Waterloo Part 9

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We have 2 more months in our stay in Waterloo NY. We have had a good mixture of hikes, bike rides, sightseeing, and visiting with friends. One Sunday afternoon we have something a little different to kill a couple of hours. We are attending a concert from a Celtic folk group named Doolin O’Dey. They were playing at an historic house in Geneva - the Rose Hill Mansion. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to check out the old mansion and listen to a style of music we aren’t all that familiar with. The mansion was built back in 1837 on a hill overlooking Seneca Lake. The large Greek Revival house is easily visible from State Route 96A and we have driven by this place dozens of times over the years but never stopped to get a closer look. Our timing didn’t permit us tour the inside of the house but we did have enough time to wander around the grounds before the concert started.

Rose Hill Mansion

The band was setup to play on the large back porch. It wasn’t necessarily the best spot since there was the railing and posts to interfere with the view of the four performers but at least the we could hear them fine which is the most important aspect for a concert like this. There were probably a few dozen people circling the porch on a nice summer afternoon.

Back Porch for Concert

Not too unexpectedly, we didn’t know any of the songs but it was still entertaining. One woman was playing the dulcimer, another had an acoustic guitar, while a guy played the fiddle. The other woman in the group played a variety of wind instruments like a flutes of various sizes, but the most interesting instrument she had was something called uilleann pipes - the national bagpipe of Ireland. They sound like bagpipes but function uniquely since the performer never uses her mouth to blow into the instrument. Instead, there is one set of bellows between her right arm and her body which fills an air bladder between her left arm and body. She squeezes the bladder to force air into the pipes which she can then use her fingers to play notes. She came forward at one point between sets to demonstrate how she plays the uillean pipes. They look like they would be really difficult to master.

Doolin O'Dey

Explaining Uilleann Pipes

During the intermission, Chris wandered around the grounds and spotted an ammo can sitting in the small well house off to the side of the mansion. When she came back she checked her phone to realize there is a geocache hidden here. After the concert ended, we waited for the crowds to die down and we went over to sign in. While Celtic isn’t a type of music we typically listen to, we did enjoy the concert.

The next day we head to Rome - not Italy, or Georgia but New York. It’s a bit of a drive from camp, but Chris had read about a sunflower farm where visitors can walk thru the fields of sunflowers and it sounded pretty neat. Since it is about 85 miles away, we look for other things to see in the area and plan on making a day of it. Our first stop would be Fort Stanwix National Monument. We parked nearby and walked the short distance to the visitor center only to discover it isn’t open on Mondays. At least the fort was open - or so we thought. Turns out that just as we head across the bridge over the moat to enter the fort, they were closing the gates due to a bee infestation issue and told to come back in a few hours and hopefully the issue will be resolved.

City Hall in Rome

St Peter Church

Closed Visitor Center

We needed to come up with a Plan B. There is an Adventure Lab that visits 5 different places in and around Rome so we head off to see where we would end up. One stop brought us to where Francis Bellamy is buried in Rome Cemetery. For those that forgot (like me) this was the author of the Pledge of Allegiance. There is a really neat stone building near the entrance to the cemetery that is quite pretty.

Francis Bellamy Gravesite

The adventure lab didn’t take up as much time as we had hoped so we needed something else to eat up some time. We head over to Griffiss Park. The town of Rome was home to Griffiss Air Force Base from 1942 until it was closed in 1995. Most of the land from the base has been converted over to civilian use including a business complex and the park we discovered because it has a few geocaches and over a mile of walking trails with all sorts of sculptures and artwork. We did need to contend with a brief, unexpected rain shower but did get to enjoy some of the trails. The artwork itself was less impressive than we were anticipating but it was still a nice park and it did allow us the time needed to stall before heading back to the fort.

War Memorial

Tough Soldier

Snail-like Sculpture

We arrived at Fort Stanwix at 2 PM and all seemed to be back to normal. The place wasn’t very busy and the docent seemed anxious to have someone to talk to about the fort and it’s history. Originally built by the British in 1758, the current fort was built on the original site in 1976 to the original plans so it is as authentic as possible for something that first stood 265 years ago. I’ll admit, I suspect my eyes glazed over as he described all the various battles and sieges that took place in the area. Fortunately another small group arrived and he was off to give them a history lesson.

Fort Stanwix

Bridge into Fort

The area inside the fort walls is just over 1.5 acres. There are many buildings inside the fort that are open to the public. Most of them are setup with furnishings from back in the day. There are numerous interpretive signs that explain what each location was used for.

Courtyard in Fort Stanwix

Miniature Cannon

We probably spent about an hour touring around the fort and found it to be rather interesting and well done. It is possible to climb up to the four corners of the fort that are elevated and has where the cannons would have been. I often associate forts like this to be along some river or lake to help protect the area from water attacks. Fort Stanwix seems like it would have been in the middle of nowhere back in the mid 1700’s.

Looking Out Cannon Port

Inside Barracks

My tolerance for history lessons was exhausted and it was time to move on to the real reason we headed to Rome. Wagner Farms is about 6 miles southwest of downtown. There was a small admission fee to enter the farm. They have a tractor and large wagon that you can use to tour the fields without needing to walk. While that option is available, we figured we would get a better experience by walking around on our own. The initial fields don’t have sunflowers but do have all sort of vegetables. Signs are strategically placed to get us headed in the right direction. I suspect there are 10 to 15 acres of sunflowers. Many of the plots were still nicely in bloom while others had already started to wilt and droop their heads.

Sunflower Tour Tractor & Wagon

Head This Way

Up Close

As Far as the Eye Can See

At a few places next to the fields are steps up to a platform that does permit a much better view up and over the tall flowers. I will admit it was pretty overwhelming just how many flowers there are on the farm.

One of the Viewing Platforms

We continued to walk around and saw signs directing us to the multicolored flowers. We found some dark red sunflowers and some very pale, nearly white ones. It seems like the multicolored ones were scattered in with normal yellow ones rather than a field exclusively full of unique ones.

Dark Red

Pale Yellow

Some of the flowers had enormous heads - nearly as big around as our own heads. The stalks needed to hold up such a heavy flower are rather impressive as well. The owners of the farm have “decorated” some of the sunflowers to make them have eyes and a mouth. I especially like the one with the wide open mouth that reminded me of “Mr Bill” from Saturday Night Live of my youth.

Big One

Smiley Face Sunflower

Oh NO Mr Bill

We also found a few entrances into some of the fields that brought us to narrow paths thru the sunflowers. It was magical to walk along these paths being dwarfed by the flowers all around us. We slowly made our way back out of the fields and to our car. This was quite the experience. I took well over 150 photos and found it tough to only show a few of them. It was a rather long drive back to Waterloo and quite the day trip.

Chris Hides in Sunflower Field

Sunflowers Facing the Other Way

Heading Down a Sunflower Path

The following day, we had plans to stay closer to home - much closer to home. A good friend and fellow colleague at Kodak mentioned that she has a cousin that operates a business about a mile from our campground.  Canal Side Experiences has a couple of houseboats that visitors can rent sort of like an Airbnb. They also have kayaks for rent and offer boat tours along the Seneca Cayuga Canal. Each year her cousin invites her to come for a boat ride during the middle of the week when business is slow. This year she took him up on the offer and and invited us and a couple other geocaching friends of ours. It turned out that only a total of 4 guests were able to make it along with her cousin John.

Out on the Canal

One of Many Pretty Homes

We boarded the pontoon boat and were given the choice of heading west to Seneca Lake or east towards Waterloo and go through the lock. I voiced my opinion about going towards the lock since I have watched many a boat go thru when I go for my bike rides along the canal. I figured it would be fun to actually be on a boat going through. We went at a leisurely clip the 3 miles from John’s place to the lock. We saw a fair amount of wildlife - mostly waterfowl like herons, geese and ducks. But we actually even found a pair of deer in the shallow water along the canal. They didn’t seem at all phased by our presence.

Heron Searching for Lunch

Old Water Tower in Waterloo

Splish Splash Deer

As we passed by our campground, John stopped so I could get some pictures from this direction. John has the perfect demeanor for a job like this. He is jovial and has all sorts of stories to tell. It seems like he knew everybody that owns property along the canal and even greeted the few that were sitting our in their yards or on their dock. We came across a strange boat that I had seen weeks ago at the dock in Seneca Lake State Park. It is some sort of seaweed harvester. John wasn’t too pleased with it since it was just cutting the seaweed but not collecting it like it is supposed to. The result is a lot of loose seaweed floating in the canal.

Our Campground Viewed from Water

Seaweed Harvester

We had perfect weather for the boat ride with mostly clear skies and calm. A very relaxing time on the boat. At the lock, John called ahead to the lock master to inform him we were on our way downstream. Our timing was pretty good and we didn’t have to wait long to enter the lock.

Approaching Lock

In Lock with High Water

As the water lowered in the chamber of the lock, we are in a pretty large space and all of a sudden, John starts to sing “Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal” with a loud, booming voice that echoed in the lock. It doesn’t take too long for the 1.6 million gallons of water to exit and the lower gates start to open.

Looking at Upstream Lock Gates 

Downstream Lock Gates Opening

Another boat is approaching to go upstream so John tells the lock master we will simply turn around here and ride back up with them. We get to see the back end of the power plant that is part of the lock in Waterloo. It was a fun experience to go through the lock.

Backside of Waterloo Hydro Power Plant

Entering Lock for Ride Back Up

On our way back to the dock, John takes a left turn up a small side creek. It turns out this gets us up to the bridge I bike across a couple times a weeks. Interesting to see this view from this vantage point. We had a wonderful boat ride and enjoyed all the stories John told us along the way. As we were getting ready to leave, a rental boat came plodding by. These long boats look pretty neat.

Canal Trail Bridge

Rental River Boat

We had a geocaching event to go to on Wednesday evening. It was an ice cream social so we would likely see many of our friends from the area but it was in Spencerport which is about 60 miles away. It didn’t make sense to drive all that way and back just for the ice cream so we planned a full day outing on that side of town. Spencerport is a cute town right along the Erie Canal and while the bike path along the canal is fun, we decided to skip bringing the bicycles and simply do a walking tour of town. We had two Adventure Labs to help us see sights we might never had known about plus there were several traditional geocaches that were new since we have been in the area. We headed there after lunch with plans to sightsee in the afternoon, bring along something for dinner then head to the event.

Boats Docked on Canal in Spencerport

Canal and Bike Path on Right

We had a pretty nice day to explore. Some of the walking was along the canal path and into a nearby park while others parts of our tour took us to some of the historic buildings in town. We are finding that many of these Adventure Labs do a nice job of playing tour guide.

Fountain in Town Park

Neat Stone Church

Lift Bridge Over Canal

One particular geocache we were trying to find posed a bit of a problem. We had ground zero on a park bench right along the canal. When we first arrived, two teenagers were sitting on the bench we needed to search at, so we moved on. When we came past 30 minutes later to try again, they were still there. We had a few more things to do so we headed out again for a while and when we returned the girls were gone. But now there was a small houseboat docked right next to the bench and the owner was sitting on his boat only 10 feet away. Sometimes our search for a cache just doesn’t go our way. We ate dinner and headed up to the event at Lugia’s Ice Cream. We had forgotten how large their servings are and I think my cone had a pint of ice cream on it! It was nice to meet up with many of our caching friends.

View of Lift Bridge from Side

Boat Docked

After a day off, we headed out for a day trip in Auburn. At least this day trip wasn’t too far since Auburn is only 20 due east of Waterloo. The plan was to do a few geocaches and see if we could get all stops of the four Adventure Labs in town. We had picked a day that was forecast to be okay but as we were driving there, we noticed a fair number of dark clouds in the direction we were heading.

Large Monument in Cemetery

It wasn’t too long after we arrived and started our tour around town, that it started to sprinkle. At first it wasn’t too intense and we continued on hoping it would pass by quickly. But then it started to pour, and the only thing that saved us was our being at the entrance building to the historic cemetery in town that has a large archway we could take cover under. The rain lasted for 15 minutes before it let up and we were able to continue. Some of the highlights of Auburn were the Harriet Tubman Museum and the Auburn State Prison which opened in 1816 and is still in use today. As we walked by, it appeared there was a shift change occurring and dozens of guards were coming and going.

County Courthouse in Auburn

Auburn State Prison

We did discover that handling four different Adventure Labs simultaneously was a bit of a challenge since many of the stops overlapped and some even used the same old building as a point of interest for each tour. We definitely got a lot of walking in during this trip but we actually explored Auburn instead of simply driving through the old town. On our way back to camp, we stopped in Weedsport to check out the Lunkenheimer Brewery. A friend had recommended the place and we had biked by it during one of our day trips along the Erie Canal but we hadn’t actually stopped for a beer. We found it to be a nice place and even stayed around for dinner there.

Willard Memorial Chapel

We had done a few bike rides along the Ontario Pathway that have been described in previous posts. There is one section of the trail on the north side of the the old railroad that isn’t connected to the main trail. It was only about a 2 mile stretch one way so we figured it might be easier to simply walk the trail and look for the several geocaches along the way. It was a nice trail but it is clear it is much less visited than the other parts. We found most of the caches and even discovered that somebody has put up all sorts of fairy houses along the way. It was a nice quiet place for a walk.

Heading Up Ontario Pathway Trail

Fairy House?

We did still have some maintenance to preform on some of our geocache hides. We saved one of the hides dedicated to our dog Shelby until later in the summer simply because the park it is hidden in is known to get quite wet, almost swamp like, in the springtime. We figured late August would have allowed the park to dry up and make our journey easier. It turns out that Semmel Road Park might stay wet year round - at least this year. We tried to find a dry route to the final ammo can for this puzzle cache, but we discovered that the last few hundred feet was going to be a really wet walk. I’ve discovered that in situations like this, it is safer to just give up trying to keep dry feet and take the shortest route to where I need to be. If I try to balance on logs or other small clumps of land above the water, I am much more likely to fall at some point in which case more than my feet will be wet. We did find the container and cleaned it up for any determined geocacher to come out for a swamp walk!

Semmel Road Park

On our way back, we headed to Mendon Ponds Park again for an Adventure Lab and some other caching. This is still one of our favorite county parks in our old stomping grounds.

One of the Ponds at Mendon Ponds Park

Log Bench