Saturday, June 29

Today we woke up late at 9:00AM. We managed to get around quickly and rolled out of camp at about 9:45AM. We drove about 5 miles to our first stop which was the hike up “Bald Mountain.” This 2 mile hike was a little strenuous at times but nothing like the “Grouse Grind” of last summer. At the top of the climb there is a fire tower that dates back to the early 1900s. It has recently been restored and you are allowed to climb to the top of the tower. At the top of the tower you have a panoramic view of the “Chain of Lakes” through the Adirondack Mountains in upstate NY. The weather was overcast and grey but you could still a long ways and take in some breathtaking scenery. After the hike we headed north to Lake Placid. Here we started out by pulling over and having lunch on the side of the road. We then found a couple of spots to park in the downtown area right in front of Lake Placid HS. We ventured into the Olympic Center which is home to two ice rinks, one from the 1932 Olympics and one from the site of the “Miracle on Ice” hockey game, USA vs. Russia in 1980. There was a large figure skating event for really young girls going on in both arenas. We then ventured for a stroll in downtown Lake Placid. We walked in and out of a few shops before we headed out to drive the Whiteface Mountain Memorial Road. We got to the toll booth to find out that there was zero visibility at the top and that it would not be worth the $30+ to drive to the top. From there we went back to High Falls Gorage area to find out that they were closing in 15 minutes and that this was not an option for us either. We called 4 different campgrounds to try to find a spot to stay for the evening all for them to tell is they were full. While we sat there trying to figure out what to do, one of them called us back and said that they did have a spot. We then ventured to the Iroquis Campground in Peru, NY. We are only a few miles away from Lake Champlain. Rachel and Jason went to the Recereation Hall at 7pm to play Bingo much to Jake and Brooke's laughter. We had a good time playing Bingo for only $4 total. Unfortunately we did not win though Jason was close in the last game...the big one! We then retied to the RV to play games with the kids. We are looking forward to our ferry ride with the RV across Lake Champlain and eventually to the Ben and Jerry's factory in Waterbury, VT.

Friday, June 28

The house on wheels rolled out of the KOA around 9 a.m. heading east towards the Finger Lakes area. While we originally planned to visit the area we felt that a lot of the cool stuff to see was on the south side of the lakes and that we would save it for our summer 2014 trip. We headed to Syracuse, where our first stop was Destiny USA...a mega mall that has 3 levels complete with an indoor rope climbing course, go kart track and of course every shop you could imagine. We spent a few hours wandering around and Jason of course bought a few more polos to add to his collection! Lunch was prepared and served in the parking lot before we headed to the campus of Syracuse University. Navigating a 31 foot motorhome on a college campus can be a challenge as we found out over spring break when we visited the beautiful campus of Duke. Syracuse offered narrow roads and steep inclines as the campus lays nestled in a very hilly region...add on the detour due to construction and we consider ourselves fortunate to have made it on and off campus with no major incidents. We found a large lot to park in right by the Carrier Dome, which is what we were hoping to visit. A short walk lead us to this monstrous building, and a little bit of luck landed us there on a day that a kid camp was being offered, so the facility was open for us to walk through. I don't think any of us realized the true magnitude of the dome. The Carrier Dome houses a wide variety athletic competitions including basketball, field hockey and football. The floor of the dome had 10 full-sized basketball courts set up on it for the camp! As we were walking around we came upon a diagram that shows how the facility is set up for basketball games—the single court is set up on the far end of the dome, and a set of portable bleachers is pulled up to the side of the court that is not surrounded by the permanent. The set up for the event only used up 1/3 of the entire facility...definitely not what you see when you watch it on TV. After the visit to Syracuse we made a quick stop at one of our favorite road trip destinations—Target! We pulled into the Old Forge Campground Resort around 6 pm, ate dinner and then rode our bikes into town to visit a few shops and take in the scenery. We rounded out the night with some showers and another round of our favorite, new game...buzzwords.

Thursday, June 27

We managed to roll out of our neighborhood earlier than anticipated until the “false start” horn sounded. A summer road trip would not be complete if I (Rachel) did not do something stupid, and this trip would be no different as I realized I never packed my wallet...so we made a turn around in Win-Mil-Farms and headed back for home. The good news is that was the only hiccup for the day! We made it into and out of Canada with no issues and no stops. We stopped in a shopping center somewhere in New York to eat dinner and then continued to Farmington, NY just outside of Rochester where we set up camp for the night at the Rochester/Canandaguia KOA. It was a rainy night, so we opened up a new game (Buzzwords) and had quite a few laughs.

2 days until we leave!

Today we decided that we needed to get serious and make our reservation for Bar Harbor being that is just before the 4th of July.  We called the one park and they had room for us for the first 2 nights but not the 3rd.  I booked them both.  I then called the more expensive place and managed to get a spot for the 3rd night that we will be in Bar Harbor.

We then focused on trying to find a place to stay on the 4th of July in Massachusetts, somewhere we could catch a fireworks show but not Boston.  (We are going to Boston next summer).   After calling 5 different places we are still looking.  Every place either was booked solid or had a 3 or 4 night minimum stay.  I think a Walmart parking lot is looking pretty good right now.  We are pretty much just going to stop somewhere and sleep before hitting the road on the 5th.

Tomorrow will be a big day as we get the motorhome prepped and loaded.  I need to get the propane tank filled and to fill the freshwater tank and make sure that all the systems are working and ready to roll.  We also will work on making a couple more reservations, one of which will hopefully be a "luge experience" in Lake Placid, NY.  I have a feeling we might strikeout on that one too but it is worth a shot.

We are all looking forward to getting on the road and on our vacation!