MISCELLANEOUS SIGHTINGS - NEW YORK STATE

While we have seen some pretty countryside as we have travelled through the Adirondack's and the Catskill's we haven't seen a lot that makes for interesting photos, but I came up with a few to share.

A few miles west of Lake Champlain we took a few pictures at the Ausable Chasm.  The Ausable River flows east toward Lake Champlain and just above the chasm or gorge there is a small dam with 'pen stocks' or pipes that direct some of the flow to a power house where the water is used to turn turbines to generate electricity, the excess flow goes over the dam and supplies the falls shown below. 

The dam is out of sight in this picture but you can see the pen stocks on the ground to the right, behind the power house which is at the bottom center of the picture.

Several miles to the west is Lake Placid, the site of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics.  Just outside of the town is Whiteface Mountain which has an 8 mile road up the side of it designated as the Memorial Highway, in honor of World War I veterans.  The highway is quite steep, quite rough and averaging an 8% grade, but offering nice views of the surrounding mountains.  At the summit the mountain is 4,867 feet above sea level.  Lake Placid is visible from the summit but the sky was overcast so the picture isn't real great.

Traveling several miles more to the southwest we came upon Long Lake and a small community by the same name.  The lake is really pretty with the hills all around.

A few minutes later I looked back up the lake and saw a seaplane taxiing up to the beach.

As we got down into the Catskill's southwest of Woodstock we saw some unusual metal sculptures along side the road.  We turned around and went back to take some pictures.  The business is called Fabulous Furniture and the artist, Steve Heller does make furniture, but he also does unusual metal creations.

The first item I noticed was the 'Cro Magnum', a Dodge Magnum station wagon which has had 1960 Desoto fins and taillights added as well as a 1960 Cadillac rear bumper.

On the front is a 1957 Cadillac Bumper and 1958 Lincoln headlights. 

Steve has created several 'vehicles' to compete in an artist's soap box derby and won numerous awards for them, here are a couple.

The Wrechosaurus, made up of various automotive parts, farm implement parts, riding lawnmower parts and of course lots and lots of wrenches.

This one he calls the Bubble Car, made from the front part of two Plymouth front fenders and the rear part of two Plymouth rear fenders.

Steve has also made several 'rocket' or 'space ship' type pieces utilizing mostly the rear fenders and fins off 1950's and 1960's cars.  The two shown here are a 1956 Desoto in the foreground and a 1959 Oldsmobile in the background.

This item is made from a pair of 1956 Dodge rear fenders, a mag wheel and a 1960 Buick taillight.

Steve also built a car he calls the Marquis De Soto, based on a low mileage 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis. Steve removed all the body panels except the roof and the 4 doors.  The rear fenders have been poached from a 1957 Desoto, the front fenders and lights from a 1958 Lincoln, 1955 Cadillac bumpers, a 1965 Buick Skylark hood, chrome from a 1957 Buick, and a grille built from two 1957 Corvette pieces.  We didn't see this car but I found pictures of it on the internet.

THOUSAND ISLANDS - THE ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY

On Thursday we took a 2-1/2 hour boat trip out of Alexandria Bay New York on the St. Lawrence Seaway, an area referred to as the Thousand Islands.  According to the narrator there are actually about 1,800 islands.  Their definition of an island is that it has to be above water 365 days a year, has to be at least 1 foot in diameter and must have at least one live tree growing on it.

The St. Lawrence Seaway begins at the Atlantic Ocean and proceeds to the Great Lakes, permitting ocean going ships to navigate all the way to Duluth Minnesota, on the western end of Lake Superior, which is some 600+ feet above sea level and about 2,900 miles inland, made possible by a series of locks, see the chart in the lower left of the photo below.  

Many people enjoy living near the water and so the cost of property on the water can be quite pricey.  Consequently some of the homes which get built on the water are very pricey.  The Thousand Islands area became popular in the years after the civil war because Ulysses S. Grant started spending time there and many others followed.  During the depression of the 30's many of the large homes were  burned in the hopes of being able to collect on fire insurance policies, but in many cases the insurance companies were in the same financial condition as the home owners and the home owners were without their homes and the money they had hoped to collect from the insurance companies.

There are several notable homes which still remain, one of which, the Boldt Castle, we took several pictures of.  George C. Boldt started his working life as a kitchen worker.  He was hired by his future father-in-law to manage the dining room of the Philadelphia Club.  He later got into hotel management and came to the attention of William Waldorf Astor who hired him to run the Waldorf Hotel.  Later John Jacob Astor IV built the Astoria Hotel next door to the Waldorf causing strife between the two cousins.  Boldt ended up leasing the Astoria and merging the two hotels to become the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Boldt's family spent summers on their farm in the Thousand Islands area and in 1900 he employed 300 construction workers to begin building a castle on Heart Island for the love of his life, his wife Louise.  In 1904 Louise died suddenly and Boldt ordered all work to cease on the castle.  If Louise wasn't there to enjoy it, he had no interest in it.  The property was completely abandoned until 1977 when the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority purchased the property for $1 with the understanding that it could never be used for commercial purposes or inhabited permanently.  Since then millions of dollars have been spent renovating the structure and finishing some of the rooms.  Each year more rooms are finished and eventually the construction will be completed.  

This stone tower was intended for entertaining.  It contained bedrooms, a library, two bowling alleys, a billiard room, a dance hall, a kitchen and a dining room.



This building was the power house for the island and the clock tower contains Westminster chimes.

Across the channel about a quarter of a mile is the boat house which is designed to house motor boats and sailing yachts note the tall doors to allow the mast to pass through.

There are homes of all shapes, styles and sizes along the Seaway and most of them with a more happy story to tell.  Here is a sampling...

The home pictured below is owned by an auto dealer and he is said to have an identical one in Colorado and another in Texas.  This home was reported to be on the market for $37M with country music singer Alan Jackson making a serious offer recently but no deal was made.

This quaint little home is owned by the family of the young lady who was the captain of the U.S. Olympic women's soccer team this summer.

SEPTEMBER 10-11

As we approached the community of Port Allegany (actually that's how they spell it, with a 'gany' not a 'gheny' ending like everything else in the area) we saw an unusual building alongside the road.  I told Jane that I thought it looked a lot like some of the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings I have read about. 

I found some information about it on the internet and it turns out it was built by Walter J. Hall who was the chief contractor for Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water home. 

Construction of the 7,595 square foot building began in 1935.  It became known as Lynn Hall and had a restaurant and ballroom, which was popular for parties and events.  That business closed in the early 50's around the time of Hall's death. 

Here is what it looked like in the 40's.



And here is what it looks like today.

It's actually in a lot worse shape than the picture would lead you to believe.  There is also an 1,150 square foot "cottage" to the left out of this photo which is part of the 9 acre property which is currently for sale with an asking price of $125k.  The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

A few miles on down the road we visited the Leonard Harrison and Colton Point State Parks.  They are located on the east and west rims of the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania".  Here are a couple of pictures from the area.

The next day we traveled on to Watkins Glen New York and the Watkins Glen State Park.  There are hundreds of steps to climb as you follow the trails along the canyon walls to see the various waterfalls.  Here are a couple of pictures of the falls.

A few miles north of Ithaca we visited the Taughannock Falls State Park.  At 215' this is the tallest free falling waterfall in the northeastern U.S., taller than even Niagara Falls.  Taughannock is an Algonquin term meaning "in the trees".  Due to the fairly dry weather this summer the flow over the falls is minimal at this time.

Our day concluded with a drive of a few miles along the western edge of Cayuga Lake, one of the finger lakes.  There are many vineyards and wineries in this part of the state, here is picture of one of the vineyards with Cayuga Lake in the distance.

THE FIRST WEEKEND

We left home on Thursday afternoon the 6th and rode to Wytheville Virginia. 

Friday morning we left Wytheville and headed north into West Virginia.  Just north of Fayette WV is the New River and the New River Bridge. 

At 3,030 feet long, the New River Bridge is the longest single arch steel bridge in the world.  The roadway is 876 feet above the river making this the second highest bridge in the U.S.  The arch is 1,700 feet wide at the base.  The bridge was constructed between June of 1973 and October of 1977 at a cost of $37M.

We spent Friday and Saturday night at Jane's folk's place in Washington, PA.

 

On Friday evening we went to visit Jane's sister Janet and took her a box of her favorite Little Debbie snack.

 

On Sunday morning we left Jane's folks place and traveled to northwestern Pennsylvania.  One stretch of highway we took was PA 666, referred to by many as the Pennsylvania 'hell' road, primarily because of the route number, not because of the road conditions.  The road runs through the Allegheny National Forest and alongside the Tionesta Creek for about 30 miles.

On Saturday evening we had pizza with one of Jane's classmates and her husband who still live in Washington.  We mentioned that we were going across the 'hell' road and her husband said that when we went through the Lynch community we could see some of his work.  He works for the U.S. Geological Survey and part of his job involves installing monitoring and communication equipment along rivers and streams around the country.  

 



 

 

If you have ever wondered what these things are for, here is the answer...

 

 



IT'S ALMOST TIME

Our next trip begins on Thursday afternoon 9-6-2012. 

As much as we love traveling out west we have decided to go a different direction this year. 

We will go east into Virginia, then north into West Virginia and on to Pennsylvania and spend a couple of days with Jane's folks in Washington PA.

From there we will take mostly back roads through Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario, Vermont and then back toward home through most of the same states but following different routes.

We will add a new post every couple of days.  Enjoy...