Wegman's Good Dog Park in Syracuse, Jamesville Park, Google Earth Overlays, Vacation Camping at Evangola State Park,

Wegman's Good Dog Park in Syracuse & Jamesville Beach Park

So far we've made two trips to the Wegman's Good Dog Park in Syracuse (they also have a Yahoogroups mailing list here). Great place, nicely kept clean with running water, dog bowls for the water, toys, benches, a double gate, and an agility course for the dogs. Very very nice. and gets used a lot. And it's right inside the Onondaga Lake Park, which is nice on it's own with bathrooms, miles of trails, the old lock system, etc.

Still amazes me that the City of Watertown nixed the idea, despite the interest in it. I guess you can't expect too much of the people and government of Watertown and Jefferson County. I find myself more and more disgusted by the people of this area, despite my love for the region. We have a seemingly endless supply of redneck attitudes sometimes.

Anyway, the park was nice, and the local SPCA does have a pay dog area and Fort Drum has a dog park. Maybe someday, in the far future, we'll actually get one here. Though that would pre-suppose the local population actually embracing the present, which may never happen.

Also, south of Syracuse is Jamesville Beach State Park, which has an off-the-leash area as part of the park. Very little little trail system along the stream there, with a few places along the way for the dogs to go into the water.

Google Earth Overlays

They work great, and very easy to use. I took a screenshot off a local Jefferson County property info website, grabbed the latitude and longitude, and used the Google Earth overlay feature to superimpose it over my property so I could reference where the boundaries are. Amazing how easy and useful it is.

Camping Trip to Evangola State Park, Buffalo Area

Monday, we got an early start, between 9:30 and 10, for our trip. It was was safe and uneventful, which is the most important thing, but took longer then we expected it to. There was a large amount of construction on the Thruway, and slowed us considerably.

At one point we spent about half an hour crawling at a few miles per hour in two lanes. Come to find out, they were fixing a tiny strip in one lane, barely three or four feet wide. Seemed strange to delay hundreds of cars on a large highway for such a small thing in the middle of the day. But who can guess at the thoughts of New York State and the DOT?

Again, the Aztek's features came in handy. In a regular SUV the seats would likely have been folded down, and there would have been a heck of a lot less room, height-wise, in the back. As it was we had the cavernous (at least it seems so when you look into other SUV's) rear section. I was able to easily fold the front passenger seat back, and climb back into the rear while my wife continued to stay in line. I could then get the dog's water dish and water out of where we had it packed in the far-back, then sit down in the back and hold the water dish while they drank.

As usual we were carrying a number of things in the soft car-top carrier, which gave us even more room in the back, splitting up the rear between space for the dogs and storage space (using the handy versatile netting) to do so. I could then stow the stuff without bumping my head on anything, and climb back to the front relatively easier. The dogs were refreshed.

We had decided to stop somewhere and buy food rather then bringing it. My wife's Garmin Nuvi and my Garmin eTrex Legend HCx both use the same maps and similar software, so we were able to quickly access and cross reference the locations of a Wegman's as well as a PetCo within a relatively close area. So we wouldn't have to make a lot of detours. Unfortunately the Wegman's was no loner there and we found no sign of it. The hazards of using maps in general - paper or GPS. But at least with GPS maps changes can be quickly submitted and edited.

We did find a Topps, and we picked up a harness for Tucker (he has had some serious physical problems lately and the vet recommended using a harness instead of a collar for our trip). I experimented with the harness on him, and he seemed to adapt quickly to it.

Finally we headed toward the campground, noticing a place selling campfire wood along the way (you're not supposed to bring your own wood from one part of NY State to another, so as not to spread wood-born parasites and such). We checked in at the campground, having made a previous reservation of course, but the girl couldn't tell us whether that gave us a pass for other state parks,which it usually does. You'd think she'd know...

We found our site, which was a bit smaller then we figured it would be, but off to the side was plenty of space back toward the water.

Unfortunately there was a fence, and for a good reason. The waters of Lake Erie were right there, but at the foot of a fifty foot cliff (see photo). The lake was beautiful though, and we couldn't see the other side except for a distance projection. The shore curved outward to the left and right of us. To the right of us was the beach at the park.

We set our tent up, and got our stuff organized. At this point there were a number of others camping in the area, but not a whole lot. While putting up the tent an older couple with a van and RV pulled in, did a bit of loud talking and yelled directions back and forth while maneuvering the beast into their spot. It took them longer to park it then it took us to put our tent up. And we have a large, slightly complicated tent to assemble.

We then took a walk along the fence at the back of our site (there was an old bathroom/shower building that had been closed down back there too). The trail led along the fence and then to a "no trespassing" sign, and little gully. Across it was a wooden fence and camps or homes along the water.

We sneaked down the gully and out onto the small beach at the foot of the high overhanging cliffs. The dogs went into the water a bit, and I studied the various layers of stone above us. Fascinating stuff, unfortunately I did not get a pic, having forgotten to bring my camera along for our walk. The layers were amazing.

The lake seems to be never calm, as we sat a bit on a large stone and talked while we looked at it. After a bit we headed back, but took a different path and came out in the "recreational area", an old rec hall, broken down and closed, an overgrown tennis court and basketball court, and running water access nearby.

The whole campground seemed a bit run-down but still functional.

After getting back to our site we decided to drive around a bit, and try to find wood and some Geocaches. The Geocaches seemed to be along a river, and the only access was the river itself, as the land around it was posted no trespassing. We saw the Indian Reservation and gambling casino, found some fast food places in case of need, and drove back the way we came a short distance to find the camp wood. The park itself had camp wood, a small bundle for $5.

The lady selling the camp wood that we had passed was a bit in the bag, but nice enough, offering fifteen pieces of wood for $10, plus any scrap for free.

We got back, looked through some NY state booklets I had brought along, as well as referenced different parks and such on both of our GPS's for locations to go the next next day.

Then we had out dinner, some stuff we had bought at Topps.

Beside us another RV had came in, another beast and another older couple, with their grandkids. They spent most of the time inside with the air conditioning running, leaving their small dog outside to bark, but were out eating and running a fire while we were eating. As soon as they finished they let the fire run down and went back into the RV, not to be seen again. Is that really camping? Maybe that's what the people in the primitive camping section say about us with our electrical access, I don't know.

We started the fire after a bit, and after walking down to the bathrooms/showers (which were at the opposite end of our camping loop - not far but a bit inconvenient). Again, the bathrooms left something to be desired but at least everything worked. There was also water and garbage collection, as well as washers and a big sink for washing dishes.

Nearby the bathroom people were playing their music quite loud, a tiny worn out camper and lots of beer cans around. Quiet hours at 10!

We watched the sunset, took some pics and then I started the fire and had it going quite well. I'm a fine fire starter but as soon as I put our larger wood on it acted a bit strangely, and didn't want to start. After a bit it went out but I revived it (I pride myself on using only one match and zero starting fluid/gas/whatever - you shouldn't need to. Unless you like doing it that way of course!).

The larger pieces burned fitfully for the rest of the night as we sat around it, enjoying the peace. Well before quiet hours it settled down to be very quiet indeed. Nice, compared to last year's camping at Sampson Park in the Finger Lakes, when the bugs or frogs in the trees squawked or chirped all night, and there was the occasional bit of noise from people (though nothing bad).

We sat for quite awhile, not even getting out our marshmallows and s'mores for some reason, and then went to bed.

Unfortunately some clouds had come in and I debated about putting my large tarp over the tent. Inside it was sweltering, but the wind quickly picked up and I had to close the rain flaps despite the heat. The wind whipped the tent quite a bit, keeping me up for awhile while Jenny slept. It was really windy.

Finally the wind facing our direction calmed a bit, or changed directions and was blocked by the high Maple trees around us. And I could get to sleep, but woke up a few times to the breakers against the cliffs behind us. But those were soothing, versus the wind whipping the tent flaps, and I slept okay, only having to get up to go to the bathroom, taking the dogs with me to do their biz.

The morning was quiet when I woke up, I thought perhaps I had awoken way too early so I allowed myself to fall back to asleep a few times. When I did check the time it was just before eight, so I gathered my clothes as quietly as possible and got the dogs out to do their stuff, then put them back into the tent into their own little beds, and went to the shower.

It was so quiet yet. In the bathroom I found one of the two showers had no showerhead, and asked the middle-eastern gentlemen if his had one. He said it did and I decided to wait, shaving and wandering around. Finally I took my shower (again, not the nicest in there but okay) and complained about the bathroom and lack of showerhead about the state of government facilities along with another dude, who had come in waiting to shower also.

Later we put my tarp over the tent, just in case of rain, and headed out looking for some trails and parks. Unfortunately we wandered too close to Buffalo, and the parks were just that - parks with not much in the way of trails nor places for the dogs.

We went to a number of different ones, picked up some supplies. I remembered that while driving to our camp I noticed a high bridge over a tall gulf or gorge. When I had checked my handheld GPS I saw that we were passing over Eighteen Mile Creek and that there was a DEC wilderness area nearby. We navigated to it and found a lonely road with DOUBLE guard rails along the steep and very very high drop-offs. Finally we got to the end of the road and the DEC area. The trail itself was the continuation of the old original road, right along the very edge.

One the way we encountered a mother and a group of young girls in bathing suits who had apparently been swimming, so we knew that there would eventually be some sort of access down the cliff.

We finally found it, a very steep trail. At the bottom was a small stream, some pools of water, and the high cliffs of course. The dogs played for awhile (finally a place for them to go into the water!) and then we headed back up the steep trail.

Just now I check the wiki entry on the creek and found that at certain times of year raw sewage is diverted into the stream. Yuk. Good thing I don't fish!

Heading back to the campground we noticed that it had rained, but at the campground itself everything seemed dry, though we saw that others had draped their tents with tarps too.

We took a walk around the loops of the campground and did a little exploring, then had our dinner, made a few calls, and planned out our trip the next day.

That night I cut the wood into smaller chunks to get it to burn better, which it did.

We cooked out s-mores, gave the dogs some marshmallows, and sat and relaxed for the rest of the night with a good fire going. Later we decided to leave the tarp over everything but had to open the screens because of the heat inside the tent.

It was a good call to leave the tarp on. As I'm sure you know, tents are only waterproof to a certain extent.

That night it downpoured, and the temps dropped. The wind whipped, thunder hit, and Lake Erie slammed the cliffs behind us. But we were cozy and dry inside the tent.

Once the heavy rains died down the crashes of water against the cliffs lulled me to sleep.

The next morning things had dried outside somewhat, but we discovered a slight depression in front of the tent which we hadn't noticed, and it had filled with a bit of water and leaked a small amount into tent, but not bad.

I also discovered that we had forgotten to cover up the wood. It wasn't too important as we only needed it for breakfast but it was fairly wet, and combined with the crappiness of the wood in the first place - well, starting a fire would be problematic. Sure enough, anything of any size was too soaked and fire went out once I stoked it to the point of putting anything larger on it.

A bit of a disappointment to me as I like to pride myself on being able to get a fire going quite easily. Not in this case.

The family a few spaces down had been smart, and had put their wood inside their pop-up camper and had a good fire going for breakfast.

We packed up, and headed out after dropping off our garbage at the campground's dumpster.

We had plotted out the differences in taking the Thruway back versus going through Buffalo to the dog park there, and found little different in actual distance, just time.

The dog park there, in LaSalle Park, is quite nice. It's called the "BarkYard", and is quite nice. It's much larger then the Syracuse one, and also has a smaller dog section too as well as the double gates. It does not have an agility course not running water, though volunteers seem to have brought some water and other supplies. Quite nice, and we met some interesting people and dogs there.

As usual, B'ellana just wanted to stay around us and had no interest in the other dogs. Tucker, despite his health problems, did a little chasing of the other dogs.

I had never been actually through Buffalo itself, just the outskirts, and I found the part that I saw to be fairly interesting. Old baroque buildings, abandoned and partially-still-used machinery and power buildings, new and interesting buildings with some amazing architecture, lots of parks, lots of construction of new roads and street and buildings, wind turbines on the edge of the city, and more. Wish I had time to explore the city.

The rest of the trip back was much faster, but we did stop at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge on the way back.

It took a chunk out of our return time because there are no close Thruway exits nor on-ramps, so we have to travel a distance to get there and back on the Thruway.

Unfortunately their were a lot of construction going on at the refuge, so we didn't see very much wildlife. Still, it was a good diversion.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful, the dogs as well as us were tired and despite the nice vacation camping trip; I think we were still happy to get home.

Finger Lakes Vacation Trip

We've been throwing around a few ideas vacation-wise for quite awhile.  I haven't, personally, went on a 'vacation' since our honeymoon a few years ago, and neither has Jenny (though she's taken some pretty nice biz trips).  

We've taken weekends, sure.  And a day or two here and there, or maybe a few days to relax at home.  But nothing longer. 

 

So we decided to do a camping trip to the Finger Lakes region.  The "Land of Gorges" I think is the what they call that area, or some such.  The Finger Lakes were created by glaciers that gouged out the large lakes during the Ice Age and.  The area where we are going, around Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake, certainly have a number of parks and areas with popular waterfalls and gorges.  One is higher then Niagara Falls, even.  And we haven't been camping in many years.  It's also "Wine Country" but that particular attraction isn't something we're interested in.

The last time we went camping was a large get-together for a car rally (for the versatile and much-maligned Pontiac Aztek - we use the thing for everything and you can't find many SUV's that have seats that actually come out anymore.  See pic above from the rally.), and we used the Aztek's tent and air mattress.  Very comfortable, and we had a great time.  The last 'real' vacation we took was out honeymoon to Ocean City (see pic below).

This time around we'll have the dogs with us (German Shepard and Boxer) so we're using our 12x8 tent, large enough for a queen-sized air mattress with lots of room left over for our stuff and the dogs too.

And we decided that, even though the Aztek has lots of room in it, we'd get one of those rooftop carriers so we can store some supplies in there and have more room in the back for the dogs.

I found a hardshell one on a local Watertown Freecycle mailing list.  It was fine, though needed some new padding and hinge pins.  We decided maybe we'd just go ahead and get a soft one; easier to put on and take off, less trouble, etc. 

Except the later Azteks didn't come with the roofrails - which is kinda needed for the car-top carriers.  The things you slide them into are on the vehicle, sure; but not the rails themselves. 

The local dealership, Davidson's, would charge an arm and a leg for them.  Over $270 for a pair of them!  Any that come into the junkyards get snapped up at all the junkyards as soon as they come in. 

Coincidentally, on our Aztek Yahoogroup (some of the same people we all went to a rally with a few years back) a person was GIVING away an Aztek because of a blown engine.  A couple decided to drive down to Binghamton and tow it back to their place near Syracuse and part it out, for free.

So we asked for the roofrails, met them halfway, and gave them $25 for their troubles and gas.  Good deal.

Now we have the roofrails, and the softshell carrier and we're ready to go.  We set up the tent and got a new queen-size air mattress (the old one had some holes in it - too many to patch), and started gathering our stuff together for the trip.  We're really looking forward to it.

Oh, and you may notice that this entry is posted after we got back.  I know, maybe this is a bit paranoid but I'd prefer not to let anyone know we'll be gone beforehand.  Ya never know...

After getting the updated and routable maps for my GPS (and a bit of messing around to get everything to work), I'm looking forward to trying out the various routing and waypoint functions.  And having access to how far away the nearest McDonald's is, how long it will take to get there, and what time, etc. is going to make everything much smoother and easier.

  Tuesday. 

We started out fairly early, but there’s always the occasional snufa and forgotten item.  This time around I had been working on and tweaking the list of items we would need, for a few weeks time ahead of time.  I also have a list of common camping and trip items that I cross-referenced what we needed against.  And I don’t think we passed over or missed anything.

On the way down the Aztek’s stereo started going fruity, changing stations by itself.  What a headache, as we’re music people.  And I didn't want it to ruin Jenny's vacation.  I figured when we got back I'd unhook the battery for a bit, sometimes that can reset the computer in the stereo.

It wasn’t until we were most of the way down there that Jen started wondering if something was pressing against the duplicate radio controls in the rear.  That was it, I knew right away.  Earlier I had reclined the seat and climbed into the back for a water bottle.  But getting back into my seat, crawling over the dogs and the stuff - isn't exactly easy.  So we decided to wait until our next stop to check it.

The GPS had helped immensely already, there’s just no question of getting lost or finding the nearest Wegman’s or Pizza Hut with the GPS and it's search functions.  After a short time of comparing routes the GPS calculates and those from a paper map I gave up re-checking it.  Give in, trust technology blindly... ;)

We found a nice little city park in Geneva, with doggie poop bags, boat docks and accessible shores (for us to take the dogs down to), a visitor's center, and picnic tables. 

While we had our pizza I moved some things away from the duplicate radio controls in the rear.  Sure enough that was the problem.  The radio worked fine.

Back on the way to the Sampson Campground we went through the wine country; large grape fields and wineries interspersed with large crops of very healthy corn.  The growing season here seems to be later, due to the warm climate between the two lakes (Seneca and Cayuga).

Almost there – we went by a long fenced-in area, with high fence topped with barbed wire and warning signs.  This was the retired Seneca Army Depot that was right on the other side of the Sampson military base.

The fence ran for miles and at one point we saw a pure white deer.  At first we both thought it was a goat.  And then I remembered something I had read quite awhile back.

There was a retired military base in NY where a number of white deer had gotten inside the fence when the base was being built and had bred. 

I need to find more info on this, I’m assuming it’s the same one that I had read about before but, as I write this; I have no access to the Internet and can't remember if it was indeed the Seneca Army depot grounds where the white deer are.  (Later addendum - yes, it was the Seneca Army Depot that the white deer bred on - a link.  These are NOT albinos.  The 24-mile fenced-in area keep the deer in and most people don't even know they exist.  We were lucky to see them.  Apparently the base commander liked the white deer and ordered that they not be hunted so they continued to breed, while the normal brown deer were hunted and culled.  Possibly the only place in the world with that many white deer when most people don't even know there is such a thing; but now they want to develop the area which seems to be a big controversy there.  Others want to make it a wilderness area).

No WIFI at this campground – way too large to cover I guess.  In fact, there aren't many real villages nearby and not much chance of grabbing a signal anywhere.

So we got to the Sampson Campground, a former military base-turned-park.  A very nice place, lots of land, a military museum, and a very friendly (and a bit silly from too many long hours) desk clerk.  We were able to check in and set up our site earlier then the normal 3:00 PM check-in time.  Again, the GPS even led us directly to our own camp site itself (I had waypointed it before hand, using the camp’s site maps so I knew exactly where on the campground we would be).

Our site has lots of space, and in fact it was a special extra $4 for it (because of the water access).  We have access to the water, electricity, and a good big space with some elbow room away from neighbors.  We took the dogs into the water (not sure if we were supposed to be swimming as there is a beach on the grounds but we went in too). 

And now we sit and relax.  Nice day so far.

Later, we walked quite some distance down one of the abandoned roads which were originally part of the military base and which are now walking trails.  This one continued all the way to Willard, the next town (and where a large drug treatment facility is – which is an alternative to prison for qualified candidates.  Like a boot camp sort of situation I guess). 

We didn’t walk all the way to Willard as we didn't really know how far it would be (I left the GPS in the car). 

We also checked out the military museum on the Sampson campground/park.  It was closed but had a lot of interesting naval and air force equipment outside.

I also got in touch with my father back home, who is taking care of the cats, ferret, and keeping an eye on the house.  He mentioned that my uncle, Vern, had been stationed here at the Sampson Naval base when he was in World War II.

While brushing my teeth at the bathrooms/showers a guy and his son were cleaning a large lake trout.  Gigantic thing.

Last night

It was a little cool in the tent last night, I ended up letting all the rainflaps down to seal the mesh.  Why didn’t the tent instructions say you could do that?  It made a hell of a lot of difference, no draft and a bit warmer.

But the worse thing for me was some sort of tree frog or something.  What kind of evolution would make an animal want to croak, squeak, or make noise all night with little pause?  What possible reason?

I finally got smart and dug out my ear plugs.

Wednesday

I got into the showers before anyone else, since our shower area only has two men’s shower stalls.  Each section or “loop” of camping has one bathroom/shower area and there's also a main section.

We headed out early. 

We had noticed on the entire trip that there were a lot of bicyclists, they seemed to be either traveling in groups or together.  On some tour perhaps?

As we were leaving the park a couple RV trailers were also heading out and a small group of bicyclists were following right on their rear's.

As we turned onto the main road a couple of the bikes continued to stay directly behind one RV trailer.  As our speeds increased one dropped back but the other continued for perhaps a mile.  I was stunned, he was reaching speeds of nearly 50 MPH and at times wasn't even pedaling. 

Just like NASCAR cars and other racing; the bicyclist must have been using the relatively low pressure air behind the rear of the boxy RV trailer.  Amazing how fast he was traveling.  As the hill increased in pitch he went from occasionally not even pedalling to fast and even cranking, then gradually fell back and finally stopped on the side of the road, waving at the people in the truck pulling the RV trailer as it pulled away.  He was breathing fairly heavily as he waited for his companions to catch up, but not overly so.  Pretty impressive.

We headed out toward the Taughannock Falls area.  At this point we were fully trusting the GPS to give us correct and quick instructions, and we barely looked at our paper maps for the rest of the trip. 

The park and gorge and falls were absolutely amazing.  The waterfall has an upper and a lower viewing area, and is 215 feet from top to bottom.  There's also an upper falls and a lower falls. 

Some of the gorge walls are 400 feet tall or more.  We took the lower trail, which goes along the bottom of the gorge.  We could even walk out on the flat stones where, during flood season, flood waters flow.  In fact, there’s been incidents where the trail bridges and pavilion have been washed out, once right after some campers left.  But that's during spring time of course.

After doing lots of exploring and pics (and having tourists stop to pet and talk to the dogs) we then headed to Ithaca, thinking we could see some of the gorges and waterfalls right in the city of Ithaca.  We hadn’t realized how hilly it is and hard to find these falls in an unfamiliar and maze-like city and campus.

After we tried to find some of the trails to the falls according to the directions I had printed out, and not being successful (without getting out and walking around to find them), we decided to head out to the next park.  The campus and area is a maze and many of the falls are on small seemingly unmarked walking trails and shortcuts.  Again, the GPS came in very handy getting us out of the city and also finding us a McDonald’s.

At Buttermilk Falls State Park we decided against walking on the tall, steep, and hard to walk trail around the area.  With a rambunctious dog it wasn’t a good idea.  We decided to go to the other part of the park, the upper part, and walk those trails. 

But on the way another gorge area I had waypointed on the GPS showed up and we tried that.  It was very treacherous, and some of the trails precariously wound along very tall drops.  This was called Sweedler Preserve and was on DEC land.  Until a short time back the falls were almost unknown by even the natives to that area, and there wasn't even info on how far down the gorge went.  It was very scary though, especially since you're walking along a dirt trail along the very edge, and I kept thinking back to those overhangs on the Taughannock Falls Park.  On those trails they kept them far, far away from the overhanging edges.

We went on quite a section of it but turned back after a bit and went to the upper Buttermilk Falls part, went around for a drive along this park (one part has the road going through the running stream that goes into the gorge), and then we headed back. 

The trip back to the campground was uneventful.  The dogs slept most of the way.

Back at the campground the tent that the young couple who had been camping to the left of us had put up was now on the site to the right of us, and a van was at their previous prime spot.  They must not have reserved it for that day. 

The new people were a guy, his wife, and a kid.  They looked awfully friendly, too friendly in fact.  And kept looking over hopefully at us. 

I made sure I looked as uninviting as possible and they left us alone.  Some people go camping to get away (like us), and some go to meet new people and schmooze.

Many of the spots near us were vacated at this point.  That night we started a larger fire and when we came back from the bathrooms while getting ready for bed; a big RV trailer being pulled by a dually was trying to get into a space parallel across from us.  And having quite a time, eliciting lots of complaints from others.

Th wife was backing it up while the asshole husband swore at her and paced back and forth with his flashlight, trying to get her to back it in the way he wanted.  This went on for quite some time.

The campground itself has a number of security vehicles which drive around every few hours, and we saw some local cops take trips through the park at various times.

But this time, unfortunately, there was no one around.  Finally they seemed to get the trailer in the way they wanted and things settled down.

Thursday morning

I slept much better, with my earplugs in.  The tree-dwelling animals screeched both nights but this night I was smart enough to put the plugs in earlier, so I didn't hear much of anything.

As I headed to the shower, hoping I would get lucky once again and get it at least mostly to myself; the RV trailer and truck were sitting across from us, no sign of life.  Fine with me.

I made a quick fire, cooked our eggs and toast and we started packing up.  I'm pretty good at making camp fires, BTW, all it takes it a bit of logic and basic knowledge of thermodynamics to make yourself the perfect fire.

Anyway, the young couple to the left of us didn't emerge until we were just about ready to leave.  Earlier in the morning the family to the right of us had returned from where ever they had went well before I had gotten up at a leisurely 7:30.  Damn early risers - don't trust anyone who goes on vacation and gets up earlier then everyone else and is damn happy and bubbly about it.

We packed our car-top carrier and the dogs and took a quick look around for anything we'd missed, then headed down the park driveways.

On the way, I had my GPS do a search for Geocaches (I had used Garmin's Geocache section to mass-download Geocaches for the area directly to my GPS - a corporate site that actually has something that works well and efficiently - yep!) and sure enough there were four nearby. 

After a short walk down one of the old original base's roads we came to the location of the Geocache; this one called "Poppa Bear" - don't ask me why. 

After searching for a bit I was about to give up. 

Because the military and government limit the accuracy of commercial GPS's I figured I could be 15 feet off, or more on this overcast day.  Sure enough, I found the Geocache - another ammo box - in a broken concrete pipe, half covered with twigs and bark and about 15 feet from the waypoint location.

We looked briefly through all the log entries (a family had found it the previous day, in fact) and then we signed it and headed over to the military museum (didn't feel like looking for any more Geocaches at that point).

The museum is manned by veterans and is situated in the old brig building, with a few real planes and boats outside.  One side of the museum is for the Naval Base, one side for the Air Force. 

The naval side was much larger as it had been a naval base much longer, and had almost every conceivable items from everyday life on the base as well as from those who were stationed there and moved on.  There was even a real periscope, on loan from the military, that you could look through and see 360 degrees around the park from the roof of the museum.  It was quite interesting and they even had notebooks filled with names and pics of those who had been stationed there.  There didn't seem to be an index so I didn't look up my uncle.  The museum is very well done, on both sides.

Next we headed up to the Montezuma Wildlife Preserve.  This is a large wetlands preserve, with walking trails as well as a driving trail (also, the Seneca-Cayuga Canal System goes right past it).  We saw a few birds and wildlife here and there, stopping at the observation tower and walking one of the trails in addition to the driving trail.  It also had a nice visitor center with stuffed animals of all sorts that might be in the preserve, and lots of info and helpful people.

We spent quite some time there but finally felt it was time to head back.  Unfortunately the Thruway doesn't have as many entries and exits as Route 81 so we had to go all the way to Weedsport to get back on (not all that far).  

Again, the GPS made the whole thing a breeze - instead of looking through maps and missing shortcuts they were all right there.  Of course, the GPS is only as good as the maps that are loaded on it and the person using it.  

On the way from the Preserve to Weedsport we passed by and over the Erie Canal System, and one of the still-functioning locks.  A boat was making it's way toward it.  I would have liked to stop to watch but I was ready to head home without delay at this point. 

Here's more pics from our trip.

Vacations are nice, but it's just as nice to get home too.  And there's always a lot to catch up on.