The Adventures of Oscar, Frances and The Galavan: August 2013

Karin and I took The Galavan for our first real trip with Oscar and Maya.

We left bright and early Saturday morning heading for Rochester NY. This was the first time that we did an extended trip on the 400 series highways from Barrie to Niagara Falls. It took about 2 hours for Maya to get her "sea legs" and settle down. Oscar is an old pro now.

We had a bit of a wait at the border we had planed at crossing at Queenston/Lewiston but the signs said that the wait was 1-2 hours so we elected to try the Rainbow Bridge where it took only about 45 mins.

Border patrol was no problem until the agent came on board, which set Oscar off barking which set Maya of baying. I'm am sure the whole line up thought that we were getting busted for animal abuse from the sounds that were escaping from The Galavan. Luckily only our tomatoes were confiscated....pretty sure the border guard forgot his lunch that day.

After getting into the US we set off on minor highways to Rochester where we had lunch with Mathew and Amanda. We did take a camera with us but forgot to take any pictures with Mathew as we were so taken with Amanda.

We had taken the dogs for a long walk and had left them in The Galavan while we at lunch. I was sure that they would start howling and we would find the interior ripped to shreds and/or we would have EMS breaking in to save the dogs, but all was good they seemed to have been rather well behaved.

After our Great lunch we headed towards Oneida NY so Karin could replace our flatware. This is where we ran into a bit of rain. We are seriously thinking of hiring ourselves out to drought stricken areas so they can have rain since it seems to follow The Galavan wherever it goes.

We did manage to find the Verona Beach campground on Oneida Lake and get setup between rain storms.

After a pleasant night listening to the rain pitter patter (okay pound) on the roof we started off to the town of Oneida, but first we stopped on the way to do some laundry as Maya had an accident over night.

Went shopping at the Oneida company store for new flatware and the dogs thought they would take the Galavan for a spin.

A quick trip to Rome NY and we went to Fort Stanwix National Monument for a walk with the dogs.

We took the dogs back to The Galavan and Karin and I went back to the visitors center and the Fort proper. The skies opened up once again and dumped an inch of rain in about 20 minutes. As it was raining so hard we don't have any pictures of the fort, just the aftermath of trying to find places to hang our wet clothes after we had to change completely.

While waiting for the rain to end and eating lunch Karin, and I planned the rest of the trip since we really did not have any plans after Oneida. We got online and grabbed the maps and figured out the next leg of the trip. We went north east to the Adirondacks so we could go to Malone NY.

And guess what.... the rain started again but we did get as far as a campground called Golden Beach, where there were some spots available and it was easy to choose by looking at how well they drained during the flood. We settled on a spot that was private and had Hap pay, Hap pay, Hap pay Hour.

Thanks Kit for the cozies!

Love this picture out the back of The Galavan.

We got going early and headed to Malone and stopped at Almanzo Wilder's house from the book Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

taking the dogs for another walk

Karin and I have been visiting for about 22 years and they sure have made a lot of improvements and have done a great job of rebuilding the barns and exhibits.

After Malone we headed up the St. Lawrence.