On July 1, we left Lockport, NY and headed for the Binghamton area of NY.  For the first time ever, I mixed up the campgrounds we were supposed to be heading for and we ended up at an RV park where we had no reservation.  We had left especially early so we could avoid the holiday traffic only to have this little challenge!  We recovered, however and drove about 20 more miles to the campground we were supposed to be using. 

Along the way, we stopped at a Travel Service Center and had lunch.

We were consigned to the overflow area of the campground in Windsor, NY because of the holiday travel and because we were only staying one night.  We were alone at the end of a field with a covered entertainment pavilion with electricity and water but no sewer hook up. 

There were two fierce thunderstorms that day plus one brief tornado watch.  The pavilion provided a covered place to walk Baby.

Some New York highways have places to pull over called Text Stops. 

Have I mentioned there is a town called Alabama, NY?

We drove on July 2 to Philadelphia.

We parked at an urban "RV Park"  called Campus Park and Ride RV Park.  This bleak place has only one thing to recommend it, location.  It used to be a truck depot and is really a large parking lot with electric and water connections and a dump station.  The showers had no hot water and it took us a full day to find the dumpster.  AND every time you enter or leave you need to have someone let you in or out.  The person is probably one of the bus drivers who are based here and they may be anywhere when you call.  So far we have only had to wait a maximum of five minutes, but it is annoying.

We had a delightful reunion dinner with my Philadelphia first cousins and their spouses/significant others.  Nancy and Gerry hosted at their home and everyone gathered there. Ellen and Michael drove up from D.C., Steven and Chagit came even though they are leaving for Israel in a day and a half, and Carolyn and Jerry were there, too.  I hadn't seen most of them for 3-4 years and I could have stayed for days longer catching up.

 Front row, Chagit, me, Nancy, Ellen.  Back row, Carolyn, Jerry, Steven, Gary, Gerry and Michael.

Today, July 3, we caught up on some paperwork and did a few projects in the TrailBayser.  We needed some cash so we asked our GPS to take us to the nearest Wells Fargo ATM.  Well, this was probably the scariest ATM I have ever used.  I jumped out of the car and did the transaction while Gary kept the get-away car ready.  When I had gotten the cash, I quickly got back into the car and a police officer approached and said, "I guess it isn't you, is it?"  She explained that they had just gotten a call concerning a robbery at that ATM and wanted to know if we had seen anything.  YIKES!!

After that we went on a fruitless search for an eclair for Gary (his passion).  We walked a little in an area near University of Pennsylvania just to see what was there.

After that we found Ishkabibbles, a hole-in-the-wall serving excellent Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches.  You got your choice of American cheese, Provolone or Cheese Whiz.  I chose American but wished I had gotten the Cheese Whiz because Gary's sandwich was so good.