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.
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