Turtle Tales: Day 27 - Autumn Arrives!

Well, all good things must come to an end at some time, and today was the day we left Jim's sister's house and headed north. It was bittersweet as the dogs really enjoyed having the run of the yard and all the attention doted on them by the relatives, as did we!

We had planned on making it to Rochester, N.Y. today, but decided to stop on the other side of Syracuse in a quaint town called Verona, N. Y., which is located on Lake Oneida., close to Sylvan Beach We are staying at an RV park called The Landing, and it is right next to an inlet that is part of Lake Oneida. It is really a beautiful setting with many trees and a dairy farm located across the inlet with some very contented Jersey cows!

On our way through Pennsylvania and upstate New York, we traveled through many mountains, and the higher we drove, the more beautiful the tree foilage became. I took lots of pictures and video on the fly, so the pictures don't really do the colors justice, but you can get some idea as to the variation of color themes.

On our way to Verona, we passed through Verona Beach, and I saw a lighthouse sign and an arrow pointing down a side road. I asked Jim if he knew of any lighthouses in the area, and he said "No", So I told him that once we got set up at the RV park, we would go back to see if indeed there was a lighthouse. That is exactly what we did, and guess what? There really was a lighthouse! It is the Verona Beach Lighthouse. There are actually three lighthouses on Lake Oneida. The Verona Beach Lighthouse Association came together and took the once delapidated lighthouse and restored it. The most recent restoration was completed in 2007. This lighthouse was once on the doomsday list, but thanks to the hard work of the Association, it now stands and shines proudly and brightly! This was an added bonus to our travels today, as this lighthouse was not in any of our lighthouse books or information logs. Again, for more information on this lighthouse, go to the Lighthouse Friends link on this blog.

We had dinner at a place in town called Eddies, and I had a new dish called eggplant rolletelli - and it was scrumptous! Basically it was like manicotti - with eggplant as the outer shell instead of pasta. Yummy!

After dinner we drove around town and ended up at the Erie Canal which runs from the Hudson River at Albany to Lake Erie at Buffalo, N.Y., a distance of 363 miles. More than just a heroic feat of engineering, the Erie Canal opened the interior of the continent, providing a safe and reliable route for west-bound migrants and manufactured goods and east-bound products of forests, farms, and mines. Connecting places, people, and ideas, it strengthened the union and fostered social reform movements, and helped to establish an American identity, both here and abroad. There were a few boats docked at the bulkhead. We found out that our friends Stan and Susie had passed through this area on their boat this past summer,as they were going through the locks, but the dock was full, so they went ahead and crossed Lake Oneida. Small world..........

That was the extent of this day, we are planning to travel to Buffalo tomorrow and see some lighthouses on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. We will do Niagara Falls on Thursday.

Here are the pictures from today..........

Scenes on the road.......