

Of course, all these cows means lots of milk. All of the milk from my cousins' farms goes to Kraft to the largest cream cheese processing plant in the world. They even have a huge cream cheese festival once a year. I'm going to have to come back for that. I hear that they have a cheesecake the size of a good sized kitchen that gets cut up and distributed.

Some of the milk from the farms goes into making cheese, some of which is distributed by the farmers co-op store.

The cheese is mostly cheddar and varies from very mild to extremely sharp. I bought some labeled XXXX Extreme. But Diane doesn't like sharp cheese so I bought her a package of cheese curds. Cheese curd is the first stage of cheese production, before the cheese is pressed into blocks or rounds and aged. It is the mildest form of cheddar cheese. We got to go to a farm to see it being made.

The whole mornings milking was put into this huge stainless steel tub and rennet was added to separate the milk solids from the liquid or whey. The milk was very slowed heated a degree at a time and the ph, or acidity, is tested to get it to the correct level. then the whey is drained off and used to feed calves and the solidified cake of cheese curd is cut into these mats. They are then drained and turned every ten minutes until they are the right consistency. They are then sliced into individual curds and bagged and sold by the pound. And they are delicious!

After that, we went on down Rt. 12 past Copenhagen to the little town of Burrville, and the locally reknown, Burrville Cider Mill and Bakery. Oh boy, more food.

This is a good sized cider pressing facility that distributes fresh cider throughout the North Country. They also have doughnuts, baked fresh daily, and pies, and cookies, and maple syrup and other goodies.

They have a spigot in the wall where you can pour yourself a sample cup of cider fresh as it flows off the press.

Of course, where there's an old mill, there's liable to be an old mill pond and the dam that backs it up and in this case a lovely waterfall to watch while you sip your cider and munch on that fresh doughnut.

Catch Up

I know I have been derelict in getting things posted so here's some of the update.

We have spent most of the last two days roaming around Lewis County searching out and photographing graves, including that of my paternal grandparents. Most of these were places I had never been and graves I had never seen. We had great success with that but it wasn't all that we did either.

One of the striking elements of the skyline west of Lowville is the Maple Ridge Wind Farm. I had seen wind farms from a distance, but this was the largest I had seen and also the closest I had been.

There are over 196 windmills in this farm and they're building more. Each Blade is over 100 feet long.

If you stand near the base, you can hear a swooshing sound but they're not loud at all. Each on stands on private land and the owners are paid a yearly stipend for the use of the land. Most of it is farmland and the farmers continue to work it except for a small area right at the base of each windmill. Each windmill has a lifespan of 20-30 years or more. But they are so big and dominating they're almost spooky.

Another arm of our trip took us through the small town of Croghan. Now, for a quiet, small, country town, Croghan has a lot going for it. It has a Maple Museum and a Railroad Museum. It has a neat diner. And it has an island saw mill. The Croghan Island Mill & Lumber Company.

 At first I wondered if it was really in operation, but then I saw a man loading freshly milled lumber into his pickup truck and I saw this pile of shavings being emptied into a wagon.

All of this is located on an island of several acres in the middle of the Beaver River.

Croghan is also the home of one of the regions most notable delicacies, Croghan Baloney. This is really a dry, smoked, spicy summer sausage put up in rings by the Croghan Meat Market.

That's only some of what we've been doing but the rest will have to wait for the next post. We're about done in the North Country and are now headed to Rochester, NY to bug my sister  for a couple of days.

Forging Our Way

Today was a travel day for us. We had said our goodbyes to our hosts Rosy and Lou last night. I was up early and we pulled out at 8:00. First I headed over to the cheapest place around for diesel. And came smack up against one of the annoyances of travel in a Motor Home. I needed about 50 gals of fuel but the pump shut off at 22. So, I swiped the card again and got another 22. The delivery system is just not set up for vehicles that take fuel in the quantities we need. At Flying J, I can swipe my loyalty card after my credit card and pump as much as I need on the one delivery, but if I can't get to a FJ, I'm out of luck.

But getting diesel is a piece of cake compared to getting propane. It seemed I could go to any hardware store in town and half the gas stations and some drug stores and get a 20lb. bottle of propane. Now that I've got a 130 gal tank to get filled it's another story. I started by going to a Suburban Propane depot. All sorts of tanks and hoses and trucks and two gals at desks who tell me that there's nobody there who can operated a pump. So I figure, surely I'll find someplace along the road. Well, I did. I stopped and at an Amerigas in Alder Creek with two gals, pumps, hoses, tanks of all kinds, even men, only to be told that I missed the last guy who could do it by 15 minutes. They told me to go to a hardware store. So we kept on going and the search continues tomorrow.

We made it to Old Forge by 11:30 and spent a couple of hours in the Old Forge Hardware store and wandering around town. Old Forge is a classic tourist trap complete with water park but is dear to the heart of every upstate New Yorker I know. It's a small town that most think of as the gateway to the Adirondacks.

Of course, It's not exactly the center of high culture.

But it's home to the Old Forge Hardware Store. Once just an old time source of hardware, now it's all that and more. It's famous for having just about anything you might want or need from nails to packbaskets, books to cast iron pots.It's always fun to browse the aisles.

From Old Forge, we retreated down Route 28 to Forestport Station to a local landmark restaurant called The Buffalo Head. The story goes that when lumbering was the local industry, one of the lumberman lived in a tiny apartment in NYC, one wall of which was adorned with a mounted Buffalo head. His wife gave him the ultimatum and so he brought it north to the Forestport station and hung it on the wall there. When later workers rode the train into the woods, when they were asked what station they wanted to be delivered to, they would answer "Buffalo Head". The current owners took the name for the restaurant when they purchased it in 1962 and it's been there ever since.

 It has a very complete menu and is standing room only on the weekends. We had the prime rib and it was just as we had remembered, one of the best anywhere.

After stuffing ourselves with home made pie we wandered down the road and then followed Rt 12 through Lowville and turned to 812 up to our latest stop. We will spend the week in the driveway here at my cousin's house in New Bremen. More visiting and genealogy.

Engines and More Food

I awoke yesterday morning to the sound of this tractor starting up outside our bedroom window. It's a 1951 Harry Ferguson tractor with a 1969 Chevy 350 engine. It was built and restored by our host, Louis Barbaglia, and Lou was getting it ready to display at the festival.

There was a whole row of old tractors and then next to them was one of my favorites, the single cylinder, hit and miss engines.

Although we often find them hooked up to ice cream makers, this one was demonstrating the grinding of corn.

While we were watching the engines, a little more ancient transportation came by.

Of course, we didn't make it through all the food the first day, so we were back at it yesterday. The first order of the day was barbeque. In these parts that means only one thing Cornell Recipe Chicken. No pulled pork or lathered beef in around here. No, it's chicken halves roasted on racks over a pit fire and basted with a special sauce developed years ago in the kitchens at nearby Cornell University.

A traditional side dish served with the chicken, and also with corn on the cob, is called "salt potatoes". These are small 1"-1 1/2" new potatoes boiled in heavily salted water and served with melted butter. The dinner consisted of chicken, salt potatoes, cole slaw, applesauce, roll and a drink.

For dessert we have something called fried dough. It's bread dough, rolled into sheets and then cut into strips, twisted and then deep fried and then rolled in cinnamon sugar.

There's also curly fries, if you're interested.

And it goes on and on 'til we were too stuffed to move.

I told the story yesterday of the Community Council and it's functions. I found a poster that they had put up to show how the monies that they have raised are spent.

Now we're off to more Northern climes for a few days before starting back South. We've really enjoyed being back in our old stomping grounds. We've visited and eaten and toured all over the area. We think that the small town festivals are really special. I encourage all of you to support yours, wherever they may be.