retiredletsgo

I loved your report. Your trip is very similar to what we were thinking of doing late Sept. The thing I am having difficulty with is the overnights. Being from CA, I have trouble remembering that sights are much closer together in the East. Could you give a bief rundown of where you stayed within New York State? If you don't feel comfortable naming specific properties, just the names of the towns would be a great help. By the way, I did read every word. Your narrative was very interesting and helped me a lot in deciding what I wanted to include in our version of your epic journey.

hikrchick

wow, what a fabulous trip report! I've always wanted to go to Hyde Park and Val-Kill and this has reignited my interest.

Mjneenan

Retiredletsgo ... I'm glad you are finding my report helpful for your own trip to upstate NY. When I do a solo road trip, such as this one was, without my wife, I tend to stay in low cost motels such as Super8, Econolodge, Days Inn, etc. - most were for about $70-80 per night. I just care about a clean place to stay and that's all - so saving money on lodging allowed me to extend this whole trip to the 46 days it turned out to be (17 days for New York).

If it helps, the towns I stayed in were as follows:
Randolph
Niagara Falls
Dansville
Watkins Glen
Ithaca
Watertown
Saranac Lake
Lake George
Plattsburgh
(and then after 8 days in Vermont and back into upstate New York) ...
Albany
Kingston
Newburgh

Wow, you actually read every word ... I doubt too many do. I tend to get pretty wordy as you can see - more to facilitate my own memory more than anything else, but also to help trip planners who crave details. Happy planning - let me know if you have any followup questions ... I'd be happy to help!

Hikrchick ... I LOVED Hyde Park and Val-Kill. Since I was there, I got to watch Ken Burns' awesome documentary on Teddy, Franklin, and Eleanor and it was even more meaningful to me after visiting the area. You should go, if you can!

Cherthor

Keep traveling and keep writing. Your reports have help me to plan my trips to a lot of places too. Thanks for sharing. Hope to read your next report soon.

Mjneenan

Thanks for the encouragement, Cherthor. Just curious - what others of my trip reports have you found to be useful? ... I am actually about six trip reports behind. I have all the photos processed ... but selecting the photos (narrowing them down to a manageable number) and then writing the captions is actually quite time consuming. With a busy school year (I teach high school biology), there's very little time to write then ... and during my vacations, I am either on a trip - or planning one! But seriously, kind words like yours - about the utility of my reports to others - helps motivate me. Time to start writing ...

migro11

Hello Mjneenan,

I read your story and saw all your pictures, and they are really great with helpful comments.
I'd like get your help if i may, i'm planning to do a similar tour in 6 days during next September.
We will be in Buffalo after visiting the Falls and our direction is the Adirondacks towards Ny.
Can you tell me which are the most nice and interesting places we should visit in our way?

thanks a lot!

Mjneenan

Migro11 ... Well, you can spend several days exploring the Finger Lakes region with its many waterfalls, wineries, history, and so on - depending on what your interests are. My personal favorite for outdoor scenery was Watkins Glen State Park ... and the Corning Glass museum was wonderful. Lots to do between Buffalo and the Adirondacks!

Cherthor

I was wondering why you suddenly stop reporting. I am glad everything is fine with you.

Recently I went to the Big Island, and your Hawaii reports helped me to choose what I wanted to see and do. Your PC reports with all the beautiful picture also contributed my trip to the west coast in December.

My first encounter of your report was the South Dakota's Badlands and Black Hills, and it opened my eyes to this beautiful land of The United States. We had such a good time visiting all those places that you had described in your report.

I am now planning my trip to Colorado, of course, I am turning to your report for help. Even I do not ask question on the forum, but I get a lot of information I need from here. All those places you had reported with pictures inspired me to search for more and ended up visited those places too.

All your reports are helpful to me as well as to others for sure, so, please keep posting your beautiful pictures with all the detail descriptions.

You have good eyes for natural beauties. I am sure a lot of people just enjoy reading your reports.

Mjneenan

Thank you, Cherthor. I am smiling thinking that I have had some small part in helping you see the incredible natural beauty of our country. I fell in love with our national parks many years ago and made it our mission - my wife's and mine - to see as many as possible ... and over the last three decades, we've done just that, one or two at a time. Once again, I am happy to know my photo trip reports have helped you plan. Happy travels!