The foul weather and heavy clouds that have been hanging over Mom and me on a personal level are clearing. With a week to go before we got back to Phoenix, we had to put the squabbles behind us. Breakfast is at Bauernstube German American Restaurant. We both have waffles with blueberries and then head on down the road.
Now, I get to try finding the beauty out here on these incredible summer days again. Flowers are always good at seducing me into seeing things in a positive light.
We are traveling along the St. Lawrence Seaway today, passing farms, forests, small towns, wildflowers, orchards, horses, lakes, more of the seaway, and some truly beautiful villages, each seemingly more spectacular than the last. With the sun shining so brightly upon us, we have slowed to a pace that might impact our ability to cover the 200 miles we need to drive today.
I’m dreaming of the overwhelming need to bring Caroline out here and go kayaking among the Thousand Islands. Actually, there are more than 1,800 islands found between Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River that make up this popular recreation site. While traveling through, I’m not without trepidation about what the area is like during the height of summer, but then I remind myself that we are here in mid-summer, and it’s not all that busy.
At one pullout, we stumble upon a couple from Gilbert, Arizona, who just spent their 47th wedding anniversary at Bar Harbor, Maine. We talked for a half-hour before getting on with the road trip and wishing each other the best. A good few hours pass while we stop for photos and otherwise meander.
Lunch is in Alexandria Bay at the Top of the Bay Patio Bar with a salad and meatball sandwich sent up from Cavallarie’s Bayside Pizza below the bar. The view is from the Upper James Street Dock.
A few more miles west, we stop in Clayton at the Antique Boat Museum, where Mom has the opportunity to demonstrate her vast knowledge of boating.
My mom is shining as she indulges in remembering a youth before she was sidetracked by her indiscretion that produced children. Life on Lake Erie and the Niagara River was a large part of life, along with winter trips down to Florida where my grandparents Herbert and Hazel would take my mom for fishing and boating during the worst of the Buffalo winters. Like many youths, they can’t see the luxury of how good they have it but can only focus on what they think is being denied them by over-restrictive parents. Forty years ago, my mom’s life was perfect, though she couldn’t see it, and now, among the wooden boats, she shares how Herbert built his own boat and how, over time, he’d come to own a number of larger and larger yachts with membership at the local yacht club.
Wow, what a beautiful canoe. While I have the worst sense of balance seated in a canoe, that doesn’t mean it would stop me from wanting to paddle away from the dock with Caroline on an adventure into the waters of part of this country between New York and Canada.
Cape Vincent: we turn southward and are now on Lake Ontario. The drive is starting to wind down for the day.
Water seeping out of rock might be part of your normal, but for me, it’s magical.
In Oswego, we find the perfect lodging. We were about to pass through the town, but a stop at a gas station for ice on our way to Cayuga on the Finger Lakes changed our plans. A friendly gal in the convenience store tells us of a great place for dinner around the corner and so I asked about lodging too. She tells us about some cabins right next door to the restaurant. Still early in the day, at 4:30 p.m., we call it quits for the day.
Our room for the night is a hot and humid little cabin overlooking Lake Ontario. All windows are open, two doors are open, and two fans are straining to push around as much air as possible.
Dinner at Rudy’s Lakeside Drive-In was great. I had the Haddock sandwich, and Mom had a plate of Haddock and Scallops. Of course, fries come with every order. Rudy’s is one busy place and has been there since 1947.
We sit lakeside a while but need to leave the late setting sun to return to our cabin. Getting back relatively early lets me knock out some writing while hoping to get the chance to find sleep early tonight.
I had to visit the car so I could talk in private with Caroline and let her know that Mom and I were on the mend. I took the picture above of myself so she could see with her own eyes that my smile was real.