Trip to New York--Part 2

AUBURN

We couldn’t find Jenni’s friend in Auburn, New York so we had dinner and then

drove to Fayetteville, New York, Jenni’s last place she served on her mission.

SUNDAY, JULY 21ST, 2019: FAYETTEVILLE

We attended the Fayetteville Ward by 10:30 A.M. and afterward visited with the Morrisons, a family Jenni was close to. We had lunch with them and then played some games and enjoyed their family.

We visited two other families who Jenni had been close to, and then traveled to Niagara Falls (162 miles from Syracuse, NY....2 hours 37 minutes).

MONDAY, JULY 22ND, 2019: NIAGARA FALLS

Niagara Falls

We enjoyed seeing Niagara Falls and got thoroughly wet (despite the rain ponchos and wet shoes we wore). We climbed on endless stairs at the Cave of the Winds tour of the bottom and sides of the falls.

Then we went on the Maid of the Mist Boat Tour where the boat took us close to the

On the Maid of the Mist boat

foot of the Horseshoe Falls, part of which are in America and part in Canada. We were able to see the Canadian Falls, but we got even wetter.

Before we left, we saw the aquarium and a sea lion and penguin show.

Then we had to travel part way to Henderson (near Watertown). We tried to stay closer to Henderson, as it got later, we had trouble finding accommodations but finally stayed about an hour away from Henderson.  (Traveled 220.2 miles, close to 4 hours).

TUESDAY, JULY 23RD, 2019: HENDERSON

We arrived at Henderson, New York, site of the Orson Bates Home at 10:00, our

appointment time. The owner, although not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or a relative of my husband, Ed Dayley’s ancestor, Orson Bates, he had been the city historian for many years and studied the history of the home.

The two-hundred-year-old house 

He showed us the outer and inside of the home, which was built in 1820, so is almost 200 years old. The house has been restored a great bit and made livable for him and his family, it had not been fully restored to its original condition. It was fun to see the entry to the house through the base through the outside storm shelter doors, the original basement, and different cupboards and things that were still original. We went to the gravesite of Orson Parley Bates’ grandfather, Cyrus Bates, and his great grandfather Oliver Bates. However, Orson’s father, Ormus Bates, who had lived in the house, had joined the Church, where it was used as a meeting place for the “Mormons” before he and his family moved to Nauvoo in 1843, later moving West with the Saints.

I was especially pleased because our host mentioned 30,000 records of the people of

The Memorial plate for the house

Henderson that he’d scanned in from an old antique box he’d found during his tenure as a historian. He gave them townspeople digital copies of the scans, but they weren’t interested in doing anything with them, so he said he was going to send me CDs of them when he’d made a copy so I could donate them to the Family History Library where I serve as a missionary to be indexed and published.

After our time at the historic Bates House, we drove to Plattsburgh NY (177 miles 3 hours 28 minutes) where my granddaughter Jenni had served on her mission.

After checking into the hotel in Plattsburgh, the family went to visit with Jenni’s friends in Plattsburg and even ate dinner with one of them.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24^TH, 2019: PLATTSBURG, NY

Athena at the War of 1812 museum

We visited the War of 1812 Museum in Plattsburg, which was very interesting. I hadn’t realized what a historic contribution Plattsburg made during the war for Canada in 1812.

We had a lot of time, so we drove into Vermont (which was right across the river) and traveled several hours to the Ben & Jerry ice cream factory. It was fun to see how ice cream was made and we feasted on a Vermontster Ice Cream Bowl that was fun.

Us trying to eat the Vermonster Ice Cream Bowl

Then we drove back to Plattsburg and on to Cooperstown, NY (204.20 miles - 3 hours 34 minutes). From Plattsburg to Cooperstown, we were directed by the GPS through tiny mountain roads in the Catskill Mountains. I really felt like we’d gone back in time and were driving in the 1950s.

THURSDAY, JULY 25TH, 2019: COOPERSTOWN

Dirk loves baseball, and on his bucket list was a trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Athena drove them to the Museum, while I relaxed and slept in. After we picked them up, we drove back-tracked through the Catskills for what seemed like hours, but it wasn’t nearly as scary as it had been the night before. The trip from Cooperstown to Newark Airport where we returned our rental van was 199.9 miles 3 hours 35 minutes.

After returning the car, we caught the train and subway from Newark Airport to Penn Station and to the Tryp Hotel in Times Square area where we had a suite reserved. We were all glad to say good-by to traveling by car.

We are all glad to say good-by to the car!