Four Paws Kingdom and TCT Rally

     The final leg of this summer's trip is to be a stop over in NC at Four Paws Kingdom campground a campground dedicated to dogs and their humans who happen to drive them around, lookout for their welfare and pick up their poop, amongst other things.  The reason I found this particular campground was because of a Tin Can Tourist rally, a rally for vintage RVs which I signed up for.  The CG has just 40 sites all with full hook up, super clean rest rooms and showers and 8 off leash dog parks, 2 for agility work, 1 with a pond, 1 with a creek, a small dog park and a big dog park and a few other free run. The CG is run by Lucy and Belle and their humans and a few workampers.  On Saturday night they had a German October Fest party, beer, wine, food and fun.  One game was to push a tennis ball up your partner's one pant leg and down the other as fast a you can.  This was a fun game to watch. Another was a nail driving contest and a pretzel fishing match.  I participated and won the pretzel fishing. Would have rather have Cindy push a tennis ball in my pants.   The dogs that afternoon got to do wiener fishing aka sausage bobbing and Luna won the small dog heat, chow hound that she is.
      The Tin Can Tourist rally featured many restored and original trailers and 1 bus.  Cool to see the pain staking work that went into some of these units. Too many to post pics of them all but check out the few here.  Of course many were decorated in their period but I didn't decorate ours being i could not think of anything remarkable from 1995 that i brought with us or could have bought. Anyway 95 isn't considered "vintage"
    Now we're home and playing catch up on bills, weeds, shopping and the like.  While we were away lightning struck the big live oak west of our house and blew the circuits in the office along with Deb's computers.  I checked the breakers but the receptacles in that room are still dead.  The lightning blew off not only bark from the tree but chunks of wood, so it must have made a hell of a boom. We did manage a side trip to Chimney Rock and Luna went all the way up and down on her little legs,2480 ft.

Back to the weeds, and hope those of you whom have followed this blog enjoyed reading as much as we enjoyed sharing.

Grand Canyon of the East

Being in the wilderness has it's advantages being without technology as you get left alone to enjoy said wilderness without cell phones ringing or having to check email, face book and the like.  On the flip side you can't call anyone, send email or post on face book either.  That is why BLOG posts don't come regularly, and I actually have to read back blogs to see where I left off.  How quickly the past becomes a distant memory.
     Any way the next stop on the summer trip as referred by some fellow campers was the Grand Canyon of the East in NY.  The PA. Grand Canyon was more of a grand valley compared to this one in Letchworth State Park where the 14,000 acre park was donated to the state of NY by William Pryor Letchworth.  His home is now is now the B&B and restaurant The Glen Iris.  The canyon is carved by the Genesee River and 3 dramatic waterfalls, one of which is 107 feet high, make it one of the most notable examples of waterfall scenery in the Eastern US. A hundreds of feet high railroad bridge, which will be torn down but still used today gave me a perch to get the rainbow in the falls picture.  Of course there were signs advising not to go up there but to me was an invitation to do just that.  There are 66 miles of hiking trails through out the park and a trike ride on the twisty hilly road to the falls was both fun and challenging.  The camp ground was nice with 30 amp. service, and there are cabins to rent, river rafting, and hot air balloon rides.  Not a place to hurry through.
     Now back at my sisters place in Canonsburg Pa. and heading out today for the final leg of this trip to 4 Paws Kingdom Campground in Rutherfordton NC. where it's all about the dogs, for a Tin Can Tourist Rally featuring older restored campers, the vehicles not the people, and then the haul ass home to be open for the annual Withlacoochee trail ride and Bikes and BBQ in beautiful down town Floral City.  

     This trip has been a blast with mostly great weather, and some of the nicest people we've had the pleasure of meeting along the trails we've ridden and the campgrounds we've stayed. Hope to see many of you again in Fl this winter.  Happy traveling, happy trails to you.

Pa. Grand Canyon & Erie Canal Trails

     Sorry so long since last post but being in the boonies as we were a lot didn't lend well to wifi or cell phone service.  Gosh most people up in this part of Pa. still have land lines and there are pay phones just about in every town general store.  We settled in to Pettecote Junction Campground in Cedar Run near the Pa. Grand Canyon and managed to cop a electric site due to a cancellation after only one night boon docking.  Here the Pine Creek trail is 61 miles long, crushed rock through stunning scenery, with little villages and towns along the way. We found a farmer in Wellsboro who sells pasture fed beef and another guy just 5 miles down the road from the camp who sells free range eggs.  So we've been eating primal and clean.  A storm blew through and brought the creek up enough to enable us to get in a kayak paddle, so we took the van south, dropped it at Slate Run, pedaled the trikes back to camp got in the kayaks and paddled down stream with the current with small rapids thrown in for fun.  Stayed through Labor Day and then lit out for New York and the Erie Canal trail. Got a pull through site at Red Rock Ponds Camping Resort.  There are lots of ponds where they quarried for the red rock in the 1800s that is seen on lots of buildings in this area.  Luna has met a friend by the name of Diesel and he is said to be Chihuahua/Corgi mix, and if they could both be let off leash would have a ball juking and cutting chasing each other around. She also met another Chihuahua named Mikey who is so very cute.  This trail is crushed rock until it gets closer to Rochester then we hear it's paved, but haven't ridden that part yet.  We're here till Friday when we'll head south to Alfred to Peter Stull,  The Bicycle Man Shop for a recumbent rally and ride.  Hope to hook up with Bryan Ball sometime this week and will see him at Pete's.  Made a Trader Joe's run today as it was rainy and there was a huge Wegman's store in the same complex.   A monster grocery store on the scope of the GIANT Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh. Hoping the weather clears up tomorrow so we can explore more of this trail and places like Holley Falls. Read a really good book I saw reviewed in a newspaper in Wellsboro Pa.  It's by David Rosenfeld, "Dogtripping".  Very funny true story about a couple who rescue Golden Retrievers mostly and take a trip x country with 25 dogs. Read it in 2 days! Met a guy throwing a stick into the canal for his golden to fetch. Couldn't tell if he said he was 99 or the dog was 9 but his name is George Foster and the dog is Max. Lovin' this cool weather, see ya!