Notes — Andy Arthur.org

It was a beautiful morning before the clouds started to push in ⛅

Andy | August 1, 2026

No rain expected for today, though they are talking about rain showers tomorrow, though less rain then maybe earlier estimates. Tomorrow will be a day for hanging out at camp, reading, maybe doing some fishing up at Foster Pond. The water levels are really high at that pond, as I found myself wading through water with my knock-off crocks last night.

Yesterday was okay, a quiet day, the balance of the day spent at the Watkins Glen Pool. 🏊‍♂️ I was disappointed with the ice cream sundae I got yesterday at Glen Dairy Bar, 🍨 wasn’t as tasty as I remembered, they kind of overfilled the cup and it was dripping and the service was slow. I keep telling myself I could be in Michigan. And I was annoyed about the work that kept coming in, and then that they are now charging $8 (plus a ‘small conviencence fee’) to park at the Seneca Lake kayak launch. I normally park on Cass Road and haul my kayak across NY 79, 🛶 as I hate how small that lot is but I am starting to wonder about the legality of parking on Cass Road pull off, despite doing it for years, though there is no parking signs so it’s probably fine. I guess I could pull even further down the road after unloading the kayak in the future to ensure I am legitimate. I don’t know, I am kind of tired of the Finger Lakes. Need coffee and a few other supplies at Wally World in Watkins Glen, and left $42 poorer. Shit just adds up these days, I can’t complain though I make good money and camping in the National Forest is free and mom pays for my parks past.

Today, I am heading down to Trumansburg for the day, first stopping at the Trumansburg library to run counts and make some maps up for work. 🧑‍💻 I will bring the bike and the kayak, though I worry Cayuga Lake may be choppy with the breeze. I might launch from the Alfred Treman Park, and stay on the Cayuga Inlet or just barely get out on Cayuga Lake past the breakwater to paddle up Stewart Creek. Definately want to stay away from Stewart Park today with the Ithaca farmers market 🌽 on going, that is always so nuts with traffic. Maybe hike around Taughannock Gorge, supposedly the falls are very impressive with all the rain they got on Wednesday, though it didn’t seem like Aunt Sarah or Shequanock Falls, or Glen Creek were particular torrents yesterday. I think the much west of Cayuga Lake the total rainfall dropped off significantly. Need ice, 🧊 I am sure at this point, and Alfred Treman always has cheap ice on the honor system for fisherman, it’s like $1.50 a bag, you can’t beat that. 🎣 Tomorrow I’ll probably go fishing in Foster Pond, that seems like a good activity for a rainy day, besides hanging out at camp, smoking weed and reading 📚. I got my ten July borrows out of Hoopla yesterday, so I should have plenty of good reads for the balance of vacation.

Monday I will probably go to Ithaca for propane and maybe some more weed. 😶‍🌫️ Figure Sunday have a good toke or two while sitting under the tarp next to the propane heater. Been wanting to find a good Ithaca dispensery and try something new, though I like to research in advance. Been thinking of checking out Fall Creek Preserve, 🚶‍♂️and some other Ithaca Preserves I’ve never visited before. I like the Cornell Arboretum but I feel like I’ve done that too many times before, want to do new things. Need to find a library 📚 to work the end of Monday, then get back to camp relatively early, as I want to be in bed by 9 AM so I can get up at 5 AM on Tuesday, have a quick breakfast, and be on the road to Pennsylvania a little after daybreak – say around 6 AM, as I have a lot of adventures planned for Pennsylvania day 🌞 dawn to dusk. Maybe hit up the Glen Dairy Bar 🍦 on the way back to camp, they are open until 10 PM. Won’t be real dark until 9 PM, so as long as I’m in the Glen by then, I don’t mind the drive back to camp after dark, I’ll go slow and watch for deer 🦌 – the SuperDuty has excellent headlights. 🛻

Terribly lazy 🦥

Andy | July 31, 2026

On what is likely to be the nicest day of vacation weather wise I spent the balance of the day at the Watkins Glen Pool, listening to Rust audio book about life working in a steel mill. I could have done so much more but after riding down to Montour Falls, I was hot, tired and bothered especially as the work emails came piling in an I just ignored them.

Week forecast just looks cloudier and rainier all week. Monday I got to work remote 4-5 pm but I’m sure there is things legitimately needing to get done. Tuesday still looks best for Pennsylvania but that’s marginal too. And I’m feeling a bit sunburnt at this point from all that sitting in the sun.

Listening to Rust I am reminded of how privileged I am and how easy my life is compared to many but at times it doesn’t feel like that. After setting up camp in National Forest as the rain came to a conclusion, everything is kind of muddy. My SuperDuty work truck with a camper shell is so basic compared to some fancy trucks and RVs you see around, and I could own such things if I wanted to spend the money. I’m camping in the bush though I could afford a fancy motel or campground if I wanted. But mostly I do wish I had gone to Michigan, seen new pastures.

But I’m just very tired. I’m not sleeping enough I guess but what I crave is hammock time. Like yesterday except I spent most of yesterday setting up camp and then riding seeking out a Finger Lakes sunset. The temptation is to retire back to camp early tonight but I crave a sunset on Seneca Lake, maybe a bike ride or walk along Rock Cabin Road above Catherine Creek Marsh. And ice cream from the Glen Dairy bar. Still I’m tired and the hammock and some good ebooks is calling me. But that’s an activity for another day. One less pleasant.

I had issues with the XY-CD60 terminals getting disconnected and the relay not connecting properly and the loose washer on the low voltage disconnect which was keeping things from charging the today. Need to definately get a lock washer. But I found myself fixing that in the heat of the parking lot next to the stinky Suite – Kote Asphalt plant and that just made me want to puke. Hope it’s tight now but that’s going to continue to be a problem. And it’s something that grinds my gears just like the motorcycles and noise when I was down in Montour Falls. It really just started to feel so oppressively hot and noisy down in Montour Falls. And the bike was making all it’s usually noises – a brake dragging a bit and it was just plain annoying me. But at least the big powerful SuperDuty is a joy to drive on the hills both up and down.

I tell you that I could have been in Michigan. But I’m still working out the technical glitches on the new camper shell with the electrical, demands of work that keep coming in, and I’m just tired. Very tired. That’s why I chose the boring old Finger Lakes – the easy choice I know well. Terribly lazy. And to think people plan their really expensive vacation and travel half the world to visit Watkins Glen and I’m like this is so boring and mundane, sitting back at the pool and in the pastures watching the cows rip grass with their tongues.

SVGZ Graphic: More Milk, Fewer Cows - New York State

Thematic Map: Adirondack Forest Preserve

Empty Container Before Recycling ♻️ Plastic Bottle

Andy | July 31, 2026

So the label said when I tossed it into the white trash bag. Soon enough to melt and burn, just like so much of my trash, anonymously disappearing into the flames and a little black smoke.

Plastics recycling is mostly a scam. Some of the No 2 plastic are turned into plastic lumber for decks and railings at DEC projects, but most of it is trash, a byproduct of all that natural gas we use to heat our homes and to a lesser extent the oil that fuels my SuperDuty truck and a billion other cars. But for me, it’s just trash and ultimately fire.

Sometimes I watch as the plastics melts and burns, but mostly I don’t. Mostly it’s just there to get the fire burning hot, the goal to incinerate and destroy it as fast as possible without stink lest leery eyes report it to law. Maybe not lawful in New York but who cares in wilderness. The nasty stuff is mostly gone, fracking producing oodles of cheap polyethelene and environmental regulation means PVC is mostly a memory except maybe for fire-resistant electrical cords.

I won’t argue there isn’t too much gross plastic crap everywhere to send up in smoke. I tell myself eating healthy, I’ve cut way back. But I could do better if I got milk delivered. Or was a bit more careful of a consumer. But what do I care? It smashes down and then almost completely disappears in the flames.

Second day of vacation 🩴 🏖️ 😎

Andy | July 31, 2026

At least weather wise, the second day of summer vacation might be the best though only time will tell. Sunny, cool, light breeze morning slowly but surely drying up the mud from yesterday.

I got to camp around 1:30 pm just as the final rain shower of the day was pushing away. 🌧️ Certainly they didn’t get as much rain in the Finger Lakes as Albany got yesterday, but it still was wet and indeed much of the drive out to the Finger Lakes was through drizzle and clouds, though ultimately it wasn’t a bad drive but not totally exciting either.

I got a later start then I would have hoped but it was pouring all Wednesday night, and I didn’t get to the bank 💵 on Wednesday and needed to go to a video lottery, I mean video ATM 🏧 machine to get small denomination bills for farm stands, tag sales 🏷️, ice cream 🍦 and anything else I might need that couldn’t be put on a card during vacation. I wasn’t sure if the VTM was located outside, it was when I got to SEFCU State Office Campus but my truck with the mirrors couldn’t fit but I walked up to the ATM and got it done, despite the signs saying such things are prohibted. Discrimination I tell you. It’s a disability, you know my penis is broken. Too much time jacking off dreaming of watching garbage burn up in wilderness. 🐺 Or Pennsylvania.

The brakes on the SuperDuty are absolutely amazing. You get to the bottom of a long hill, and they have zero fade. 🛑 In the default drive mode the engine gently downshifts as you go down a long grade but it’s not aggressive and you have a ton of manifold vaccum on the big block, maybe not diesel level but it’s impressive compared to the small blocks I’ve always driven. Really enjoying not fearing the brakes or having to shift at all while I’m in Finger Lakes. You just put the SuperDuty in drive, and off you go, super easy.

I got up to camp and sat in the truck at first as it was rather wet, and around 2 PM got into earnest setting this up, erecting the tarp and tent, table, propane and lights, hammock, and so forth. Smoked some dope and drunk some beer. 🥴 Fried up zucchuni and bathed it with cornmeal, bacon and salsa. Ended up popping down $28 for a steering wheel cover, as the SuperDuty work truck steering wheel has such hard nasty plastic, and I wanted to have some creature comfort on my long road trip without sore hands. 🫶 What can you say, I’m a girly man who works with computers 🖥️ all day and spends too much time jacking off. And camps up in wilderness.

Seems like there is more cows 🐮 up in the National Forest, especially calves this year but maybe it just was dumb luck where they were grazing, due to clouds and drizzle. Often when it’s hot out they tend to head to the more shaded, remote parts of their pastures. I’m sure if it’s as wet as they say come Sunday there will be even more mud and smell like wet cow farm. But you know I dream of someday having cattle to graze out back past the burn barrel. 🛢️ I am thinking Tuesday looks like the best day to head down to Pennsylvania to do the Blackwell Triple Crown, 🫅 though I’ll be driving between the peaks, along with driving up Lamb’s Vista, riding a bit of the Pine Creek Rail Trail, checked out the blackened you know what and rundown farms and homesteads, maybe get a few more smokes before driving back in darkness to camp. Want to leave very early that day, maybe set my alarm for 4 or 5 AM so I full day for PA day.

Today heading down to Watkins Glen around 9:30 AM, then swinging by the library to do some work and finish up some loose ends, 🧑‍💻 hope to hit the Montour Falls Rail Trail around 11 AM, 🚲 then a little bit of hiking at Watkins Glen Park, a swim in the late afternoon at the pool, then Glen Dairy Bar 🍨. I thought about kayaking Seneca Lake but I don’t think today I want to do. I’ll bring the tube, I could go for a float on the lake in the evening, but instead I’ll probably ride Rock Dam Road, watch the sun set over Seneca Lake, swing by Wally World for stevia, maple syrup and a few other supplies 🛒 before heading back to camp this evening.

Tomorrow looks cloudier, 🌥️ but I might head down to Taughannock State Park 🏞️ maybe with the kayak 🛶 and do some paddling on Cayuga Lake if it’s not too turbulent. I don’t want to necessarily head into Ithaca with a traffic on the commercial strip or even worse the insane farmers market traffic 🧑🏻‍🌾, but I might park at Allen Treman and launch from there. Sunday looks to be the wettest day of summer vacation, I’ll stay up in the National Forest, I have my fishing pole, maybe see what I can catch at Foster Pond, and just wander around in the woods, and do some reading and hanging out in camp. Hopefully it won’t be a washout but I have the propane heater in case it’s truly cold and miserable in wilderness. If the accessory battery gets low, what’s nice withe SuperDuty is I can just hit the remote start button, and it will idle for 15 minutes to charge everything up. Dug out a trench 🪏 to hopefully keep the water from ponding up at camp on Sunday.

I need to get my 10 Hoopla borrows done by this evening as it’s July 31st today, believe it or not. How fast time comes and goes, by the time summer vacation is over, autumn will be rapidly approaching. That said, I feel like it was just yesterday I was up here, Labor Day 2025 back with Big Red on his last summer vacation. It was kind of boring 💤 driving out here, the same scenery, and the SuperDuty with its’ good brakes and excessive amounts of power, made the drive even more boring. I was thinking 🤔 I could have been going out to Michigan the whole time out here, for a totally different experience. But I changed my mind, and honestly, I just have too many office responsibility to take care of currently with work, so yeah, I need to get down to the Watkins Glen library 🧑‍💻 and get on my way before this day is done too. Happy end of July and Happy Beautiful Summer Vacation Day to me too. ☺️

SVGZ Graphic: Arrests for Violent Felonies Per 100k Residents 2013-2024

Thematic Map: Population Density of New York State

Camping at Duck Pond on Memorial Day Weekend 2025

Andy | July 30, 2026

Short vlog from a rather cold and rainy weekend up in Schoharie County.