Sunday, September 10, 2023 - Today we drove for three hours from Cooperstown, New York to Lake George, New York and Ledgeview RV Park. Some showers along the way, but not major weather issues. The roads were a bit rough in places, but half of the trip was on good smooth roads. Mostly highway on this trip.  

The Edgeview RV Park is an excellent park with easy access and good services. The WiFi does not work, but they do have cable TV. Set up was very easy and the RV is working very well.

We took a drive along the west side of Lake George to the town of Bolton Landing. We like to get a feel for what the area is like as we prepare to explore the area. This is clearly a tourist area for people from the New York City area. Just tons of small motels and rental cabins and Air BnBs. Some of the cabins are rented for the entire season. It is after Labor Day, so many people have left the area. The local population will grow again once the trees begin to change colors for the fall season. There is also a commercial mall here which is an outlets mall. We did check it out, but the prices are as high as any mall that you might visit. Prices are very high across the country, but they are even higher here due to the affects of tourism.

Monday, September 11, 2023 - Today, is Mandy's birthday. We contacted her and conveyed our birthday wishes.

I also drove into town to the local Starbuck's to use their WiFi to upload photos to the travel blog. I have a lot of photos and I am getting behind in my posting.

After posting the photos, I returned to the RV to get Lisa. We went to Subway for lunch and then went to the local outlets mall to look for some new tennis shoes for me. WE found that the prices at the "outlet mall" are too high. It used to be that you got decent prices at an outlet mall, but not now. This is a tourist area too, and that adds to the prices that these stores can charge. We aborted on shopping at the mall. We did go to a Super Cuts so that Lisa could get a trim. After Lisa's haircut, we drove over to Prospect Summit State Conservation Area. This is a six mile road that climbs the mountain and provides scenic viewpoints along the way. The person who takes the $10 entry fee said that the views were non-existent due to the low cloud cover. He was very honest with us. After talking to the toll person, we decided to not climb the hill, but to come back tomorrow if the weather was better. We then returned to the RV for dinner and relaxation.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023 - I started the day by going to Starbucks to use their WiFi to work on the travel blog. I have quite a few photos to upload, and I don'[t want to fall further behind as I take more photos. Over the last two days, I have created about ten new photo gallery entries.

After working on the blog, Lisa and I decided to check out a couple of places that she had researched for this area. First was a drive up to the summit of Prospect Mountain which provides some excellent views of the Village of Lake George and Lake George in addition. As you climb the hill to the top of Prospect Mountain, there are three places where you can stop for views before you arrive at the summit. The views were pretty nice, but tree growth has obscured many good views. The third viewpoint was completely un-viewable. We arrived at the summit and there was a parking lot just below the summit and we had to hike up to the top. They do not allow parking at the summit any more. We hiked up to the summit viewpoint and took several photos. The hike was pretty steep; I would estimate about a 20% gradient, but for only about 200 yards. The views did make the drive worth the effort.

After leaving Prospect Mountain, we drove to check out an area where Georgia Okeeffe had lived and painted many pictures over the course of about 20 years. She stayed at a home owned by a man named Alfred Stieglitz. Alfred was an older, married man who eventually married Georgia. She completed many works while together with Stieglitz. We drove by where the Stieglitz home had been, but it is all gone with no reference to its existence. She also had a studio down near the lake. We drove there to check it out, but it is no longer there. So, not much to see in relation to Georgia Okeeffe.

We then drove to a small museum based around the life of soprano opera diva Marcella Sembrich who was born in 1858 and died in 1935. Marcella was an internationally renown opera singer who sang with many of the top singers of the time like Pablo Caruso. She sang at many venues in Europe (the Royal Opera House in London) and Russia as well as at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City during what was referred to as "the golden age of opera." At one time, she owned 50 acres of land with a large, beautiful home on the property. She also started the vocal program at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Julliard School of Music in New York. We got to see a lot of her memorabilia in the museum that was also the actual building that was her studio where she taught piano and voice. It is a beautiful setting just a few feed from the water of Lake George. Be sure to see the photo gallery entry to get a better feel for the museum.

We then drove to check out the boat launch area in Lake George. We wanted to see where we would go it we chose to take a boat tour of Lake George.

Wednesday, September 13, 2023 - After breakfast, I am working to get caught up on the text of the travel blog. It is raining, so this is a good day to do interior work on the blog and planning for our trip with Bob and Charlotte Capp that is coming up.

Thursday, September 14, 2023 - Today, we depart the Lake George area for Maplewoods RV Park near North Hyde Park, Vermont. This is the place where we will meet up with Bob and Charlotte Capp for our trip to Nova Scotia.