With our new furniture installed, we headed a few miles up the road to Swan Bay Resort in Alexandria Bay, NY for the Newmar FullTimers Rally. Swan Bay Resort is very nice and it sits right on the water.
It has a nice pool area with a Tiki Bar and a nice dog park.
A Rally is where RVers with common interests gather and share knowledge, stories and learn from one another. In this case, the Newmar FullTimers Rally was attended by 60 participants all who are living in their coaches full time and have Newmars. Probably the best aspect of attending rallies is meeting new people with similar interests and reconnecting with people from past rallies.
The past rally people that we met up with were Larry and Jeanne Bateman who we meet at the Newmar International Rally in Gillette, WY last year.
After checking in, the four of us checked out the tiki bar!
There was a chili cook off where six individuals made chili for the rest of us to vote on. Interesting way of hosting this type of cook off – they provided a disposable muffin tin and put the six different chilis in each section. I voted for #4, came in third. I thought that it was the best one because it contained meat and kidney beans – like my momma used to make!
The next day we took a tour of the Antique Boat Museum housed in Clayton, NY. Saw some beautiful vintage wooden boats – everything from canoes to Chris-crafts (think On Golden Pond) to mega-houseboats:
We even got to ride in one:
Even without water!
The mega-houseboat pictures:
This mega-houseboat was commissioned by Boldt – more about him during tomorrow’s tour.
After the boat museum, we stopped at the nearby brewery, Wood Boat, for a drink and appetizers. Then back to Swan Bay for some relaxation and a BBQ. Local joint smoked ribs and chicken for us and the local culinary college provided the salads and sides along with the personnel needed to serve all 120 of us.
Excellent ribs, although I have to tell you that I think Flounder smoked better ones on my Traeger. We met some new friends from Texas, Alan and Becky Gardipee, Stan and Lynne Brown and Glen and Debbie Hooten from North Carolina. These three couples traveled with the Bateman’s on the Newmar Western States tour after the International Rally last year.
The next day we toured the 1,000’s Islands, the Boldt Castle and the Boldt Yacht House on the Uncle Sam’s Boat Tours.
The 1,000’s islands are in the St. Lawrence River and stretch for many miles along the New York shoreline. I had never heard of this area before and I have to tell ya that it is gorgeous! New York’s summer playground. Summer houses have been built on any little island that can be purchased. Check it out:
George Boldt was the general manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City and the manager of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. He built the Boldt Castle on Heart Island (he also changed the name of the island from Hart to Heart) as a present for his wife, Louise. The building of the six-story castle started in 1900 and continued until early 1904 when Louise died and Boldt ordered the construction halted. He never returned to Heart Island and left the structure about 85% complete as a monument of his love. The structure remained untouched (except, of course, by vandals) for 73 years until the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired Heart Island and the nearby Yacht House for one dollar with plans to refurbish the island and the buildings and open them up for the public.
Check out the Heart Island and the outside of Boldt Castle:
And the Castle and restored interior:
Once we left Heart Island we headed over to Wellesley Island to see the Boldt Yacht House. Wow!
Absolutely wonderful!
For dinner we headed to Ricky’s on the River. Since all of us gathered together it took a very long time. The food was good, but we waited for almost 40 minutes to get the bill and pay. That put us back to Swan Bay Resort later than anticipated so we we late to the group campfire. Didn’t get to meet a whole lot of people as the fire was dying down.
The following day we headed out to try the New York Wineries. Hired The Swan Bay bus to drive us around:
I don’t remember the names of all the wineries and I didn’t necessarily enjoy the wines, but we had a wonderful time:
What a fun group!
We headed back to the campground for the farewell dinner in the rain:
We said a quick “goodbye” to all the new people that we met here because the Bateman’s and us were heading out tonight to get to the Newmar International Rally in Syracuse over the next week. We were parking with another group that we belong to called the “Florida Sea Turtles” and wanted to drive in with them the next morning to insure that we would be parked with them.
Doing anything quickly in an almost 44 foot mobile house is definitely not recommended. I pulled out of our camping spot too quickly and hit the electrical post causing damage to the Busse Bus and the campsite.
I wonder how much this “boo boo” is going to cost me!
Note to self: Always wait until I have my excellent spotter, Katrina, to guide me in and out of tight spaces!
The Busse Bus was still drivable, so we headed down to Syracuse.
btw: I let Katrina drive……
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