Sheldon Wiggins, b. 1786, d. 1869

One of the things that I had hoped to accomplish on this trip was to find direct proof of a particular part of my Wiggins heritage.  My grandmother was Eva Pearl (Wiggins) Malone, daughter of Alfred Sheldon and Caroline (Davis) Wiggins.  Alfred's parents were Charles Augustus and Mariah Lucinda (McEveny) Wiggins, who both died, leaving Alfred an orphan at a very young age (this is the part that I would like to find direct proof of).  Charles' parents were Sheldon (or Selden) and Sarah Ann (Mapes) Wiggins, both of whom descend from families that had settled at the east end of Long Island at a very early date (circa 1650s or earlier).

Why Sheldon left Long Island has always been a mystery to me, but I suspect it was because he served in the Finger Lakes region of New York during the War of 1812.  At some point after the War he was paid $11.50 for a military equipment claim while living in Almond, Alleghany County, New York.  That was likely for his service in Case's Regiment of New York Volunteers and Militia.  So it is likely that he served in the area during the War and chose to move there after returning to Long Island and getting married.  In the early 1830s he moved from Long Island to Steuben County, NY, purchasing 52 acres of farm land there on 24 May 1832 for $700 from James Jones and Polly, his wife (Volume 11, page 324, Steuben County, New York Deeds).  He sold that property to Morgan H. Carney for $2,800 on 3 Dec 1856 (Volume 40, page 11, Steuben County, New York Deeds).  

On 7 Aug 1857, Sheldon purchased two acres of land in Wellsville, Allegany County for $500 from Edward J. Farnum and Lucy, his wife (Volume 50, page 400, Allegany County, New York Deeds).  The property was next door to Henry Garretsee, the father-in-law of his granddaughter, Ida Belle Wiggins.

According to a late 1890s deposition by Clarence S. Wiggins (Sheldon's grandson and Ida Belle's brother), Sheldon Wiggins died in 1870 (Steuben County, New York Probates, File A12181).  At that time he was stated to be a resident of Hornellsville, Steuben County, New York, but he died in New York City.  Searching the records of the New York City Municipal Archives shows that he died in Manhattan on 30 Apr 1869 (Death Certificate # 32759).  The most likely explanation for his being in Manhattan was that he was being treated for some infirmity, though the actual reason is not currently known.  

The disposition of his Wellsville, New York property is not known, as there was not a deed recorded where he granted the property to someone else.  

The probate file for Sheldon Wiggins that was created in the 1890s by his grandson, Clarence S. Wiggins was of no help in establishing that Charles Augustus Wiggins was his son, or that Alfred Sheldon Wiggins and his siblings were Sheldon's grandchildren.  Clarence's deposition stated that Sheldon's only children were Washington Wiggins (who died unmarried and without heirs) and Benjamin Franklin Wiggins (father of Clarence and Ida Belle).

Clarence had filed for Letters of Administration in order to resolve an unrecorded mortgage from 1868 that was allegedly paid off some time in the 1870s.  This would explain why there was no deed conveying Sheldon's property in Wellsville, NY.  The deposition doesn't state who that mortgage was for, though likely it was Clarence's father.  If Sheldon's estate had been handled properly when he died, the mortgage would have come to light and all of Sheldon's heirs would have been entitled to a share of the outstanding balance due on the mortgage.  It sounds suspiciously like Benjamin Franklin Wiggins had not disclosed the unrecorded mortgage from his father, thus cheating Sheldon's other heirs of their legacy, and making it nearly impossible to establish that my great grandfather was Sheldon's grandson.

Contrary to Clarence's deposition, in Genealogies of Long Island Families, Volume II, page 688, in a section entitled The Wiggins Family of Southold, New York, Charles Augustus Wiggins is listed as the older brother of Washington Warren and Benjamin Franklin Wiggins.  The same source states that Charles' wife was Maria [sic] Lucinda McEveny (they were married in Clark County, Missouri in 1847).   These four people were all listed in the household of Sheldon Wiggins in the 1850 Census for Dansville, Steuben County, New York, along with Charles' eldest son, William, age 1.

Charles had been the postmaster of Renault, Monroe County, Illinois in the late 1850s, with his wife assuming those duties after his death.  She was administrix of his estate, but she died before the estate was settled (the estate file is likely lost somewhere in the probate records of Monroe County).  Lucinda apparently died during or not long after the birth of Joseph Napolean Asberry, the only child of her second marriage (to Joseph B. Asberry). Her four surviving children by Charles likely ranged in age from 4 to 12 years old when she died.

Charles' daughter Eva (Wiggins) Gregory (b. abt 1856) was the source of information that she and Alfred were his children.  While she may have been too young to have known her father, her older brother William was about 9 years old when he died.  William died in Jackson County, Illinois in 1880, when Eva was about 24 years of age.  Finding clear proof of the information that she had passed on to my grandmother is the reason that I am searching for deed and estate records in this area.  At present, I have been unsuccessful, though there is a slim chance that Sheldon's Manhattan death certificate might provide some needed clues.  

Day 94: Pittsford, NY

We had to cover about 70 miles yesterday, so we split the mileage.  Alea took the first shift, riding 38 miles.  Then I took over for the remainder of the ride, which should have been about 32 miles.  Of course I missed the last turn of the day, in the end adding nearly another 5 miles.  So it was about a 75 mile day for us. 

Lana at the shore of Lake Ontario in Pultneyville, NY.

The tail end of our route took me along the Erie Canal.  I've always been fascinated by canals, as my family had lived in Maidenhead, England along the Thames River not far from a canal lock, and in Houdeng-Goegnies, Belgium along the old Canal Du Centre.  On the former, not far from where we lived, was a swing bridge and farther down the canal was a series of three hydraulic lift locks.  I used to love watching the coal barges going up and down the canal every day.  And I was fascinated by the lift lock, which operated completely on hydraulic pressure.  When a barge would enter the lower lock, the upper lock would be flooded with water until it weighed more than the lower lock.  Then the hydraulic pressure would cause the upper lock to lower and the lower lock to rise.  Newer locks of this type today are typically diesel powered, as they can be raised or lowered much faster.

It would be nice to know what all I was looking at as I rode along the Erie Canal, as there were plenty of ruins: sections of abandoned canal, stone abutments that likely carried an old aqueduct, etc.  But it was interesting all the same.

An abandoned section of old canal.

One of the earliest iron bridges, designed by Squire Whipple.

Bridge abutments that were abandoned after a newer canal was built.

Lock #30.

Ditto.

The canal path.

A restored canal barge and floating B&B.

As I had mentioned a few weeks back, our Adventure Cycling maps noted a dearth of campgrounds along this stretch of the route, so it was fortunate for us that, back in Vermont, Mike and Gloria Vacanti had invited us to stay the night at their place.  That has greatly simplified our route planning, and led to us revising our plans for passing through this part of New York.

I had wanted to stop a couple of hours drive south of here to do some family history research.  Our original plan was to get to Rochester, pile the bike in the van and drive to a campground near the county seat of either Steuben County (Bath, NY) or Allegany County (Belmont, NY), and then return to Rochester to continue on (both are possible places where a third great grandfather of mine had died).  But that would put us in Niagara Falls for the Fourth of July weekend (not something we were looking forward to), so we've altered our route so that we will do less driving and avoid a lot of urban areas.  We will discuss that change in later blog posts, but the revised route is now shown on our Summer 2016 route map (currently shown at the top of the blog).

We rolled up to Mike and Gloria's house just after 3 pm, where Mike was there to greet us.  Gloria didn't get home until 8 pm, but Mike did a sterling job as our host.  We started out with some awesome homemade hummus and veggies while we were cooling off after our ride and doing a load of laundry.  For dinner we had our choice of Italian sausage or turkey burgers, a few types of chopped vegetable salads and baked french fries.  He topped that off later with brownie sundaes, complete with nuts and blueberries.

We were also treated to a game of Farkle, a simple, fun dice game and something that we could be easily add to our road game repertoire.  Mike ungraciously won the game (edging me out at the last second), but with the sort of spread he laid out for us, we'd be happy to stop by and lose as often as he likes. ;-)

Our host preparing breakfast for us.

Alea, Gloria & Mike.

Day 93: Fair Haven Beach State Park, NY

We had a fair amount of rain overnight and into the morning, but now it looks as though the weather should be dry and in the mid-70s to mid-80s for a week or more.  Summer at last!

Our internet access while we crossed the White Mountains, Green Mountains and Adirondacks had been intermittent, but I suspect that won't be much of a problem for us from here to St. Louis.  The terrain will mostly be flat and low rollers - places where a cell signal can travel a considerable distance.

It was my turn to ride today for the 41 miles to Fair Haven Beach State Park ($29, power and showers).  We got a late start due to the rain.  There were still intermittent showers once I hit the road, but at least it was fairly warm.  The clouds finally cleared away around 1 pm, and it was muggy and in the low 80s when we rolled into the campground an hour or so later.

Summer means that it is road construction season, so we will no doubt find our share of such roads over the next few months.  This morning included several miles riding on pavement that had been ground up in preparation for overlaying fresh asphalt.  But it wasn't a bad ride, as traffic was fairly light.  I suspect we will see a lot of this sort of thing over the next few weeks.

A former co-worker at Valley General Hospital in Renton, WA contacted me recently, Sandy Engstrom.  My 1985 cross country bicycle tour included an overnight stay with her and her family, as her husband had been assigned to work at The Bon in Boise, ID.  I think we both thought it was a little ironic that I eventually moved there.  It certainly wasn't on my list of places to return to after I had past through that year.

Day 92: Selkirk Shores State Park, NY

Well, I once again have my days misnumbered, as Day 91 was on Saturday, making yesterday (Sunday) Day 92.  But, it sorta balances out - some days I'm claiming too few days on the road, some days too many.  ;-)

Lake Ontario sunset.

We awakened to Gretchen's breakfast spread of a frittata (quite different from ours, but delicious all the same) and other goodies, and then waited for everyone to come downstairs so that we could take some last minute photos before heading out.  It was very interesting seeing Travis again, and we had a chance to talk alone a bit on Saturday.  Though our paths had crossed for only a few days back in 1985, it was very intriguing the degree to which some of our current personal circumstances are very similar (though he has had more financial success and a family).  I suspect those similarities say a lot about why we enjoyed each other's company for as long as we did 31 years ago.

We left Travis, Gretchen, Cooper and Teddy around 9 am, but we had a two hour drive back to Boonville.  Alea started riding around 11 am from the point where I had left off on Thursday.  Her ride totaled 56 miles, and it was 93 degrees when she ended the day (which is too hot, but much better than too cold).

Coasting to a stop at Selkirk Shores.

We are camped at Selkirk Shores State Park ($26, power, water and showers) near Port Ontario, NY, which is on the shore of Lake Ontario (the easternmost Great Lake).  There is no doubt why it is "great," as from here it looks more like an ocean or a sea - all you see is water.

Lana pulled some tough duty in Cooperstown, playing ball for hours every day with Cooper, Teddy and the many neighborhood kids who frequent Travis' backyard.  Of course she rarely minded (though on one occasion she got a little grumpy because she was so tired), but she has been stiffer than we have ever seen her this past weekend.  And yesterday while we were driving, instead of her usual napping, she was sleeping very soundly.  One of our favorite sights every day is using the remote door locks as we approach the van - she usually pops up like a Jack-in-the-Box with her ears pointing straight up, but yesterday she actually slept through it!

This week we will be planning a one day layover in Western New York to do some family history research, then we will spend two nights along Lake Erie at the start of the Fourth of July weekend.  After that, we hope not to take any days off until we reach Fort Wayne, IN (barring severe weather or some other unforeseen circumstance).

Days 91 & 92: Cooperstown, NY

From Middleville, NY we drove to Cooperstown, NY.  The first stop was the New York Historical Association Library in Cooperstown, where I did some research on my Wiggins line, but after a couple of hours of looking I came away empty handed.  From there we proceeded over to the home of Travis Hodgdon and his wife Gretchen and their boys Cooper (who was named thus before they had any thought of living in Cooperstown) and Teddy.  This is the one stop that we have most been looking forward for the past ten and a half months of traveling.

I first met Travis on the 21st of June 1985, somewhere between Jackson Hole, WY and Signal Mountain Campground, where we camped that night.  My journal says that he had been traveling with two unnamed couples whom I had also been riding with in the preceding weeks: that was probably Doug and Jenny Sensenig (neither they nor he recalls that clearly) and Kevin Pennock and Sylvie Grondin (he definitely recalls the latter couple).

25 June 1985.

Ditto. 

Travis and my bike, a few days earlier.

We rode through Yellowstone National Park together for four more days, parting company on the afternoon of 25 June 1985.  That particular day started out rather miserable, as it was 35 degrees out and had rained all night long at Tower Fall Campground.  I started out moaning and groaning about the weather, until it dawned on me that cold rain at the campground would mean it was snowing at Dunraven Pass, which we would have to cross to reach Canyon Village to the south.  I urged Travis into gear and we broke camp in less than an hour, hoping to ride through the snow in the middle of summer, with the thought that it would warm up later in the afternoon (the latter didn't happen - it stayed around 40 degrees most of the day).

I had a blast riding up the pass through the snow, but quickly got ahead of Travis.  I learned later that was in part because he had fallen in the snow (he had yelled for me to stop, but I didn't hear him).  So I arrived at the summit well in advance of him.  I was already cold when I got there, and I quickly started piling on every extra layer of clothing that I had with me.  That still wasn't enough, but I was determined to wait for Travis, so that we could have our picture taken together in the snow.  When he finally showed up, a Dutch family quickly obliged us.

It was then time to find some warmth, but you don't really generate any heat cycling down hill.  The road was also pretty slick, plus the snow and slush was clogging up my brakes, making it hard to control my descent.  I finally managed to come to a stop and discussed with Travis what to do about our predicament.  In my journal I wrote that I suggested we hitch a ride down the hill, though my memory is that it was Travis who saved the day with that vital common sense suggestion.  It seemed like the second vehicle coming down the pass stopped to help us out, which was a brand new Toyota pick up being driven by a couple of hikers.  I immediately picked up my bike by the fork and seat stay and literally threw it into the bed of the pickup, catching out of the corner of my eye the look of shock on the driver's face as it went sailing into the blemish-free pickup bed (oops!).  Travis was more thoughtful in loading his bike, and we were soon shivering our way down to Canyon Village.  Obviously, we could not thank our Good Samaritan friends enough, but we also needed to get warm in a hurry and glanced around for a place to do that.  The condensation on the laundromat windows indicated it would be the perfect place, so we went there and searched for any warm, empty dryers to help us get warmed up as quickly as possible.

We parted company a while later, after cooking a meal in the parking lot.  Travis needed to head due east, where he would soon be joining he Navy, while I was headed south and east to visit friends and family.

No sooner had we arrived at Travis' home in Cooperstown than they had gotten word that their son Teddy had fallen off a swing on the last day of school.  He got a nasty bang on the forehead, but seemed to be shrug it off like most kids eventually do.

We spent the day getting to know a bit more about his family and recounting our past cycling adventures.  Gretchen prepared an awesome dinner of barbecued chicken and all the fixin's, and the day ended up with several neighbor kids coming over for 'smores around a roaring campfire.

Gretchen and Travis Hodgdon.

Our second day there was a time to attend to some business.  We had several packages delivered to their house, including our new 100 watt solar panel.  We needed a place to safely store the panel while traveling, and that required making some minor modifications to how we store things, including finding a new location for our small folding table.  By sacrificing Alea's yoga mat, we were able to store the table attached to the rear passenger side barn door of the van.

Cooper and some of the neighborhood kids helped keep Lana entertained while we were making these modifications.  She had a blast, though at times was a bit overwhelmed by all the attention.  And she was a very stiff, sore puppy dog when she woke up in the morning.

Cooper demonstrates that there is LOTS of room in our teardrop camper!

Lana shows off her acrobatic form to Cooper.

We also needed to wire the new solar panel with a 12v cigarette lighter connection, so that it could be plugged into the camper's built-in solar controller.  What I had hoped would be a half hour project turned into a bit of an ordeal that lasted a few hours.  Once the wiring was done, it should have been a simple matter to plug it in, with the 12v plug's green LED lighting up to show us that it was charging.  That didn't happen, so we assumed I had reversed the polarity of the camper's inlet plug.  That meant I needed to empty out our deep storage bin and dig out the 80 pound battery in order to access the back of our solar inlet: a process I repeated a half a dozen times, trying trying several things to see if that light would come on.  In the end I returned things to the original configuration, and then looked at the solar controller itself, which had a glowing light that indicated that it was charging.  So the problem was that the green LED on the 12v plug didn't work, and I had wasted a lot of time figuring that out.

One other item that we took care of was replacing our rusted and dented baby moon hubcabs.  That involved painting the back of the new hubcaps with primer (to help prevent them rusting from the inside) and spraying them with three coats of wax on the outside.  Hopefully they will last more than the 4 years that we got out of the first set.

The new hub cap showing the reflections of Teddy and Cooper Hodgdon, and the old, rusted hub cap.

We were treated to lunch at the nearby Ommegang Brewery, which we enjoyed immensely.  It had been acquired by a Belgian company, and the menu featured a food that it seemed I had consumed almost daily when I had lived in Belgium in the late 1960s: frites (French fries, which the "Belgiques" preferred with a very thick, creamy mayonnaise).  These thick-cut frites weren't as soft as those that I remember from 50 years ago (probably because they were cooked in lard back then), but they were better than any that I have had in this country.  So we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch there, as well as the interesting buildings and picturesque, pastoral setting.

Ommegang Brewery.

In the evening Gretchen treated us to pulled-pork sandwiches and a tomato-mushroom-basil salad, which was followed by another campfire out by Travis' Green Monster scoreboard.  He had completed it a few years back, and it was best viewed from a section of three Fenway park seats that included one painted red to represent where Ted Williams hit a 502-foot long home run on 9 June 1946.  He also has a sign that says "502" planted in the field across the street, though the actual distance is somewhat less because there wasn't enough room.

The Green Monster.

Day 90: Middleville, NY

The hills flattened out and the winds died down for the 40 mile ride into Boonville.  Once there, we left our Northern Tier route, loaded up my bicycle and headed to Middleville, where we are camping at the Ace of Diamonds Mine and Campground ($20, power, $1 minimum coin showers).  We'll return to Boonville to continue our journey after our visit to Cooperstown, NY.

Our campsite at the Ace of Diamonds Mine.

Herkimer Diamonds.

The campground is part of an old dolostone quarry, where piles of boulders are piled up for amateur geologists to hammer away in the hopes of finding Herkimer Diamonds, a very clear, faceted quartz found only in this area.

The campsite is pretty rustic, but it is awesome to only pay $20 and get a chance to fully recharge our camper battery.  And it is sort of cool to be camping in an old quarry - it's a nice change from the campgrounds we usually visit.

It took a while for the temperature to reach 70, but it has been a great day.  I had a front flat 35 miles into today's ride, caused by grit and debris working its way through the gash in my front tire and then through the temporary boot patch that I had put on south of Bar Harbor.  That was a nearly brand new tire, so I tried to see how long I could make it last despite the damage.  We're happy we got another couple weeks of riding out of it, but we swapped it out for a new tire since it will only be a matter of time before the second boot patch would also fail.

Moose River, above Boonville.

Day 89: Limekiln Lake Campground, NY

It rained a bit overnight, and started raining again not long after we woke up.  We got up in time to make coffee before the rain started, but opted to stay dry and go into town for breakfast. 

Lana catches a lift to the van, so that her dainty feet don't get wet.

Breakfast at Long Lake Diner.

How long will this last?

We waited for the rain to stop and for the temperature to warm up a bit before pushing on down the road.  We had decided that we would stay at a public campground within an easy day's ride of Boonville, NY.  That left us with four possible choices, so we opted for the last one, to make for the shortest ride tomorrow.  Alea rode about 34 hilly miles to Limekiln Lake Campground ($25 , primitive, free showers), which is just outside of Inlet, NY.

Is Alea dancing???

What a look!  She was one tired puppy dog!

Because of the late start, we arrived at the campground late in the afternoon, opting for a campsite by the shower house instead of by the lake.  Of the 200+ campsites only a handful were occupied.

Days 87 & 88: Eaton Lake Campground, NY

We skipped our morning coffee on Monday (Day 86), in the hope that we would reach Long Lake, NY before Peter hit the road.  It took a little over an hour to pedal the 18 miles, and fortunately he was still at the post office, so we had a chance to go there and say our goodbyes.  Hopefully our paths will cross again a bit farther down the road...

We finally are back in an area of decent cell reception, so we at least have some internet access without having to drive closer to a tower.  We are taking advantage of that and trying to get caught back up on so many things that we've swept aside over the past week or so.

We opted to spend two nights at Eaton Lake Campground ($25, primitive, free showers) which is 2.5 miles north of Long Lake, NY.  Partly that was to get the timing right on a planned rendezvous this Friday, but also partly to give Lana a little mini-vacation from life on the road (it's hard riding shotgun every day!).  

The lakes here are shallow and mostly sandy-bottomed, which is perfect for Lana's favorite activity - chasing a ball in the water.  Our campsite abuts the lake shore, so we let her play a lot while we were here.  She had a blast, and her fur is much softer as a result of all of the water play.

(That is Lana behind me, somewhat in the shadows.)

On Monday night (Day 87) were joined by Kyle, who is cycling from Oshkosh, WI to Bar Harbor, ME.  He had camped the night before at a private campground in Old Forge, NY, where this morning at 4 am a bear had tried to make off with one of his panniers, with the bike still attached.  The bear eventually managed to get the pannier off the bike (without damaging the bike), where it ripped open the pannier to get at some instant mashed potatoes and instant coffee.  The campground owner claimed that some tourists (likely in a hard sided RV) had been baiting the bear in order to get some pictures, with the result being that the bear was losing its fear of people.  Why in the world a campground owner with that knowledge did not warn Kyle before letting him set up his tent on the property is a bit unfathomable.

So we had dinner with Kyle and he pitched his tent on our site, and we were treated to some more of his travel adventures and mis-adventures.  He also showed us his own solution for a lightweight pillow for on the road: an old mylar wine bladder - just hold in the push button tap and blow.

It wasn't long after we turned in for the night that a storm passed through.  It had been forecast to include possible heavy hail, but if there was any hail it wasn't heavy enough to wake us up or do any damage to the van or camper.

Kyle pushed off mid-morning, hoping to reach Ticonderoga by day's end, while we spent the day doing a few chores and playing in the water with Lana (it's a tough life).  

Day 86: Harris Lake Campground, NY

We headed out ahead of Peter, thinking we'd likely see him later in the day.  Alea reached Harris Lake Campground ($23, primitive, free showers) near Newcomb, NY shortly after noon.  We texted Peter our details, though it took a LONG time for the text to actually get sent.  So we weren't sure he got our message.

Peter, Alea and I, saying Goodbye (for now) at the Post Office in Long Lake, NY.

We heard from him late in the afternoon, after he had reached Long Lake (16 miles farther down the road), where he was staying in a motel.  We would get notified of his texts, but when we logged on our phones to view them they would disappear.  Then in a few minutes we'd finally see the message, but we needed to manually download each one.  That made communication difficult, but thankfully not impossible.

Alea slogs up yet another hill...

So Alea and I had one of our more quiet evenings together of late.  And Lana got a chance to play for quite a while, chasing the ball in the shallow lake that we were camped on.  We even had our first chance of the season to sleep with the camper doors open and the screen doors in place, which is our preferred method of sleeping.  It gives us a tiny bit more room, and makes it impossible to accidentally hit the door handle when turning over.  And the warm cross breeze was awesome.

Our campsite at Harris Lake.

Of course our campsite was on a section of coastline that was muckier and had more reeds than where we had played ball.  And those reeds are home to several very loud bullfrogs.  That meant that after a while it wasn't so easy to stay asleep, due to the noise.  I guess we need to add that to our growing list of things to consider when selecting a campsite for the evening...

Days 84 & 85: Putnam Pond State Park, NY

Mike and Gloria stopped by on their way out of town and invited us to stay at their place as we travel west.  They live in Rochester, NY, just a few miles from the Northern Tier route.  Just minutes before then we had been reading in our route maps about how there were no campgrounds along a long stretch that included Rochester, so it would seem that they have solved a problem for us.

Who can resist having a picture taken with a giant squirrel?

It was finally my turn to deal with a road closure (we were thinking those we exclusively Alea's domain).  Fortunately, this one didn't add a lot of miles to the day, but we did have to substitute several miles of paved roads for gravel roads.

Yet another covered bridge.

 We took yet another ferry, this one to cross Lake Champlain in order to reach New York.  It was cable driven - a motor on the ferry pulled along two parallel cables anchored at each shore.

At Branbury State Park we were told they were booked for the weekend, so we were thinking with the great weather (highs now in the mid to upper 80s) that campgrounds might be hard to find.  So we decided to call ahead and book both Friday and Saturday at one campground.  That turned out to be Putnam Pond State Park ($23 primitive with hot showers, plus a $2.75 registration fee).

Alea at the point of where the two lobes of Heart Pond intersect.

We returned to Ticonderoga in the afternoon in order to get cell reception, where we ran into Peter again.  We took care of some other business in town and expected to see him on the road on our way back to camp, but there was no sight of him.  We thought he may have opted to go a bit further, to a campground located closer to the highway.  But he showed up at our campsite shortly after we had finished our dinner.

On Saturday morning we fixed a frittata (Peter preferred our "potato shit" description) for the three of us.  Then we headed back to Ticonderoga once again.  This time to get caught up on laundry, and to do one more big grocery shopping trip after realizing that we won't be in a city of any size for several more days.

We had to reorganize the back of the van in order to make room for Peter, and we joked about dropping him off in the middle of the woods and selling his bike on Craigslist in order to fund our travels (and he still got in the van)...

Peter puts his fate in the hands of two mysterious gypsies in a polka-dot van, never to be seen again...

Day 83: Branbury State Park, VT

Peter finally did show up with us yesterday (Wednesday, Day 82), arriving just after I posted our blog.  While getting to know him, we treated him to a dinner of cheese, crackers, some sliced pork steak, veggies, good bread and a small piece of carrot cake.  This is his first bicycle tour, and we are impressed that he chose a cross country trek for his first outing.

 We expected to see him again at our next campsite, but we changed our plans after seeing the condition of Hwy 125 (due to road construction), opting to take a different route to avoid the mess.  We texted him our new location, but I must've used the wrong phone number, as we never heard from him.

This was probably a 12 point turn - not very elegant!

Alea and I rendezvoused at Rochester, VT, where I was doing some grocery shopping.  She needed a pit stop, but the grocery store had no public bathrooms.  A half mile down the road was a roadside park with a porta potty, so I pulled over to wait for her (so I could watch her bike), thinking she would avail herself of the opportunity.  She blew right by it, and I discovered there was not enough room to turn the van and camper around, thus the picture above - I had to unhitch and move the camper by hand in order to get back out.

The new route had a pretty good climb with some 9% grades.  Lucky for Alea, the other side had some 12% grades - it could have been a much harder climb!

The Adirondacks are off in the distance as Alea sets off down the 12% grade.

We ended up camping Thursday night (Day 83) at Branbury State Park ($22 for a primitive site, $1 for the Lana and minimum 50 cent showers).  We had an awesome site up on a bluff amid the boulders.  I had briefly met Mike and Gloria before taking our detour (we had also met them briefly the day before).  They had said they were heading to the same campground, so around 5pm I went looking for them.  I ran into Mike just down the hill and invited them to dinner, but they declined, having already picked up their meal supplies a short time earlier.  But they did come over and visit, and we had a long talk about the van, the camper and our method of travel.