MAY 31, 2015
There are about 150 little islands in Lake George. Some are privately owned.
QUEEN OF AMERICAN LAKES. Lake George, nicknamed the Queen of American Lakes, is a beautiful, long and narrow lake located at the base of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York. It drains northward into Lake Champlain and the St.Lawrence River basin. The Village of Lake George offers a mix of attractions and other things to see and do. It reminds me a lot of the North Shore at Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border. Within a two block radius of the town, you can find a spot to fish in the lake, rent a boat, watch a war re-enactment, hang out on the beach, take a cruise, go para-sailing, ride in a horse drawn carriage, have lunch or dinner overlooking the lake or just relax on a bench and watch the world go by. We’ll take in some of the attractions while we’re here, but we’re also going to spend time “at home” studying our New England travel books and fine-tuning our plans for the upcoming East Coast leg of our Adventure.
A great spot to enjoy Lake George on a sunny day! I’ve seen these types of chairs for years, but I didn’t know ’til now that they’re called “Adirondack Chairs.”
Courthouse in Lake George, New York.
BUMPS IN THE ROAD. It’s about a 600 mile drive from Ohio’s Amish Country to Lake George. We took two days to get here, with just an overnight stop at Lake Erie. That long a drive in only two days was a bit of a stretch for us, since we don’t like to drive more than about 200 miles a day…175 is even better! So we would have been tired coming so far in such a short time anyway, but another factor made the last two days on the road a real nightmare! The roads, highways and even the Interstates in Ohio and in New York are in a complete state of disrepair. The asphalt is cracked and pot-holed, the lanes are uneven and construction workers wearing orange vests milling around the side of the made driving our bus nearly impossible. Road surfaces were like an old washboard. We banged around ’til I thought we’d snap an axle! Our travel days were so stressful and unpleasant that I was cursing the State of New York by the time we finally arrived at Lake George. But I learned something from the New Yorkers at the park where we’re staying. Mother Nature is to blame! Last winter was an extremely severe one, particularly in the Northeast where we are right now. All the roads froze, “heaved,” cracked and froze again, over an over, resulting in serious damage that couldn’t have been prevented. So rather than blaming the officials in Ohio and New York for neglecting their roads, I guess I should be applauding them for directing so many tax dollars to repairing the roads this Spring. Hmm…We may be in for lots more unpleasant driving days this summer and fall while we’re on the east coast. Darn!
Loon Lake…on of the stops along our drive on a Scenic Byway.
SCENIC DRIVE: LAKE GEORGE TO CHESTERTOWN. I asked the butcher at the local meat market in town to recommend a scenic drive for us to take. He suggested the short drive from Lake George to Chestertown. We’ve found over and over that local townsfolk have far better suggestions about their seeing their communities than the guide books ever do. So we took this drive. It took us north on Route 9 through Warrensburg to Chestertown. We saw beautiful forest scenery and stopped in the quaint, charming village of Chesterton. The drive also took us around picturesque Loon Lake and to Pottersville.
Church of Good Shepherd in Chestertown, New York.
SO MUCH TO SEE. There is so much to see! The guy camped next to us in the forest is a retired small town Sheriff, who’s been spending summers here here with his wife and their big dog for years. He got me all pumped last evening telling me about all there is to see. We’re within easy reach of Indian Lake and Lake Placid, with lots of unspoiled forest in between them. Fort Ticonderoga isn’t far, where we could experience the moment when a rebellion become a revolution in 1776. From there, Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains of Vermont await. And so much more.
BUT THE WEATHER ISN’T COOPERATING! You never know about the weather. It’s been beautiful the last couple of days…blue skies 
with white puffy clouds, high 70’s during the day and a gentle breeze rustling through the trees surrounding our campsite. Folks sitting around crackling campfires in the evening. But all of a sudden the weather has changed. It’s raining. Really raining. There’s lots of lightning and thunder. And according to the weather gurus, there’s little chance of the rain stopping for at least another three days. To make matters worse, we’re in a rather remote location so we don’t have a decent internet connection, nor do we have TV reception. Our iPhones don’t work and we’ve been reading so much that our eyes are almost crossed. In the space of just a few hours, “having lots to do has become having little to do.” Ordinarily, we’d probably just stay longer than we’d intended…wait for the weather to clear. But since we’ll be spending the summer on the East Coast, we’ve had to make advance reservations more than we usually do. So many people visit that area in the summer when the weather is nice, that without reservations we might well be stuck on the side of the road more often than not. We’re on more of a schedule now than is the norm for us and if we miss our reserved spots we’ll be in trouble.
Who knows what we’ll find down the road?
SO WE’RE GOING TO MOVE ALONG. W have decided to move on and head toward the east coast few days earlier than we’d planned. When these kinds of weather events disturbed our plans early in our travels, I’d be disappointed to miss seeing all there was to see in an area. I’d almost get angry. I’m still disappointed when this happens, but I’ve learned to take it in stride. I’ve come to realize that there is so much to see on our Great American Adventure that we can’t even come close to “seeing it all.” So if we miss some of the sights here and depart ahead of schedule, we’ll just have more time down the road to enjoy a different area. Perhaps we’ll miss seeing the Fife and Drum Corps at Fort Ticonderoga now, but have more time later to peruse the Library of Congress in our nation’s capital. All is not lost by missing a few sights here and there. In fact, this Adventure is turning out to be the best time of our lives…in every way. If you’ve ever even toyed with the idea of doing what we’re doing, start packing! Don’t wait until it’s too late! This is a great way to spend a few years and create happy memories that will last a lifetime.
WE’LL SEE YOU DOWN THE ROAD IN A FEW DAYS.
