It’s hard to believe that over 2 months have passed since we arrived in the USA. Where has all the time gone?
During the September/October transition, we made a short trip to upstate New York to visit friends. And the rest of October was spent visiting Rhonda’s extended family in southwest Ohio.
At the end of September, Rhonda and I rented a car and left my parents’ place in Connecticut for the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York – the last place we had a permanent home.
We had lots of friends in the area, so we were looking forward to our reunion with everyone!
The 6-hour drive in our economy car was uneventful, and we spent the next several nights with our friends (and my former colleagues) in Keuka Park, New York.
It was great to see Todd, Denise, and their daughters again! We spent our time reminiscing, overeating, and refamiliarizing ourselves with the local microbrewery scene.
Todd and Denise were great to hang out with, just like old times!
Keuka Lake was pretty, as always.
We also made time to visit friends we used to team up with for weekly Friday night trivia contests at Lyonsmith Brewery. The night we arrived, we reformed our team and won the night!
Team “We Drink and We Know Things” is back for one night only! Heavyweight trivia champions again. Teammates Missy and Dale in back, with Josh (holding belt) and Mark in front.
Before we left New York in 2022 we sold our house to two of our team member friends, Dale and Missy. So when we went over to their place to visit, it was a little surreal. The place was just as pretty as we remembered, and our friends had already completed some needed upgrades.
It was fun to see how others live in the same house we used to own.
And while we were in the nearby town of Penn Yan we were lucky enough to be able to touch base with our friends Mark, Les, and Susan. It was great to hear how everyone has been doing and find out what they were all up to now.
After several days in Keuka Park, we continued onward to Geneva to visit one of Rhonda’s old nursing friends Krista, and her husband Rich. Astute readers might remember them from our Machu Picchu adventures. And believe it or not, they will be coming to stay with us again when we are in Oaxaca, Mexico!
Gluttons for punishment, I guess.
We spent a couple of days hanging out and walking local parks in the area. Krista took us to Robert H. Treman State Park near Ithaca, New York and, as is typical of parks in the area, the views were spectacular!
It’s like walking through a set from the Lord of the Rings.
The gorges in the park have lovely waterfalls.
Beautiful.
On a different day, the four of us hiked Green Lakes State Park in Fayetteville, New York. The place is a geological oddity, featuring crystal clear green meromictic lake waters, complete with freshwater coral reefs!
The place is surreal.
Against the Fall foliage, the green water really pops.
Trails follow the circumference of the lakes here.
Impossibly clear (and green) fresh water. This photo was not edited.
A freshwater coral reef.
Ducks like it here too!
Krista and Rich, our future Oaxaca, Mexico travel partners. They didn’t learn their lesson from our time together at Machu Picchu!
But after close to a week in the Finger Lakes, it was time to drive back to Connecticut, drop off our rental, and hop on a plane for southwest Ohio!
Visiting Family and Friends in Southwest Ohio
You may be wondering why we didn’t just drive to Ohio from upstate New York. The answer is simple…it was much cheaper to fly.
As you probably know, one-way rentals are prohibitively expensive. So it was best for us to rent a car at a discount ($195.54 USD for 7 days) for our time in New York, return the car in Connecticut, say our goodbyes to family, and then use our Southwest Rewards points to score flights to Cincinnati, Ohio.
At 23,000 Southwest Rewards points + $11.20 USD taxes/fees for 2 one-way tickets, it was a good deal!
One last farewell to my parents before we fly out!
Sadly, our connector flight from Bradley International Airport (near Hartford, Connecticut) to Baltimore, Maryland got delayed, so we didn’t end up getting to Cincinnati, Ohio until 10 pm, 7 hours later than planned.
Making the best of things at Bradley International Airport.
Thankfully Rhonda’s brother and mother had no problems adjusting to pick us up, so we still ended up having a nice reunion.
Since we landed in early October, it has been a whirlwind of visits, overeating, errands, and helping out relatives when needed.
The trails sometimes open into meadows. This picture was taken from a bird observation blind.
We also walked to the Germantown Covered Bridge, which is the only inverted bowstring truss-covered bridge remaining in the United States.
Rhonda’s brother, David, has become a bit of a bourbon aficionado it turns out. So we all made a 2.5-hour road trip to one of his favorite distilleries in Kentucky, Buffalo Trace Distillery.
The goal was to see if we could score a limited-release bourbon (Colonel E. H. Taylor Small Batch) rumored to be on sale at the distillery on the Monday we went.
Follow the arrow and stand in line!
To have a chance of getting the limited-release stuff, you had to arrive before opening and wait your turn.
They ration sales of limited releases to 1 bottle per person, so Rhonda and I were essentially drug mules for David.
It was a mosh pit of bourbon lovers, but they had plenty of E. H. Taylor when we arrived at the gift shop at 9 am. They ran out by noon though!
The gift shop, where all the bourbons are sold. The crowd died down by noon, as all the rare stuff was sold out.
Thankfully, we scored what David was looking for, as well as some extras!
Our ill-gotten gains. Plus some extra bottles in the box!
We were even fortunate enough to score free tickets for a tour and tasting that morning! Buffalo Trace Distillery is the oldest operating distillery in the USA, so it has a really interesting history.
Our tour guide gathering up our group.
The distillery campus was surprisingly large.
The mash fermenters were huge, each holding over 90,000 gallons.
One of the oldest barrel warehouses on site. Filled to the brim with aging barrels of bourbon.
These warehouses aren’t small!
Cool view from the inside.
Barrels full of aged bourbon are rolled out of storage, and then the contents are emptied for bottling.
Where filled bottles are packaged.
They produce millions of barrels of bourbon here.
Every tour concludes with a free tasting. As it should be!
The menu for today. At the end, the bourbon cream was mixed with root beer. Yum!
Amazing that the distillery was able to survive prohibition. Good thing medicinal alcohol was a real thing back in the day. Prescriptions spiked back then, as you can imagine!
Although boozing it up was fun, the main reason we came to Ohio in October was so Rhonda could be present for the birth of her cousin’s son at the end of the month!
Thankfully the birth went well and the new parents (Todd and Krista [Rhonda’s cousin]) are settling into their new lives as parents. Everything changes for them now, so we hear.
Presenting Miles, Rhonda’s new family member.
As if a new baby in the family weren’t enough, there was another new addition – a Big Green Egg! This grill was a present to David from his partner Sarah and Rhonda’s mom, Carol.
David’s new baby.
David is no stranger to Big Green Eggs and he knows how to use them. So once Rhonda and I helped him assemble it, it has been a steady stream of some of the best burgers, steaks, and briskets we have ever had.
Brisket before David’s magic…
And after.
Sliced and plated. Absolute perfection!
We’re not complaining, aside from the disturbing changes in our waistlines! 😮
And of course, we were able to get out on our own and see friends in the area.
We touched base with Greg, the father of two of my childhood friends growing up in Connecticut. In recent years, Greg returned to southwest Ohio to live and be near extended family. It was a nice surprise to see him again after so many years!
We were also able to see different groups of friends from our Miami University graduate school days. Hanging out, reminiscing over food, and getting caught up with everyone is always a good time. And this time there were no tornados!
It was great to see Chris, Mary, and their troupe of daughters!
And it was a pleasure having dinner with Tom and Judith.
Closing Thoughts
So it has been a pretty busy October for Two Travel Turtles! We had a wonderful time seeing everyone and reconnecting.
But we admit that we are getting itchy feet to travel again!
We are gearing up to head to Boston on November 5th, which we will use as a staging ground for our flight to Cancun, Mexico on November 7th. We have friends and family in the Boston area, so we’ll have one last hurrah before heading out to new faraway places.
Stay tuned! The next week is going to be interesting.
Until next time…
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2 thoughts on “Wrapping Up Our Time In The USA – New York + Ohio Update”
Safe travels and have FUN. Was great getting a chance to catch up.
Thanks! And it was great seeing you too.