We’re back! Mark successfully completed his four weeks of grand jury duty, but I have no idea if it was interesting or not because he’s not allowed to tell us anything about their ‘secret’ proceedings. He was fortunate because he only had to go three days/week; there was another grand jury at the same time that had to report all five days for four weeks.

While RoVer was ‘resting’, we took care of a few things:

• We had been notified of a recall on something related to the engine, which is built by Ford. So, after calling around to several Ford dealers to find one that could work on a motorhome, we got that scheduled and completed. Just a few hours of work, so it was pretty painless!
• A good scrubbing of the underside of the awning. During our first trip back in April, the trees had dropped some flowers or leaves, which then got rolled up in the awning, leaving stains on the underside (and maybe on top, too, but we can’t see up there!). With Connor’s help and a long-handled stiff brush, there’s a huge improvement! And we know better now, so it shouldn’t happen again – Mark brushes off the awning as we’re rolling it up, to remove any tree remnants.

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• Another bath for RoVer!

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We were happy to see that RoVer has company while she’s parked at Mark’s cousin’s house – his cat seems to like hanging out underneath! (Don’t worry, we always check to make sure she’s not around before we pull out!)

We also made a few purchases….

• A cargo carrier that attaches to RoVer’s hitch. We are using it for easy transport of the bikes. We have a very long trip coming up in September, to Florida and back, and we plan to bring the bikes…much easier if we can store them outside! The carrier is the perfect size, and Mark did a fantastic job getting the bikes loaded and covered with a tarp, and then a cargo net that will make sure the tarp doesn’t fly away or blow around on the road! First real test came on Monday – 65 mph and no movement whatsoever!

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• A tire pressure monitor to make it easy to keep track of when any of the six tires need more air. We are so used to having these monitors on our cars, but RoVer didn’t come with one. Mark found one on Amazon that was pretty easy to hookup and gives him all six pressures at a glance. Not exciting, but very helpful and necessary!

• A rear-view camera to keep an eye on what’s happening behind RoVer. We already had a typical vehicle backup camera that works great when we’re in reverse, but since there is no rear-view mirror, we can’t really see anything behind us when we’re driving. And, now that the bikes are riding back there, this allows us to confirm they’re safe! Another Amazon find that definitely makes life a little easier!
• Two-way radios with weather alerts; we’ve read that these can be really useful when backing into a campsite (for easy communication between driver and spotter), and to make sure we know about any local weather that could be an issue.
• Sun shades for the windshield and side windows; silver on one side, black on the other, just like the ones you use in cars. The ones for the windshield are MASSIVE, but they fold down nice and small. They make a huge difference in keeping the heat out – we used them while RoVer was parked during July, and are using at the campground to keep the sun out so the AC doesn’t have to work as hard. They really make it dark inside! RoVer’s built-in night shade and curtains aren’t very effective with hot sun, so these are a great addition!

Very important…we named the bikes! Keep in mind, the brand is Jetson. Their names are George and Jane. If that’s not making any sense, maybe this will help…“Meet George Jetson. His boy, Elroy. Daughter Judy. Jane, his wife.”

So we’re back on the road again, VERY close to home in Wolcott, NY – about 45 minutes East of Webster and just South of Lake Ontario. We’re at Lake Bluff campground (private; not a state park!), just for a couple of days. On the way to the campground, we stopped in Sodus Point which is where Lake Ontario meets Sodus Bay. There’s a really nice beach there! We walked out the pier to the ‘outer light’ lighthouse – very hazy day (some of which is from the fires on the west coast – so bizarre how we get smoke from a distant fire!).

Had lunch in the beach parking lot and I went for a walk along the bay and through some of the lakeside neighborhoods while Mark caught a quick nap. We stopped in a small gift shop and bought some of their homemade fudge – chocolate mint – yum!

This campground is really interesting – probably 3/4 of it is long-term, seasonal campers…we went for a walk, and saw travel trailers and 5^th wheels that are basically kept here year-round – many have decks and screened rooms. One even has a tiny house with a small bridge to connect the house to the trailer. I guess it’s a great option if you want to spend summers in Upstate NY, near the water, and then go to Florida or somewhere south in the winter ‘cause you couldn’t live in a travel trailer during Upstate winters, that’s for sure! I think the season probably runs for six months, from mid-April through mid-October.

Lots of trees and privacy at our campsite, located way in the back of the park since the front section is all those long-term sites. Plus, there’s a pool, shuffleboard, horseshoes, mini golf, and more – the benefits (and amenities) of a private campground! Our site only has water and electric, no sewer…but for two days, shouldn’t be a problem!

Our campfire was extra colorful on Monday; at the gift shop in Sodus, I picked up a $2 package that you throw into a campfire to add color to the flames. I’ve seen pictures and heard about these, but it’s the first time we tried it…and boy were we impressed! The color lasted for over an hour, and it was pretty vibrant. What a fun addition to our Solo Stove!

And apparently our campfire was extra hot, too. Mark was stoking the fire and an ember landed on his sneaker…and proceeded to burn a hole in both his sneaker and his sock. Fortunately, he is fine and doesn’t have any burn on his toe/foot. Crazy how hot those embers are!

Tuesday morning, we ventured over to Chimney Bluffs State Park, just a couple miles away from the campground. We had visited this park last summer with Connor, and had walked along the beach, looking up at the bluffs. This time, we walked the bluff trail where you are looking down/out at the bluffs – such a completely different view and absolutely beautiful. The trail was practically empty, as they typically are on Tuesday mornings, and Lake Ontario was as calm and blue as could be.

From the bluffs, we drove into Wolcott and checked out Wolcott Falls, a small but pretty waterfall in the town.

We had seen in the forecast that thunderstorms were coming, and boy did they arrive – shortly before noon, a pounding rain started – fortunately, we were already back inside RoVer eating lunch. They’re likely going to continue for much of the afternoon – perfect opportunity to get this blog post done!