Greenwood Park Campground, Lisle, NY; July 10-24, 2013

We left Cowanesque Lake early, drove to Greenwood Campground, set up, walked the dog, then headed back into Binghamton (about a 30 minute drive) to get our hair cut by Ted and Tressa’s beautician. Boy, did we need it! The last time we had haircuts was in New Mexico and we were long overdue. I had made an attempt to cut Rich’s hair then, but didn’t do a very good job, so he may never let me near his head with scissors or clippers again... After our haircut, we picked up some groceries, stopped by Ted and Tressa’s to pick up all the mail we had sent to them, stopped by the Spiedie and Rib Pit for some wonderful spiedies, then headed back to camp. 

Jacobb and Dickens

Saturday was the family reunion so we spent Friday running around town picking up all the paper goods and food. Saturday morning we drove to Lion’s Park in Greene, began unloading and setting up, and Rich cooked breakfast for Ted, Rich, Jr, Austin, and Allison, all of whom were helping us get things in order. Folks started rolling in around 11 and, as always, brought lots of wonderful dishes to pass. And the desserts? Out of this world! Once folks began to leave in mid-afternoon, we started the cleanup and headed back to camp.  Rich’s sister, Robin and her husband, Mike along with Rich’s brother, Bob and wife Greer came out that evening and we had a good time trading stories and catching up on their lives. 

On Sunday, Jason  (Rich’s nephew) did some maintenance work on our truck, let me try out his Sig

High above Binghamton

Rich and Jason pointing out sights

(loved it!) and then we took their ATVs out for a spin. What a hoot! We ended up on a ridge that overlooked Binghamton and spent some time picking out the different areas of the city. Rich is now sold on four-wheeling and I was happy being a passenger this time.

Tuesday we headed down to Steamtown with Rich’s brother, Bob. On the way, we stopped at

Rich and Bob at Steamtown

 Bingham’s Diner in Lenox, PA and had a wonderful breakfast, and as we left bought a couple of beautiful cream puffs. They were as good as they looked! The National Historic Site in Scranton was well worth the trip and we spent several hours wandering around the roundhouse, looking at the trains outside and the plethora of displays inside, and took a short train ride. All-in-all a lot of fun.

Rich and Bob getting on train at Steamtown

We had a couple of days to do laundry, rearrange things in the truck and RV, and recuperate from all the running around before we went to the social for Rich’s 50^th class reunion on Friday evening. It was a success with folks spilling out of the allotted area of the restaurant, and old friendships were renewed.  Saturday evening we drove to Seneca Lake for a dinner cruise and once again had a big turnout (there were about 55 graduating seniors in the class). The evening and scenery was beautiful and we saw

Sunset on Lake Seneca

vineyards on the side of the hills surrounding the lake along with lots of summer cottages on the shores. One spot was taken up by a working salt mine, but much of the area was forested. I’d like to spend some time in the Finger Lakes area, exploring all the beautiful spots in that part of New York.

On Sunday, Rich’s two sons brought their families by camp, we had a picnic and spent some nice time with them all. 

Monday we had Jason and Tommi over for dinner and Jason brought his dog Zeus. He and

Tommi & Jason, Dickens & Zeus

Dickens got along well, once Dickens got over his stress about so many strangers. This was the first time we had met Tommi – couldn’t make it up to NY for their wedding last year – and we love her! Can’t wait to see them both again. Tuesday evening we joined Bob and Greer and Marian and Dan and went to a baseball game between the Binghamton Mets (a AA Mets farm team) and the Reading Phillies (the Phillies AA farm team). Rich had been to the Met’s AA team games in previous years but they never won – this year they won their game and of course, I took credit for bringing good luck to the team. It had been many years since I’d been to a baseball game – my one and only time was when my Dad took my sisters and me to a Pirate’s exhibition game when the team wintered in Ft. Myers, FL.

We left the next day for a quick trip back to Florida to pick up two of our grandchildren and take them for a couple of weeks.

We stayed the first night at Pine Grove Furnace in Gardners, PA and will plan on stopping there again when we can spend a couple of days to explore the grist mill, museum, and furnace.  The second night we stopped at Ft. Chiswell RV Park in Max Meadows, VA which was a very pleasant surprise – great laundry and showers and pretty, shaded sites. Our third night was at Coneross Campground in Townville, SC (another US Army Corps of Engineers park). Dickens had been sick that day, and I was up several times that night walking him, poor thing.  Our last stop on the way back to Florida goes onto our “Worst Campgrounds Ever” list and was called City of Roses (a sadly optimistic allusion) and we were happy to leave in the morning.