5 Jun 2024 - Visit from Air Force Buddy Matt Steffan

 

We did not do any touring today but got a few things done around the camper, made a few phone calls and relaxed a bit.  We ventured into Wilson NY just a few miles from here, mailed some cards and stopped at the grocery store for a few supplies.  

My Air Force buddy Matt Steffan came out to visit this evening after he got off work at Cabelas.  His lifelong passion is fishing and he works there part time to help fund his fishing trips!  Matt has not changed a bit since I first met him in July 1973 at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi MS!  He clarified that he was originally in Avionics but then cross-trained into Crew Chief, and was then assigned to England and Idaho before separating and returning to his hometown of Buffalo NY.  We stopped and saw him in 1977 when I was headed back to Iowa after separating from my active duty tour.  Then in 2016 we saw him and his late wife Lea who passed away two years ago today of complications from ocular cancer.   

We grilled some burgers and brats with all the fixin's and enjoyed some great conversation about our families.  There was also quite a bit of reminiscing about our times at Keesler back in 1973.  We are so thankful that we were able to stay in touch all these years and then able to reconnect today here at the campground!  It's what it is all about!

Even though we have visited Niagra Falls before we plan to revisit the American side tomorrow morning, taking Liberty along.  That will remove the time restraints for us.  Later tomorrow we plan to connect up with Tom Taylor, an Alliance owner from Washington State who is camping here in the Niagra Falls area.  

Tomorrow we will give my sista Karen a shout on the occasion of her birthday, and we will remember all those brave warriors who hit the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, JUne 6 1944.  4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself, including 2,501 Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded.

4 Jun 2024 - Eternal Flame Falls, Generac Preventive Maintenance, Hy-Vee Steaks on the Grill

 

This morning we drove south of Buffalo NY, about an hour from our campground to Chestnut Ridge Park and the trailhead for the Eternal Flame trail.  In the middle of the woods here is a  35-foot waterfall that contains a small, flickering flame in a grotto beneath it. As the story goes, the falls are one of nine natural eternal flames in the world, and are believed to have formed over 350 million years ago during the Devonian Period. 

We arrived at the huge parking lot and made our way to the trail head.  The 1.2 mile main trail to the falls in Orchard Park, NY was well marked.  It reopened in August 2023 after major work, including the addition of box steps and railing which really helped during the significant ascent/descent. 

Once you reach the stream there are some pathways on the sides but we found some of the easiest walking was right up the middle of the stream because the waterflow is just a trickle right now.  

Along the way we found a few other water falls, which were beautiful. 

Soon we reached the gorge and the Eternal Flame Falls.  A photographer had set up a tripod for a photo shoot and a young lady was there with her dogs.  It is indeed beautiful and quite marvelous!  

The fuel for the flame is a natural gas leak from a macro seep, where gas escapes through cracks in the rock.  I assumed it was methane as the stream is primarily shale rock.   In 2013, geologists from Indiana University Bloomington and Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology studied the falls and estimated that the seep emits about one kilogram (2.2 lb) of methane per day which rises to the surface through opened faults in the land during tectonic activity and emits a rotten-egg smell. Some scientists believe the flame burns because of gas pockets that rise from the extremely hot shale bedrock, which is about 400 million years old. Others believe Native Americans may have lit the flame thousands of years ago.

So we had a nice hike primarily in the shade of huge pine trees.  I logged 7272 steps today @ 3 miles. The ascent/descent made it seem like more!

While we were there, annual preventive maintenance was being performed on my General whole home generator system. 

 Back at the campground I worked on a few maintenance items including washing all the bugs off my front cap from the trip up here.  That is never ending!  We also grilled some of our Christmas meat, a steak from Hy-Vee.  Our kids buy us a meat package each Christmas and it is greatly appreciated!

Tomorrow we may see another firefighter Ally, Tom Taylor, who is camping in the area.  Later our friend Matt Steffan will drive up and we will grill some burgers and get caught up on fishing stories!!

3 Jun 2024 - Arrived at Daisy Barn Campground near Wilson NY (North of Buffalo NY on Lake Ontario) + Stats

 

Stop #18 today!  I can't believe how quickly this trip is clicking by.  Today we pulled chocks at Camp Perry promptly at 0659 hrs.  We drove 321 miles around the southern side of Lake Erie and through Buffalo NY to  a small campground on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, called Daisy Barn Campground. 

We pulled in at 1344 hrs, 6 hrs 45 minutes after we departed.  That is a long travel day for us.  We normally shoot for 250 miles max.  Gotta blame the planner (me) for this one!  It was not a bad drive, though. 

Mostly all interstate or four lane roads.  We are here throughout the week, departing on Saturday 8 June.

Daisy Barn has many full hookup sites, many pull-through including ours.  It appears a good portion of the campers here are season, meaning they leave their RV here all summer, but there are plenty of sites for transients like us.  

Beautiful new pool with 80F degree water!

Daisy Barn is located right on Lake Ontario.  This afternoon we walked down to the shore after we got all set up.  

They have a gazebo for guests to use and benches for relaxing and enjoying the view

The shore is rocky and no swimming is allowed

There is a nice fire pit near the shore for evening campfires

Tonight we walked back down towards the shore and enjoyed a beautiful sunset and the lights of Toronto in the distance.

Doreen compiled a long list of "to-do's" while we are here, but we have visited this area before, in 2016.  We've seen most of the lighthouses, Niagra Falls, etc etc.  The one big one on our list is reconnecting with a great friend and military comrade Matthew P. Steffan, aka Captain Zap.  Matt lives in northern Buffalo, just a half hour from the campground.

I was at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi MS  July-December 1973 attending technical training school for electronics fundamentals and radio repair.  Matt was there also and we were both assigned the same barracks bay.  His room was right across from mine.  On Friday nights there was usually a poker game in his room with adult beverages and cigars, all allowed in the barracks back then.  On occasion he would dress up as a "super hero" called "Captain Zap" and race through the halls of the barracks. 

After tech school I was assigned to Loring Air Force Base in northern Maine, where we are headed on this trip.  Most of you know the history.  I showed up there in January 1974, came home on leave in March and married my high school sweetheart Doreen.  I contacted Matt and sure enough he flew into Cedar Falls and attended our wedding!!

Matt on the far left on the picture, in uniform, on Doreen's front porch after the wedding

After the wedding Doreen and I returned to Loring to continue my Air Force career, start our married life and family.  Matt ended up stationed in England I believe.  Over the years we have stayed in touch and he will join us for dinner here in the campground on Wednesday evening!

Stats:  This is campground #18 of 42 

# States Traveled Through So Far This Trip, in order: 12 (IA, MO, KS, OK, TX, AR, MO, IL, IN, OH, PA, NY)  

# States left to visit on this trip: 20 (VT, NH, ME, MA, CT, NY, PA, MD, WV, VA, NC, TN, AL, MS, LA, TX, OK, AR, MO, IA)

Baseball Parks Visited So Far This Trip:  2 (Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, Oklahoma City OK; Texas A&M Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park)

Lighthouses visited:  0 

Lighthouses climbed:  0

Point to point travel miles:  3857 miles 

  - Avg point to point travel miles between campgrounds:  193 miles

Vicinity miles:  1342 miles 

  - Avg vicinity miles:  75 miles

Total miles driven:  5199 miles 

Total point to point driving time:  79 hrs 38 minutes

Total diesel fuel purchased: 538.318 gals 

Total diesel fuel cost:  $1964.15 

Average diesel fuel cost/gal:  $3.663

Max diesel fuel cost:  $4.499 (Wilson NY) 

Min diesel fuel cost:  $3.179 (Corpus Christi NAS TX) 

Avg MPG:  11,01 miles/gal

Cost/mi of operation:  $0.35

# Nights at end of this stay:  85 (Includes Griff's start)

Total lodging cost:  $3228.01  (includes Griff's start)

Average cost/night:  $37.98

2 Jun 2024 - Reunion with AF/Maine Buddy and Lunch with Doreen's Cousin

 

Lunch with Deni and Jeanie Powers, Doreen's cousin.

Had a visit from an ol' Air Force buddy this morning that I served with in Maine - Ernie Reid.  Long drive for him today from the Columbus OH area and we are really glad he made the journey.  We are also thankful he made the journey back to Iowa in 2015 to attend my military retirement.  

We talked about what our families have been up to and we talked a lot about the times we shared in Aroostook County Maine in the Air Force back in the 70's.  Ernie and I share a lot of common interests including old cars, electronics and old military firearms. We both agreed that neither of us has changed a bit in the last 50 years LOL!

Ernie & me

Not long after Ernie left we hopped in the big ol' brown truck and headed up to Toledo to rendezvous with Doreen's cousin Jeanie Powers and her husband Deni at a local restaurant for lunch.  They were curious about our trip and provided some great suggestions on things to see along the way that we had not considered yet.  We talked about the status of our kids and grandkids too.  The lunch was great and it is always great to see Jeanie and Deni.  

On the way back to the campground we stopped at Tractor Supply and filled one of our two 30lb propane cylinders and then on down the road we filled the truck with diesel before our journey tomorrow.

Back at the campground Doreen finished the laundry while I flushed tanks, stowed hoses and prepared our coach for the journey tomorrow.  Our wonderful Alliance friend, Norma Myer, stopped over and we had some great conversation. Norma and Doreen took Liberty for a walk and turned in our keys that we no longer needed.   Norma works full time remotely for Pabst Blue Ribbon and facilitated the donated beverages for the 2024 Alliance Rally we just finished.  Did I mention that Lone Star beer is owned by Pabst??  I think I may have mentioned this before but Norma hooked me up with some serious Lone Star and PBR swag for helping her and Randy install their new Nautilus shower door! She is a rock star for sure!!   

Tomorrow we pull chocks and boogie up I-90 to a campground north of Buffalo and right on Lake Ontario!  In Buffalo we will also see a great friend and Air Force buddy Matthew "Captain Zap" Steffan!

Next report from the shores of Lake Ontario!!

 

29 May-1 Jun 2024 Alliance Rally Summary and Arrived at Camp Perry Port Clinton OH

 The 2024 Alliance Rally is in the books and it was epic!  I've been trying to figure out how best to summarize what happened over the past couple weeks at the pre-rally and the rally.  We had about 325 RV's there, mostly Alliance, and the owners and their families as well.  The Ally's raised $19,014.19 for the Boys and Girls Club, plus another $780 for the Humane Society.  We reconnected with great Alliance friends and employees, and made new friends from all over the USA and Canada!  The Alliance technicians worked so hard to fix items identified in advance by the owners, and that does not happen without Brenda Rock-Arms & the parts team, and so many others!  We are so very thankful for this opportunity, all made possible because Ryan and Coley Brady, Bill Martin, Curtis Carlson and the Alliance owners and leadership team who had a vision.  

So this morning at 0748 hrs we broke camp at the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds Campground and said goodbye to some great friends that are more like family - FamAlly!  We hopped up on the Indiana tollway and headed eastbound towards Port Clinton OH south of Toledo.  The Indiana portion of I-90 is atrocious - one of the worst portions of interstate highway we have drive on recently,  Even Doreen made comparisons to I-10 in Louisiana. 

 

Once we crossed the state line the difference was night and day.  I don't know what Indiana is spending their money on but it surely isn't their interstate highways. 

 

At 1130 hrs we rolled into Camp Perry National Guard Joint Training Center after driving a short 177 miles today. So why Camp Perry?  Well, it is a military campground which we will usually prefer over the more expensive commercial campgrounds.  It is also home of CMP-North Store.  CMP is the Civilian Marksmanship Program, which is a national organization dedicated to training and educating U.S. citizens in responsible uses of firearms and air guns through gun safety training, marksmanship training, and competitions. They also sell old military firearms that have been refurbished and accessories to qualifying citizens. I own several old military firearms and am interested in the history of these weapons as they played a huge role in our various conflicts such as WWI, WWII, Korea, etc.   

Racks of primarily M1 Garand and M1917 Enfield rifles

Refurbished air rifles for sale that had been used for competitions

Some ammunition and accessories I bought today

  While I shopped in the store, Doreen and Liberty walked around the area and enjoyed the great weather.  We then made our way to the conference center where we were assigned our camping site and paid the fee.  

Our huge back yard

Huge side yards, too!

The sites are paved, full hookup and widely spaced with beautiful yards.  The campground is not full but they are fairly busy.  Camp Perry hosts national marksmanship competitions and when those are happening the campground is reserved for those competing.  

Tomorrow our great friend and military comrade Ernie Reid  is driving up from Granville OH to see us.  Ernie and I served together in the active duty Air Force in northern Maine back in the 70's.  It will be great to see him!

Ernie (white shirt to my far right) at my military retirement ceremony

Then tomorrow afternoon Doreen and I are driving to Toledo and having a late lunch with Deni and Jeanie Powers,  Jeanie and Doreen are cousins.  Looking forward to seeing them again. 

We are only here for one more night after tonight and then Monday we make tracks to a campground on Lake Ontario north of Buffalo NY