Labor Day was our last day of work in the tasting room so we stopped into the local tavern, Tow Bar Inn for a Beer!  The Tow Bar is a locals bar and Paul spent many a day/night there when he was a ‘local’.  Some things just don’t change in a small town; we walk into the bar and Paul knows the bartender, Jack!  Jack has been a bartender in Old Forge for over 30 years!  He was the guy behind the bar across the street until it closed several years ago and now he resides behind the bar here at the Tow Bar!  In the winter there isn’t much for the locals to do and the tourists are only here on the weekends so you go to the bar during the week to socialize and complain about the weekends!!!

When we sat down at the bar Paul saw the cribbage board on the bar and asked to have it!  Jack says “it has been so long since someone asked me for the board!”  Paul was surprised because in his day, there was always at least one game of cribbage going on at the bar!   I observed several “new locals’ hanging at the bar and I think cribbage at the bar has been replaced by texting, email, facebook and the occasional smoke outside – there just isn’t time to play a game with the guy next to  you in the bar!  We played several games and had a couple of beers and were home by 9:30.  Not the OLD DAYS!

Now here is something that you don’t always see, we rode on the mail delivery boat today!  In Old Forge you can have your mail delived to your dock by the mail boat during the summer months.  This is so cool, you sit out on your dock, drinking your coffee, enjoying the lake and here comes the boat right  up to your dock and brings you your bag of mail. It was started when President Harrison had a camp on second lake. 

Lets deliver some mail

Most residents have dogs who love this Mailman!

Well most do! This one wanted us to drop her bone and be out of there!

We only delivered to about 30 camps as lots of people have already gone home for the summer.  The dogs are all so cute, they are right there on the dock waiting for thier treat.  The residents stand on their dock and they do a hand off, one empty bag back to the mailman and they get thier new mail. 

4 Seasons

This is the Resort Paul’s family owned when we first met; there was a big house that the family lived in with rented rooms upstairs and several cottages that were rented out by the week or month.  It has changed a lot since they owned it in the 70’s and 80’s but it is still a great place to go and enjoy the lake and the beauty of this area.  The camps rent for about $5,000 a month in the summer which gets you right on the lake with a dock and beach as well as the use of their canoes.

We just spent two days on a road trip with Paul’s sister, Judy and her boys, David and Ethan.  Monday we went to the Adirondack Museum about 1 hour north of Old Forge in Blue Mountain Lake.  A very beautiful Museum situated above Blue Mountain Lake.  We learned all about Adirondack history and about the history of the people; learned how a canoe is built; learned about how the very rich rode for hours by train and then boat to get to this amazing area for some fresh air.

After the museum we headed further north to Plattsburg for the night.  Paul found us this amazing deal on a room for the night; a suite for $68 plus 11% room tax for all 5 of us!  The Shamrock Motel is a traditional motel for the area with little individual cabins and motel rooms complete with kitchens.  Our room was two rooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen and 3 beds.  It was nicer than most motel 6’s and very quiet.  The most important part was it was old but very clean and the beds were comfortable.

Shamrock Motel

Tuesday morning we headed to Ausable Chasm which is a huge gorge just south of Plattsburg.  After hiking about a mile along the rim you start descending into the gorge along walkways that have been carved out of the cliff – very cool for me, Paul wasn’t impressed!  When you finally reach the bottom of the gorge, 150 feet down you board a raft and your guide takes you through the gorge to the take out about a mile down river.  The gorge is very narrow but this time of year the water is flowing pretty slowly so it was pretty relaxing.

where the river begins it's descent

Rafting through Ausable Chasm

 I took so many pictures to share from this little trip but we had some technical difficulties starting with Denise forgot the SD chip so I took a few with the camera memory and we then bought a new SDHC chip in Plattsburg so that I could record this amazing gorge which I did.  When I sat down this am to write the pictures were all there, beautiful and I started selecting the ones I wanted to share.  The computer got slow so I decided I better copy them onto the hard drive and that is where the problem really got bad!  We still are not sure what went wrong but the pictures on the SDHC got corrupted and unreadable.  I thought there was still hope; I had the pictures on the camera memory.  Noooo! they are gone too!  We think the SDHC ate them when we put it into the camera or computer!  Needless  to say I am returning the SDHC cause I don’t trust it.  Paul is worried that he might have made a mistake when he came to help me and that has really got his EGO – he is the tech genius after all!   The pictures are all gone but not in my memory as long as that lasts!!  You really should come visit this gorge, it is beautiful and the area is so amazing with cute little towns and so many places to explore.