A Day at the Fair

The second day of our trip was all about attending he Franklin County Fair. We had purchased tickets for the REO Speedwagon concert at the fair way back in December and were really looking forward to the show.

But first we had to make the drive from Ticonderoga to our RV Park in Chateaugay. It had rained all night when we were in Ticonderoga and both Rick and I had trouble sleeping with the constant drumming on the RV. With about 10,000 KMS of driving in our RV, we had somehow managed to avoid driving in bad weather and we were hoping that our luck would continue. We had a leisurely breakfast and the sun came out so we believed that the drive would be a good one. we were retracing our route from the day before and we knew we had to deal with THE HILL and were relieved that we did not have to do it in the rain.

Our luck only held out part way, though. We did make it up and over THE HILL before the weather broke and we found ourselves driving through torrential rains. Rick handled it like a champ, though and we arrived safely in Chateaugay a little later than planned. We had to wait for about 15 minutes for a storm to pass before going to the office to check in and we wondered how much fun the fair would be in the rain. We also worried about the concert being cancelled. However, within an hour the rain had stopped and within 2 hours the skies cleared and the sun came out.

The fair itself was fun. It was not as big as I thought it would be but well set up and organized. We walked completely around it and visited most of the exhibits. We watched people on the rides and walked by aall of the games as the staff tried to convince us to take a chance. We scouted out all of the food places, trying to decide what to have for dinner. We finally decided to eat at "The Hungary Beaver" for no reason other than it was the busiest place. Our reasoning was that if it was so busy the food must be good. It was very good, although the portions were huge and we were unable to finish all of the food. By this time it was 5:00 and according to the Fair's website the concert was to begin at 7:00 pm so we headed to the grandstand. We joined an already long line and made quick friends of the people around us as we waited to be let in. There were conflicting reports about when they were going to let us in the gates but they finally opened at 6:00 pm. we had very good seats in the 2nd row and again, made friends with the people around us.

This was the actual view of the stage from our seats.

It was interesting to see them setting up the stage in preparation for the concert.

How tiring is it to get the stage set up? Must be bad since this guy hd to take a lay-down break....

The bleachers and track filled up quickly. The left was standing room only but they had the bar. The other track area allowed seats. Although I did not take a picture the bleachers we very full. Rick estimated there was about 12000 people there.

The band was about 15 minutes late taking the stage but it was well worth the wait!

Overall we had a great time. If the Franklin County fair continues to attract good, classic rock acts we will return without hesitation.

The Trip for the Tribbles

I know you all must be wondering if the Tribbles enjoyed their trip to the Star Trek Set. I am happy to report they did!

As soon as we entered the reception area they discovered a whole bin of their own kind. The other Tribbles cood and made little chattering noises at our 2 but they were too shy to respond.

Here is one of them in Dr. McCoy's office...

One of them cuddled up to the Star Fleet Technical Manual....

They were goofing around in the Med Lab....

Until they spotted this:

A fellow Tribble specimen waiting to be experimented on!! They couldn't wait to get out of the lab and go to engineering.

They frolicked around in Engineering....

Finally they had a ball on the bridge....

After such an exciting trip they now have taken up permanent residence in our RV. They have even made a new friend!

The Star Trek Experience

The reason we chose to visit Ticonderoga was to take the 1 hour tour of "The Star Trek Experience". Now I want to make something clear: We like Star Trek. We don't watch it at every possible opportunity but we do enjoy it if we happen to come upon it on television. It sounded like an interesting thing to do since we were familiar with the show. That being said I did purchase a captain's shirt for Rick and I did make a couple of Tribbles to bring with us. "The Trouble With Tribbles" was aired a week before we were to leave so I thought it would be fun to brig a couple of them with us. While both of us would hardly be described a geeks it was great fun getting into the series by dressing up and having Tribbles.

We had no idea what to expect for the tour. Maybe like a little museum where you walked through? I really expected to see some of the fake boulders that were in many of the episodes and maybe a villain hiding behind them.  We could not have been more wrong. The set was all about The Enterprise and what it looked like on TV. I took about 130 pictures on the tour. Those were the keepers. I will not be sharing all of them here so that if anyone cares to go on this tour they can discover all of the wonders for themselves.

We were greeted right inside the doors by a couple of creatures and Rick made friends with them quickly.

In the reception area we were greeted by 2 familiar figures.

The first room we visited was the Transporter Room

Where shall I beam you to dear?

I was at the console ready to beam him anywhere.

We went down the hall....

.....and visited Sick Bay

From there we visited the Captain's quarters ans Spok's quarters

From there we traveled to Engineering

And finally.....the Bridge

Again, these are just the hi-lites. There is so much more to see. If you get the chance, I highly recommend visiting this set. It is less than a 4 hour drive from the Prescott area. There seems to b lots of museums and other attractions in the area so you could stay for a day or 2.

Stand by for more pictures of us and our Tribbles at the Star Trek set.

Images captured at the Star Trek Experience, Ticonderoga

NY.  https://www.startrektour.com/

All Star Trek Original Series imagery Copyright CBS Consumer Products.

http://www.cbsconsumerproducts.com/startrek/star_trek_original.html

Upper New York State Trip

At last! Our first trip this year in the RV has arrived! This trip has been planned since late fall of 2017. Rick found out at that time that REO Speedwagon would be performing in Malone NY at the Franklin County Fair in August 2018 and he purchased our tickets the day they went on Sale - December 3rd. Then, sometime through the winter, Rick discovered “the Star Trek Experience” in Ticonderoga NY. Checking the map, we decided the two events were close enough together to make a nice little trip out of it.

It was easy to find a place for our RV since both the Fair and the Star Trek site have a list of nearby parks. The next challenge was to decide which route to take. We decided to bring the Jeep with us to test the new towing gear and to explore a little while were were in the area.

Even planning the route seemed easy. I had 3 choices: one was using interstates and going right through the mountains and the other 2 appeared to go around the mountains. Rick was not fond of the idea of going through the mountains and climbing all those hills towing the heavy Jeep. I can not say I blame him. We had traveled he route over the mountains heading to Boston one year and had also gone the route towards Vermont on another trip so the route through Plattsburgh would be new to us.

Now looking at the map it appears that either of the routes to the east went around the Adirondack Mountains. Problem is we didn't think about the foothills. We went over some very big Foothills! The most dramatic one was to the north east of Platsburgh NY. The climb up seemed to take forever and Meander slowed to a crawl. Then we hit the downside. Now anyone who has never driven a heavy vehicle, particularly when towing another vehicle, might think the downward side of a huge hill is the easy part. The truth is, controlling your speed coming down the hill is difficult and your brakes could get so hot that they simply do not work. This happens even when you shift into a lower gear for speed control. That happened to us on this particular hill on the way to Plattsburgh. Rick handled it like a pro but it was very nerve-racking. Coming home we expected it and were able to handle it in such a way that the brakes did not get smoking hot.  

Over the years we have been all over New York state. It is so large, though, that I think we will have to make several more trips before we are able t see all of the wonderful sites it has to offer. 

The first part of the trip, along highway 37 was familiar to us but once we turned south we were in unfamiliar territory. I must say that when w are travelling in Meander, I would ravel travel on the 2 lane, rural roads rather than the interstate highways. I find the towns that the smaller, slower roads take us through are interesting and scenic.

I can not recall exactly when the terrain changed but I think it was not long after we past the town of Chateaugay. It seemed like we went around the corner and the foothills were right in front of us. 

We went through the town of Dannemora. The West end of the town is dominated by the Clinton Correctional Facility.  The high walls and guard towers were right beside the highway and it reminded me of the way Kingston Penitentiary looms over King Street. 

After the walls there was another section set back from the road, completely covered in razor wire and then their administrative offices right beside that. I was amazed by the size of this facility. 

It wasn't long after we left Dannemora that we encountered THE hill. As we left the town I saw a large hill (this description just does not seem adequate) and I noticed a road running up the to the top. I just said Uhoh! After all, I told Rick we were taking the route that did not climb any mountains. The up side was slow going and the downside was fast. Too fast. Once we got to the bottom we stopped at a set of traffic lights  and you could smell the over-heated brakes. Rick later told me that by the time we got to the bottom of the hill we had little or no brakes. 

We did a short drive on I-87 and then were back on smaller roads to complete our trip. This took us along the shores of Lake Champlain and through the towns of Westport, Moriah and Port Henry before reaching our destination of Ticonderoga. 

Lake Champlain is known t be inhabited by a late creature that they call "Champ" The serpent-like creature is a tourist draw for such places as Plattsburgh and Westport. In fact one of the first things we saw when we entered Westport was a park with a picture of the green dragon-like serpent. Of course I failed to get a picture of it but it demonstrated how one small town can embrace the creature and turn it into a tourist attraction. 

We pulled over in Port Henry to have a quick lunch and stretch our legs. We were parked in front of the local dollar store. Just in front of us was a historical plaque. 

I did see another plaque,  just down the road, that commemorated the site of the first Blast Furnace as well. 

Our final destination was the town of Ticonderoga. a we drove through the town we had to go around a traffic circle. in the middle there was a very unique statue. I was curious so I looked it up and found it is called the Liberty Monument.   It was built in 1924 and is a bronze sculpture on a tiered granite base. The lower part of the sculpture is composed of four life-sized figures of a Native American, a Frenchman, a Scottish soldier, and an American. They symbolize the four groups whose military exploits are part of Ticonderoga's past. The upper part is the artist Charles Keck's  interpretation of Liberty

We drove just out of town to our campground and got settled in. We had about 90 minutes before our tour was to begin at the Star Trek experience. I will cover that in my next entry.