Watching the Ships Pass By on the St. Lawrence
/Cedar Point State Park - NY State
September 27 - 29, 2019
The last weekend in September seems to be the last trip of the season for us. Canadian Thanksgiving comes soon after and then most of the parks near us close for the season. Thanksgiving is also the beginning of reading week for our oldest, and we’d rather spend some time with him than be away camping. After that, the weather tends to become unpleasant (in our opinion) and we prefer not to be out camping!
I started prepping earlier in the week, so that we could get off at a reasonable time. We have much less evening light by the end of September and while we’re reasonably good at setting up in the dark, it’s not always ideal. Some of the things I like to prep ahead of time: make the bed, add clean towels, sweep the floor empty the water tank, plug her in. Ideally, the night before leaving, I’ll add fresh water to the water tank, turn on the fridge and add some of the food to our cupboards. This was an easy trip food-wise. We were headed to the US and we didn’t want to be held up at the border, so it’s just as easy to get most of our food once we’re in the US. We did take condiments, a few non perishable items and, of course, coffee.
coffee first… always.
Chris arrived home from work just before 1 pm, packed up a few things he wanted to take with him and began hitching up. We managed to leave by just past 2:30 pm, stopped for coffee at our favourite - Bridgehead and headed south. Friday traffic getting out of the city is never easy, even just past 3 pm, especially during the non-winter construction heavy months!
We arrived at a nearly empty border at around 4:30 pm, answered a few questions and were on our way. Actually, the border crossing officer was more interested in Daisy and our Holly, than with us, it seemed. He even came out to pet Daisy and luckily, she didn’t lose her mind and bark incessantly at him!
Bridge to the USA!
We stopped at the Walmart in Ogdensburg, hoping to get some groceries, but discovered that this one isn’t a full grocery store. There was nothing fresh, but I didn’t realize this until I’d already started. It was surprising because the store was huge!
The highway to Cedar Pointe goes by the water and is quite pretty. We had beautiful weather and blue skies all the way. We stopped in the little town of Clayton just before we got to the campground and picked up some pizza for supper from Attilio’s Pizza, which we ate on their patio by the water.
the town of clayton is such a nice little town and so pretty!
We checked in at Cedar Point State Park just as the sun was setting and managed to quickly set up as the last of the daylight disappeared. There were no campers on the sites around us, so we were able to do a bit of a “pull through” and oriented Holly with the view out her front window. The site was pretty flat and we were levelled in no time. We unhitched in the dark and needed a flashlight to finish up and put the stabilizers down. By this time, many of the sites were out enjoying campfires, so we had a bit of an audience from our neighbours on one side. They were pretty impressed with how easily and quickly we were set up! We didn’t bother to tell them that we were still pretty green at all of this:)
The next morning began pretty lazily as we stayed in bed and read a little. Because we arrived a bit late, we needed to head to the entrance to check-in so we combined it with a walk for Daisy. Of course, it began raining as soon as we left and we were quite wet by the time we arrived back to our site. The rain didn’t last very long and we were soon sitting outside, facing the water and enjoying our coffee. Breakfast was later than usual and we ate as the sun peaked out every so often. Surprisingly, Josh facetimed us mid-morning, we hooked Jillian in and had a family chat! It was fun to show them our gorgeous view.
The view from our front door
Morning coffee
Chris went out for a mid-day run (14 km) and was gone for just over an hour. Daisy gave him quite a welcome home when he returned. She is SO attached to him! He showered and we headed back to Clayton in search of an early dinner/late lunch. We checked out a few shops in town and sampled some liquor at the St. Lawrence Spirits Downtown Tasting Room and really enjoyed the whisky cream. We ended up going back to buy some, which is one of the first times in years that we’ve brought alcohol back across the border with us!
Watching for her daddy to come back from his run.
We were lucky to find a patio at the Wood Boat Brewery that was both protected from the rain and that was Daisy friendly, where we enjoyed a delicious meal and glass of beer. Although we were both full from our meals, Chris still had room for some ice cream and we headed to The Scoop to satisfy his sweet tooth.
The afternoon and early evening were mostly grey and rainy so I was bummed that we missed such a spectacular sunset the night before. We were also a bit late returning to our campsite from Clayton, but the rain stopped and all of a sudden there was this slice of orange across the horizon. The sunset kept getting bigger until we were able to see the full ball of the sun for a brief moment. It was quite stunning and many people began coming to the waterfront to see it. We were so lucky to have a front row view of such beauty after such a dull day!
Once the sun had completely disappeared, we headed into Holly to watch a movie. The temperature had dropped and it was pretty chilly outside, but perfect for sleeping! We fell asleep early but I woke up around midnight and could feel the trailer shaking more than I was comfortable with. We realized that the wind had picked up and our awning was still out - we had intended to put it down, but just plain forgot. It’s not motorized, so we had to get out of bed and put it down manually. Thank goodness we woke up, it could have been a costly mistake! On the upside, there were hardly any clouds and the stars were SO bright and beautiful!
We slept in on Sunday and puttered around having coffee, breakfast and showers at the beautiful and large comfort stations. The comfort station had single rooms that included a shower, toilet and sink and they all seemed accessible, with a bench in the shower. While the bathrooms were large, they didn’t really have any hooks to hang up clothes or a towel - just a bench on the opposite side of the room, which meant I had to get the floor wet to get my towel after I finished showering. It was quite chilly outside and my shower took some time to warm up. It didn’t get really hot, but it was decent for a campground shower!
Hitching up and getting ready to go home
We’re used to check out at provincial parks being 2 pm, but here, it was 11 am. All of a sudden we realized it was 10 am and we needed to step it up if we were going to be out on time! We cleaned up, put everything away and hitched up in enough time that we were able to chat with our neighbours as well. They were a couple with 3 adult kids (28, 26 and 24) and they looked to be around our age. It was super interesting talking to them because we heard that they owned a dairy farm for 35 years with another family, which seemed to us to be a very unusual and unique set up. They were camping with parents who had the RV, while they were tenting. Even with distractions, we were hitched and off the site at 11:01 am.
We headed to the dump station and waited while two other trailers dumped their tanks. While waiting, I noticed that owners of both of these trailers filled a pail of water and took it into the trailer, so out of curiosity, I asked one of the owners what they were doing with the water. I heard that they dump their black tank, close the valve and then add water to the toilet so that it can swish around in the tank all the way home. They add a little bit of dawn dish detergent to the water and then drain it onto their driveway when they get home. Seemed odd to me and not something that would be recommended to do. I mean, isn't it still contaminated even with the dish detergent in it??
It was early enough in the day that we stopped again in Clayton and had coffee and scones at Lyric Coffee Shop, where they were happy to allow Daisy to come inside and sit with us. We picked up sandwiches at Di Prinzio’s Kitchen for lunch on the road. All of the food was delicious! While we were in Clayton, I realized my wallet was in my jacket pocket in Holly, so I went in to get it and found that the cutlery drawer had fallen open, but hadn't landed on the floor. I guess we must have gone over something bumpy? We’ve never had that happen before…
We had a beautiful day to drive, although it was windy out. Now that we have a dog, Chris is always on the lookout for a park to stop in, so we headed to the waterfront in Ogdensburg to eat our sandwiches on a bench. It was very pretty and much less windy than Clayton had been in the morning. After a quick walk and bathroom break, we continued to the Canadian border, where we crossed quickly and easily.
The rest of the drive home was easy and we got Holly backed into the driveway and unhitched only to discover that the other back storage lock wasn’t working. Luckily, our dealer had sent us two new locks, so we’ll need to replace this one sooner than we’d hoped!
This was our last trip of the season. We thoroughly enjoyed our second year of camping with Holly!
Next up… Camping in July at Mew Lake in Algonquin Park.
Ottawa - Cedar Pointe State Park - Ottawa
Towing: 372 km
Driving: 13.2 km
We forgot to record our battery, fresh water and grey/black tank usage on this trip.
I also took tons of photos, especially in Clayton and somehow managed to lose them somehow when I was transitioning from our old computer to our new one! Darn. I hate when that happens.
