Day 20 - 2025 East Coast Adventure - ANOTHER State Park Pool!

8/6 - Chenango Valley State Park, NY to Little Buffalo State Park, PA

We woke up to cool dry air this morning after an amazingly quiet night (especially considering camp has over 100 sites).  We all started our day with oatmeal.  

Today was planned as a bit of a casual transition day - we didn't expect much of the day other than to get us to Little Buffalo State Park which would serve as our launching point for tomorrow's big day.  As such, we packed up and got on the road.

Because we had yet to find a good maple donut, we continued our search and planned for a stop at Manni's in Binghamton.  Unfortunately, in all my driving, I had gotten lax with my attentiveness and failed to notice the combination of narrow roads and high curbs that Binghamton offers.  As such, I made my left hand turn a bit sharp and took out curb with the Pathfinder.  Before I could react and stop, I looked in mirror and watched as the trailer went airborne with its own bump off the curb!  We pulled into Manni's and inspected the car (though as it turns out, it was stressful enough for me that I inspected the wrong side of the car/trailer - brain is a strange thing).  Fortunately, everything was ok and we left with nothing mroe than a new appreciation for the strength of the tow hook. 

Mannis donuts were good, but not great.  In my opinion, they landed in no man's land between a yeast and a cake donut.  Not enough density to be cake, not enough fluffiness to be a yeast donut.  However, by the end of the day, there wasn't a crumb to be found.

After Manni's, we continued our beautiful drive down the Susquehanna River valley. The haze of the forest fires continued, but the scenery was still beautiful.  We even saw a few horse pulled buggies going down the road.  Very idyllic.  

For our last time this trip, we made a grocery stop (Aldi!) and then went on to camp. We pulled in to find a sign that there was no potable water.  That was a bit of a bummer.  Thankfully, we found that it was due to arsenic so we were able to shower and do dishes there and only needed to get enough drinking water which they had available for us at a spot down the road.  

I had to work so boys and Amy went to collect the water and then went to yet another State Park pool.   I don't think we designed this trip to have so many swimming opportunities and, with the air temperatures we had, we didn't need them.  However, the boys never seemed to grow old of them so I'm glad we found what we did.

As for this park, the report was that the water was cold but manageable. Amy described the pool as one of the biggest she has seen and, in addition to the pool, there was a huge splash area and a pair of water slides. When they returned, it was clear all three had enjoyed.  Amy even went down the water slides which I wouldn't have believed if not for the video evidence.  But we live in the AI era so maybe I shouldn't accept video quite so readily?

We had leftover quesadillas for dinner.  As the sun set, the boys stayed at camp while Amy and I went for a walk back to the pool.  We discovered that camp was at the top of a VERY steep hill.  

We returned and watched a view videos of the various campers that we had seen over the past few days.  Some RVs are really cushy.  Is it really camping if your RV is bigger than someone's home?  Anyway - it was fun to imagine being in one of those.

For now, it was time to rest up.  We've got a big day planned for tomorrow - Hershey park!

Trip mileage - 3,508

# States - 13

# Provinces - 3