Allegany State Park, New York State

Wow.

Camping.

We know we've done it YEARS and YEARS ago in Washington State, a bunch of times, with a boyfriend; then a few years ago in Ontario, Canada with another, for weeks at a time...and now, now...it's like camping for the very first time.

First of all, did you know New York State has mountains? And did you know the Allegany State Park is IN the mountains...and did you know at night it gets cold, freezing cold, in the mountains? Did you you know two regular sized Mexican blankets will NOT keep two adults warm through a cold, damp, night, or two in the mountains...

Yeah, it wasn't very restful those first two nights. Luckily we were tight lipped with the bitching and complaining, as was James. Taking a trip into a nearby city, finally, the day of our final night, we got two sleeping bags to throw on our air mattress and slept way better last night.

So, the park. The park is amazing, so many lush trees, and animals, lakes and streams.

The first day we decided to go for a hike, which was supposed to be about 6 miles roundtrip. We were wrong, and at one point tried to be adventurous, going in search of a trail and headed off into the trees next to a stream. We figured the trail would pass the stream because the trail ran parallel to the bridge/road the the stream went under, where we had been standing.

Over an hour later we emerged, our legs scratched all to hell from off-trail adventure, feet damp from removing shoes and socks and crossing streams of jagged rocks, only to come out on the road FIVE MINUTES from where we had entered the forest.

We basically did a huge loop, and never did find the trail we were looking for, only a site they used for making firewood, full with a wood chipper and old picnic tables. It was pretty fun, despite "misplacing the trail", walking through streams, being an adventurer, even though we are sure James was worried, but to be fair, he knew we had very basic idea of how we were going to find the trail, but Allegenay State Park is rife with bears and other wild animals they don't have in England, not to mention it's 65,000 acres (97 square miles). It's the 3rd largest State Park in the United States.

We stayed cheery and optimistic, laughing and yelling "Yay! Problem solving!" and "Team building exercises!", as James rolled his eyes at us. It turned out to be the best part of the hike that turned out to be 11 miles, lasting 6.5 hours.

The second best of the hike was The Bear Cave-Mt Seneca Trail, 4 miles in itself, the start is uphill (depending on which entrance you take) and climbs to an elevation of 2,106 ft - but only about 600 feet from the starting point, so it's not so bad, but it is rated 'moderate' in difficulty. At the end are giant boulders jutting from the earth, you can see the layers of history in them, and they are covered in moss, forming all sorts of neat paths and caves.

Bear Cave Trail Boulders - Allegany State Park, 2012

Bear Cave Trail Boulders - Allegany State Park, 2012

Bear Caves Trail, Allegany State Park, 2012

Once we got back to the campsite, with blistered and tired feet, we decided we wouldn't be doing any more hiking while at Allegany Park, and went to a park spot nearby that had barbeque pits to make dinner of steak, mushrooms, zucchini and corn on the cob. (it had gotten to late to build a fire at our campsite)

Allegany Park itself was great, we arrived the weekend before the season opened so the general stores weren't open, which also meant it was very quiet, and free of people and cars. The initial camp spot we reserved, at Cain Hollow Campground (in the Quaker Area), was in Loop C, but the ground of the sites in both Loop C and B proved to be too hard to get tent pegs in, so after some driving around we settled on the more open field like terrain of Loop A. It was excellent, and private. Though the shower and bathroom facilities lacked..., compared to the facilities about 4 miles away, which we used the last two nights, because showering with dead bugs and birds, well...one night was enough. (bird poop all over!)

Our campsite at Cain Hollow - Quaker Area - Loop A

All in all if you like to camp, tent style, and hike/bike lots, this is the park for you (though they have plenty, loads actually, of sites for RV style, as well as many cabins); if you like nature and animals this is the place for you - we saw woodchucks, foxes, deer more than once, and lightening bugs, slugs.

For James it was the first time he'd seen a woodchuck and lightening bugs, he took pictures and video of both. We had hoped for bears, but from a distance and not near our campsite, sadly there were none to be seen, though lots of warnings. We figured in our tenting spot, far away from people, we were a nylon bagged treat for local bears.

It should also be noted that cellular service, including wireless signals, were limited in much of the park.

Our first camping experience with James is complete, of course there was some bickering, but once we got into the flow of it it was peaceful and fun. We've decided to do more camping on the trip than planned (mostly to save money), however, we will be doing more KOA-style because we want to do less outdoors and more just having a place to rest our head as we venture into nearby cities.

Today we took an impromptu trip to Niagara Falls, less than 68 miles north of Allegany State Park. It was raining so our departure got delayed a bit as we waited for it to ease up so we could pack up the tent. James enjoyed Niagara, and we were happy to have seen it from the American side, having seen it once from the Canadian side. Being behind from stopping to buy New York State apples on the 'winery trail' we only made it as far as Syracuse, New York - where we got the cheapest hotel we could find for the night. Tomorrow we head to Boston. We're looking forward to fresh seafood (not James, he dislikes seafood), and doing some exploration of the East Coast. It will be our first real trip to the coast, and our first view of the Atlantic Ocean.
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More photos of Allegany:

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For more information:
Allegany State Park: http://www.stateparks.com/allegany.html
Allegany State Park - Quaker Area: http://nysparks.com/parks/1/details.aspx
Allegany State Park - Red House Area: http://nysparks.com/parks/73/details.aspx
Allegany State Park Map: http://enchantedmountains.com/files/downloads/map/img/map-allegany-state-park-20091203.jpg
Allegany State Park Reservations on Reserve America: http://newyorkstateparks.reserveamerica.com/Camping/Allegany%20State%20Park/r/campgroundDetails.do?subTabIndex=campDetail&contractCode=NY&parkId=31

Upcoming Road Trip: Chicago

Friday (or Saturday, we haven't confirmed) we're hitting the road on our first of a series of USA Road trips!

This one will take us first to an undisclosed location to spend the weekend in the city where we graduated high school, to have dinner with our dad; then off to Chicago where we will spend 5 days checking the place out, with a finale near Detroit at our very first massive Tweetup!

When James can finally stay in the country (United States) permanently, Chicago is the city we've chosen as a number one choice of places to settle, so obviously we have to show him the place.

He's never been more than about 100 miles from the place where we stay in ...oooops...you can't know where we stay in the United States. In any case it's a dreadful place (no good restaurants, no culture, no...anything)...and we are SUPER excited to show him the America WE know. To narrow it down for you, we will be touching foot, at least, in Wisconsin, North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.

We haven't posted everything about our stay in the UK yet, there are more pictures, another restaurant review, and more general opinion. We might get some crossovers for awhile. We are already planning our next road trip, which will be about three weeks long.

While many of our travel plans have changed since the inception of the adventure last winter, previously dubbed "2012 Stabbing Tour"...we are adjusting as needed and plan to do as much as we can in the shirt period before we leave for Europe (destination unknown) August '03.

Hope you come back, or join us on Twitter (@JustCallMeFrank) and read what random things we have to say about people, places and things in Chicago.

Frinton-on-Sea

Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England, 2012

We have been spending nearly two-weeks moving from hotel to hotel, trying to budget what is left of funds. It's hard to explain without too much detail, but we are not able to return to the United States yet, at least not with James (more is written about that in various entries on our "big blog"). We're going to use some of this time to try to catch up some travel entries about places we're seen and restaurants we ate in, back when funds were a little more flush. As well as some writing about the interesting little villages we have found ourselves in.

These are pictures from a month ago (March 22), when we went to Frinton-on-Sea, in England (the county of Essex).

Frinton-on-Sea is a town situated on the North Sea, in South-East England, the county of Essex. The roots of the town grew in the early to mid-1800's when it had been fairly unpopulated consisting of very little aside from a church, some cottages and dotted with farms. It got big in the early 1900's and became a place for high society types to go to play tennis, golf and stay in upscale hotels. It's a sleepy town now, full of elderly residents and a large golf course adjacent to the coast, which has been partially blocked with a coastal defense concrete wall and giant rocks to limit erosion - some parts of England have a huge problem with erosion of the coasts...more on that later.

That day in March was a warm-ish and sunny day for March in England. In the distance, situated far off in the waters of the North Sea, the turbines of a wind farm turned lazily, generating electricity, but even on the clear day that it was you could barely make them out from the shore.

People rode bikes, flew kites, fished along the shore; couples walked hand-in-hand enjoying the rare March day. Frinton-on-Sea is not a place for high excitement, but a relaxing place along the sea not dotted by gaudy hotel chains; rather apartments overlooking the sea, uninterrupted vistas of the area surrounding it, a beach, and a long walking path along the sea shore.

More: Frinton-on-Sea Tourist Information

Some of the photos we took while in Frinton-on-Sea