Day 3 -- Catskills Road Trip -- Ohio to New York

To continue from last night. . .  I went to the neighbors to ask where the toilet was and the told me and then invited me to sit by their fire and have a glass of wine. The two guys were cousins and the women were their wives. The one couple were newlyweds. I can’t remember their names. The man’s wife had died of cancer and they had been married 30 years. The woman divorced her husband after they were married 30 years. They met on Match.com. The lived in Buffalo NY and she was a nurse. Can’t remember what he did. His family had been camping at this place since he was a kid – in the exact same spot!!! There was a long story about stealing electricity and the junior ranger guy who carried a gun and the senior ranger who gave the two people junior ranger badges. Lovely people; not hillbillies but maybe sort of rednecks but I need to not be so judgemental.

Woke up but it wasn’t early because I was in Eastern Time Zone. But I woke up, packed up, and was out of the campground by 8:30. I went looking for electricity to make my tea. They sure weren’t giving away the electricity. Took awhile to find. In the meantime I found the glacial grooves (and it was an earthcache) and finally found electricity in a picnic pavilion but the outlets were above my head and I had to hold the tea kettle while it boiled.

After I made my tea I went to look at the beach and Lake Erie. This lake is the 11^th largest in the world and 4^th largest of the Great Lakes. It’s also the shallowest of the lakes. Most it’s water comes from the Detroit River and the upper great lakes and 5% from rainfall. Not an impressive lake to me. It was a bit murky today and I could see across it. Obviously I have a huge soft spot/love for the grandeur and power of Lake Superior.

Next I drove along that spit of land through the town of Marblehead and to the Marblehead lighthouse. Along the way I stopped at a Bakery. I had been hoping for a bakery. I even turned around for this one. I went in, saw old people sitting at tables and when I turned to see the counter person, she was licking her fingers (eek! Warning Warning!). She was also maybe 85, stooped over, and wearing a wig. I also noticed a sign out of the corner of my eye – For Sale, Last Day December 31, 2018. So I bought two donuts and watched what she did (she used a wrapper) and I thanked her and went out and eventually threw them away. Cancer survivor? Too skinny to be a baker but maybe that was the cancer? I did eat one bite (looked for where her fingers didn’t touch the donut) and it was mediocre.

Marblehead was pretty. The buildings were made of cut limestone. Still driving and admiring I drove past a Ukranian Orthodox Russian or something church with a bake sale and Keilbasa and Kraut sign. Turned around and got my breakfast. They put it in a but and that disintegrated but it was good. I should have asked if I could have a peek in the limestone church with the onion domes and stained glass. Next stop was the Marblehead Lighthouse and then back on the road to head to somewhere. I pointed my GPS to Stony Creek State Park in New York and thought I could it make it that far.

I detoured outside of Cleveland to Mentor Ohio to the National Historic Site of President Garfield, the 20^th President of the US, Republican, assassinated by a crazy person a few months after taking office. I remember reading this story in some book, what the heck was it??? Was it a book club book? About how he was shot, fell on the dirty floor, had a doctor who never washed his hands and kept poking his fingers in Garfield’s wounds and even Alexander Graham Bell tried building a metal detector to find the bullet that was still lodged inside.

So the house was lovely and didn’t really need to be restored too much because the Garfield family lived in it until they donated it to Case Western in the 1930’s and then they donated it to the National Park Service in the 90s. Some of the wallpaper and ceiling paper was reproduced and some other things needed repair but 80% of what is in the house is original to the house as it was when the Garfields lived there.

Next, kept driving. And geocaching. Now I had to change my destination to Allegheny State Park so I could get there in time to set up a tent. I went to the wrong park entrance and came to the right one and got my spot, need to pay tomorrow. And I got a shower!!!! Oh that felt good. I’m kind of itchy from mystery bug bites. Maybe mosquitos. I think that when you get out of the area of your regular mosquitos you react differently. The mosquitos at home don’t really bother me but right now I am welted up and itchy like crazy. So happy I brought my benedryl gel but it might not last.

I forgot a bath towel and had to spend too long in a store in Erie PA to get a towel. JC Penny. Find the towel section--takes forever. Grab a towel--don't look at the price. Find a person to take my money. Finally see price on towel--$26. I don't care, I want to get out of there. It's on sale and rings up at $9.99. Then the lady asks me if I want to open a credit card and save 45%. I say no. She says are you sure? I want to say, well this is what is wrong with retail, that you have something marked for $26 and you want to sell it for $5??? WTFIWWY??? I bought it and did not get the stupid credit card. Just what I don't need.

While the interstate is generic and boring it at least skips the mall hell of suburban cities. When I’d get off in some small town to look at something I was happy to see the old main streets and houses built of local materials and to see what it was that made the towns still exist (limestone mining, aluminum factories, iron factories, software companies). I’m not really enjoying the drive. It’s too crowded out here. People drive fine and not crazy but there are so many of them.

My campsite is fine. $37. I’m showered and clean and might go to bed soon (It’s 9:10 pm). There are a bunch of young college boys in the site two over from me and I hope they won’t be beer drinking annoying all night. UPDATE: The stupid college boys talked all night and one I think insecure guy laughed at EVERY f'ing thing and sounded like Woody Woodpecker I kid you noT. 

Tomorrow – I meet my fishing companions for the week. Will they be as mansplain-y and ego-y and boring old white rich guys as I expect or will they be fine and the real part of me expects they will be? Wait and see!