During our initial rough planning for this year’s circuit, Up State New York, like Maine, is one of the regions for which we allocated more than the anticipated six to seven day per state average stay.  Though we lingered in Maine longer than even we anticipated, we made up a bit of time in Vermont, so felt comfortable taking a, for us, leisurely route through The Empire State.  Excelsior!

We started with the Adirondacks, the extreme north-east region of the state adjacent to Vermont.  Via mostly back roads, we swung north around the top of Lake Camplain just a few miles from the Canadian border and crossed into NY, turning south just a few miles to our first NY stop: Twin Ells Campground.  We had picked this stop based on the strong recommendation from our temporary neighbors in Vermont, who also lean towards Passport-America participating parks.   At $15 a night for full hook ups, its pretty hard to beat!

Larger than most places we stay, and formally arranged in parallel streets, our site was plenty large and included a couple of big trees.  The campground was in excellent condition with a large pool and the usual assortment of RV resort type activities and amenities.  It has a heavy percentage of longer term and seasonal residents, with a big increase in kid population on the weekends as relatives come to stay.  For us, it was mainly a place to relax and regain connectivity after seven days largely cut off from phone and internet service in New Hampshire and Vermont.  Their multiple antennas provided solid internet connectivity for the majority of our three day stay.

This was also the first RV park we experienced that had total metered electricity, even for short termers, at 20 cents per kilowatt hour.  It was interesting to compare the cost of shore power electricity to our estimates of generator usage.  During our stay we used the air conditioners sporadically (only one of the days was particularly hot) and ended up paying $8 total for the three day stay.

Pad Kee Meow has decided she will only drink from stemmed glasses now, and completely ignores her water bowl.

We didn’t do much in the area as our discussions with the management and locals resulted only in recommendations that all cost money, and we are still cracking down.  Regardless, Twin Ells is well maintained and a great value for any short termers passing through the region.

We departed and headed south then west, bound for the opposite end of the Adirondacks Mountain region.  It was a beautiful drive, but I was glad to be done with the twisting, turning, occasionally high gradient and bumpy roads.  We had picked another PA participating park with good reviews and an interesting seeming property, Adirondack Gateway Campground.  This was more our style of place, smaller, a higher percentage of shorter term campers spread out on the sprawling property.  We had a choice of wide open or moderately treed lots, selecting the latter as we always do.  This would be our last stop before picking up niece Kalynn, so we intended to luxuriate in the peace and quite of this laid back park.

It did not disappoint.  The owners were extremely gracious, allowing us to hang out on their porch most of one afternoon to use the available wifi.  The park boasts a nice rec room, a golf driving range, tree house, hiking trails, ponds, and deep woods primitive campsites accessible by four wheel drive vehicle, which we explored.  They were setting up for their annual Christmas in July event, and also conducted a hay ride one evening, taking us through the neighboring farm, complete with working maple syrup orchard.

At $16 a night, all in, for our full hook up site, Adirondack Gateway Campground is another excellent value, just don’t confuse it with the other, similarly named park at the other end of the Adirondacks.  The owner reported that they have had several confusing episodes from this similarly named place, even having people actually show up having made reservations at the other one.

That the end of our quiet times, we have a tween niece joining us for the next few stops as we explore the Finger Lakes and Niagara regions.

Yet another game of “I can climb up but not down so come get me please.”