Harmony, PA/Colesville & Roscoe, NY

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Did the laundry and then traveled to Bridgewater, NY to find the grave of one of Randy's ancestors. We camped at a beautiful campground in Bridgewater. It was run by a Slovak couple with heavy accents. The camp went all around the lake. We walked around the lake and enjoyed how pretty it was.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

We visited the City Clerk's office in Bridgewater. Carol, the clerk, was very helpful and so nice. She went with us to find this overgrown cemetery and look for headstones. We really didn't have much hope of finding it since he died in 1814, but low and behold--there it was!

Randy's mother, Alice, needs to establish lineage for her to join the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). He was a sergeant in the revolutionary war.

A baby Randall.

Then, we went to South Bainbridge, but couldn't find much so we continued on to Harmony, PA, now called Oakland. Harmony is where Emma was from and she and Joseph returned to her father's farm to translate the plates. It was here on the banks of the Susquehanna River that the Priesthood was restored to the earth by John the Baptist. Joseph and Oliver Cowdery then baptized each other in the Susquehanna.

Monument commemorating the restoration.

Probable place of the baptisms. It's a cove where the water is calm instead of fighting the current.

We then went to the cemetery next to the monument and found the restored headstone of Joseph and Emma's first child. We found her parents' headstones too but I didn't take a picture because they weren't very nice people. I hope they have since repented. The bugs were so annoying. They swarmed around your face until you thought you would breathe them in. YUK!

Randy saw on the map that there was a Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in Roscoe which wasn't very far from Harmony. We decided to check it out. I found a campground in the Trailer Life computer program that was close. We ate dinner at the "famous" Roscoe Diner and then tried to find the campground in the dark. What a disaster!! There was a covered bridge that was only 6'6" high so we had to go around some how. A nice man came out of his house because we kept driving by and trying to turn our trailer around. He knew we were hopelessly lost. He told us the way over the big (but narrow) metal bridge. On the other side were these huge, rusted, wrought-iron gates. They looked like they belonged in Transylvania in front of Dracula's castle. So we really felt lost. Finally found the campground, but had a hard time pulling into the space because of the dark and lots of trees. Was sooo glad to go to bed.

Friday, September 4, 2009

We slept in after our ordeal the previous night. We then went to the museum and visited with the people there. We went to the fly shop of one of the hall-of-famers. She was a cute elderly lady that could tie the best flies Randy had ever seen. Her grandson ran the fly shop which was in the front room of their house and loved to talk fly fishing. Two other local tourists came in and the talk really got deep. The man told Randy that if you catch a trout with a nymph, it didn't count. He also told us about a restaurant to try. We drove around looking at fishing spots and checked out the restaurant and decided to try it the next night.

Saturday, September 5, 2009
Randy fished in the morning and then we packed up the trailer and moved to another campground that had hookups and was down closer to town on the bigger Beaverkill river. Randy went fishing for awhile and then we went to dinner at the restaurant we checked out the day before. The rack of lamb was very good.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

We went to church at a branch in Monticello, NY. We had a hard time finding it. The GPS took us to an apartment complex and the road was closed past that. We drove around and just by chance(?) we found it on a different street than what the website said. We had a great meeting block and afterward the members have a potluck dinner every fast Sunday that we stayed for. They were great people and very hospitable.

Afterward, we decided to drive up to Woodstock since we were so close. Of course, the GPS got us lost again. It took us to Cairo about 25 miles out of our way. Anyway, using the atlas, we found Woodstock and guess what? The hippies are still there and they are still stoned! It was a zoo!