We reached our final planned stop on this wonderful trip on Sept 2. We've come to Syracuse to visit another dear friend...have booked a couple of days at Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona. It's quite a large complex with five golf courses, a huge hotel, a lodge and spa. The RV portion of the resort is about a mile from the the main portion and is pleasant. They've done a very good job of preserving the natural landscape and making the man-made features look quite natural.


One particular thing I love about this mode of travel is the ability to see friends along the way...we threw steaks,vegetables and herbed potatoes on the grill and had a great visit with Dick. We didn't have nearly as good of time at the casino!


The next days we took a nice bike around the resort and booked a golf lesson for Rick. Went over to Turning Stone's signature course, Atunyote,...it's quite imposing, beatifully kept and appointed...however, we found their gates a bit scary!


Rick loves the head pro, Marty, whose come to Turning Stone from the noted Jim McLean Golf School at Doral. He's sure he's fixed his game...we play after Rick's lesson and we both still have a bit of work to do on our games!


The Brazilian resort at the resort, Rodizio, has been touted to us. It's a huge amount of food for a very fair price, but it's not particularly notable. One note, this whole resort is dry (have never seen a casino before that isn't pushing drinks). However, they allow you to bring alcoholic beverages into the restaurants and bring a corkscrew and proper glasses. We have another painful evening in the casino.

Tubing on the Schroon River

Tubing is on the agenda today. It's Labor Day and the entire place is clearing out. It's blissfully quiet. Ride our bikes around the property and some of the views from the tent sites and 2-way hook-ups are gorgeous. Stare at the river while I pre-cook baby back ribs in the oven to be finished on the grill later.



We rent the tubes, tie them to the car and drive upstream a couple of miles. After much tooing and froing alot, we get launched in the cool, but refreshing, water. It's a hoot! The river is low and doesn't move fast enough to be exhilarating or scary...but it's great fun. We invent a new Olympic sport of syncro tubing!




The trip takes a litle over an hour...we hit one tiny, tiny, tiny little bit of white water and get appropriately soaked.

We spot Gigantor ahead on the bank and work our way over to that side of the river and climb out. A resort worker then takes you back to your car to bring it home.

Rick has been trying to get out fishing...a new hobby which he took very seriously last winter in The Keys. I settle in to read a book while staring at the river and Rick plants his chair in the water.I'm thinking maybe we won't be having ribs tonight, but freshly caught fish...we grill the ribs and watch another DVD.