Eastward Bound

I left you on Lake Ontario on our eastward trek.  We left the next morning on our leg to Indian Lake, NY in some unsettled weather which made an interesting view over the lake.

But as we proceeded the weather started improving.

We stopped for lunch along the way and stumbled over a very interesting spot of history, we couldn't figure out what we were looking at as we entered the rest stop, and found out it was part of a canal system back in 1855 until it finally met its demise in 1926.  What we saw was a series of 4 locks.

The small campground there, Thornbush Acres had installed a few more larger sites since we had been there before, and we eased into ours, it was very nice.

Indian Lake is a special place to my wife Jan's family.  Her parents had a bunch of different properties there over the years and the family spent a lot of enjoyable time there.  Jan and I even lived in one of the homes for a short period when I first was hired by DAL.  We did some reminiscing and remembered a lot of good times.  It's sad that the town looks like it might be slowing down.  

We even managed a very nice hike while there into Sprague's Pond, it was a beautiful walk through the woods to a very pretty pond on a gorgeous day.

Next on the agenda was to stay in a campground that sounded really good, and even with its good points, it turned out way too tight, we hit numerous tree limbs and bushes that needed to be trimmed and put up with almost nonexistent internet and ended up leaving a day early.  With a smaller rig or a better area of the park it would have been far better, so I am not saying, don't go there, just consider size and where in the park you end up.  Other than that Barber Homestead was fine and interesting, been in the family since 1785!  Major Barber cleared the land and even built a lighthouse there on Lake Champlain.

The original burial plot is still there on the property.

Jan even went down the 65 steps to the lake.

Oh yes, have to get some food in here:-)  We had a delicious shrimp and scallop dinner one night, and an oh so wonderful Chinese Chili Chicken stir fry!

Yummy!

We took a ride around the end of the lake and found Crown Point, the site of several forts on Lake Champlain, the first was Fort St Frederic built by the French in 1731, then during the French-Indian War as the British were advancing, the French destroyed it and retreated.  Later the British came in and built a very large fort, the largest earthen fort in the colonies at that time, Fort Crown Point in 1759.  It encompassed over 7 acres inside.  The Americans took the fort in 1775 and it was retaken by the British in 1777.  

Standing on the earthworks, and a good view of the "ditch" to the right to repel the enemy

The remains of the officer barracks on the left and soldiers to the right

After our shortened stay we were off to Vermont, Randolph Center and into a very nice campground, Lake Champagne.  We are planning a few sorties from here before we make our way farther east.

What a site!