The weather on Tuesday afternoon turned out a bit better than expected, so we headed into Ithaca to find a couple other waterfalls. First, we went to aptly-named Ithaca Falls. Unbelievably beautiful…massive falls, both tall and wide, and LOTS of water – surprising given that we’ve had a relatively dry spring so far. And, some blue skies for a change, along with big white puffy clouds. Breathtaking and picture-perfect!

From there, we drove to the Cornell University campus to find Triphammer Falls – how unusual to find a waterfall on a college campus, but that’s how they roll here in Ithaca. We could only see a portion of the falls, and may head back to see if we can find any other viewing locations. We didn’t spend much time on the campus, as we had toured here with Connor when he was in High School and trying to figure out where to apply for college (Cornell was beautiful but didn’t make his list!)

When dinnertime approached, we struggled to find a local restaurant that was actually open on a Tuesday. Not sure if it’s a COVID outcome, or if it’s always like this in Ithaca during the summer when students are mostly gone, but most local restaurants are only open Wed-Sun. So we ended up at a chain restaurant for our anniversary dinner, but then found a wonderful local place for ice cream. Orange vanilla swirl – just like a Creamsicle! Yum!

The rain came once we got back to the campground, and it POURED. Glad we were not out on a trail or at a waterfall when it started! You can definitely hear heavy rain pounding on the top of RoVer!

Before the rain came, I took a few photos of the campground – it’s really beautiful here, lots of mature trees/shade, and very private. The tiered setup means we don’t have anyone directly behind us, and the sites to either side are relatively far away and with lots of greenery in between. Very different from some of the private campgrounds we’ve stayed at, where there’s little shade and sites are practically on top of each other. Pros and cons to each, for sure!

Wednesday morning I went for an early walk along the main park road and, while I’m used to seeing lots of wildlife in state parks, this was a new one – three hens and a rooster in and along the road. While I didn’t actually see any of them cross the road, they appeared to be contemplating when/why they might do that… And the rooster let out a beautiful cock-a-doodle-doo. Loved it! Fun start to the day!

We got the e-bikes out of the MINI and reattached the pedals that Mark had removed for transporting. One of the bikes seemed a little off to me…

Got that ‘straightened’ out and went for our first real ride. Took all of about two minutes to get used to the bikes, and we LOVE them! We chose a model that lets you pedal manually or engage the electric motor. What we didn’t realize is that, if the bike is powered on and you’re pedaling manually, it helps you…so pedaling is even easier (the pedal assist feature). They’re pretty comfortable to ride and handled the hills and bumpy sections very well. The speed bumps in the park were a little awkward, but we got used to them! Definitely a great purchase – they were our 25^th anniversary gifts to ourselves.

After lunch, we went chasing more waterfalls. This time, we headed to Cascadilla Gorge. The stone trails and stairs took us past a few different waterfalls and just an overall amazing walk.

We thought this seating placement was a bit odd…

They say “Ithaca is Gorges” and it’s absolutely true!

RoVer has a control panel that allows us to monitor the tank levels for fresh water, gray (sink/shower), and black (toilet).

We’ve been keeping an eye on it to see when we’ll need to move RoVer to fill or empty tanks. As of midday yesterday, the fresh water tank was getting low, but the others were fine. And, we had finally located the closest shared water source – but it’s not all that close, and our hoses will not reach. So, we weren’t thrilled at the idea of moving the RV just to fill the water tank. Mark got creative and we stopped to buy a 3-gallon water jug at WalMart, hopeful that a few trips back and forth to fill that and then pour into the tank would keep us going until Friday. Granted, 3 gallons at a time in a 40+ gallon tank isn’t going to fill it up…but we filled it three times and got the tank up to a point that we don’t think we’ll run out. And we’ll put a few more gallons in on Thursday as needed. They had a 5-gallon jug, but Mark knows that a gallon of water weighs over eight pounds. So 24 pounds vs. 40 pounds…we’ll make a few extra trips and stay with the 24-pound lift.

After dinner, we broke out our other new purchase, the Solo Stove firepit. One of our challenges on past trips has been for Mark to chop wood down to kindling to make it easier to get the fire going – the wood we’ve purchased has been so hard that it’s been difficult to chop small enough. At our local grocery store in Webster (Hegedorn’s), we happened to find a box of kindling wood – pre-chopped and ready to build a fire! And, because we weren’t leaving the state, we could purchase and bring with us (you generally can’t carry firewood across state lines because you could be introducing non-native, invasive species. The things you learn….). A little bit of kindling and some newspaper in the Solo Stove, and then a couple full-size logs, and the fire was going in no time at all. And the stove really delivers on its promise to have minimal smoke. We didn’t have to play musical chairs moving around the fire to try and avoid the smoke as the wind changed. In fact, we didn’t have to move at all…what a delight. Campfires just got 100% better!

And, another new purchase to try out…a cast-iron pie/sandwich maker. Mark remembers using these when he camped as a kid, so we figured it would be fun to try. You can use it for all sorts of sweet and savory treats, but we opted for sweet – mini cherry pies, using biscuit dough and canned pie filling. The first one was totally burned, since the Solo Stove gets way hotter than we realized. The 2^nd one wasn’t burned, but the dough wasn’t cooked enough. Third times a charm…we used half the dough and really thinned it out, and finally, a hot and yummy cherry pie. Replicated that with #4 and dessert was delicious!

 So Wednesday was quite the success with our new purchases…e-bikes, Solo Stove, pie maker, and water jug.