Day One
I left the hotel in Evans Mills roughly on time. The continental breakfast was slim pickings. I had the waffles and took Maureen’s advice and ate a peach before it rotted.
I had a double espresso at Chrissy Beanz Bakery & Café in Sackets Harbor, NY. They served it in a shot glass; it was okay. I bought a couple of apples at a self-serve fruit stand across the street. I walked around the Sackets Harbor Battlefield for about fifteen minutes; a lot of history has happened there.
By the time I arrived at Fort Ontario State Historic Site, I was thirty minutes behind schedule. I guess no matter how fast I drove, I couldn’t match the times predicted by Google Maps. It is a large fort with a lot of history, and most interesting to me was that it was used to house Holocaust refugees from 1944 to 1946. I didn’t go inside the fort because it doesn’t open until 10:00AM, and my friend Lance wanted me to get to Erie, PA, to meet a supplier of precast concrete he was working with.
Chrissy Beanz , Sackets Harbor, NY
I arrived at Durand Eastman Beach forty-five minutes late. I decided to eat my lunch there to save a little time. I packed a cooler with what I need to eat a simple lunch: bread, cheese, and fruit, the same as I have done on all my other road trips. I hoped to swim in all five Great Lakes, and I should have gone swimming in Lake Ontario at this stop.
I had been sticking to the secondary roads to enjoy the lakeside drive, but to save some time, I reconfigured the GPS to allow highway travel to save an hour. The GPS directed me to take I-90 all the way to Buffalo, NY, and then backtrack 22 miles east. I should have swum at the previous stop so I could have skipped Four Mile Creek State Park because of the extra hour spent backtracking. I realized this too late, and Four Mile Creek State Park was the westernmost beach on Lake Ontario, so I had no choice but to go there. The swim mostly went well; the waterproof key fob holder and condom combination worked great. The rubber is transparent, so I left it on, and the key fob worked fine through it. My only mistake was the beach was rocky, not sandy. My feet aren’t as tough as they used to be, so it was a painful experience. Next swim I might have to wear shoes.
Fort Ontario State Historic Site
Fort Ticonderoga
9/11/2025
Watertown, NY to Westlake, OH
472 Miles
Grapes at Ohio Welcome Center
Four Mile Creek State Park
There are grape vineyards all along I-90 for about 75 miles west of Buffalo. When I stopped at the Ohio Welcome Center, there was a vineyard right behind it. There were some grapevines growing on the fence to the rest area, so I ate a bunch. They were good; they reminded me of the wild Concord grapes we used to eat when I was young.
I drove between seventy-five and eighty miles per hour in an attempt to get to Erie, PA, to meet Lance’s guy. It didn’t matter because he went home at 3:30PM, and I didn’t get to Erie until 4:30PM. I went to the top of the Bicentennial Tower; unfortunately, they closed the stairs a few years before, so I had to use the elevator. I had another double espresso at the Purrista Cat Cafe. I didn’t see any cats, but it was a good pour, and they served it in porcelain cups. I restocked my fruit supply at Whole Foods and headed to the Ironwood Cafe in Westlake, OH, and had a Caesar side salad and a side of truffle fries. It was fine, but I didn’t taste any truffle.