July 6-10 - Lake George, NY

We left the Poconos around noon on Sunday the 6th, and drove casually north about 85 miles to Kingston, NY, where we parked in the lot at the Campers Barn RV dealership. We had a Monday morning appointment to have the sink faucet in the bathroom replaced. So we dry camped in the parking lot overnight to be ready when the shop opened. Sunday evening we drove into town and saw the movie "Wall-e". If you haven't seen it, do. It's great. Monday morning, we let the folks in the service department deal with all their emergencies, and then signed in. The service tech started work well before our scheduled appointment, and was done about an hour later. Very nice folks, certified techs, and it didn't cost an entire appendage. We were on our way a little after 10, no more leaking faucet.

Sometimes we surprise ourselves with the places we pick to stop. This was one of those times. We'd booked three nights at a place called "Adirondack Adventure Schroon River Resort". (Schroon is pronounced "Skroon,", we were told.)  We expected more of the mountains we'd enjoyed the previous couple of weeks. What we also found was a nice quiet RV park on the banks of a river a few miles from the bustling resort community of Lake George Village, NY. Thomas Jefferson once called Lake George "the most beautiful body of water", or something like that. It's a neat area.

This is the land of James Fenimore Cooper, the Last of the Mohicans and the French and Indian War. It's where the richest of the rich vacationed at the start of the 20th century, and where the normal folks vacationed once the concept of vacations filtered down to the hoi polloi after WW2. It's roller coasters and cruise boats and dinner theatre. It's more ice cream shops than you can possibly patronize. It's exclusive summer camps, private resorts, luxury hotels, church retreats, equestrian camps and several RV parks. There's a ton of history, and tons of opportunities for fun, natural and artificial. We weren't there nearly long enough. We basically had two days to see some highlights.

About 40 miles north is Fort Ticonderoga, originally built by the French around 1755 at the southern end of Lake Champlain, which is also the northern end of Lake George. The two lakes provided a navigable waterway connecting to Montreal, and the French wanted to ensure the British didn't use it to attack Montreal. During the French and Indian War, the fort was successfully defended by the French, ultimately captured by the British, and subsequently by the Americans during the Revolutionary War. It is said that the capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys was the first victory of the Revolution. In truth, the fort had been largely neglected by the Brits, and the Americans were able to just walk in through a hole in the wall, knock on the commander's door, and take over. Today, the fort has been largely reconstructed and is privately owned by a non-profit foundation, which keeps it open for tourists like us. We spent a day at Fort Ticonderoga. Wonderful place.

Lake George is home to the Lake George Dinner Theatre, which claims to be the smallest professional equity theater in the country. It operates out of the Holiday Inn, and is indeed smallish. We saw the two-person play "Greater Tuna", a pretty good sendup of life in a small Texas town as reflected in the reports of the local radio station. Food was pretty good, too.

Next day, we took a 2 1/2 hour sightseeing cruise of the southern half of Lake George. There are half a dozen tour boats working the lake. We picked one. Despite the threat of rain, we didn't get very wet, and had a very good time. The water view is a very good way to see some of the lake's more than 200 islands, most of them part of the Adirondacks State Park and available as camping and/or picnic sites. It's also a good way to see some of the remaining luxury cottages (we'd call them mansions) that overlook the lake. There's only one of the old luxury resort hotels left - the Sagamore - and it's spectacular. All the other big old hotels burned down over the years.

And on Thursday morning, we hooked up and headed about 100 miles north to Burlington, VT - another gem of a stop.

We've been on the road just over 15 months now. We still get asked how long we expect to keep up with this nomadic lifestyle (implied adjective = "crazy"). There's an article in the current Escapees magazine about a 105 year old guy who got tired of just sitting around his retirement home, so he bought an RV. So our answer to that question now is "Not quite that long".

There are almost 90 pictures in our slideshow for these few days in Lake George. You'll find them here.