Here we are in our Marriott room in Rochester. I am wondering why I have no dogs to take out for final walks, or why I don’t have a cat litter box in my bathtub. Hey, it’s all good!

Today we drove up to Rochester. We veered off the Interstate at Corning, New York (home of the Corning Glass Museum which at some other time would be a great place to visit) and headed up the western shore of Seneca Lake. The sun was pretty much absent most of the day, so the skies were a bit gloomy. We were afraid that we had missed all the fall foliage as our drive through the Catskills showed us nothing but trees mostly devoid of their leaves. Wow, were we surprised to see the colors vibrant and shining through the gloom! Glorious color!

The vines shared the hillside with the trees.

The scenery reminded us very much of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Maybe the hillsides were not as tall as there, but very similar in look with vines clinging to the side going down to the lake. Beautiful! Fittingly so, at the North end of the lake we came to the town of Geneva. A pretty town you could picture yourself living in. We passed through the Main Street area which was alive with small boutiques and shops, so unlike the abandoned downtown areas that other cities seem to have. Score one for Geneva.

Between Geneva and Rochester was mostly rolling hills and plenty of farmland. Perfect for goats! (hint, hint)

Sorry, all these photos were taken from the car. No time to really stop and take photos as we needed to get on in to Rochester.

Tomorrow Rick will be done with work by early afternoon and then our mini vacation will start. We are headed to Skaneateles and our B & B.

We’re off today on a short jaunt until the weekend. Rick has a talk to give at the Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York so I am tagging along and we’re making a mini vacation out of it by visiting the Finger Lakes. It’s partly fun, visiting wineries and seeing the sights, and partly a scouting mission for what we want to do when we grow up. In other words, to see if we like the area with an eye to retirement. I’ll be blogging along the way as I know a few of you out there enjoy going with me on my vacations!
Right now I have to go pack, get the dogs ready to take to the kennel, make sure the kitties have enough food to last until the pet sitter shows up tomorrow, and prepare for the 5 1/2 hour drive up. See you later!

Photos taken at Monksville Reservoir, about 5 miles from my house.

Well, technically this is a goat, so this is a doe rather than a ewe. Isn’t she cute? I was sorely tempted to take this one home with me.

On Saturday we drove up to Rhinebeck, New York to visit the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival. We had never been before. Somehow something else always coincided with the weekend it was happening on. Rain and cold weather were predicted, but the rain held off and only gray leaden skies showed up. The weather forecast didn’t stop anyone from coming though—it was very crowded!

The very first building we went in had a rug hooking vendor. I was hoping there would be one there. As it turned out there were lots of rug hooking stalls and those dedicated to the materials used in hooking. Why should I care, you might ask? Well, it’s all Julie’s fault over at Hookworm. Seeing her lovely project made me want to know more, so she graciously sent me links for more information. I knew immediately that this was one craft I needed to try. How creative you could be in your choice of materials! I was hooked, shall we say.

Anyway, I had told Rick about how I was going to ask for a rug hooking kit to get me started for Christmas. He was a little skeptical because he had never seen rug hooking before. When he saw the finished products he was just as impressed as I was. So, when we walked in the first building and the very first stall was Hooked on Ewe with gorgeous starter kits, how could I not buy one? Here is what the kit I bought will look like on completion:

Should be fun! So, Julie, it’s your fault if I become a hooker!

Here are some more photos involving rug hooking, from the materials to the finished rugs.

I have never seen so much yarn in my life! Yarn, yarn, yarn everywhere! And people decked out in their knitted finery! Rick and I were appropriately dressed as he wore a scarf I knitted for him last year and I was wearing my Lovely Leaf Lace scarf (newly seamed together). Ours were not quite as grand as some of the creations, but we fit right in. Frankly, I thought Rick might be bored with barn after barn of yarn goods, but he wasn’t. There were lots of beautiful crafts and wares to look at as well. I was hoping to take more photos of all the gorgeous hues of yarn but it was just too crowded in most places.

How about joining in a big knit-in? I don’t know for sure what they had planned for this project ...

We also went to meet some goats. Rick and I have this romantic notion (well, me more than Rick I think) to keep a few goats once we “retire.” I have never been around goats before but I’ve had people tell me that they are more intelligent than sheep. Obviously the goats at the Festival are not the kind that you could milk, but they are goats just the same! I talked to both the goats and the sheep. I didn’t get much out of the sheep but a few of the goats connected with me. Here are some of them.

The sheep didn’t want to be left out, so they agreed to pose for me too.

We had to laugh at the people grooming their show entries. They reminded us so much of the dog show world. This was one handsome guy.

hey, I’m trying to chew here!

Love these locks!

A big highlight of the day for me was finally meeting fellow blogger Jane of Not Plain Jane in person! We had arranged to meet before we went so all we had to do was get in touch by cell phone and designate a place to meet. It was wonderful to meet the person behind the blog and give her a hug! Jane, you are just as wonderful as I knew you would be.

I can’t believe I didn’t buy any yarn! I didn’t go with any project in mind which I think was a mistake. It was so totally overwhelming that it all started to look alike after a while. I think next year I will have a specific pattern in mind instead of thinking to myself when I saw a yarn I liked “I could do this or that with this yarn ...”

pssst, let me tell you a little secret. try not to look so darned cute and maybe those people will leave us alone! if only our fur wasn’t so soft ...

okay, never mind, that plan totally failed.

Coming home we drove through my old hometown of Hyde Park. Very nostalgic.

We had a great time and we’ll definitely be going back again next year!

I never got around to blogging about what was in bloom at the cabin. It’s not the time of year for prolific wildflowers, but there were some still putting on a show.

There were quite a few Gallardias.

Somehow these large white daisies have seeded themselves in front of the cabin and a few other locations. I don’t know if they came from the grass and wildflower seed mix we spread so many years ago or what. I don’t think they indigenous. They are pretty though!

The asters were still blooming too.

A few harebells were still hanging in there.

A lone lupine with Bull Mountain as a backdrop.

Rose hips and some kind of berry.

A bull thistle along the road.

Sometimes the prettiest things are the ones no longer blooming but gone to seed.

A few flowers just naturally dry themselves which I find particularly interesting.

Pine drops.

Here is a little dried flower garden.

And here is the bouquet I picked of all the flowers growing around the cabin.

Since we left I’ve been told that they’ve had the first snow of several inches up there. You could feel the change in the air right before we left.  Sleep well little flowers!

So, did you recognize those lyrics? If not, you were not “of age” in the 70’s. Guess.

Anyway, here I am so very close to the Indiana/Ohio border I can almost brag that we’ve put the “I” states behind us. Tomorrow will still be a long, hard drive but we hope to be home by at least 7:00 p.m. Driving on a Sunday should hopefully help some. But then again, maybe not.

Some snaps from the road over the past two days. Sorry, last night I was too tired to do much of anything. (Note: Apologies in advance for the quality of the following photos. All were shot either out of the windshield or my side window, both of which I’m afraid were spattered with bugs.)

Pine Bluffs, Wyoming and we have history. It’s a vortex of bad karma, it really is. On the first occasion we ran out of gas in the middle of the night while coming home from a dog show (which one I do not have a memory of). Here is the hill (taken from the opposite side of the road) just a few miles on the East side of Pine Bluffs where I sat with at least two dogs and waited while Rick hitched a ride into Pine Bluffs to get gas with some trucker. It was dark and I was scared you-know-what-less. He eventually returned—with gas enough for us to make it into Pine Bluffs.

Let’s call this unfortunate incident #1.

Unfortunate incident #2 happened a few years later, only this time headed East (again to another dog show—Lincoln NE) with our nearly new 21-foot travel trailer and our equally brand new (of 2 weeks) Chevy Tahoe. We lost control of the travel trailer while passing a semi truck in the wind and ended up jack-knifing the travel trailer and pretty much totaling our Tahoe. This stretch of guard rail should have a memorial in our name since it is the only thing that stopped us from going over this elevated section of highway. The grand state of Wyoming also charged us for the guard rail we mutilated. I think we should have a plaque bearing our name along this very stretch.

Is it no wonder that I make the sign of the cross as we go by this god forsaken town even though I am not longer a practicing Catholic?

Our next point of interest after making it safely past Pine Bluffs (at least this time we were spared) was the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney, NE. We have never stopped at this even after passing it by many many times.

We spent the night in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just barely over the Nebraska/Iowa border.

Here it the sunrise over Iowa countryside this morning.

More wind turbines. Sorry, I just can’t help myself. They are so darned poetic.

The old Miss (again).

Somewhere in Illinois. Not really sure just whose mailbox this is. The residence of Mr. & Mrs. Corn?

And last but not least, a yummy lunch just West of Chicago at Culver’s. Those of you who have never experienced a Culver’s hamburger have something to look forward to. Unfortunately for us, it’s a Wisconsin based chain that doesn’t exist outside the Midwest corridor, or at least as far as we can tell.

And that’s it for tonight folks. This road weary person is going to get horizontal for change. Catch you back on the flip side in New Jersey. Thank you all for taking this journey with me.

Good night.