Heading Home on Wednesday......
Easy trip home. Only a three hour drive with a park walk along the way. Arrived early afternoon and just chilled until...

Friday / Saturday....
We headed down to the NJ Festival of Ballooning and stayed in a private yard. Boondock camping. Weather was iffy so we just stayed Friday night and then headed for home.  It was nice to just relax under the awning for the afternoon. 

Donna relaxing under the awning

Our Boondock Campsite near the NJ Festival of Ballooning

At Lake George... Tuesday
No Rain!  Nice mix of clouds and sunshine.
So, we decided to head back up to Ticonderoga for two reasons.  One to visit Mount Defiance which overlooks that he fort and Lake Champlain. 

Mount Defiance at Ticonderoga NY

The other was to Boldly go....
Where No Dog Has Gone Before

We went to the Star Trek "Original Series Set Tour".  Now if you read that carefully you will realize it doe NOT say Star Trek Series ORIGINAL SET Tour.  This was a re-creation of the Star Trek set.  This is why I was convinced that it was a ploy to separate tourists from their money. 
But Donna had checked TripAdvisor.  She always does and it got great reviews.  So, off we went, until we were told that Dogs were not allowed.  After some negotiation, we were allowed to take piper on the Enterprise set if she stayed in her backpack.  Yes... Piper has a backpack.  

Piper getting used to her new backpack

So off we go on the Star Trek tour.  It was a blast!  First we beamed up to the ship.

Beam me up Scotty!

Then we visited Sick Bay...


Finally we visited the bridge where we got to sit in Captain Kirk's command chair.

Gregg & Piper in Captain Kirk's chair

So, that is how Piper truly went where no Dog has gone before.  If you ever get up to Ticonderoga NY make sure you hit this tour. It took about an hour and was a blast.  

At Lake George......
We planned to stay 3 nights at Lake George exploring and seeing the sights.  I spent a lot of my youth at LG camping with my Dad on the islands.  Some of it looked familiar.... especially the no-see-ums and the rain.  We woke up to some serious rain that lasted most of Monday.  

Deciding not to let the rain bother us we hit the road to Fort Ticonderoga which is about an hour north of Lake George Village.  The fort was pretty awesome and Piper was welcome in most areas. 

Donna & Piper at the Kings Gardens - Fort Ticonderoga NY

The gardens were beautiful and we had the whole place to ourselves.  

I had a mild flashback at the fort's courtyard.  I suddenly remembered watching a demonstration of musket fire there when I was young. 

Fort Ticonderoga Courtyard

Heading back to LG the weather started to break so we went walking at town.  Returned to our campsite with some takeout salad from the Log Jam restaurant.  

Second Leg...   Corning NY to Lake George NY

We hit the road late morning after breakfast.  Susan made us an awesome zucchini egg bake and we were able to grab a shower before leaving. Tough to say goodbye to them.  Hope to see Alex again before the Christmas holiday. 

Google maps says the drive is about 4 hours.  It takes us a bit longer as we go slow in town and set the cruise at about 65 mph on the highway.  Truck gets between 12-13 mpg with the trailer in tow.  Anything over 10 mpg is a gift. :-)

We stopped about half way to pick up a nail clipper for Piper and then took a nice long walk at Neahwa State Park. 

Arrived at Lake George and the Adirondack Camping Village about 5pm and set up camp. 

First Leg... NJ to Corning NY
We arrived late Friday at Alex's apartment building. Our plan was to celebrate an early birthday and spend Saturday and part of Sunday with Alex and Susan. 
Our accommodations for the two nights we were at Corning were the parking lot of Alex's apartment complex.  This was an overflow lot that is lightly used so we had pretty much the whole thing to ourselves. 
Evenings were cool in the mid to high 60's and we set the MaxxAir fan to pull air out of the trailer and opened the windows over our bunks.  The result was a cool breeze that was like air conditioning.  We were able to adjust temp by controlling the opening of the windows and adjusting the fan speed with the remote.  Very comfy and very convenient. 

On Saturday we celebrated Alex's birthday with a cake and visited wineries and distilleries.   Great day... I bought a $50 bottle of Rye Whisky and not to be outdone... Donna bought a $100 bottle of wine. 
The ice wine was pretty awesome, but the whisky was better and I still have some left! 
Here is Alex and Susan with the cake that Oma sent up for his birthday. 

Late July New York State Trip
note that we are not blogging this trip as we go but after we have returned.

We start by picking up the Flying Sea Turtle from the RV storage a week before our departure date.  That gives us time to do any maintenance, cleaning, and stocking the trailer for the trip.
One thing that needed to be done is this years wax / gel coat finish for the fiberglass.  I used the RV ZEP floor finish trick. It took a few days but I think it is a good way to protect the gel coat finish.
Here is a pic of the ladder I got to be able to get up to the top of the trailer.  The ladder platform stands at 6 feet off the ground.

To cover the entire trailer you have to climb this thing about 20 times.  Nice workout and clean trailer all at once.  Best part about the ladder is that it is pretty safe.
Now all Donna has to do is stock and pack up the inside of the TT and we are good to go.