Columbus Day Weekend

Dad and I were supposed to leave for Arkansas on Saturday but Dad decided he didn't want to drive that far. So we found cheap airfares at the end of the month and are going to go then. In the meantime we had a problem. We had been asked to speak at church on Sunday and had declined because we were going to be out of town. It was going to be a little awkward to show up. We decided to use the three-day weekend and go to upstate New York. I found a hotel on Hotwire in Glens Falls, New York. We threw some clothes in a suitcase, grabbed some money and the GPS and off we went.

First stop was Granville, MA where we went last weekend between Conference sessions. They had said to come back the next week because they were having a festival, so we did. They had vendors and booths in the green across from the country store and in a couple of other locations to which you were shuttled on a school bus.


When we first arrived, the fife and drum corps was performing.

Here's the green with the Granville Country Store in the background.We took the shuttle up the hill to the orchard where we bought cider and donuts last week. This time they were demonstrating how they make cider.

Dad sitting outside the cider shop:
They had some old tractors on display so Dad played farmer.


As we were leaving town, we went by the old drum factory. We have been by there quite a few times and we always thought it was closed down. This time a door was standing open and a sign said there was a gift shop so of course I went in. I found out that the drum factory had never shut down although its operations had been scaled back over the years. We got a tour and saw how they make toy drums.

This machine applies the paint.

He's about to run this sheet of painted metal through a machine that will turn it into a cylinder.

Besides toy drums, they also make professional drums but in their heyday they made drums of all sorts. They had one of their civil war drums on display along with a picture of President Eisenhower's son with his Noble and Cooley drum.

Then we were off on the backroads to our hotel in Glens Falls, NY. The next morning we were on our way to the garnet mine when we passed a sign that said "gondola open". We turned around and went back to ride the ski lift. Grandma liked to do this at Sundance for her birthday. I wished she could have gone with us. It was gorgeous.



The sky cleared later and the foliage was even more spectacular with a bright blue backdrop.


Next we were off to the garnet mine. It was well off the beaten path and just when you thought you must have gone wrong somewhere, there would be a sign telling you just one more mile or half mile or whatever. Finally we made it to the office/shop where you pay for your tour.

The tour consisted of following the guide in your own car up the mountain a little ways and then getting out and being told that this was where they mined garnet until they hit the water table and the pit filled up with water. Now they mine in a different area. Then you got to spend a half hour looking for your own garnets. They weren't hard to find. The ground glistened with the red crystals. But they were much too small to be good for anything. They use them to make sandpaper but occasionally someone has found a gem-quality stone there. We had about as much luck as we did hunting for diamonds in Arkansas last fall.

If you look carefully at this picture, you can see the large rocks in the foreground almost look polka-dotted. The red spots are the garnets.


We still planned to get to Fort Ticonderoga that day so we needed to be moving on. We drove through the woods on lovely country roads that we had all to ourselves while we sang along to the greatest hits of John Denver. I know it sounds corny but it was very pleasant.

Unfortunately it was 4:30 by the time we got to Fort Ticonderoga and it closed at 5:00 so we didn't pay the $15 each to go in. But we could get the idea from outside anyway. As we were leaving a whole flock of turkeys went running by. You have to look closely to see them because it was getting dark and the light wasn't great.

Now back to our hotel in hopes they had moved us to a non-smoking room. We got put in a stinking smoking room the first night and they were booked up and couldn't move us. They said the reservation requested a smoking room. I said I never requested that and they said that when you reserve on-line, they sometimes automatically put in for a smoking room. I wasn't happy about that Hotwire. I guess not everyone got Columbus Day off because the hotel was practically empty Sunday night so there was no problem moving us to another room. In fact the whole Lake George area was filled with little independent motels and cabins which is where I would rather have stayed but I couldn't find them online and didn't want to take a chance on getting up there and finding out everything was booked. Oh well, the Ramada Inn was OK.

Monday morning we opted to take the backroads toward Albany and see what we found along the way. (We were going to stop in to see Joyce and Jerry in Albany on our way home.) We found that the Champlain canal boat tour was not operating. It takes you through the locks - at least it does when it's operating. Then we came upon a sign for apples and cider and cider donuts so we headed that way. It was a rip-off. You had to pay $4.50 each just to go out and pick your own apples. It must be the only orchard in the area because no one in CT would pay $4.50 just to be allowed into the orchard to pick their own and they had people streaming in like crazy.

From there we could see a big obelisk on the horizon so we set off in search of that. It turned out to mark the spot where the British laid down their arms after the battle of Saratoga which was fought nearby. It was open for Columbus Day (It's a national monument) so we went in. You can walk to the top if you dare. I didn't. As you are aware, I have a thing about heights and it had the kind of open stairs that you can see through. I went up the first five or six flights that each had a landing at the top. Even that I could only do if I made a point of not looking through the stairs to the ground below. But about halfway up the landings ended and the stairs were just suspended from the wall and went up and up and up and up. Dad was ahead of me going up the stairs and when he reached that point he just laughed. I asked what was funny and he said, "You'll see." When I saw, I told him to take a picture from the top for me because I wasn't going any further. I waited there with a kid who wouldn't go up either.

Trust me, these pictures don't do it justice. Even Dad thought it was a little creepy towards the top where the stairs got narrower. This is looking up.

And here's Dad on his way down.

From there we went to the actual battleground and took the driving tour after watching a movie and posing with the Redcoats.
I'm out of pictures now. Dad took more but his memory card is too big for the computer to recognize. We found Joyce and Jerry's apartment in Albany and went to Fuddruckers with them and then on home.

I decided I like the East. There's a lot to do here and it's pretty. Why don't you all move back this way?