(Thursday May 17th) It's been a frustrating day as far as being on the computer goes. Seems that no matter where I was or what signal was being used, it just didn't work correctly. So tonight instead of quite a few pictures to share there are only these 5.... and they took more than 2 hours to load. Perhaps there was a lot of sunspot activity or signal gremlins were out in full force, I am hoping that tomorrow will be better.  

    Otherwise it was a glorious day, nice and sunny, a bit warmer than 70 degrees and just a hint of breeze. Took off early and headed west, finally ending up in Utica, NY where I spent a couple of hours just wandering the streets. Nothing really remarkable popped out at me, just lots of neat buildings, nice parks and a whole system of trails down along the river. Will have to go back again in a day or two and see a little more, maybe do some research first and see what museum and other sites they have to visit.

    I'm going to have to sign off for the day and finish this off tomorrow. Already I have had to close out and reboot this site 3 times after my connection died. Sorry for the short post this evening.

   Will repost this again tomorrow, with additional modifications.

   (Friday May 18th) It appears like many, though not all, of the signal gremlins have been slain since last night, so it may be possible to get this post out this evening after all. Had to go into Johnstown this afternoon and find the library so I could piggyback off of their signal, otherwise the additional pictures below would have never been loaded on. Hated to be inside even for those few hours as it was a glorious day out today. The temperature was in the high 70's and the sun was shining brightly, pretty much a perfect spring day.

   After a few hours inside though it was time to go take a nice long walk around this lake, or as they call it here, 'pond', that is just outside of town. Didn't even think of it at the time but I should of gotten the canoe down and thrown it on the lake, it would of been a beautiful day for a paddle. Perhaps next time.

   Had to make a trip over to the hardware store also this afternoon as there was a need for a couple of mouse traps. No, there has been no invasion of the trailer by vermin. Instead what has happened is that for the last two days as I've hopped in and driven away, at the 1st stop I come to this little mouse has crawled out from under the hood of the truck, taken a look around as if to say, 'what the hell', and then has ducked back under it. I've opened the hood up several times to see where it is and to make sure there is no nest building going on, but the mouse is never in sight at those times. Gave the little fella two days to vacate the area after the rain let up, but he/she seems determined to make it his/her home. Hence, a few mouse traps baited with a little peanut butter placed around the engine compartment. Will see in the morning whether or not it is going to work. Hope to eliminate the little bugger one way or another before it has time to chew through some electrical wires and start a fire or build a nest in there and have a few babies.

    Had to dig the old printer out this evening and run a few documents off. No one ever thinks about little things like that when they start out on this kind of adventure, but I've found that along with the computer you need to have a printer handy to print off things like tax forms and dance applications. Tonight it was a matter of running off the last form for the raft trip down the Grand Canyon this next August. Nearly as important was making a couple copies of my current truck insurance cards. It doesn't help that they mail all of that stuff to your mailbox if you don't expect to pick up your mail for 6 months or more. I'm just glad that most of that stuff can now be done via computer, otherwise this travelling stuff wouldn't work at all.

    Nice evening here at the RV camp, wandered around the grounds for a little bit, said hi to a bunch of fellow campers, petted a couple dogs. They have a little roadside snack stand here with the campground, Grandma's Goodies, that receives an amazing amount of business on warm afternoons and evenings. Pretty good ice cream cones, and not all that expensive. Otherwise it was a nice evening to read a little bit and listen to some music. Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow as of yet, but there is always something to go see or do. Wish there had been a dance to go to tonight, but nothing for me until next Friday. For all of my friends that are attending the 'Blue Moon' contra dance down in Huntsville, Alabama, I hope you are all dancing up a storm and having a great time. Hope to see at least a couple of you next weekend up in Oswego.

     Here are a few photo's from a day spent wandering the streets of Johnstown.

One of the many neat homes in the town of Johnsville.

Another view showing almost all the elements of a house that I love. Bay windows, turrets, porches, lots of detail. This is just a wonderful house.

Here is a closer look at the bay window and turret. I love how they finished the bottom portion with what I am pretty sure is stucco. Also note the stain glass windows.

A nice simple box of a house, but look what they did to make it unique. All the details on the porch rail and the eave brackets. The window trim is wonderful as is the mansard roof. I wonder if there is an actual 3rd story to the house. It is certainly tall enough for one.

Looks like they may have updated the actual windows on this one, but they still have many of the details it originally had.

What caught my eye first on this one was the two 45 degree turned wooden braces on the small roof overhanging the front steps. Very nicely painted.

The bay there on the left was set out at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the house. The roof cap on that section, and the round windows, also added a lot of interest.

This was a truly beautiful house on the other corner from the first house in this series. Got to talking to the guy who owns the house where I'm standing, as I was in his driveway taking pictures when he tried to drive out, a very nice guy by the way, and he told me that the new owner of this house just paid nearly $150,000 just to redo the slate shingles on it....They did do a really good job of it. 

Here you can see a little bit more of the house. What little wood there is on the exterior they use to good effect. I would imagine that the ceilings in this house have to be a minimum of 9' tall if not 10'.

This is the driveway I was standing in taking pictures from. As you can see this house had plenty of interest of it's own. The guy who lives here was telling me though about the little building behind this one that I took to be an old garage that had been converted into a small separate apartment type house. Instead it had actually originally been a small factory where they manufactured gloves. Seems that was a big cottage industry back in the early 1800's and was the reason the town of 'Gloverville' came into existence.

Can't you just imagine a den or library there on the 1st floor and maybe a sitting area off the master bedroom on the 2nd?

This one had been owned by the guy who started that first glove factory. It had been going through a bunch of renovation also according to my source. There is a lot to like about this house also.

This was interesting because it appeared to be a tri-plex with the 3rd unit around the corner to the left.  Really makes me wonder what the story was here. What ever it was they still managed to meld all of the units together even though I just have a feeling that they weren't all built at the same time.

I thought the paint job on this one was interesting. Still haven't made up my mind as to whether I actually like it or not. It also seems like there should be a window or two on the front left hand side of the house. Could there have been at one time?

It's just easy to imagine a family with 8 or 9 kids living in this house at one time. What a neat old place.

Another interesting duplex? If it is I couldn't figure out how it was divided up on the inside. Guess it'll just have to remain a mystery.