We started our day on Friday with another hike, this time around Lily Lake – about 1.5 miles and a little more challenging than Chenango Lake Trail. More inclines and LOTS of stones and tree roots to step around. The lake is, of course, full of water lilies and lily pads (likely why it’s called Lily Lake), so we enjoyed more of those! Part of the trail borders the state park’s golf course, so there was a short stretch where we were actually on the cart path (and there are signs to watch for golf balls)…then it was back to the stones and tree roots. Other than a few golfers, we saw exactly one other person during this hike – really quiet morning!

Post-hike, we needed to put some water in RoVer’s tank, so we filled up our 3-gallon jug at the nearby water spigot – but it took forever because there’s a button you have to push down to get the water to flow, and the pressure was really bad (it’s not a typical spigot because it’s a shared one and they don’t want people connecting their hoses). So we decided to plan on getting more at the water station near the dump station. Our gray and black tanks were in good shape, so we didn’t actually need to move RoVer – figured we could make it through until departure on Saturday.

After lunch, Mark did some quick troubleshooting with our water pump. When we don’t have a water connection, we use the pump to get water from the tank into the sinks/shower, and it’s been noisier than usual the past couple of days. One connection was loose and leaking, so he fixed that, and then added some cushioning under the pump because it seemed to be vibrating against its surroundings. Definitely better now. Oh, and keep in mind, the water pump is located under one of the beds…so this is an extremely awkward place to access and there’s nothing easy about getting that cushioning in there! Then, we headed into Binghamton to run a couple of errands. Somehow I didn’t restock our paper products and we ran out of paper towels. We have plenty at home, but that doesn’t help us here at the campground…so we needed to pick some up. On our way back to the campground, we detoured to a place called Candyland – we had seen signs and thought it would be a fun place to visit…although I wanted to know where Chutes & Ladders was. Talk about a trip down memory lane – all the candy & gum we ate as kids – we were like kids in a candy store. Okay, adults in a candy store… We each bought a couple of treats. How have I never heard of Zagnut before…it’s peanut butter coated with toasted coconut…yummy! Apparently it was originally made in 1930 (this one seemed pretty fresh, so it must be a newer edition).

Across the street from Candyland we spotted these cows. I guess they’re called “Oreo Cows” for obvious reasons, but I think they look like “Double Stuf”. Their real name is “belted Galloway” and they’re a Scottish breed.

We headed back to Chenango Valley and stopped at the dump/water station to fill our 3-gallon jug again. SO much faster with a real hose and water pressure!

During our time here, we’ve seen some endangered species…pay phones, randomly located in odd places throughout the park. Wonder how much longer they’ll be around for…if they even work at all anymore. We didn’t see anyone using them, but thought it was nice that they have a bench nearby in case someone wants to sit and chat on the phone. If the cord will reach…(cord? what’s a cord?!?!)

After dinner, we headed out for a long bike ride through the other campgrounds and down the main park road. As predicted, the park has filled up quite a bit – very few empty sites by Friday night. For dessert, we had some crescent roll dough left from the cherry pies and decided to try something different – we filled the dough with s’mores ingredients and cooked that in the pie maker. So yummy – unlike with regular s’mores, the chocolate was all melty and gooey. Definitely going to make those again!

Saturday morning, it was time to pack up and head home. We have a pretty good system now, and one step we’ve had to include is ‘sweeping’ off the awning as we retract it. In these parks that are full of trees, lots of stuff falls on the awning over the course of several days, and then as it rolls up, it gets sandwiched in there. We already have some stains on the underside of the awning from our first trip, before we realized this would happen. So, now our routine is that I slowly retract the awning using our control panel, while Mark uses a broom to sweep the leaves and stuff off the awning as it rolls in. You can see he was effectively using the picnic table to improve his reach!

Our drive back to Rochester was pretty easy, and we made a stop on the way. Initially, Mark was pretty happy with how comfortable the RV mattress was, but after a couple of trips, he realized it was crushing down and not bouncing back (it’s just a foam mattress, after all). There was basically a divot in the middle. So, in the interest of getting decent sleep while we’re traveling, he ordered a higher-quality twin mattress. It finally arrived, so we stopped to pick it up since we know it will fit in the RV and may not fit in either of our SUVs (quite sure it won’t fit in the MINI!). I haven’t had any issues with my mattress at this point, so we’ll wait and see before we buy a 2^nd one.

So now that we’ve concluded our June tour of three New York State parks, here are some summary thoughts….

• Overall, Mark’s favorite campground is Chenango Valley – both for campsite quality and overall park scenery/hikes/etc.
• My favorite campground is also Chenango Valley for campsite quality, but my favorite for scenery, hikes, etc. is Robert Treman – I’m a sucker for waterfalls, and really loved that area.
• We both agreed that the campround at Robert Treman is our least favorite and we would not return – it’s too overgrown, and not camper-friendly at all with the hidden electrical boxes and water spigots, plus the dump station that’s too difficult to access. The roads were in rough shape, too.
• While we loved Green Lakes and our site was beautiful, there are only a few shady, private sites there. At Chenango Valley, pretty much all of the campsites are shady and private – it would be hard to choose a bad site at Chenango Valley!
• Having full hookups at Green Lakes is hard to beat, and there are no full hookup sites at Chenango Valley, but at least they make it easy to get to water, and the dump station there appears to be very new/recently updated

After this trip, we’re going on hiatus for four weeks. Mark is on call for Grand Jury duty – something that he postponed from February (he wasn’t thrilled at the idea of serving on a jury before he was vaccinated so he took advantage of the one-time postponement option). He may not have to report at all, but since we don’t know for sure, we couldn’t make any plans. We may do some day trips if his schedule allows, but aren’t planning any overnights with RoVer. We’ll be back on the road in late July…see you then!