Old Forge

With summer school over, John and I decided to get away for a couple of days so we headed to Old Forge. It had been years since we'd been there, the last time was a day trip when the kids were young and we took them to Enchanted Forest.

It was an interesting trip. We were robbed before we made it all the way into town!

We took the train out of Thendara and it was held up by the Loomis Gang.
Guys on horseback and with shotguns stop the train.

The characters move from car to car.

I have ridden on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad a couple of times before and this was certainly the most fun I've ever had. A tip if you go, sit on the station side of the car to see the action outside.

We moved on to our motel, right on the pond.

We were pleased with the views from our balcony.

At check-in the key to our room was missing and they had to get a spare. We were told the key was probably in the room. It wasn't. I had no trouble opening the door. When we went to go out for dinner John tried it and couldn't get it to work. I tried it and it worked just fine! I told him it was just pay back for all those times that I've told him something was broken and it worked just fine for him.

Of course I could no longer get it work when we returned... We had to go get a new key and were told it was no problem they had several sets.

The door to the adjoining room had just a bedroom type lock, with the lock on our side. I don't think I would have been happy in the other room knowing that the folks next door could pop in when ever they wanted! There may have been a chain or something on the other side but we didn't try to open it and find out. There was no bolt or chain on either of our exterior doors which made me a little uncomfortable at night. We've had a couple of odd experiences in similar situations not to mention the missing and surplus keys.

There was a free lawn concert that we were able to enjoy from our room.

The lake was pretty at night too.
I loved this bright yellow boat house.

Old Forge Pond sits at the beginning of the Fulton Chain of Lakes. Rather than rent a boat we decided to cruise the first four lakes with Old Forge Lake Cruises.
The boat had a nice open top deck. There was a group that had come up on the train from Utica. We happened to pick the time when they were filming a tourist piece and we got a staring bit walk on roles. OK we actually just got to sit in our seats while the video was being shot.

The videographer was on the mail boat which was keeping pace with us just outside the main channel. If you see the video look for me - I'm the one taking pictures of the camera. We were all watching him and waving when all of a sudden he just about fell out of the boat as it suddenly slowed! I think they just hit a sand bar and everyone was OK but they didn't follow us much further.

Now I love kids. Maybe that radiates off of me or something but it seems that small children are always seated behind me on buses, trains, planes and boats. The little guy behind me was cute as a button and bored to tears. I started cracking up when he was whining and his father, after several attempts to figure out what he wanted (the boy said juice three times) told him to tell his mother what he wanted because dad couldn't make out what he was saying. As much as I like kids, I do not like having my chair kicked repeatedly or being hit in the back of the head by flailing arms. When we got to the turn around point we headed downstairs where the view wasn't nearly as good and I wish we'd stayed up top.

In one of the narrows we passed a kayaker and his dog. Yes, the dog was in the kayak and if he'd had his way he would have chased our boat right out of the water. The dog was barking and lunging and the guy was holding onto the dog to keep it from jumping in after us. I was cracking up. As far as I could see the kayak stayed upright. I wonder if the same rules apply to dogs in kayaks as dogs in canoes? LOL Naturally, I had put the camera away so I missed out on a great picture.

The rest of our trip was fairly uneventful. We read a couple of books, enjoyed the wildlife and relaxed.