Plans changed. Yikes!

First of all thank you for responding to my recent plea. There have been several hits on my blog and my sense of worth has been restored.
We are still in Lake Placid and will remain here until August 28th. We had originally planned to depart Lake Placid on August 12th in order to spend two weeks in two different campsites in Vermont. But lo, after having two stents inserted into my heart three weeks ago some symptoms persisted. Making a long story short I had another cardiac catheterization Monday, August 12th. All was clear but my heart rate was slow, in the low 40s. So on Wednesday the 14th I had a pacemaker inserted and returned to the motorhome on Thursday. I'm feeling well now with minor discomfort at the point of the incision. We need to stay here for two weeks for follow up visits. If you're going to be stuck someplace, Lake Placid ain't bad.
Our hope now is to return to our original plan, bypass Vermont and go to northern New Hampshire on August 28th. Hey gang, it could have been worse. Be happy for us. We're simply looking forward to rest of our summer travels because we are having a ball.

Man a moldering and men of iron

Before I begin, let me start with an apology to the Busse's for misspelling their name in the last posting. I started out spelling their name correctly but when I saw it, Busses, I concluded that a name pronunced like 'bus ease' simply couldn't be busses as in school busses. Wrong! Sheldon and Shirley Busse have been with us for three weeks from Punta Gorda in their own RV and will soon be on their way. They are outstanding travel companions and we will miss them.

Do you remember the song, "John Brown's body is a moldering in the grave"? Well, John Brown, the abolitionist, is a moldering right here in Lake Placid. Witness.....

 

Lake Placid has hosted an Ironman competition for several years. The Ironman is a grueling test of grit and guts. It starts at 7AM with a 2.4 mile swim in a cold Mirror Lake followed by a 112 mile mountainous bike race and concluding with a full 26.2 mile running marathon. About 2,600 men and women started the competition and 2,294 finished. The winner crossed the finish line 8 hours and 38 minutes after the start. He finished the 2.4 mile swim in 25 minutes; that is about 6 miles per hour. Unbelievable! He finished the 112 mile bike course in 4 hours and 43 minutes. You do the math. That is an average of 23 1/2 mph through a cold rain. He then completed the marathon in 2 hours and 57 minutes, an average of about 8.9 mph. The second place finisher was 13 minutes behind. The first women to finish was ninth overall and completed the course in 9 hours and 31 minutes. Truly amazing. They close the course at midnight. If you cross the line at 12:01 you are not considered a finisher. The last person to finish raced for a grueling 16 hours and 34 minutes. All finishers were heroes in our book.  

Prior to the race, a dozen or so huge tents are set up on the concrete ice skating race track where Eric Heiden won 5 gold metals in 1980. Some were transition (changing) stations for the racers and others for selling a variety of sports products. The center field held racks for storing the 2600 bicycles. See the first picture. Most of these bicycles cost between $5,000 to $10,000. They are serviced and adjusted up to the last minute as shown in the second and third picture.

 

The bicycle course is 56 miles through mountainous terrain. All bikers go around the course twice to make 112 miles. The course goes right past our RV park so the Busse's and Shattucks cheered them all on shouting encouragement and ringing cow bells. The first picture is the first biker to pass by us at 8:55AM. It was stormy, rainy and cold. This particular biker finished second overall. About 4,600 passed by us and they were often closely grouped as you can see in the last two photos.

See ya!

 

Adirondack Reflections and The Busees are Coming, the Busees are Coming!

Feast on these reflections.

 

No, it's not the Russians are coming; it's the Busees are coming as in Sheldon and Shirley Busee of Punta Gorda. Shirley and Sheldon joined us a couple of weeks ago and will be here another week. We have been showing them the area and we are all having a ball. You have already heard of the Sinfonettia which we have shared with Shirley and Sheldon. The following pictures show other things we have done together beginning with a photo of the Busees.

 

This is kestrel, a raptor on display at The Wild Center in Tupper Lake

 

This is summer view from the top of the 120 meter ski jump at Lake Placid.

 

A spectacular bog along side an Adirondack trail.

 

The Adirondack Park District does not clean up the forest when trees fall. Rather they allow the trees to rot and return to the soil.

 

Notice the beaver dam or rather beaver lodge in the middle of this pond.

 

 

 

The Busees took the summer bobsled down the 1980 Olympic bobsled track.

 

They survived!

 

Then we walked the new high tech bobsled trail from top to bottom. This is where they shove off at the start

 

These are the falls at the head of the famous Ausable Chasm.

 

We took the ferry across Lake Champlain to Burlington, Vermont then returned to New York by ferry arriving at beautiful Essex, NY. This is one of favorite places for a quick bite or beverage right by the ferry landing.

 

Next edition...the Lake Placid Ironman

 

 

The Beautiful Adirondacks and a stent??

Maybe you saw my recent short story on Facebook. Last Sunday, while enjoying the Sinfonettia concert, I felt pain by my left shoulder blade. I googled left shoulder pain and learned that there are about a dozen potential causes and about half were serious. The pain went away on Monday so I figured it was nothing serious. Tuesday morning it was back and more intense. So Penny and I went to the Champlain Valley Hospital ER. I was advised that my cardiac enzymes were slightly elevated and a cardiac catheterization was advised. The consent form also authorized placing stents if conditions warrant. I woke up with a stent and I immediately felt great. No pain and no shortness of breath which was becoming a concern.  Morale of the story...listen to your body and take nothing unusual for granted.

Now to even more pleasant stuff. This area is remarkable. In this issue I'll simply show some photos to demonstrate the point.
There is a delightful, small park about 3 miles from our campground. It has a reconditioned but beautiful covered bridge. Automobiles are not allowed. We take Sadie there on hot or rainy days and play ball retrieval with her under cover. Following those pictures is one showing where we play ball in the same park on nice days. A raging river runs under the bridge. The fourth photo was taken from the bridge and shows the river just upstream.

There are zillions of spectacular rivers and streams. The first photo is a stream about 1 mile from the campground. The second is 75 miles away.

Some views of lakes. The last one is Lake Placid taken from the peak of Whiteface Mountain.

Another view from the Whiteface peak; this view looks to the east. You can get two faint looks at Lake Champlain, 30 miles away. Beyond that are mountains in Vermont.

Lake Placid, Beauty and Fun Around Every Corner

It has been quite a long time since our last entry. Sorry about that. I was unable to get my computer to import photos from my i-phone. I almost gave up on continuing the blog but last night, after doing nothing differently, the photos transferred.
Starting from the beginning in Lake Placid, we arrived here June 28th, one month after departing Punta Gorda. Here we are settled in our very private, woodsy camp site.

We will be here six weeks. Why six weeks? Because the Lake Placid Sinfonettia summer season is six weeks. The Sinfonettia is a symphony orchestra consisting of 22 remarkable musicians from around the country who summer and perform here. They perform every Sunday night in the Lake Placid Center for the Arts and every Wednesday night in a lakeside outdoor venue. They have a wine and cheese reception following each Sunday performance for the patrons and musicians. The Sinfonettia is our number one attraction in this area. The following photos were taken during a Wednesday night performance. The second shot is the view just to the left of the stage; serene and beautiful'

Then there is the Lake Placid three back to back horse shows. That is, 15 days over three weeks of the best jumpers (including Olympians) in the country. These horses and their riders are amazing.

Saturday nights are dedicated to figure skating. Hundreds of talented kids come to Lake Placid for skating summer camps and the kids show their stuff Saturday nights. During intermission America's best skaters, including Olympians put on performances. These pictures are a bit disappointing because they generally skate to fast for my i-phone camera.

Last weekend neighboring Tupper Lake had a three day Woodsman show. We took in one day that featured wood carving with chain saws. Several woodsmen competed and created these works within the 90 minute allowed time.

That's it for today. Stay tuned. The next post will feature some of the raw beauty of this area.

Madison, nothing but fun

Before we get into Madison, one more word from Asheville. There are two rivers running through Asheville. The longest is the French Broad. I asked a local how the City fathers came to that name? His response, "Well, there were many French settlers here in the early days and they named the river after Marie Antoinette. The locals couldn't quite wrap their minds around that and started to refer to the river as the one named after that French Broad. That stuck." Do you think he was pulling my leg?

Then I have another question. How come the worst highways in our country are toll roads? Where does that money go? They sure as heck don't go to road maintenance or improvements. Yuck, the fillings are coming out of my teeth!

We had a ball in Madison, primarily hanging out with Jennifer, Matt, Matthew and Ella. Jon taught Matthew how to drive a manual shift car. The whip lashes weren't too bad. (just kidding Matthew) We visited the University of Wisconsin and took the following photo at the student union so that George could see the new look.

 

Here is a neat photo of Jennifer and Penny. As they say, the grape seed doesn't fall far from the vine or something like that.

 

 

One of our favorite spots near Madison is the House on the Rock and we made our annual trek with Matthew and Ella, The next photo was taken in the amazing Infinity Room, Then there's a photo of Ella followed by Penny and the kids. A fun time.

 

 

 

 

And now we are in our comfortable Lake Placid summer home with comfortable days and cool nights. Ah yes.