Adirondack Waffles

Miles today: 152

Soundtrack: the rest of Julie's Shake It playlist (which is extensive)

Today we did a 3 hr loop. There was a 4 hr option, but it was going to rain in the afternoon. We are aiming for 4 hrs/day on this trip bc of Julie's latest injury, her shoulder. We stopped for coffee after about a half hour which is becoming a thing since Julie is resetting her sleep. This coffee stop was awesome and I'm sad I didn't get a picture. It served a small RV park and had all kinds of cute decor and I saw in the kitchen that they had decal lettering on the wall that said "You look absolutely stunning today." The coffee was strong, too.

We continued on to an overlook. Julie built this route based on Scenic Driving New York recommended routes. It was pretty state routes with mostly 40 mph turns, so we cruised at about 60. A lot of trucks were super nice and let us pass.

Our lunch stop was Chef Darrell's Mountain Diner. We saw this on our way in.

Chef Darrell made an appearance in the dining room but did not stop at our table. He was wearing flip flops so must not have been cooking that day. 🤔 Jaron got chicken fried steak and Julie got chicken & waffles. All super fresh and delicious. (She only wanted 1/2 of a waffle this morning at bkst in anticipation of this lunch, and then at lunch she was only hungry for half of the waffle.) It was a great diner, clean & cheerful, and must be doing well bc it had a composite deck. Plus the 'vette.

Julie read a local newspaper while we were waiting on our food and read about the local ban on solar farms, issues with bikes on a path with signs that say "no biking," and the 800 ducks that were to be released for Duck-A-Palooza. Too bad we missed it.

A lot of the roads have had portraits of local soldiers, and Jaron noticed Chef Darrell on one when we left! Super cool.

We made it back before the rain came. Julie got turned around to leave on foot and go to the Old Forge Hardware Store which has a bookstore. Jaron reminded me to take a waterproof bag with me. 🥰 It did sprinkle on me a little on the way there but I caught a break on the way back. The store was enormous, I don't remember how long they've been open but it covered like half a block, and had a legit 4-aisle bookstore in one of the rabbit warren rooms with an Adirondack authors & fiction section. She picked up 3 books but only left with one (🏆). Plus some popcorn.

For the record, I did not get the ghost pepper popcorn. There were also these spice blends.

We both wore black today, but I forgot to take a picture.

We hung out in the room and read while it rained. We'd been debating whether or not we were going to get dinner bc lunch was pretty satisfying and we had the ice cream place next door that had an overhang. The rain had let up by 5:30 and we decided to go get something fresh to eat after having zero vegetables at lunch. The restaurant was open this time and Jaron got a rice bowl with veggies and chicken and Julie got a watermelon salad with shrimp. Forgot to get pictures.

We got home and Julie decided to try the sauna while Jaron went to get ice cream and the place was closed! On a Thursday! Everyone's excuse yesterday was bc it was a Wednesday, Jaron checked all 3 ice cream places in town and they were ALL closed. 😭 Good thing we had dinner.

Julie let them kick her out of the sauna when it closed at 8 and then came back to the room for a bath while Jaron watched football. Then she also had to wash her hair. It was a lot of heat & water.