Camping Tales and Hurricane Gales

(2024 Heartland Ep 11)

(It’s been a rather eventful month since we returned home.  We’ve endured Helene and Milton, two major hurricanes, and seepage in our downstairs, when our sump pump failed during heavy rains before the storms.  Dried out and thankful for minimal impact from the severe weather, we hope you’ll join us as we keep those affected in prayer)    

Following our second week of summer camp, we stopped in nearby Madison, Ohio to catch up on laundry and to start the drive east toward New Hampshire.  We planned to visit a close friend in Exeter, NH and to continue to Conway, NH where Ed was born and where we would visit the White Horse Villa, an old boarding house that Ed’s parents once owned.

We camped that night in a parking area behind Warren Free Methodist Church in Warren, PA. 

Baby Arch

During a grocery run to a nearby Walmart, we stopped to see the 14-foot Baby Arch erected to recognize area workers who fabricated the stainless-steel pieces used to construct the Gateway Arch in St Louis, MO.   They intricately measured, cut and ground wedge-shaped pieces to fit with other segments of the arch. The pieces were shipped via trains and semi-trucks to St Louis where the 630-foot arch contains more than 900 tons of stainless steel.

After church the next morning, we continued north to New York.

At Letchworth State Park, we hiked to three waterfalls on the Genesee River as it winds through a canyon that is up to 550 feet deep. Letchworth is renowned as the Grand Canyon of the East.  

The next afternoon we toured Mt Morris Dam, several miles downriver from the waterfalls.  The dam, 1028 feet long and 230 foot above the riverbed, does not have a reservoir.  Instead, it is the largest concrete gravity flood control structure east of the Mississippi River.  It holds excess flows of the Genesee River to prevent flooding of agricultural land and the city of Rochester, NY, 35 miles away.  

The visitor center at the dam has photos of repeated floods of Rochester before the dam was completed in 1954.   In 1972, flood waters from Hurricane Agnes nearly crested the dam as it protected Rochester from serious flooding. We found that amazing considering the height of the dam!

In the Path of Debby

Fast forward to 2024. We learned that Hurricane Debby had struck the Big Bend area of Florida and was headed up the east coast toward us.  With a forecast of heavy rain and gusty winds and a track somewhat near where we were camped, we decided to stay in the Finger Lakes area in western New York for a few days to let the storm pass. 

Hurricanes and RabbiTRAILS

Since retiring in 2018 have our travels distanced us from the threat of hurricanes?  Nope. 

Hurricane Michael struck Panama City, FL in 2018 as we returned from Alaska.  We took multiple trips to the Florida Panhandle to help with Samaritan’s Purse relief efforts.

Two years later, our travels were affected by two hurricanes – by Delta, as we camped near Roanoke, VA, and a few weeks later, by Zeta north of Atlanta, GA. 

In 2022, we were stranded with truck engine problems in North Sydney, Nova Scotia as Hurricane Fiona approached from the south. We escaped just in time to a safe campground a couple hundred miles away in New Brunswick. Then, after returning home, we again worked with Samaritan’s Purse in Ft. Meyers after it was devastated by Hurricane Ian.

If you’re from Florida, dealing with hurricanes is how it rolls.

Western New York – Gardens and Locks

Our New York travels continued with a visit to the Buffalo Botanical Gardens. The gardens, competed at the end of the 19th century, include a magnificent glass covered conservatory that houses tropical and other plant species and several small ponds of colorful koi fish.

We also visited locks on the Erie Canal in nearby Lockport. During a sunny afternoon cruise, we learned the history of the locks and 363 mile canal that goes from the Hudson River westward to Buffalo and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal, sometimes called our nation’s first superhighway, was 40 foot wide and four foot deep. Today, the enlarged canal is mainly used by recreational watercraft.

^{There are two sets of locks at Lockport – to the right is the Flight of Five, five narrow locks originally on the canal.
Those locks were replaced by two wider and taller locks in 1918.}

Taughannock Falls

^{We enjoyed a short walk to Taughannock Falls. The falls plunge 215 feet over rocky cliffs that tower nearly 400 feet above the gorge.}

Thankful for moderate rainfall and no strong winds from Debby, we continued east through Vermont and New Hampshire.

Next Week

Visits to old bridges, an old house and a friend of more than 45 years in the Granite State.