Westward Ho!

Thursday, August 3…

OK, I think I’m finally back in travel mode (though still not up to snuff re photos). I did miss some scenery during the early part of our drive this morning because I was finishing up a short editing job. I checked in as we were passing through the Mohawk Valley, which (logically) flanks the Mohawk River (which, in turn, is sandwiched between the Adirondack and Catskill Mts). This area was the site of many battles during the French & Indian Wars. Today it's beautiful farmland - esp the lush cornfields, which look like they’re ready for the harvester. Much of the time we also paralleled the Erie Canal, and at one point passed through Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. (We should have detoured and visited, but we didn't. I admit to stealing the photos below, all of which were taken at the Refuge.)

Blue Jay

Great Egret

Tree Swallow

Other interesting information relevant to the Mohawk Valley...

Early Shaker Community

Just before reaching our campground, we drove through the (small) city of Canandaigua, where Susan B Anthony was brought to trial for her women’s suffrage campaign. I love saying the word (Greg heard it perhaps too often) and wanted to come back and walk Main Street, but that never happened.

Main Street, Canandaigua

Pleasant evening at Creek n Wood campground. Chatted at some length with one of the two (new) owners. Listening to him was like re-reading Chip Gaines (Fixer Upper) – true entrepreneurs are high energy, highly motivated, do-it-and-do-it-right folks who turn every encounter into an opportunity. Talking to them restores my belief in the American spirit.

Creek... and woods.

BlogThoughts...  So Canandaigua is the second "city" inside a town that we've visited. (Poughkeepsie - also in New York state - was the other). The concept makes no sense to me on a couple levels, so I did some research. Turns out New York has no unincorporated land. The term "town" refers to the minor civil divisions within each county (think "township"). Anyone not living in a specific city or on an Indian reservation lives in a town: no land is classified as rural. Towns provide or arrange for the primary functions of local government.