But the powers that be had one final test for us - the back up and brake lights on the van didn't work on one side yesterday AM. What to do? Head in hands. Call mechanics? It's Sunday. Leave tomorrow? Can't stand it. Get out the cordless drill and take off the lens? Yup. (Some lights weren't working and some, like the signal, were lighting up the brake lens...weird.) So off came the lens and whadayano, the panel with all the light bulbs had slipped out of the lens bracket and fallen about half way down the lens. So bulbs were working, just not lining up. A little clear tape and all was solved and with the caring blessings of the local Episcopal Priest and family we were off.
We took the Grand Isle Ferry across Lake Champlain.
And for some reason we feel like taking pictures of the van in various places as well as each other...
Good by Vermont! An unusual view of Camel's Hump's rump.
We headed north from Plattsburgh to Malone. The phenomenon we have recently become aware of - the prominent display of wishing wells abounds along this route. We counted 100 before we got to Malone. Number 98 is below. This area also is big on all kinds of lawn decoration. From gazing balls, to fake animals - lots of deer - to Madonnas in various settings. The ultimate display was a white Madonna in a white wishing well. We didn't have the nerve to stop for a picture.
We went by miles of windmills, it was quite windy - highlighting the obvious fact that the van is NOT aerodynamically blessed. The huge blade of the windmills were all turning at a good clip. There must have been a couple hundred.
In Malone we stopped by the Almanzo Wilder homestead - the childhood home of the husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder - it was shut down for the season but right next to the road so we looked at it for a while. The land around this part of NY seems so depleted and it's hard to imagine it was ever fertile. Scrubby tree growth - not the lush farmland I expected to see.
We went through the Mohawk reservation. It sure looks like the government sent them as far away as they could. Remote, desolate, economically in poor shape. We saw signs like: MohawkCasino.com and Mohawk Church of Christ. And 'This is Mohawk land, not New York land.' We did see people with Native American features.
We are now in the middle of the St. Lawrence at Thousand Island Park with our dear friend Tom Mousin. He and his partner have a cottage here, just a couple hundred feet from the river. We've watched a couple of boats or ships, choose your terminology, they both seem to apply, going 'down river north'. Huge, rumbling engines. The Canadian Enterprise Upper Lakes Shipping Ltd.
The whole private island is shutting down for the winter and so last night was the last night the 'Hackers' (near the golf course - but I thought of other things first) was open. I immediately thought of their deep fryer and asked the nice waitress about the oil they'd be draining in the next couple of days. She said to call Tuesday so I will. She thought they'd have about 20 gallons. Right, some of you don't know that the van is diesel and also runs of vegetable oil. We drove about 250 miles on vegetable oil yesterday. So I'm ready to filter and fill the tank again. The luggage on the top of the van is the filtering equipment - 5 gallon buckets, a bucket heater, filter, funnel and clamp. This new oil should be fairly fresh which would be nice. The oil I had was pretty dark. Peanut oil maybe.
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