Vacation- Week 4 Part America
On Tuesday (Aug 11) we woke up to lots of rain. It was pretty cloudy for the morning so everything was wet again. It's not very fun! Our screenhouse kept out the bugs but it was not very good with the rain since the sides slope outward. Our picnic table benches were soaked, our bikes were wet, and we had to hang up wet stuff in the car because it kept raining. For camp breakfast we had granola, cheerios, blueberries, and craisins or raisins with soy milk and I mix pumpkin in mine. After making lunch we went into town and found the canoe rental office on the Clarion River. I had seen the place when we drove through, it is right next to a bridge over the river. When we pulled in we saw what I think were two Baltimore Orioles in the bushes in front of our car! They are very pretty. Renting the canoe was pretty cheap but we had forgotten all our spare batteries and had to drive to a gift shop to find some. For the trips they take your canoe and junk and you in this big van up the river and drop you off at varying distances. There were actually two other groups, one with nine people and one with two (and two kids). The smaller group did the shortest ride and the rest of us went for the ten mile. The funny thing is, we actually went across the bridge that we had turned around the first day looking for our campground. By 1pm we were in our canoe on the river. I had brought towels to sit on because the hard metal seats hurt after a while. Canoeing was really nice, we could take our time and still be moving because the water was pretty fast. We saw lots of mergansers (ducks) and a kingfisher. There were a ton of houses near the river of course, some cabins, some big mansions, a campground. It started thundering but it sounded like we were passing it. I was not worried at all, the other people in the canoes that were near us started going faster. When we were about 3 miles away it started lightning and the thunder was much closer. At this point I started paddling as hard as I could. I really didn't want to be out on the water! One of the canoes went faster and beat the storm. The other two eventually stopped pretty near to the end and a lady actually fell out of the canoe. We kept going, it had started raining a little. Just when we got to the landing spot it started pouring buckets! The two guys from the office had left in the van to go rescue other customers but the guy from the canoe that beat us helped us get out. We had eaten some lunch in the canoe but stopped in town after that to buy a tarp and lighter fluid so we could have a fire even if it rained. For dinner we had sausages with veggies and corn and then finally we made s'mores!
On Wednesday we drove to Buzzard Swamp, a hiking-only location. We saw deer and maybe bear tracks but not much else. It was so wet everything was muddy. We decided to go to Beaver Meadows and stopped at the entrance. There was a big dam with a passage for water on one side and a bridge over it. Beaver Lake was filled with lily pads and the other side of the dam was marsh and river and trees. We walked out on the dam and did some birdwatching, there were a ton right there. We saw cedar waxwing families and flickers. We did some hiking but it was very wet and we gave up. We did see salamanders and a ton of mushrooms. We drove around the campground seeing everything and then went back to make lunch. We had sausages again but my stick burned and broke off. In the afternoon we finally took our bikes out for a long ride! There are lots of forest access roads and the road we took was actually better maintained and not gated. We found a bunch of primitive campsites on it. It was really nice because there was no traffic or houses and it followed Millstone Creek most of the way, which goes through our campground. We saw a ton of these blue butterflies, they gathered at random places on the road or campsites. We tried not to run them over but sometimes it looks like they are going to get caught in your spokes and then they bounce off. We saw some hawks and there were two small bridges. The coolest part were these pine groves where the trees grew right up over the road, it was like something from a movie, and it was really dark inside. Eventually we decided to turn around, we had not brought any water with us. We did see one truck going the other way, but it was a state vehicle. Unfortunately the road was so bumpy and we were going so much faster on the way back (because it was mostly downhill, we were following the creek remember) that my butt and arms hurt from bouncing! It took us no time at all to get back but I was really glad because my muscles were sore from all the bouncing, Mike's bike is more of a mountain bike so he was fine. We took showers after that and made hot dogs again.
It didn't rain that night and it wasn't cloudy so we actually got to see some stars. There was a little opening where our tent was but there were a lot of trees. We didn't get to see the meteor shower because it started much later, but I wish we had gotten up to see it. On Thursday we had a lot to pack up. Luckily it hadn't rained but our stuff was still kind of wet. Even though we got up early we couldn't do much until it dried, so we had to wait for the sun to come up more. We moved our stuff into the sun and road. Eventually we got it mostly dry and packed up the car. Oh, this reminds me, we had a little thief in our car during the week. Something had chewed through a bag into sunflower seeds and chewed the bottom of our chocolate bar! We figured out that it was mice in our car so we put the food in the trunk the last night. Luckily my car needed cleaning anyway, I vacuumed it out.
Thursday we drove through the forest up to NY. I fell asleep for some of it and woke up to Mike pulling into an ice cream stand. He got vanilla with chips or chunks and caramel mixed in and I got chocolate peanut butter. It was very hot standing in the sun waiting and our ice cream melted fast when we got in the car. We traded and he said he liked mine better and I said I liked his better! Finally we arrived back home in time to unload everything and shower before my parents came. I had not told them, I wanted to tell them in person and so they were driving up. It was a lot to unpack and we had a lot of laundry to do as well. My parents were happy when I told them, I wasn't sure what to expect. Nobody cried this time! For dinner we had spaghetti and meatballs with salad and corn and fruit pie for dessert. Yum. After they left and we did the dishes we met Alissa at Chen Garden for drinks. Alissa and I got Oh Yeas, which are melon-peach-pineapple fruity and pretty strong. We were very tired by the time they closed, we had started off in the campsite sleeping on the ground and ended up in Rochester drinking at a bar!
On Wednesday we drove to Buzzard Swamp, a hiking-only location. We saw deer and maybe bear tracks but not much else. It was so wet everything was muddy. We decided to go to Beaver Meadows and stopped at the entrance. There was a big dam with a passage for water on one side and a bridge over it. Beaver Lake was filled with lily pads and the other side of the dam was marsh and river and trees. We walked out on the dam and did some birdwatching, there were a ton right there. We saw cedar waxwing families and flickers. We did some hiking but it was very wet and we gave up. We did see salamanders and a ton of mushrooms. We drove around the campground seeing everything and then went back to make lunch. We had sausages again but my stick burned and broke off. In the afternoon we finally took our bikes out for a long ride! There are lots of forest access roads and the road we took was actually better maintained and not gated. We found a bunch of primitive campsites on it. It was really nice because there was no traffic or houses and it followed Millstone Creek most of the way, which goes through our campground. We saw a ton of these blue butterflies, they gathered at random places on the road or campsites. We tried not to run them over but sometimes it looks like they are going to get caught in your spokes and then they bounce off. We saw some hawks and there were two small bridges. The coolest part were these pine groves where the trees grew right up over the road, it was like something from a movie, and it was really dark inside. Eventually we decided to turn around, we had not brought any water with us. We did see one truck going the other way, but it was a state vehicle. Unfortunately the road was so bumpy and we were going so much faster on the way back (because it was mostly downhill, we were following the creek remember) that my butt and arms hurt from bouncing! It took us no time at all to get back but I was really glad because my muscles were sore from all the bouncing, Mike's bike is more of a mountain bike so he was fine. We took showers after that and made hot dogs again.
It didn't rain that night and it wasn't cloudy so we actually got to see some stars. There was a little opening where our tent was but there were a lot of trees. We didn't get to see the meteor shower because it started much later, but I wish we had gotten up to see it. On Thursday we had a lot to pack up. Luckily it hadn't rained but our stuff was still kind of wet. Even though we got up early we couldn't do much until it dried, so we had to wait for the sun to come up more. We moved our stuff into the sun and road. Eventually we got it mostly dry and packed up the car. Oh, this reminds me, we had a little thief in our car during the week. Something had chewed through a bag into sunflower seeds and chewed the bottom of our chocolate bar! We figured out that it was mice in our car so we put the food in the trunk the last night. Luckily my car needed cleaning anyway, I vacuumed it out.
Thursday we drove through the forest up to NY. I fell asleep for some of it and woke up to Mike pulling into an ice cream stand. He got vanilla with chips or chunks and caramel mixed in and I got chocolate peanut butter. It was very hot standing in the sun waiting and our ice cream melted fast when we got in the car. We traded and he said he liked mine better and I said I liked his better! Finally we arrived back home in time to unload everything and shower before my parents came. I had not told them, I wanted to tell them in person and so they were driving up. It was a lot to unpack and we had a lot of laundry to do as well. My parents were happy when I told them, I wasn't sure what to expect. Nobody cried this time! For dinner we had spaghetti and meatballs with salad and corn and fruit pie for dessert. Yum. After they left and we did the dishes we met Alissa at Chen Garden for drinks. Alissa and I got Oh Yeas, which are melon-peach-pineapple fruity and pretty strong. We were very tired by the time they closed, we had started off in the campsite sleeping on the ground and ended up in Rochester drinking at a bar!