29 August 2018 Adventure Awaits

Western New York used to be a frequent work trip for me. These years, those visits are less frequent. I was in town for work and stopped at a few of my favorite old places to walk including Chestnut Ridge and Bond Lake. I was done with work for a week and needed one more find to be able to log a town challenge cache for Niagara County. We needed a find in Ransomville which I somehow managed to miss visiting for caches on my prior visits. I headed north for a detour and some time in the community park bordering a feeder for Twelvemile Creek.

This painted rock in the playground area gave high expectations for my visit.

Somehow this wasn't the adventure I was expecting.

The caches in the park were really lightly found. It can be a little different caching here. One of my finds had a deer skull mounted on a stick over the cache.

It was weird to see the skull was probably left by the last finder. Most cachers don't mount skulls over a hide let alone mention it in the log book.

With caches found and a visit to a nearby farm market completed, I had one more errand. It was time to visit Alethea's and bring home truffles for Ali. With a cool pack and the later departure I expected them to arrive home in good condition.

My aunt had one of these. It is one of the first few cars I remember that wasn't owned by my parents or my brother. I always liked the was it looked. She worked at a GM plant in the Detroit area. Her Chevelle went away to make room for her Vega. Employee discount or not, it was an awful car. I remember her being so unhappy with that vehicle that it was the last GM she owned while she worked for them. After that she switched to Ford and dealt with the ongoing noise of not being a company person. This one would look much better without the side pipes, but it was great to see a survivor.

I drove home on the familiar Route 20. Like so much of this trip, this was an area I would visit at least twice monthly. It started raining heavily in Freedonia. By the time I reached Westfield, the rain had stopped, but all power was out. I was pleasantly surprised to see the power on and The Farmer's Daughter open for business. This is still one of my favorite ice cream stands.

The rain and probably the lost power in nearby Westfield made the ice cream stand a quiet place. I enjoyed a cone before heading off to see if the old airport beacon tower was still standing. It was.