Baseball Hall of Fame and some very nice NY State Park employees

Location: Susquehanna Trail Campground; Oneonta, New York
(click pics to enlarge)

I hitched up and pulled out of Chenango State park Sunday morning. On the way out I met several nice people that were interested in the RV and me traveling around. I didn't get the names of the family on each side of me, but I did get the name of the last lady. Her name was Darcy and had recently moved to the country from New York City. She didn't have the typical NYC accent, but it was very close. Nice people, I wish I could have visited longer but I had campground reservations down the road. I also didn't get pictures of them, sorry. I had to empty my holding tanks on the way out of the park. I had a little surprise in do so. Apparently, someone forgot to shut the valve to the galley holding tank during the last time the tanks were emptied. This person did remember to put the cap on the pipe though which kept the galley water from coming out until I took the cap off. I was lucky in two ways. One, it was just the galley tank which is only dishwater and not the black tank. Two, the gushing water shot right between my legs to the drain and I only got a little wet from some of the splashing water. I made sure all the valves were closed before pulling out this time and will make a habit of checking the valves before taking the cap off. I guess the person that forgot to shut the valve could have been me, but I like to believe it was some mean person that wandered up and opened the valve while I wasn't around. Now that I think about it, I bet it was those two little old ladies at that stop light. One distracted me while the other reached under an opened the valve. Now I know why they were laughing. Whew, for a minute there, I thought I forgot to close it.

The weather was great for traveling, the sky was bright blue with wispy clouds. It was a short trip to the Susquehanna

Pretty sky through the windshield

Campground but over some more of that rough New York interstate/tollroad highways. It is so frustrating because most of it could be taken care of with a very little bit of

Rock cut

routine maintenance work. The main roads are the worst I've been on, but the secondary, two-lane roads are some of the best. I have more interstate to go before I leave New York; I

Freedom/Liberty in Rest Area with great sky

hope Freedom and Liberty hold up to the beating. This campground is located close to the interstate which makes it easy on and off when hitched up. The campground looks like it's seen it better days but the woman who owns it is trying to run it by herself since she lost her husband at the end of last year. It's been a

Campsite at Susquehanna Campground

good place for me to stop and is a Passport America campground which saves me 50% off of the camping fee. I have saved more than three times the cost of membership so far. It is a good deal for travelers.

One of the reasons I stopped here in Oneonta is to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame which is located in Cooperstown,

Hall of Fame entrance

about 20 miles (good roads) away. Cooperstown is a pretty small town and it seems most of the economic engine of the town comes from the Hall and baseball. There is only very limited on-street parking near the Hall but the city runs a Trolley system. You can park in one of three parking lots on the edge of town and for $2.00 per

typical crowd

day, the Trolley will shuttle you around the city. It is one of those jump on and off trolley where you can see different things without having to drive into the town. It was the best $2.00 I spent all day. 

History of Catchers equipment

The Hall opens up at 9:00 and I got there about 10:30. The first thing you notice is how small it is and it is in a commercial/residential neighborhood. I was lucky again in

Notice how close the photographer is

that for the first hour there were very few people visiting the place. But for the second hour it started getting crowded real fast. I wasn't impressed with the layout of the Hall. There wasn't a logical flow to the rooms/exhibits. One time your reading and seeing things from the 30's and the next thing you know you're looking at modern players. You go from room to room like

Walter Johnson's glove

in a house with each room being dedicated to something special about the game. Hank Aaron was in a section larger than most. Maybe it was a special presentation. They had a video of him talking which was playing constantly and loud enough that you could hear it in other rooms. I skipped his section because I'm still disillusioned and disappointed with him ever since he made that comment comparing Republicans to the old KKK.

Walter Johnson's Uniform

I was able to see things from some of my favorite players. They were Walter Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente,

Roberto Clemente

Willie Stargell and Greg Maddux. Johnson and Ryan were
both very fast pitchers while Maddux was slower but with pinpoint accuracy. One of the best quotes about Walter Johnson came from an umpire when asked if it was hard

Hall of Plaques

calling a game when Johnson throws so fast. The ump replied, "I don't know, I close my eyes just like the batters do when he throws." Clemente and Stargell were players for the

Yep, Walter Johnson was one of the first 5 inducted

Pittsburgh Pirates when I lived in Elizabeth, PA. Both had an impact on an impressionable 8 year old at the time.

Women in Baseball

Women's Uniforms and equipment

Uniforms

I discovered another mistake that I was taught in school. I had always believed that Abner Doubleday had "invented" baseball. Apparently, that information was put out by some company for advertisement purposes and it slowly became accepted fact. In reality, a guy named Alexander Cartwright came up with the rules of the game around 1845 when he played for his ball club the "the Knickerbockers" from New York City. He had an interesting life and it would have been nice to have learned it in grade school instead of in my 50's.

The Hall of Fame Museum was a nice place to visit for a couple of hours. I had looked forward to seeing it, but sadly, it will not rank real high on the places I have seen already.

After leaving the Hall, I stopped at the Gilbert Lake State Park. It is the place where the official New York State Civilian Conservation Corp Museum is located. I checked into the office and was politely informed that I was about a week early for the museum since it wasn't due to

Sam and Kathi

open until next weekend. I mentioned that I was passing through the state and wouldn't be able to come back next weekend. The very nice lady, named Kathi (yes, spelling is corrcct), asked me to wait a minute while she radioed some of the workers in the park. She asked if anyone was around the museum that could let me peek inside since I was just passing through the area. A guy named Todd answered the call and said he was working around there and to send me on down. Kathi gave me a pass and a map and off I went. After

getting twisted around a little bit I pulled into a parking area near the building. A young lady, named Shannon, was waiting to show me the museum since Todd was busy. She opened up the museum and let me in. It is a small two room museum with several displays. One of the best parts of the museum is a couple of walls covered with small pictures from the camps

and their projects. It would take a long time to look at those and although there was no pressure to hurry up, I felt obligated to be quick since they had went out of their way to let me inside. I stayed for about 30 minutes and then left.
The park people were great and went the extra mile to help a crazy old man who stopped in to see a museum in the woods of New York state. The New York State Park system is something that they can be proud of in the state. I have camped at two of them and visited this one and each one has been a nice experience.

I received my mail from my youngest son, Brandon, yesterday. This is twice I've received mail by General Delivery and it works great. I also had to get a bottle of propane filled up at the U-Haul place. I have two 30 pound bottles on Liberty and this is the first re-fill since about January of this year. I only use the propane for cooking (which I'm not doing much of at all) and the water heater (which is only when I'm on 30 amp service). The main purpose of it is to run the refrigerator when I'm traveling. When I'm breaking camp, I can hear the propane kick in on the refrigerator as soon as I  disconnect the electrical power cord.

Today is laundry day. Tomorrow is a travel day and by tomorrow evening, I will be camped in the North Brattleboro KOA in Vermont. It has free Wifi so I should be able to give my data plan a rest. It will be about a 4 to 5 hour run, which is a little more than I like but I have two good stops along the way. There is an easy access rest area/gas station stop on the toll road where I'll top off my tanks and maybe get something to eat. I will also be stopping at Walmart in a Vermont town just inside the state. Both of those stops are about 1 1/2 hours apart which works great. I'll be towing Liberty through the Green Mountains on a two lane road for about 60 to 70 miles. That should be interesting. Hopefully, I'll let you know how that turns out in the next post.

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road.