2021 - 2022 Trip To The Southwest, Day 2

Friday, October 22, 2021 - Jonestown KOA, Jonestown, PA - 164.1 Miles, 292.4 Miles for the Trip

Dinner last night, by the way was veal cutlet. Only fair, but the Greek salad was excellent. 

As I mentioned, after dinner we headed to the Binghamton University campus for my first live theatre performance in 2 years - Triptych: An Experience in Three Acts. An unusual show program - not printed, but by photographing a QR code, you get a link to the program as a web page. The type was far too small to be practical on a cell phone & it was easy to accidentally hit a bunch of ads. While I prefer paper programs, it does solve some printing costs & clean up after the show. It was great to see live theatre, although not the most exciting theatre I've seen. 

 Back to today: 

 Another usual stop, although I'm not sure for how long it will be usual. While KOAs are predictable, my back in full hookup site is $74.10 per night & they have a 2 night minimum stay. It is an almost level site that only required lifting the from end of the trailer a bit; not enough to require unhooking, and it has a fire pit (that I won't use) a concrete slab & a picnic table. That said, I don't need the sewer connection, and $74.10 is a bit steep! The Jonestown AOK Campground , which looks like it was a former KOA, looks to be a good substitute at $45.00 per night. I'll try that next time I'm heading by. They have a sign at the entrance to the KOA that they are full. They are doing an early Halloween weekend which filled the place.

 There is a bit of color in the park, and lots more at the higher elevations in Pennsylvania, but in general, Fall seems to be running behind 2019.  

Not Much Fall Color

After setting up I took a walk around the campground, although less than my usual 2 miles. The weather is OK for late October at 61°F. Lots of clouds mixing with some sun. I did hit light rain on the drive down. 

Dinner was my last frozen lasagna. I found it in the bottom of the freezer, is 3 years old, but vacuum packed.  Hard to believe, but it was pretty good!  The last time I was here they had a 1/4 broasted chicken with macaroni salad & French fries delivered to my site, but all chicken is off the menu because of high prices. Somehow I wouldn't think that a KOA would understand high prices! 

Until Tomorrow -

2021 - 2022 Trip To The Southwest, Day 1

 

A Familiar Stop

Thursday, October 21, 2021 - Anne & Guido's, Binghamton, NY - 128.3 Miles, 128.3 Miles for the Trip

I'm at one of my usual stops when heading south - Anne & Guido's home in Binghamton. I wasn't sure I'd be able to stop since today is my son Kyle's birthday, but we decided to celebrate it last Sunday with a cake & his favorite meal (spaghetti & meatballs from scratch). Since he has to work today and he is on the 2:00 - 11:00 shift, dinner wouldn't have worked. And, it is the last time for 6 months that he will have home made sauce. So, I headed out around noon.

The first stop was at the CAT scale to weigh the trailer. I did the usual two weighings, first with the truck & trailer, and the second with the truck alone. With both sets of weights, I could determine the trailer & tongue weight, as well as trailer axle & truck payload. I do have a Tow Ball Nose Weight Scale that lets me check tongue weight but I need a stop at the CAT scale to get the rest. I do need to use my calculator to determine the weight in pounds - the scale is marked in kilograms. The Tow Ball Nose Weight Scale read 215 kg or 473.994 pounds. At the CAT scale the first weighing resulted in 3060 Front Axle, 3480 Drive Axle, and 4400 Trailer Axle for a Gross Weight of 10,940 pounds. After unhooking the trailer & doing a second weighing with just the truck, the results were 3260 Front Axle, 2740 Drive Axle, and, of course, 0 for the trailer axle, for a Gross Weight of 6000 pounds. So, if the truck & trailer weigh 10,940 pounds, and the truck alone weights 6000 pounds, the full trailer weight must be the difference or 4900 pounds (about 40 pounds heavier than when I left for the Southwest in 2019). Tongue weight calculates as the trailer weight minus the axle weight or 4900 - 4400 or 500 pounds. While not exactly the same as the manual Tow Ball Nose Weight Scale gave, it is within the error ratings of each.

I stopped for gas in Binghamton (3.49 per gallon), then heading towards Anne & Guido's house, saw them across the street coming out of a plaza. So, I beat them home. I put together today's journal entry & posted it.

We are heading to the Spot Diner for dinner.

After dinner we are going to see 3 one act plays and a short stay at the after opening party, so I did my 7:00 eye drops a bit early. 

Until Tomorrow - 

2021 - 2022 Trip To The Southwest

Rescue Exercise

Wednesday, October 20, 2021 - Oswego, NY - 0 Miles, 0 Miles for the Trip

After taking a winter off and spending it in Oswego, mostly because traveling during the Covid era when vaccines were not available didn't make much sense, I'm heading out. I am fully vaccinated (even got my booster shot) and am ready for a trip to Arizona. I did a few changes to the trailer over the last year, including adding an additional lithium battery for a total of 3, and switched my portable 160 watt solar panel to a 300 watt flexible panel that is smaller & lighter. 

The truck is packed, and the trailer is as packed as I can do ahead of leaving day. There will be a bunch of last minute additions on Thursday.

The trailer has 30,942.8 miles on it, the truck at 42,404. 

The first month or so of the trip is a bit unusual for me in that I've made reservations all the way up to November 28th. I usually avoid reservations since I prefer to be flexible in my traveling plans, but during summer travel I found that getting sites without reservations was difficult. While the winter is probably better, I still decided to reserve when I could. I do have a stop planned at Jeff Busby Campground on the Natchez Trace that doesn't take reservations and hope I'll be able to get a site. If not, I'll look for the nearest commercial campground. Because I made reservations, I am pretty much duplicating my 2019 trip, at least until Big Bend National Park in Texas. I've also discovered that many state & national parks have gone to reservation only (with many not allowing reservations within two days of arrival) rather than keeping a bunch of first come sites. While this solves the money handling problems, it makes it difficult for unscheduled stops. It is also a bit annoying to see all the reserved, but empty sites since many national parks camping fees are under $10.00 per night with the various park passes. While some state parks are as expensive (or even more) than the nearby commercial parks, there are many that are also so inexpensive that people make reservations that, if they they don't use, they don't bother to cancel. I'm not sure what the solution is but since the park is being paid for the site, they don't seem to be in a hurry to find one.

Enough whining. I'm on a schedule for the first month & will live with it. The first long stay will be at Hungry Mother State Park in Virginia for a fiberglass rally. Many of the usual activities won't happen because of Covid, but it will be nice to see folks that I haven't seen in over a year.

I made my last deliveries for Meals on Wheels until next April then packed everything I wouldn't need overnight. A bit of excitement at St Luke's Apartments (my Meals on Wheels delivery location). A fire truck was pulled up to the building with a truck ladder going to one of the balconies. Luckily, it was an exercise for the fire crews.

After that I did some last minute shopping, then returned to continue packing the trailer. By the way, it was a beautiful day. Oswego is just trying to keep me from leaving for Arizona - it hit 68°F this afternoon. Of course I know better - January is coming. I quit packing around 4:00 as a light rain began to fall.

Until Tomorrow - 

Day Trip to the Adirondacks

 I am in the middle of packing for my trip to Arizona; leaving next Wednesday.  We are having a warm week, but that will be ending this weekend.  I decided to take a short trip to the western side of the Adirondacks today.

I stopped off at Salmon River Falls on the way.  A bit early for good fall color,  They rebuilt the path from the rim to the bottom of the falls.  It is still quite steep with some large steps between rocks, but they have added cast concrete steps in some of the bad sections.  I didn't go all the way to the bottom since both the color & lighting wasn't all that good, but here is a photo.

Salmon River Falls

After that it was east on route 3 to Cranberry Lake.  I made a couple of stops on the way, which was good, because the campground at Cranberry Lake was closed.  I was a bit early for the western side of the Adirondacks, and a bit late (at least according to reports) for the northern & eastern sections.  I hope I'll run into some nice color on my trip to Arizona.

Dobson Creek Along NY 3

Stream Feeding Cranberry Lake

Stream Feeding Cranberry Lake

Stream Feeding Cranberry Lake

Trip To Algonac State Park & Niagara Falls, Ontario, Day 15

September 20, 2021, Oswego, NY - Miles, 159.6 Miles, 999 Miles For the Trip

Another cool night - great for sleeping at 55°F. The trailer got down to 59°F. I took my time getting up and "at em" since check out time was 11:00 and I only had around 150 miles to home. I found a pint of raw honey on my picnic table which is now in the trailer. I as I packed up the trailer a few of those that were still left stopped by to say good bye. I have an invite at Phil & Sue's for a stop anytime. Might be a great stop if I can do the drive through Canada heading to Algonac next year.

I finished packing up around 10:30 & hit the road. Since I still had some $ left on the EZ Pass, I avoided driving through Rochester by taking the Thruway to I 490 to NY 104 & home. I arrived home around 1:30, parked the trailer & unloaded just the stuff that had to be unloaded. I know I probably missed some stuff that I'll discover over the next couple of days, but since I'm leaving in a month for Arizona, I'm not going to unpack everything. I will need to redo the truck since I'll be adding my portable solar panel, the 900 watt propane generator & a 20 pound propane tank. I'm pretty sure I have the space, but will need to reconfigure where things go.

Since it was a short trip, I didn't keep track of averages, although gas mileage was around 13MPG. 

Dinner was an oven baked Amy's Veggie Loaf dinner.

Until Next Time -