South Williamsport to Grand Isle, VT - July 5, 2016

A Stop in Saratoga, NY-Day 5

Today was a long trip day.  When I originally set up the itinerary, I swore it was about a 4-5 hour trip. I guess I erred in that I was guessing it was from an 'extra stop' that we had planned from Cayuga Lake, NY, when, in all actuality, that stop would have made it an even longer trip. We set up the Google bitch to give us directions and saw that it was a seven-and-a-half hour trip.  Gross miscalculation on my part.  Anyway, what were we gonna do--cancel?  Hells no. We were able to get packed and head out from my cousins house around 8:45am--a little later than I wanted to, but with the wait came my cousin Vicki's banana bread.  She made this a couple nights ago, and it was fabulous--even if she did forget to turn on the oven the first time.  

Leavin PA, Vicki, and her new Cape Cod Bungalow

Guess it needed a little breathing time. 

As is tradition, our first stop on the way out was to Dunkin Donuts for a load of coffee and a half dozen donuts. Of course both kids would like double chocolate donuts, why not?  We only have an all day trip ahead of us. En-friggin-joy!  

I am starting to hate the google bitch giving directions.  I think I need to mess with settings some more to not give us turn left, turn right, go here go there, this is a hill back country directions.  Also, we forgot our map/atlas this year when we went to leave so that left us with only the google bitch. Why can't she just say go north on this huge main highway to this main huge highway? There needs to be a setting to I don't give a crap HOW we're going to get there, just make it a main road to main road connection!  More on the google bitch later. 

So, seven hours in the car with a couple of kids doped up on double chocolate sugar and any other type trail mixes/Middleswarth potato chips that could be found.  Note: I do believe I ruined Binghamton, NY's sewer system (and possibly myself) by releasing a weeks worth of South Side hoagies and subs in a single gas station stop.  Thank GOD for banana bread and vacuum flush toilets! Y'all can sleep now--I'm regular again.

Not too bad of a trip, but after about four hours, Jen and I decided to stop at Saratoga Battlefield for lunch and some more history lessons.  

Site of one of the top 15 battles in World History-Saratoga Battlefield

The battlefield was about 12 miles off the triple-lane Interstate 87 North, but at least google bitch gave us a nice scenic ride around Saratoga Lake, with all the houses and boats in the water--reminded me of the M22 route we took in Michigan.  Beautiful to watch folks hanging out on this hot summer day. Our first one in about four to five days.  It got up to a 'sweltering' 85 degrees, I guess. 

The family ate a packed sandwich and Middleswarth BBQ potato chip lunch under the huge maple trees near the entrance to the visitor center. Since my daughter is a history fiend, we figured this would be a pretty cool stop.  Inside the visitor center was the museum of the old guns and other cannon balls and artillery used in the war. We also learned that there was another auto trip around the battlefield that was nine miles--compared to Gettysburg 24 mile trip, we decided to drive on this one after walking a short distance on the walking tour. Jen and my calves were still killing us after our decision to traverse a mile down a 1000 foot cliff, so the car was a nice change.  

On stop two of the nine stops, we met a volunteer who told us about the family that lived in the farm house--the only one remaining that was still 1/3rd original from 1777. I'm guessing on the date here, as the house was more than likely built well before the war.  He told us about the house, and how it housed the soldiers, and the other farms in the area where the generals and 8000 American troops stayed. 

Saratoga battlefield house from 1770's. Housed 11 people in 1790. Go Tiny house!

There were markers on the battlefield that showed where the American forces held the line on the British--Americans were marked with Blue tops, the British were red. Jerry, our volunteer at the farmhouse was an excellent wealth of knowledge. We also learned that during the 1790 census, there were 11 people in this one room house with a loft.  We couldn't go inside but were able to take pics from the front door.  I tried my best to get some decent ones. 

Two hours later we left Saratoga feeling refreshed. We checked google bitch to see how far away from Grand Isle we were. A mere 3 hours away.  Egad!  We stopped for gas then it was GO MODE.  I stopped caring about gas mileage for the next 200 miles as Ivanka chugged along at 75 to 80 miles per hour.  It seemed everyone in NY did that speed upstate, even though the speed limit was 65. Such a rebel in our minivan. 

The Adirondack mountain range is a magnificent one. On I-87 north they towered in the distance, high enough to touch the sky and at some points, you couldn't even see where the tops ended and sky began. I-87 took us through Lake Placid area, site of the 1980 Olympics. It was an exit, but I was only imagining the peaks where were the high skiers downhill competition occurred.  We wanted to stay in Lake Placid, but couldn't find any campgrounds and the hotels and B and B's were quite out of our price range.  

So not much longer now and google bitch has us get off at our exit.  When I got off the exit, I started to notice ferry signs.  Google bitch, what have you done? Jen and I were both freaking out--thinking we were gonna pay the exorbitant rates we paid to travel to Mackinac Island--upwards of almost 90 bucks. Another reason to check your settings when using these maps people! At least we got our first ferry ride out of it.

 The Champlain ferry was a reasonable $21, but I was not happy about it as I could have easily taken a different route there through Vermont. Oh well, the views were spectacular at least. Not to mention the wrong turn Google bitch gave us to get to our campground.  We ended up in some private drive after passing about 30 people hanging out and swimming on Lake Champlain.  Luckily a nice woman walking her dogs told us we were out of our way by about four miles and how to get to the campground.  Damn you, Google bitch!

We (I) arrived at the campground about 6:00 PM with slightly elevated blood pressure. It is a beautiful smaller campground for the area with about 60 sites.  A short ride to the 'beach' on the lake made for some great photographic opportunities. Grand Isle State park has quite possibly the best skipping rocks in the world.  Nothing but flattened shale.  It's everywhere.  Garrett made it look easy as the stones just glided on the glassy water. The looked as if they were 'rolling' on the water.

Lucky us, these rocks are also all over our campsite. Where we have to pitch our tent. It wasn't so bad. I was able to hammer a couple of staked into the drought ridden cracked ground, luckily around about a hundred rocks. Once we got camp set up (quite quickly I might add--everyone knows what to do) we went to the beach, and then again to get some pics as the sun started to set around 8:45 pm. 

Leaving our mark

Rocks and Trees

Sunset on Lake Champlain

Another bonus was firewood left at the campsite--about a half cord of firewood (kidding) but enough to get a nice little blaze going and heat up our hot dogs and baked beans. About an hour later, I guess the double-chocolate donuts wore off the kids and the in-fighting began between the two.  Not long later everyone was off to bed.  I slept like a baby--woke up every 30 minutes just a crying on my air frame.  Not really, but I was up at 4am, knowing I wasn't going back to sleep. Looking forward to tomorrow's short trip.