North Pole Campground
Wilmington, New York
We only had a short drive yesterday so after we arrived at the campground we decided to do a little exploring. We drove up Whiteface Mountain, the tallest mountain in New York accessible by auto. At the end of the road is a stone "castle" with two arches where cars can turn around. It was so narrow we had to pull our mirrors flat against the side of the truck and even then we barely made it through.
After we parked the truck, we had two choices: climb to the top over a trail of stones and steps or take the elevator. We took the elevator (no surprise).
I was rethinking that choice when we found out we had to go through a 425' narrow, dark tunnel to reach the elevator in the core of the mountain.
Everything was wet and water dripped from the ceiling. This elevator looked like it had been there a
very long time. I wasn't reassured to learn that the elevator
went 27 stories to the summit.
Once at the top, the view was
breathtaking and the nice weather was an added bonus.
Another stop was High Falls Gorge. It's a lovely walk down to several waterfalls.
The walkway makes the climb down into the gorge very easy.
Once again I forgot that what goes down must come back up. The walk back was much more strenuous than the trip down.
We woke to rain this morning but when it slacked off we decided to drive to Lake Placid to see the Olympic sites.
The sign said it was real snow, but I think it is just shaved ice from the skating rinks. The people from Florida didn't care.
This is the only town I know where Zamboni machines wait at the crosswalk to get across the street. I know pedestrians have the right of way, but what about a Zamboni?
It started to sprinkle when we drove out to the ski jumping venue. Luckily it was dry inside the elevator for the ride to the top. The ride on the chairlift to get to bottom of the jumps was a little wet. Have you ever tried to ride a chairlift with an umbrella?
I wanted to ride one of the large inner tubes down the grassy slope to the bottom of the ski jump. I figured if I closed my eyes it wouldn't be too bad. Lucky for me, this attraction closed down just in time due to the rain.
Wonder if these dark clouds mean more rain was coming.
Unfortunately the sky really opened up when we were only about half way back to the truck.
It was pouring when we got to the bobsled run.
We watched some people come down the run and everyone seemed to really enjoy the ride. Before Dave could get the tickets the rain became so intense that the run was shut down. Saved again by the weather.
We had one more stop - the Cloudsplitter Gondola ride. We had purchased a combo ticket for the attractions in Lake Placid and the gondola was the last thing on our ticket. Even though the weather didn't look too promising, we wanted to get full value for our tickets so we decided to give it a try. Needless to say, the views weren't the best.
Notice this empty car arriving at the bottom. No one was getting off because no one else was going up.
The car on the other side is barely visible. I think the workers are still laughing about the crazy people from Arizona who don't know about fog and rain.
We made it to the annual FROG Rally and are enjoying the chance to renew friendships with our FROG friends. The weather has been a little unpredictable with heavy rain during various periods of our stay. When we leave here we will travel the short distance to Shipshewana, Indiana for a few more days before we start for Minnesota.
When we left the 1000 Islands area, we drove to Holley, a small town west of Rochester, NY.
The first day we visited Rochester and made stops at the science museum and the George Eastman House.
On the last day of their stay, we visited Buffalo. I didn't know there was a different language for that city. Did you know that the word "medium" on the menu really meant "extra hot"? We enjoyed the Buffalo wings anyway.
