2009 - Lake Placid N.Y. Road Tour - June 5

Lake Placid - Saranac Lake - Wilmington N.Y. Tour - June 5 - 7
We loaded up our luggage, grabbed our passports and headed south on Friday, June 5th. Destination - "The Phoenix on the Bay" Ogdensburg, New York. For some reason most people seemed to be side tracked en route and ended up stopping temporarily at the duty free shop before crossing the mighty St. Lawrence. With bottles clinking in the trunk we all managed to get through US Customs and met at the restaurant. From our club - there was Wendy, Mike & Martha, Bob & Gloria, Neal & Loraine, Ron & Kim, Brian & Suzanne, Mary Jane & Dan, Bob & Sue and Ray & Helen. We met up with the "Rubies" and had a great lunch on the patio overlooking the river. After lunch we did the drive to the Best Western in Saranac Lake where participating members registered for the weekend with the Found Caravan Corvette Club. Then it was back to our cars and nineteen miles further, after touring through Lake Placid and seeing 100's of motorcycles there celebrating Americade, we arrived at our motel. Under the watchful eyes of the transplanted Montana's Restaurant deer looking down at us, we registered at the Ledge Rock at Whiteface motel near Wilmington, NY. Some folks then chose to participate in pleasant conversation in the parking lot, amongst the Corvettes, while enjoying the odd cocktail as we marveled at the scenery across the road. Later we went to a local restaurant for some food and while some of us behaved and ate with the appropriate manners of an international traveler, sadly others in our group broke protocol and went to the salad bar before being given official permission to do so. Saturday morning was sunny and cool and a few jumped in their cars for the interesting/treacherous/breathtaking climb up Whiteface Mountain along the Whiteface Mountain Veteran's Memorial Highway. Others went on the Crusin' Around The Mountains tour to Ellis Chevrolet in Malone, NY while others nursed a nagging hangover at the motel. Later in the day we went to Lake Placid via a very scenic route for some shopping, a train ride and dining. The train ride created 'beaver dam watchers' out of most of us and we witnessed an old western style train robbery. (Them bad guys made off with the Wells Fargo box!!) Saturday evening turned into a cozy games night in the motel's lounge. Three games in particular were favored - pool, scrabble & snorting back different forms of alcoholic beverages. After a very short night, we were up early Sunday morning and headed into Mel's Diner in Wilmington for breakfast. We were all entertained with the redneck boyfriend and his girlfriend that were having trouble controlling their pet hunting dog named "Buckshot". Buckshot had jumped out of the back of the pickup truck and ran around the parking lot in front of us. Despite some interesting commands from The Rednecks along with tailgate rising and dropping, (the noise was supposed to make the dog come back?) - Buckshot kept sniffing our tires in attempting to determine the best location to urinate. Finally Ms. Redneck, under orders from Mr. Redneck, retrieved the poor mutt and brought him back to the truck. Wendy led us on the road back and all was fine until Wendy's battery died. Seems her alternator gave up the ghost and she had to be towed to Potsdam. Luckily - (on a Sunday) - an alternator was found for her car and our beloved and somewhat respected mechanic, Ron Rail, installed it and Wendy made it the rest of the way home. The Canadian Customs people were only slightly irritated by her thundering beast after she explained she couldn't turn the car off since the battery was still charging. We all had a great time on the tour and are eagerly looking forward to our next adventure together!