A Goodbye to the Oil Valley

We came back to Bonnie & Scott's after our visit to the Finger Lakes of NY. We stayed just a day, to do some laundry, fill our water tank and do some final visitin' before we head south for our trip through West 'By God' Virginia. A portion of our trip that was supposed to take place months ago, sometimes you have to be flexible, real flexible.

 

A common site all over this area of PA where oil was first discovered.

 

 

As we moseyed on south we stopped in Pittsburgh to have lunch at "Primantti Bros. They are known in Pittsburgh for their sandwiches with 'everythin', served on waxed paper. When I say 'everythin', I mean they serve whatever type of sandwich you order on Italian bread, topped with cole slaw, tomato's and french fries. Makes it kind of messy but we knew what to expect. Our opinion, been there, done that, didn't buy their T-shirt. We probably wouldn't go back.

Linda wanted to take me through one of the tunnels in the city that when you exit, you see the entire city before you. After driving around & around & around going here and there, we came through the right tunnel only to be disappointed that this wasn't the right tunnel either, I decided it was time to leave the congestion of the big city behind. I wanted out of there so bad I found the interstate and boogied south as fast as I could. Not like me to search out an interstate to travel, but I wanted gone from there. Once we were headin' south and away from 'City Life' Linda took over drivin' while I got out the laptop to start lookin' fer' a place to light for the night. We settled on a campground out in the country in beautiful West Virginia.

 

Hi from West Virginia!

 

 

 

 

We are sittin' in Camp Copperhead, a Passport America participating park , for the next two days. A quiet, pleasant, green camp on Indian Creek near Alma, WV. The park was purchased last year by two sisters, Cathy & Vicki, and they are workin' hard to build their dream, in this their first season. The park has 50 somethin' sites, water & 30A electric, dump station, bathhouse, lies on a creek, lots of recreation options and is in beautiful surroundings. Being PA we always pay 50% of the parks current rate, get this people, $7.50 a night. I'm sorry when you compare what some parks are askin' fer a night's stay, Passport America can't be beat.

 

 

Camp Copperhead

 

 

 

Today we stopped to ask if 'The Girls', Cathy & Vicki, would like some of the tomato's that we received from Bonnie, and wound up chattin' on & on. After bidin' goodbye's 5 or 6 times we finally left them to do their work, but were all goin' to dinner this eve at a local buffet restaurant. 

Well that's all for today.

Hope to see ya down the road as we're...........

Dancin' on the Wind

Watkins Glen & Wine Country

We spent yesterday explorin' Watkins Glen State Park. We stayed at the campground so we'd be close. Good sized campground but most of it has no hookups. There are six loops and almost 300 sites but only about 50 electric sites. And I mean electric sites, no water, just a smatering through the loop. I checked this park out on the web and it said the sites were $13 + $6 for electric. Well it was $17 + $6 for electric plus $2.75 cause I didn't make a reservation, for a total of $25.75. If I had made a reservation on the web it would have been $9 additional instead of $2.75. I'd like to know why they charge for not making a reservation and who's gettin' that dinero? I can see Reserve America chargin' a fee for their service, but why does it cost $9 in NY and maybe one or two dollars in other states? The campground was typically rustic, as most state parks are but the restrooms were plain nasty! I guess because they use state employees, who are paid meagerly, the level of caring is commensurate. I'll bet if they used volunteer work campers they would get a more conscientious worker for a lot less money, and the showers wouldn't have mold growing in them.

Well the Glen was quite scenic, a crevasse carved over time by the water rushing through it, carving out the solid rock. There are 19 waterfalls in the first one mile up the Gorge Trail & many deep pools as well. Kind of like a mini Grand Canyon. In addition there were a couple of tunnels along the trail.

 

 

The tunnel at the start of the climb.

 

 

 

 

One of the more spectacular falls.

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the Gorge is made up of cascading waterfalls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viewing one of the bridges through the water cascading from above.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the deep pools.

 

 

 

 

 

The hike up through the gorge is about one and a half miles and is accompanied by many, many sets of stairs, and for some reason they were all going UP!  When we reached the top we hiked back down the Indian Trail which was not right in the gorge, and had very few stairs.

We went back to camp ate some dinner then had a nice fire that we shared with our neighbors across the road. After a full day we slept really good.

Today we took a ride north towards Rochester to see the Erie Barge Canal. Linda had taken a trip on it with her family when she was a young girl. We visited some of the locks and traveled along it for about 25 miles passing through the little towns that border the canal. Then it was time to head south back towards Pennsylvania, I spell it out cause in a previous post I used CA for Canada and someone thought we were headed for California. I won't mention any names Bonnie.

 

 

 

Lock 28 on the Erie Barge Canal.

 

 

 

Tonight we are staying in a Passport America park in Randolph, NY, $12.50 and free wi-fi.

PS. The links to the photo album I mentioned for the family pictures is not working, but don't worry I'll get it fixed as soon as I can. In the meantime if you click on any picture in the August 28th post it will take you to our online pictures, click on the 'My Photos' tab and it will take you to all the online albums, then choose 'A Reunion with Family' to view the album.

See ya' down the road as we're

Dancin' on the Wind