Foiled Again

In plotting out our week and knowing that the daytime temperatures were going to be in the 90s with high humidity, I figured Denny and I could spend an hour or so at the factory tour of Tom's of Maine. Denny and I both enjoy learning how various products are made and the actual equipment used fascinates us. I mean how can you not be impressed by the ingenuity it takes to invent a machine to do at warp speed what man used to do laboriously by hand? Since the factory tours web site said reservations were necessary to tour the factory, I left a message requesting a reservation for tomorrow.

Imagine my surprise when the return phone call was to tell me that Tom's is no longer offering public tours this summer, but they hope to restart the tours next summer and "please come back and see us then." Umm, I don't think so!

So there will be no blog post describing how one gets toothpaste into a tube. Instead, I'm offering another bit of Maine-ia. When Denny and I first start traveling as full time RVers, we were still in the habit of buying and reading the local newspaper from cover to cover. It had been our habit at home and we maintained that habit for several years before the advent of easy access to online newspapers. One of the nice things about buying a newspaper is that you find out local events and usually once a week in the "living" section there will be a recipe or two showcased. We happened to be in central Maine during blueberry season (and oh, how hard it was not to pick the wild blueberries by the roadside that were on private property and signed thusly) when I discovered a dessert recipe that turned out to be one of our favorites. So I'll share it with you since we're back in the land of blueberries once again.

Blueberry Crepes (Tortillas) Makes 8 servings

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, divided

8 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons butter, margarine or Smart Balance
8 flour tortillas, regular or low-carb

1. Prepare the sauce in a small saucepan. Combine the sugar and cornstarch, then stir in the orange juice. Cook and stir over medium heat u til the sauce is clear and thickened (about five minutes), stir in one cup of blueberries. Return the sauce to a boil and stir for one minute.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light. Add the confectioner's sugar and vanilla: beat until smooth and creamy.

3. Spread each tortilla with about two tablespoons of the cheese mixture. Place about six blueberries across the center of each tortilla and then roll jelly-style.

4. In a medium skillet, melt one tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Place half of the wraps seam side down in the skillet and cook, turning occasionally until evenly browned (about three minutes). Repeat with the remaining wraps. Top the wraps with the sauce. Whipped cream is also an option. Easy and yummy.

Note: While this recipe makes 8 "crepes", Denny eats two of these at a time, I eat one, therefore I only cook up three at one time. You can make as many or few as you like in one sitting, as the cream cheese mixture and blueberry sauce can both be refrigerated and the sauce reheated for use later.

And there you have a little piece of Maine. Because I'm not sending out lobsters.

Time Flies

Denny and I have arrived in Maine, have had our lobster, have walked the beach, have met up with some RVing friends for a wonderful dinner, have completed some necessary repairs and have done a little walking around the campground on a daily basis. We're located a little north of Ogunquit which we've found to be quite touristy and have discovered that there's a lot more traffic on US 1 than there was the last time we were in Maine twelve years ago. You'd never guess there was a recession by the number of people in the shops and restaurants here, that's for sure.

The beach here is clean and you can wander quite a distance in both directions. I was unable to find a single piece of beach glass, shark's tooth or a whole sea shell here though, even after having a decent thunderstorm. That was a bit of a disappointment. We are lucky in that the campground offers a $1 round trip van shuttle to the beach, because the city charges $20 to park at the lot by the beach. Yep, you saw that right, $20 to park. Ouch! It makes me appreciate Myrtle Beach and the western coastline of lower Michigan a whole lot more!

The two of us are hunkering down for the weekend--our campground is packed as is the two lane US 1 that is the only north-south roadway available. We'll leave the roads to the other tourists for the next two days and then venture out again on Monday. We'll be playing a round of golf and perhaps we'll go look for a lighthouse. For sure, there's a lobster roll with my name on it somewhere out there. In the meantime, there's a hungry chipmunk outside waiting for his sunflower seeds.

A Walk in the Park Museum

Never knowing what the satellite reception will be when we move to a new campground, I figured I'd better get started on my blog about the Shelburne Museum. I've been putting off writing this blog simply because there is so much to see and learn at the museum that I don't quite know where to start, or where to end. I'll put some pictures on, give a little explanation and suggest that someday you make the trip to see it yourself. How's that?

Situated on several acres of land a few miles south of Burlington, Vermont the museum was created by Electra Havemeyer Webb in 1947. There are permanent and traveling exhibitions and various collections of artwork and artifacts housed in authentic buildings, barns and cabins that were moved from their original locations specifically to house the many works of art. At each building there are docents to answer questions and explain the history of the building and/or its contents and each person Denny and I found to be extremely knowledgeable and truly interested in the museum. Each employee is rotated on a regular basis so they gain knowledge of all the buildings throughout the complex and each person that we met was very enthusiastic about the museum.

After you pay your $20 entrance fee (look for discount tickets at motels or store--we didn't until afterwards) immediately on your left is the Round Barn.
Currently the round barn houses one of the Paper in 3D exhibitions on the main floor and the second floor is dedicated to Denzel carousel animals (loved this!). I was surprised that the collection of Denzel animals didn't also include a band organ from a carousel to go with the theme, but there you are. The Paper in 3D exhibition is spread over three buildings and explores the use of paper in art and it is amazing what people can do with paper.

Next we wandered down the hill to the circus building which housed two collections of hand carved circus animals and three ringed circus recreations. There was also information on how the staff restores torn posters and revitalizes the original paint and finish on the carousel animals at the museum.Next up was a set of log cabins, one of which housed the "Lock, Stock and Barrel" collection of rifles made by gunsmiths in Vermont. Denny and I aren't necessarily fans of weaponry, but the docent here explained that Vermont gunsmiths were the first to invent the concept of creating interchangeable gun parts. Historically, when rifles were first starting to be built, each gunsmith made all of his own parts to the guns/rifles each time he built one. One of the gunsmiths came up with the idea of creating identical parts so that the rifles could be more easily repaired and built, thus paving the way for future mass production of items such at the Model T Ford.
Our day continued as we wandered building to building, each of which housed a different collection of items. You never knew what you would find when you opened a door and entered a building.
The story of how the founders of the museum arranged to move the steam ferry the "Ticonderoga" proved quite fascinating. There is a film clip on the first deck that shows the work involved; it took the moving crew 65 days to move the Ticonderoga two miles from Lake Champlain to its current position on the museum grounds. You can wander from the belly of the ship to the very top, learning how the ship was operated, seeing the staterooms and fine dining area and getting a view of the surrounding countryside from the upper deck. Your entrance ticket allows you to return on a second consecutive day to wander the museum and that's what we did. There is just too much to absorb in one day. There is a shuttle that will take you around the park and there is a cafe if you get hungry and picnic benches should you choose to bring your own lunch as we did. Of course, we have to have the obligatory goofy tourist picture; Denny has been jailed in North Platte, Nebraska, Yuma, Arizona and now Shelburne, Vermont. As have I.
The horseshoe barn houses a collection of carriages, wagons and sleighs and the annex behind it houses even more of them, including a stage coach on runners for travel in snow and a horse drawn hearse. The Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building houses fine art including paintings by Manet and Monet and sculptures by Remington and Anna Huntington. There are collections of duck decoys, porcelain, toys and dolls, glass, furniture and then there are the current exhibitions like the "High Style" fashion exhibit with clothing designs by Karl Lagerfeld, Carolina Herrera and early pieces by the House of Worth. You will walk away with your head filled with information and tired feet but it's so worth it.

Anyone remember Little Abner's Kickapoo Joy Juice? The museum has a fully stocked replica of an apothecary building with shelves full of original potions, herbal concoctions and tinctures and extracts.

The Stencil House had walls with original stenciling in its rooms:
Another building housed ink wells and snuff boxes and porcelain and household implements including this French made vacuum coffee pot.
I could go on and on about this place but that's enough for one day. This is definitely a "go see it" if you are traveling anywhere near Burlington, Vermont. I wish we had had more time to be in the area as there was a Morgan Horse Museum, miles of shoreline to Lake Champlain, the town and colleges in Burlington itself, chocolate factories, wineries, Ethan Allen's home and much more within a very short distance.

But there was a lobster calling my name......

Teddy Bear Tour

I thought that a tour of the Vermont Teddy Bear factory might be a bit too juvenile for adults, but decided "oh, what the heck!" and I'm glad I did. Walking up to the crayon colored entrance I started having second thoughts, but motored on through anyway.
Once you pay your $3 adult ticket fee for the half hour tour you enter the world of all things teddy bear. Having decided to take the tour on Saturday, I missed out on the actual production line workers being there, but the young lady who led our guided tour provided a very entertaining way of "seeing" how the bears were made. The staff refers to the bears as if they were living creatures, which is a bit disconcerting at first, but soon becomes cute.

You first see the cutting room section, where the staff uses giant cookie cutter looking dies to cut out the bear parts. Would you like to follow along with us? Click here.Next you come to the section where the bears are sewn together. Originally when the assembly line was first created, the employees would have to sew the seams of the appendages and bodies inside out (to hide the seams of course) and then push the pieces outside in with their fingers, many, many times a day which left them with sore fingers and thumbs. That was when an ingenious employee came up with the "appendage inverter tool", which allowed the workers to place the inside out piece at the tip of the wand and then pull down on the open edge and voila'--a right side out piece. We also where shown how they blow the polyester fiber into the various parts and put the arms, legs and heads on with special brackets that allows the parts to move and actually get tighter if the arms, legs or head is pulled on rather than pulling out. The eyes are fastened in the same manner; if a child tries to pull the eyes out of the bear, they only get tighter. Cool, huh?

A bear sewn inside out to show the seams and how the eyes and appendages are attached.

A giant bear with a rope attached to its arms so that children can pull a rope from the gallery to make the bear "wave."

And then there are the random bears to be found in odd places around the factory--you have to look carefully!Once the bears are all right side out and their arms and legs are attached their "fur" needs to be fluffed and brushed due to the excess "fur" that comes off. The staff hand brushes the bears with wire dog brushes but because they don't want to scratch or snag the eyes and noses of the bears when it comes time to fluff the heads of the bears the staff literally beats the head of the bear against a railing. My picture of this came out blurred unfortunately but in keeping with the talking-as-if-the-bear-is-a-living-creature theme, the guide explained that the bears apparently like this treatment because when the staff does this, the bear's arms come up high in the air as do yours when you ride the roller coaster. WEEEEE! (If I'm lyin', I'm dyin')

Next up is the custom made bear section, where you can pick special colors or themes or even request a specific bear such as this wedding bear. The material from the dress is the same as the material in the woman's actual wedding dress and the design of the dress matches the actual wedding dress also (surprisingly no one asked how much something like THAT costs!) The fact is, the staff will work with you, creating a hand drawn design and double checking with you to match your desire for a special bear.

The last stop on the tour is the teddy bear hospital. If you purchase a bear from the Vermont Teddy Bear factory, it has a lifetime warranty. Therefore all you pay is to ship your "injured" bear to the factory where they will fix the bear for free and ship it back to you at their cost. This bear had someone try to fix it with duct tape--not a good idea.Your bear is returned to you with a hospital bracelet and a prescription for needed care (lots of hugs, kisses and or chocolate, etc.), again in keeping with the your-bear-is-a-living-breathing-creature storyline.

When you exit the assembly line/factory area you return to the gift shop area where you can find beary many bears on hand for purchase, along with tee shirts, hoodies and other goodies.There are a variety of sizes and shapes and colors of bears, with a basic honey colored, brown eyed bear running about $50. I have to say, I put my name in for a drawing for one of these adorable little guys. While I wouldn't pay for one for myself, I wouldn't be adverse to winning one!

A few bear factory factoids: it takes 12 minutes to make a Vermont Teddy Bear from start to finish.

They make approximately 750 bears a day, 150,000 bears a year.

The Vermont Teddy Bear factory is Vermont's 4th largest tourist destination.

If you put all the bears produced in one year paw to paw they would stretch about 300,000 feet or 57 miles or 2/3 of the width of the state of Vermont.

It takes one person five days to mow the lawn at the Teddy Bear factory.

A Short Tour for Free Ice Cream

I thought it would be fun to tour the Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory after spending two days wandering through building after building of historical items. I wanted something less thought-intensive and fun. Well, certainly we got less thought intensive, for sure.

Ben and Jerry's Waterbury factory is located about 30 miles from our campground but since it is all new territory to us, we didn't really mind the drive. I do have to say, however, that Vermont's state and U.S. routes are in absolutely terrible condition. You certainly don't want to drive them with a beverage in your hand because you would end up wearing it. Rough is an understatement. However, we arrived at the factory in one piece and wandered up the path and stairway to the brightly painted buildings and into the scent of baking waffle cones. As we approached the building there was a stand set up for children to create spin paintings and another booth selling something Ben and Jerry's related. At the entrance there is an ice cream stand to your right in case you just can't wait to have some ice cream and at 10AM there was already a line of folks waiting to buy a cone. Inside is the tour ticket sales booth and a large gift shop with clothing, ice cream bowls, hot fudge, Vermont maple syrup and the usual toys and gewgaws. Denny and I had arrived just in time for the next tour and after the tour guide introduced himself to us personally and asked where we were from (we found out why later) we were instructed to walk up the stairs to the video viewing area.

The film was a short introduction to Ben and Jerry, how they met, started making ice cream, created the business, sold out to a large conglomerate but still try to be green and follow Fair Trade policies. It lasted about ten minutes and then we were lead up to the observation deck over the factory floor. There was no ice cream being made on Friday due to the holiday weekend but there was a film loop that showed the production as the tour guide pointed out the various areas of machinery and what each machine group did. The Waterbury factory produces two flavors a day and they only fill pints. The St. Albans factory makes all the other sizes of ice cream containers. This part of the tour was five minutes (which I know because there was a large red countdown timer on the wall to make sure the tour guide didn't exceed his time limit for being in the factory area. Next we were led to the tasting room where the flavor of the day was Americone Dream, a combination of vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered waffle cone bits and a caramel swirl. There was a "contest" to see who came the farthest to tour the factory and a young man from Spain won. His prize? A free cup of ice cream, like everyone else. Denny and I were the only ones in the room who had never tried Ben and Jerry's ice cream. And that was the tour. Thirty minutes, beginning to end, for a quarter cup of ice cream and the chance to buy stuff. Somehow I expected just a tad more. But the tour guide was nice, the sun was out (off and on) and the humidity was low so it was a good day to be out and about in Vermont.

There Will Be Blogs

We're packing a lot into our week long stay here in Vermont and there will be blogs to follow, but I have to get the pictures resized and my thoughts arranged first. But for today, "We're going to get ICE CREAM!!!"

That's a line from a Bill Cosby comedy album where he tells the story of getting his tonsils out as a child. It's a cute routine but the reason I insert it here is because today the big guy and I are going to the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory. Woot!

We're going to get ICE CREAM!

Essex Country Club in Vermont

Denny and I are getting ever closer to checking off the final few states in our quest to play golf in all 50 states of the U.S. This week we played at the Essex Country Club in Essex Junction, Vermont, about 20 minutes from Burlington, Vermont and about 45 minutes away from our campground in Shelburne, Vermont.The golf course is an interesting mix of what Denny and I call cow pasture golf (open, flat, very young trees, no interesting physical features to the layout) to hilly holes with narrower fairways and tall trees and deep woods to snatch your balls. There were several players walking the course, but slower players allowed others to play through. The rates on a Tuesday were reasonable for us as it was Senior Day so we paid $22 each for green fees and then $34 shared fee for the cart. There is also a Men's day and a Ladies' Day with similar special deals. The course itself from the blue tees is 6545 yards long, from the white tees it is 6045 yards long. The rating/slope is the same for both sets of tees; 70.4/121. For the red tees the yardage is 5350 with a rating/slope of 65.8/111.Despite obvious signs of recent prolonged and heavy rains the course was in fairly good shape. Members and players appear to repair their divots and ball marks on the greens and the maintenance crews were out working on the course as we played. There are a couple of creeks that criss-cross a few of the holes and a couple of ponds as well as scattered sand traps but somehow Denny and I managed to stay out of most of these (okay, okay, I did lose a ball to one of the ponds.) I was a bit put off by the fact that several of the red (women's) tees were simply tee box markers in the fairway instead of a dedicated tee box because you have no idea of the proper yardage from the temporary tee boxes.

We had rain threatening us the entire round which took away from the view of the distant Green Mountains but on a clear day I imagine the views of the mountains from the seventeenth and eighteenth holes are gorgeous.Huge granite boulders along the fairway reminded us of a golf course we played eleven years ago in Bethlehem, New Hampshire. All in all, playing golf here was an enjoyable experience and we would play this golf course again.

Ready for a New State

Our time in New York is done. While the eastern part of New York is scenic, this week it's done nothing but rain and the mosquitoes are positively evil here. Denny and I won't be going that far, just over the border to Vermont where we'll be checking another state off our list of the fifty to be seen. We're whittling it down.

It was a quiet week for us, thanks to the rain. I did get one thing accomplished however. I was reading the blog of a RVing couple who lost their fifth wheel to a fire recently. It seems they had a wheel bearing or brake lock up which caused their tire to explode and that somehow sparked a fire. One small fire extinguisher wasn't enough to stop the fire and although the fire department got there quickly, the damage was done. The couple is now blogging about their experience with RV dealers and insurance companies and their emotions at the loss of their home. This got me thinking since we had a tire blow out on the interstate last month and by the time we were finally able to pull off the road our wheel was smoking very badly which means we could have been in the same position. All these years I have been talking about doing an inventory of our possessions (which while not extensive are too many to think of when stressed out) so this week I took the easy way out. I opened all the drawers and cupboards and took pictures of the contents. Knowing that we might not have time to grab the computer in an emergency, I then posted the pictures to a Picasa web album online and made the status of the album private so it can only be seen by us. This way I can pull up the pictures from any computer by signing into my account and at least have a pretty good idea of everything I have stored inside.

Next up, buying a thumb drive and scanning receipts on some of the big ticket items we have along with a password list and copies of important documents. I think that will go in my purse. Another rainy day project.

Dream House

This morning in my inbox I discovered a comment on my blog post from June of 2005 which was simply this picture of what I called "The Giraffe House". It seems the commenter purchased this house a year ago and was surprised to see its picture on my blog. Isn't it fun? Denny and I had been on our way to the post office or some such and were just cutting through side streets when we happened upon the house and I was so tickled by the imagination shown by the owners. Doesn't it just make you want to introduce yourself so you can find out what kind of folks live inside?

Another drive by house that intrigued us was Snow White's house in the suburbs of Vancouver that we saw from our bus window as we were being taken from our cruise ship to the Vancouver airport. Make a new roof line on an English Tudor and you live in a fairy tale. Do you suppose the back garden is filled with fairies and gnomes? Sometimes houses are just awesome. If I won the lottery my house would look like this: I know, it's way too much house, but this one is very Frank Lloyd Wright looking in its setting and overlooks the Superstition Mountains which would be my choice of a winter home (we're talking lottery dreams, remember? Summer home/winter home lottery dreams.)

But truly, given my druthers, I'd like to have a big old Victorian painted lady with a wrap around porch for my porch swing, situated on a quiet street in a small town where the trees are tall and the people are friendly. Denny would never go for that because all he'd see is antiquated wiring and maintenance issues of an old house, but I love the character of the architecture both inside and out of older homes. And I'd have roses on bowers and hollyhocks and lilacs and all those wonderful heritage plantings that go with a one hundred year old home.

What does your dream house look like?

Related articles

• The Superstition Mountains Attract Visitors From All Over The World (socyberty.com)
• The most livable Frank Lloyd Wright home in Oak Park (chicagonow.com)

Change in Plans

I would love to send some of this rain to our friends and neighbors out west. My reasons are not entirely altruistic; we had a tee time to play golf today and had to cancel because of the rain and threat of severe thunderstorms. Which is not a good time to be waving a three foot long metal club around above your head. It has been years since Denny and I were in this general area and we were looking forward to playing golf here for the first time and also doing a little more sightseeing. We don't try to play golf on the weekends since that's the only time worker bees get to play so the two of us are hoping for some sunny skies so we can wander over to the Lake George area for some lunch and photo taking opportunities.

So instead of enjoying a nice day on the links I'm tentatively mapping out a route for us for when we leave Myrtle Beach this fall. I am not making reservations, I am not carving this in stone, because I know all too well what happens now when I make plans several months in advance; some sort of bad stuff happens and I'm am heartily tired of the bad stuff in my life. I haven't even really planned our route for exploring the seaboard states this summer, choosing to make my reservations less far in advance. Denny is worried that we won't find campgrounds if I don't make all my reservations and have all my ducks in a row, but recently my poor ducks have been shot down so I'm going to wing it a little more this camping season. I am booked up into July, but hey, it's late June already so that's okay. Normally I would have our reservations made until we are due to arrive in Myrtle Beach in October but not this time. Nope. No more tempting the fates. I'm done with that.

A side effect of all this rain has been the over abundance of mosquitoes. Even Patches has been taking short little walks because of the pesky things flying in her face and trying to bite her nose. Everyone here walks their pet carrying mosquito repellent and when folks do stop to chat their conversations are punctuated with flailing arms while swatting away hordes of mosquitoes from their faces and ears. That probably sounds like a petty annoyance to the people out west who are evacuating their homes due to the wildfires occurring everywhere. Hasn't it been a crazy year so far, weather-wise? Enough, Mother Nature!!!!

In the meantime, back to my maps....

Down Time

It's been a period of down time for us in more ways than one. Denny has been dealing with his kidney stone and the multiple treatments the urologist ordered to demolish his king-sized stone and that has been time consuming. We've spent much more time than we'd like in the hospital, both as in patient and out patient and I have to admit, I've not been patient. Spending hours upon hours in the waiting rooms brought back memories of the weeks I spent sitting at my mother's side during her six week hospital stay and that was a time I had not been anxious to revisit.

But the good news is that the treatment worked, the stone fragments are working their way out and somehow it has been a pain free experience for Denny. Which is wonderful, of course, but curious. Our extra time here has allowed us to see more of our oldest son and his family and get some things done around the rig since we didn't wander too far away not knowing how the stone passage was going to work for Denny. Being backed up to the fishing pond has been fun as the kids here in the campground have been pulling out catfish and small bass left and right, plus we have been watching all the different Canada geese families swimming, feeding and walking their young. Each family of geese apparently had their goslings in a different week because there are all different age ranges of babies and Patches has been a rapt audience when they all meander to the rear of our rig to pluck at the grass.

Another part of our "down" time has been the amount of time we have been offline due to the very spotty free wi-fi provided by the campground. Their router is in the clubhouse, which is about 100 yards from us, which is just far enough to be weakened by the many people trying to use the system. Normally we put up our Hughes.net satellite dish, but we are parked right beside a set of huge cottonwood trees and we can't move our dish out away from the rig because the volleyball court is right behind us. That would be an accident waiting to happen. The lack of Internet access has been aggravating because I've wanted to research the things the doctor told us he was going try for Denny and the connection has been dropping literally every ten seconds. I now have a renewed appreciation for our satellite service and am looking forward to the next campground and being able to set it up once again (that is, if the campground is not heavily wooded as is usually the case in the eastern states.)But for today, we'll once again be with Steve, Angela and the kids. The girls and I will be baking an angel food cake as a delayed birthday cake for Steve and the men will grill out ribs and drink beer and celebrate the maleness of Father's Day together. Soon it will be time for Denny and I to point the nose of Black Beauty to the east, trying out our new Tri-glide jaw on our king pin hitch and easing through toll booths with our new EZ pass which will work in several of the seaboard states we'll be traveling through this summer. I have to admit, I'm ready to see what's around that next bend.

Seeing The Inside of Hospitals

Image via WikipediaThat's what we've been seeing lately, thanks to Denny's oversized kidney stone. Today we have a final trip to Buffalo to have the fragments created by yesterday's laser treatment pulverized by an ultra-sound. It seems one marginally too large fragment was blasted back into the kidney so the urologist wants Denny to have an ultrasound to prevent any more problems as we move eastward this summer. Good thinking.

Fortunately, we've been coming to this area for years, since our oldest son and our grandkids live up here. There are several wineries, an apple orchard or two, state parks and of course the biggest draw, Niagara Falls. In the same area you can wander the grounds of Old Fort Niagara, watching reenactors play the part of British soldiers and possibly even having the chance to set off a cannon.

Several miles east of our campground you have the Erie Canal and the town of Lockport, where you can take a tour of the Lockport Locks. Another way to spend a couple of hours is at the Lockport Caves (apparently for some reason I didn't blog about our tour). There are also several golf courses within a few miles and the city of Buffalo is down the road a ways.

Certainly there are many ways to entertain yourself here. All of which are much better than staring at the inside of a hospital room. *sigh*

A Morning at the Niagara County Golf Course

Think cow pasture. A very, very overgrown, covered with piles of dead, recently cut six inch long grass cow pasture.

To be fair, northwestern New York has received as much rain as the rest of the Midwest recently and due to the flat topography of the golf course it's obvious the rain had no where to run off. Thus the grass couldn't be mowed and when it finally was, it left huge piles of grass covering the fairways and rough. When Denny and I played this course on Friday, the maintenance staff was riding around with big leaf blowers blowing the piles of dead grass off the fairways. The fairways, however were still in need of another cutting as the grass on the fairways ranged in length from an inch to three inches. We would lose our balls in the fairway! And heaven forbid you were in the first cut of rough because we spent as much time there looking for our balls as we did playing.

The Niagara County Golf Course in Lockport, New York is maintained by Niagara County and thus has the reasonable rates of $24 to play eighteen holes with a riding cart for a senior golfer. I believe the regular rate is $28. From the blue tees the yardage is 6483 yards with a rating/slope of 69.9/112. From the white tees the yardage is 6195 yards with a rating/slope of 68.6/109 and from the women's red tees the yardage is 5081 yards with a rating/slope of 67.3/106. There is a tiny creek that runs across the course on several of the holes which for most golfers shouldn't be a problem. The fairways are wide, many of the trees along the fairways are young and well spaced so there are not many places to get in trouble here if the fairways have been cut properly. The course gets a good amount of local play but the golfers seem to fix their ball marks on the greens and the tee boxes weren't torn up. Walking is a reasonable option since the course is so flat and the staff provided water coolers at regular intervals. This would be a great golf course for the beginner and the senior player.