Browsing CategoryNew York

St. Johnsville, NY

We landed in St. Johnsville, NY for a night after spending the morning clenching our buttcheeks with worry as a team of refrigerator installers worked to implant Dyna with a new cooling unit. New fridge day We’re not good at trusting other people to work on Dyna. We’ve had experiences. Ok, mostly Jake is not good at allowing it. But I question allowing it too, so it’s pretty consensus. New fridge! So shiny! So new! So working! Other than a water leak gushing out Dyna’s side (poorly installed fitting) and lack of proper alignment of the fridge itself – both…

Croton-on-Hudson, NY

After several weeks spent in Owego, NY (my hometown area), we plopped down in a campground nestled up to a former landfill-now-VIB (very important bird)-area; Croton Point Park in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. Being an hour train ride into the city, we were not expecting too much solitude. And we didn’t get that much either. But not due to human or infrastructure noise. VIBs everywhere It was the birds. The birds, who are VIB… were loud. All day. All night. Loud birds making loud bird noises. I like birds. They do funny things and they excite Lucy. Like when they eat from…

Olean, NY

We spent an anxious two weeks in Olean, NY. We originally thought we’d spend just a few days, or possibly a week in the area, with the intention of spending a bit of time near Fred, Jake’s father figure. We got COVID tested pretty soon after arrival, and then planned to quarantine until results came back so that we could see Fred as safely as possible. He’s 86. A sunny day run through St.Bonaventure Cemetery But then life happened in the form of a funeral for Jake’s grandmother, and we decided that we would attend her graveside service. I didn’t…

Rochester, NY

We don’t pass through NY without at least a zip-trip to Rochester. It’s our ‘special place’. And it has garbage plates. Boxcar Donuts – now (good) donuts only. At this point, I have written so many times about visiting Rochester, that I don’t feel it prudent to write about visiting Rochester another time. With COVID closing or limiting many activities, and taking the non-donut breakfast foods away from the delight that is BoxCar Donuts, there isn’t much new to report. We cautiously visited a few friends – walking outside, hiking, running, or grabbing a beer on a patio in 50º…

Lake George, NY

After spending many weird summer months in my hometown area of Owego, NY, we decided to join the rest of the country in ignoring best practice of ‘keeping it local’ and put our wheels on the road. With COVID-19 now present in every community in the U.S., we realized we were no longer the viral vectors we had feared we would be; that title had been claimed early in the summer by flocks of folks who ‘just need(ed) to get away from these COVID-19 lockdowns for a bit!’ One of my employment endeavors includes participating in customer service type activities.…

Owego, NY – 2020 Edition

We wobbled and we wavered, but we finally decided to head ‘home’. As in, my original gangster home. The home where I grew up. The place I spent summers bridge jumping into creeks. The spot where I was sheltered from the larger, more diverse thinking and acting world. Owego, NY We’re talking Owego, and for a plethora of reasons, we’ve ended up spending at least a month here each summer for the past three summers. Needing to bring our niece Eden home to her father’s in Western NY after a few weeks of fun and stink, we decided to plop…

Christmas 2019 – Atlanta & Western NY

What do you do when family time in NY beckons, but you are at least a two day drive away – and live with a cat who gets wicked car sick? You secure a site at an overcrowded, overpriced RV park within range of her favorite cat sitter – who happens to live just outside of Atlanta. Yes, the RV park sucks. Yes it’ll make the drive to NY a few hours longer. No, we really have don’t have another reason to be in the general vicinity of Atlanta. But guys… Lucy. Lucy. Is queen. She’s our baby and we…

Owego, NY

We found ourselves back in Owego, NY in early August. And by ‘found’ ourselves… I might mean ‘lost’. Or something. Anyways, I woke up one morning in Owego after being there for a few days and thought to myself: “how did this happen?” I love Owego. I grew up in this area – and every time I get to come back, I’m grateful. But this was definitely an unexpected visit – especially knowing that we’d probably spend at least a month this go round. Dyna’s Owego Yard at Hickories Park Luckily, our local ‘front yard’ really is lovely. We pulled…

Ditching Dyna: ‘Home’ for Christmas 2018

Christmas. That special time a year when you show your family and friends how many dollars worth you love them. That’s not true – but also, maybe it’s a little true. We decided to head back up to NY this year to forcefully gather our siblings and their offspring into one 3 room suite in the Greek Peak Lodge in Cortland, NY. We were stoked, because for the first time in our collective history, all of our siblings promised to join us, which was super cool. She’s a shit cat, but she’s a great little co-pilot.Pitstop at Winde Jackson Cakes!Santa…

Corning, NY

After spending two and a half months in Rochester, NY, ditching Dyna and hanging with friends and getting ourselves married, we pried ourselves away from our sweet little short term lease apartment and plopped ourselves (and Lucy) back into our box on wheels. Things start getting a little unpredictable weather wise in Western, NY come October. And, while Dyna is really good at a lot of things, like providing a familiar bed to rest our bodies in while we travel the U.S., one thing she is not very good at is providing for climate control. In short – when it…