The RV Takes a Boat Ride – Watertown, NY

Sunset over Lake Ontario

After leaving Vermont, we headed for Watertown in upstate New York. While we used U.S. Route 3 to pass through the picturesque Adirondacks and by Lake Placid, the real treat was getting to pass over Lake Champlain on a ferry.

The Adirondacks off in the distance as we leave Vermont

I find it interesting that Alayne can take very pretty pictures of the world from only her passenger seat. You can barely see the reflection in the glass here

Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy and rainy the day we left Vermont, but we were still afforded scenic views like this

The RV takes its first boat ride (first to us, anyway)

I’m glad I had some miles under my belt before deciding to pack the RV like a sardine on a ferry

Getting to the ferry was a bit of a PITA simply because our GPS said “slight turn” instead of “left turn,” and it was a bit off in its forewarnings. Once we passed our turn the first time, it then seemed to think I could somehow make a quick U-turn and enter from the opposite direction. Wrong! So, we wound up driving about 20 miles out of our way to circle back for our third approach. Success! After laying down $50 for a fifteen minute ride, we found ourselves ushered to the front of the ferry line in short order. But unfortunately for the ferry crew and the rest of the audience, the deck crew didn’t see the car behind the bus and had to make some last-minute rearrangements on deck that slowed everyone down a bit. Upon leaving, the captain walked up and apologized for that as he comically added that he thought we might want the bus and the car to both arrive in New York at the same time. He was nice.

You will travel through all sorts of little towns as long as you stay off the interstates

This looks nice and quaint. I usually don’t get to study the area too much when I’m creeping through towns like this, so I don’t really get to enjoy the view all that much. All it takes is for some idiot to run between the cars and he’d be smashed like a bug, so I usually pay attention to the task at hand

The view as we start to work our way through the Adirondacks

You see lots of this in the northeast . . .

and lots of this

Again, how on earth does Alayne take such good pictures through an RV window?

This view of Lake Ontario awaited us at The Willows

Our week stay at The Willows in Watertown was very nice. It is definitely a five-star park located right on Lake Ontario. We had several sunset views. Their Wi-Fi was spotty at best, but we managed.

I was surprised how warm Lake Ontario felt. And it was super clear

I’m guessing this is someone’s house out in the bay. I’ll bet that gets interesting in the winter

I’m guessing these are sunflowers

I don’t know what these are

Yellow roses

I don’t know what these are

Our summer journey has been loaded with robins

I don’t imagine the robin uses this. Perhaps a wren or a finch

This barn was found near the state park just down the road from the campground

Another barn that was found nearby

The chief reason to stay in Watertown was to have easy access to Ottawa, Ontario, which I’ve written about separately. But while in Watertown, we also took the opportunity to visit Boldt Castle, which appears in another post.

The sites were very nice at The Willows, but making the overly-sharp turn at the entrance tested my abilities

Standing at the park’s boat ramp

It looked like a nice lake to sail, but I didn’t see any deep draft sailboats. So, it may not be very deep

It started getting colorful around 9 p.m.

I’m sitting on the bench on the right

I think this was actually taken on a different day because the sky isn’t the same. But it was colorful, so I included it

A framed version of the same

We really enjoyed the Watertown area. The people are very friendly, the place looks real nice, and it has all the usual amenities. The downtown square has its share of vacancies and doesn’t show as well as McKinney, but it is nice. And you can find a very good sandwich at Vito’s Gourmet.

Following a week of horsing around and working on Blue Whale Press, we left Watertown for the Buffalo area so we could meet up with Jenni, Elle and Brooke.