This looks like a good place to stop on Saturday heading down to Pennsylvania and it's not far out of the way -- nice stopping place outside of Oneonta. Figure an hour and half from home. Not just for the treat of cider and cider doughnuts to bring to camp but also lots of good fresh veggies.
Today the average high falls to 60 degrees though once we get beyond this weekend it might be a fair bit above average with a lot of sun. Less than two weeks until November, Thanksgiving is in five weeks. But the coming sunshine and warmer weather equals good news for the October road trip! Plus ample sunshine today.
Good morning! Fog 🌫 and 45 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind.The skies will clear around 8 am.
Oatmeal banana 🍌 pancakes this morning 🥞 though I ran low on oatmeal so I ended up adding whole wheat flour to the mix and it was excellent. 😋 I’ve been also adding baking soda and apple cider vinegar for extra browning and fluff (think elementary school volcanoes) and it works great along with shredded carrots for more crunch and fiber. 🥕 Lately I’ve been going through so many carrots, I’m virtually a rabbit 🐰 farmer. Some day maybe, I’ve heard rabbit meat 🥩 is an excellent source of lean protein on the homestead.
Today will have patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 65 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 8th. Maximum dew point of 48 at 10am. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 53 degrees. The record high of 79 was set in 1963. There was a dusting of snow in 1992.❄
Should be a good day to ride to work. 🚲 Tomorrow though with the rain coming I’ll be busing 🚍 it seems, first time since that one evening before Columbus Day Weekend. In two and a half weeks after the vacation I’ll be busing it every night due to the time change. 🕒 Sucks but it will make the mornings brighter 🔆. Maybe then I’ll get off my ass and do my morning walk 🚶 again especially as I won’t be doing the evening bike ride. I’ve been enjoying my bicycle commutes, disappointed about tomorrow’s forecast but I’ll trade it for awesome weather on vacation.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:41 pm with sun having an altitude of 37.5° from the due south horizon (-33.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 7.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:30 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (251°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (257°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:09 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 58 seconds with dusk around 6:36 pm, which is one minute and 34 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (203°) at an altitude of 15° from the horizon, 232,459 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:10 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 61 degrees. The dew point will be 48 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 57 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over yesterday.
Next week I’m going to be in West Virginia 🗻 at least that’s the plan. It should be a great week in the mountain state. Tonight I’m going to Walmart to get supplies for the trip, Maybe get another 34 inch pair of jeans. 👖 I have 15 bean soup mix soaking in my refrigerator today and will enjoy it for lunch 🍲 tomorrow and then dinner at camp ⛺ on Saturday night in the rain. I think I’ll bake up two loaves of bread 🍞 and more Butternut squash 🍆 tonight to bring down to start off my vacation. Friday night I’ll finish up packing and do the laundromat thing.
Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 52 degrees at 1am. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 18th. Maximum dew point of 49 at 2am. South wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 36 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1972.
Rainy weekend ahead, especially on Saturday. ☔ Saturday, rain. High near 60. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Sunday, a chance of rain before 11am, then a chance of showers after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 60 degrees.
Looking at the driving 🚘 weather forecast it looks like the morning weather will start out wet on my drive to Pennsylvania ☔ but will stop as I head south or at least moderate. Sunday is looking decent for riding the Chesapeake and Ohio trail in Cumberland then setting up camp before dark. Might not even need a tarp on Sunday.
Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Thanksgiving 🦃 when the sun will be setting at 4:28 pm with dusk at 4:57 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 49 and 24 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 46 degrees. We hit a record high of 72 back in 1931. As I was noting last night, I’m already thinking about a November trip around Election Day or Veteran’s Day out to Madison County, 🐮 but after that I’ll probably stick closer to home through the end of hunting season, maybe doing some day trips or bike rides along rail trails. 🚂
Data Source: NYS GIS Clearinghouse - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) - DEC State Land Forest Stands. https://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=1356
Kind of a running list of where things stand and what I need to do to make vacation happen.
It looks like it will be a great week down in West Virginia with lots of sun and temperatures warming up to the upper 60s by the end of the week. Maybe some rain for the drive down on Saturday but even that evening doesn’t look like a wash out. Checked the oil over the weekend, and that was good, I could pick up some pre-mix coolant and top that off just to be safe.
Tonight I’m going to run to Walmart to get some initial supplies and things I need around the apartment. Start packing and getting ready. Been thinking a lot about what I want to cook down there, as food shopping options really are limited in Davis and Thomas high country area and I don’t plan to drive to either Oakland or Elkins mid week if I can avoid it. I was hoping to get ice cream in Davis/Thomas but the one ice cream parlor in the region closed before Columbus Day Weekend. Kind of a bummer as it’s going to be warm by the end of the week. Maybe I can get my fix of pumpkin ice cream on the way back home. Doesn’t have to be fancy — I’m all for vanilla soft-ice cream with a pumpkin dip. I’ll bring some cans of pumpkin puree to have pumpkin with non-fat greek yogurt at camp, plus pumpkin-oatmeal pancakes and pumpkin-oatmeal biquits for my pumpkin fix.
Got to transfer $300 from my rainy day bank account to my main account to keep the balance up and then withdraw $200 in small bills for miscellaneous expenses like campground fees and farm stands on the way down. I get paid next Tuesday but my bank balance is currently fairly low and with rent due along with automated investment and retirement there still will be insufficient funds despite the money coming in. At the end of November though my deferred compensation will max out so that should mean a good boost in pay that will help me catch up again on my bank balance.
I need to print up some maps for some of the areas I’m exploring plus make sure I have cached the forest service and topographic maps on my phone. While I should have service at camp, not all locations will and it’s better to be safe then not have the maps I need. I really plan to GPS and share as much of my trip as possible, including posting tracks of drives, bike rides and hikes along the way. Plus get podcasts to listen to up at camp, especially for the first rainy night where it’s unlikely I’ll have much service.
I want to soak 15 bean soup tonight, make hard boiled eggs and knead bread to bake on Friday afternoon so I have things to eat on the way down and Saturday night without much cooking especially if it turns out Saturday evening is wetter then it’s trending. I also want to get some cider doughnuts to enjoy on the way down, maybe in Oneonta. Hit the hay early Saturday night at camp in Penna and get on the road early Sunday around day break to Cumberland, Maryland.
Sunday looks like the rain will pull out fairly early which is good if I want to spend a few hours exploring the Chesapeake and Ohio Trail in Cumberland on Blackie my mountain bike before heading down to Keyser to top off my propane and do one more supply shop at Walmart before heading up the Allegheny Front and setting up camp in the high country.
Monday is going to be a bit cool but sunny and the rest of the week could very well be t-shirt weather at least by the end of the day with lots of sun. Planning many bike rides and hikes through the week to scenic locations. Want to have many good, delicious and healthy meals to cook even though I won’t have my full oven but I’ll bring my camp oven and Dutch oven. Undecided about the food processor, I could bring it or I might just mill up oatmeal for pancakes and baking in advance.
Then just kind of relax. I want to have fun but not be rushed or trying to see and visit as many places as possible at once. Be able to watch many sun rises and sunsets, have some nice fires, listen to music and podcasts. Take pictures and enjoy the scenery. Eat good healthy meals. Maybe do a bit of bike riding under the moon light, get a craft beer from Mountain State Brewery. Make the most of it before heading back north come the following Saturday.
