There's a change a comin'...

Nothing to do with the weather.

It has been quiet in this RV park.  In fact, when I was walking Izzy, our motorhome was the only one in this row of about 15 sites.

Friday on a holiday weekend: they are rollin' in... barking dogs, screaming kids, and people who can't follow a campground site map to get to their site (yeah, you have to come at these sits from the right direction).

Not sure how many of the sites in this row are now full, but the ones near us are occupied.  One trailer and 3 cars/trucks.  I wonder if they are determined to find out if the RV manufacturer's claim of how many it will sleep is accurate?  ;-)

The campground is using a loud speaker to advertise their chicken dinner offering (haven't heard that here before)... it feels a bit like being a kid at "sleep away camp."  Well, except the people somewhere around us are smoking cigars.  OK, maybe more like an episode of MASH, without the surgical stuff?  With smokey campfires.

Just a bit ago, an emergency vehicle went by on the road outside the campground.  Sirens going.  We heard at least a half dozen dogs howling around us.  Izzy has a great "What the hell?" face.

While it has been quiet, none of this is a surprise to us... it's the sound of people having fun.  We can close our door and windows, turn on the a/c, and shut the noise out, if we want.  All of the "weekend warriors" who are rolling in is the reason we opted to stay put in one place this week - didn't want to get caught with no place to get off the road.  Plus, we are enjoying upstate New York.

Hope you enjoy your holiday (extended) weekend.

No IF about it...

The rain did come.  Yep, the on and off rain has been more on than off.

Izzy got a morning walk, and then the rain came back... may be a while before she gets another shot at that.

We got rain gear ready and headed out - again, no hard/fast plan, just looking around the area.  Generally, we planned to head towards the Oswego Canal, since that was an area we did not cruise with the boat.

Joan wanted to check out Fairhaven.  For the record, there are a lot of small towns in this part of New York State; I'm guessing they were getting short on names, and started changing the suffixes... there is a Fairhaven, Fairport, and a Fairville, all not too far from each other.  Digressing, so on to Fairhaven - it is a pleasant small town, with a nice state park, on the Little Sotus Bay (which opens to Lake Ontario).  Something different that we noticed...

Chairs set up all along the main street.  No doubt there will be a 4th of July parade... there were lots of chairs out... getting an early start, I guess.  There was yellow tape along one of the side roads...

Not an extended crime scene - if cars were to try parking off the edge of the road, I'm guessing they would be seriously mired down in the muck when they slide into the ditch.  The evidence of the unending rain is everywhere.

We decided to press on, heading towards Fulton, along the Oswego Canal.  Back roads again...

As we got closer to Fulton, the rain quit and the road was actually drying a bit...

We got out in Fulton to check out the canal and lock here...

Looking up, towards Lake Ontario...

Looking down, heading from Lake Ontario towards the Erie Canal...

On the grounds by the lock...

No boat traffic at all while we were there.  I'm guessing the weather has people staying put.

We went out for a late lunch before heading back; during the meal, the rain came back.  Pretty steady by the time we got back to the car.  Pounding by the time we got out of town...

Joan checked radar while we were driving... "By the time we get back to the campground, this system should have moved east."  Sure enough, a couple miles from the campground...

Blue sky!  There had been plenty of red and yellow in the radar images (heavier precip), so we knew it was going to be soggy when we got back.  Yep...

Of course, Izzy was wanting to go for a walk... no idea when that will soak in enough to not have her long, beautiful fur a muddy mess.

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We visited what looked like a pretty new Walmart...

Joan said I could not be specific about what all we saw.  Let's just say: if we had been playing People of Walmart Bingo, I could have gotten a Blackout in the short time we were in the store.

If the RAIN comes...

They run and hide their heads.

If you said, "The Beatles, 1966," you get 50 bonus points.

When we pulled into our RV site for the week, it was very apparent that this area has had plenty of rain.  Everything is lush green, and the ground seems saturated.  Visiting with the lady at the office about this, she said, "The rain has been relentless.  Seems like it has been raining at least every other day for the last 2 or 3 months.  We could use a break from all this rain."

Yes, it rained a bit overnight.  In spite of that, I took Izzy for a walk this morning (Joan gets to wipe Izzy's feet when she comes back inside); we had to zig and zag to miss the muddy ground.  Back at our site, she hopped up onto the picnic table to survey all that she rules...

Of course, I got out the pocket camera.  "Yes, I'm cute - don't you have enough photos of me?"

Nope.

After getting Izzy's lunch, Joan and I headed out for the afternoon.  Yeah, it started raining again...

Joan wanted to see Chimney Bluffs State Park.  The rain was really coming down when we got there, so we decided we'd try again another time.  We went to a road that dead-ends on Lake Ontario to check out the area...

Good thing they put that stop sign there - I may have wanted to drive out on the lake.  The rain and low clouds limited the visibility...

Joan said, "There isn't enough light getting to your face."  I pulled the hood back...

Looking to either side where that road drops off...

We got back in the car and drove to Sotus.  A small town, not by the water.  We moved on towards Sotus Point.  There is an island in Sotus Bay that is really feeling the affect of the endless rains...

Yes, those are sandbags on either side of the road.  We pressed on.  Some beautiful homes and cottages on the island, but the docks are another situation...

Those boat houses should be above the water; the pilings are attached to docks under water.

At a marina on the island...

Those boats are at docks.  Underwater docks.  These are on blocks in the parking lot - may not be long before they float off...

I mentioned "lush"...

Lily pads, orchards, and vineyards couldn't be greener.

At Sotus Point, we stopped to check out paintings on the wall, depicting historic events...

You know it is wet when the traffic signs on land warn you "NO WAKE"!!
 

The road right by the bay was closed except for "local traffic."  We went beyond that sign to see if we could find a place to eat.  There were pumps on the side of the street, pumping water back into the bay (and Lake Ontario), and sandbags all around.  A couple restaurants were open, and Joan thought it would be a good idea to patronize them.  Not much of a crowd inside Captain Jack's Goodtime Tavern, but the food was good.  It was clear in listening to conversations that this area is hurting.

While waiting for food to arrive, I went to the door leading to the docks and took these...

Those sandbags are what stand between the restaurant and the lake.  A bit unnerving.  There is a fishing charter based out of Captain Jack's - you can't get to the docks...

From there, we did some local sight-seeing, and wound up at the Thursday Farmers Market in Wolcott...

Not a lot of booths (no doubt weather related), but Joan found some fresh baked goodies (cherries are a big deal here, so we're counting on the cherry pie to be as good as it looks).  And, produce...

It was late afternoon by the time we got back to the coach.  The rain was light; we put out the awning so we could keep the door open.  The weasels were predicting a chance of rain today (off and on) and a high of 80º.  The warmest we saw was 65º and the rain was more on than off.

More rain predicted for tonight.  90% chance of rain tomorrow and Saturday - we'll be ready with raincoats, umbrellas, and a sunny attitude.

Reminiscing...

If you said: "Little River Band, 1978," you get 200 bonus points!  Nice harmony, by the way.

Last night at the fairgrounds, the rain quit and we could hear band music; not rock band, but marching band.  Sure enough, there is a group of school kids who are rehearsing for their march in the parade during the fair (in August)...

A free place to park... some protection from the wind and rain (while it was underway)... and musical entertainment - can't beat this.

This morning, we saw that lady that met us at the gate to show us where to park - she was driving by to check on us, to make sure we did OK for the night.  "Yep, sure did."  Probably a good thing the fair wasn't happening: we were parked pretty close to this dumpster...

Yeah, no smell, 'cause we think it was empty.

We left Hamburg, heading towards north central NY, and looking forward to seeing some of the Erie Canal sights by land.  Traffic was crazy busy when we skirted around Buffalo - way more stop and go driving than I care to do with the coach.  It took about an hour and a half to go 30 miles.

It was bliss when we got out of town on the back roads.  "Follow that truck!"

Which is a bit funny, 'cause neither of us drinks beer.  We stopped in Middleport, near one of the lift bridges on the Erie Canal...

Looking east, then west in the canal...

A couple photos of each other at the bridge...

Then, back to the coach...

It was pretty quiet in town, so our parking on one of the main drags didn't inconvenience anyone.  As we were getting ready to roll, the bridge opened and one of the rental canal boats went through...

The canal boat is the red part in the above photo (didn't have much of an angle since we were back in the coach).

Rolling down the road, there are places the canal is very nearby...

It was fun to see the towns from the land perspective - places that didn't seem very big when we were on the boat are much bigger when you have the land perspective and can see how much town there is away from the canal.  There was a lot of: "Hey, remember that?"

One more big city to skirt around: Rochester.  Yeah, a lot of traffic...

A part of Rochester that meant a lot to us in our studio days: Eastman Kodak...

That building goes on for a couple blocks, and appears to be empty.  Kodak imploded pretty quickly when the public abandoned film and prints in favor of digital images that you show on your phone.  A by-gone era.

Out of Rochester, the roads got better and much less congested.  Now, we began to anticipate what the RV park would be like - we will be in this one for a week.  Not our usual traveling style, but we don't want to be looking for a place for the night during this busy holiday travel week.

We checked into the park and got settled in our RV site.  There is some gravel, but the ground is pretty soggy in most places due to the recent rains...

Since we are going to be down for a week, we put out our patio mat to make it cleaner going into the coach.  All the utilities, plus satellite TV - just like home.  ;-)

Since Izzy didn't get to go outside last night due to the rain, she was anxious to walk around and sniff some grass...

When we checked in, the nice lady doing our paperwork said, "I see you have a cat."

I replied, "I don't know if it is in your notes, but she is the cutest kitty ever, if you want to make a note of that."

Another lady behind the counter said, "Well, I do have the cutest kitty in the world!"

I said, "I am sure your cat is in the top 3 or 4 - the cutest ever is in our coach."  More discussion followed.  I think we have been accepted by the management here.

A beautiful day today, but the weather weasels are predicting a wet week ahead.  We'll see.  We have umbrellas and rain coats, and we're not afraid to use them.  ;-)