New York's Country Roads and Birthday Present Delivery

We often just take off driving down a country road, just to see what we can find. So we took Denisa's Mother on one of our country road-trips while she was visiting us. We did have the name of a few apple orchards in mind, as we were in search of more fruit. Between making apple crisp and cooked apples, and eating 3 or 4 raw every day, we are quickly running low. We stopped at a family orchard that was hosting three bus-loads of school children. When we heard a teacher yell, "We don't pick up the kittens!" Denisa went in search of them.

The cats were trying to stay up higher in the hay wagon than a second grader could reach.

We had to take a picture of this cat's feet, which seem to be hosting some extra toes.

Denisa likes all animals, even greedy kids that eat like a bunch of goats.

But who could refuse faces like these?

We bought a half peck of Autumn Crisp apples (that are quickly becoming our favorites), an apple cider donut, a chocolate cookie, a jar of apple butter, and a bag of honey roasted soy beans before we left. We are going to have to pace ourselves or the car will be filled to capacity before we get home today. Our next stop was at a traditional apple orchard with full-size trees. Their branches are naturally bending towards the ground from the weight of the fruit. We took a group picture here, where the ladders and tractors were out for the picking crew.

We were hoping to do some apple picking, saving bundles of money by doing the labor ourselves. But we are finding that orchards seem to charge more for the apples you pick yourself, rather than less. We are also seeing that there are a huge number of beautiful apples that have already fallen on the ground. This orchard was selling them as deer food.

We are experiencing cooler days, and we even had two nights where temperatures dipped down into the 30s. We have changed our wardrobe in the last few days, and those cooler temperatures are also spurring the foliage to change. This group of sumac along the road-side was a stunning combination of orange and red.

We are seeing more and more autumn-colored leaves. This grove behind a cemetery with headstones from the 1800's made a very picturesque stop.

Our country road-trip took us to the United State's oldest five and dime store in Northville, New York. We couldn't help but notice that inflation has changed the store name to include the quarter as well. We didn't make any purchases, but they did force us to taste the fresh fudge.

As we drove through the town of Edinburg, we saw that their welcome sign heralded it as the home to the Copeland covered bridge. It took some serious detective work and a record number of u-turns, but we finally found the bridge hidden away over a creek bed.

Then Mark showed his mother-in-law how to cross the water by making perilous leaps over slick rocks. She wisely decided not to follow him.

We have been in the state of New York for almost a month, and we are surprised that we have never seen a road-side campaign sign for Hillary Clinton. But we have seen dozens of Trump signs in yard across the state. Since Hillary was once the senator from this state, perhaps she doesn't need to campaign here? But we have to say that our very favorite election sign is one we saw proudly displayed in an irritated New Yorker's front yard:

We had to finish our country road trip early this day, as we had to get back to the Broadalbin post office before it closed for the day. We've been waiting for the delivery of Denisa's birthday present, and it arrived today. We opened the box quickly and Denisa immediately started a one-hour concert of her favorite piano tunes.

After 20 months on the road, Mark had finally convinced her that we have the room for an electric piano keyboard in the motor home. She has been playing whenever she gets an opportunity--at street side pianos, at piano stores, at churches, etc. So when Mark researched the best portable keyboard with a touch similar to a real piano, it seemed like the perfect birthday present. We also found that it will fit on the counter in the bedroom when not in use. Maybe getting another year older was worth it!