We next headed to Rochester, NY for the DCA Championships.
We planned to stay at Hamlin Beach State Park in New York and after leaving Niagara Falls, we drove there along the Ontario State Parkway which is picturesque, but can be very bumpy. As we made the corner to drive up to the park office, we heard a loud bang. Jeff and I both jumped out wondering what on earth could have happened. We found one of the
spring bars on our Hensley hitch dragging the ground and discovered that the bolts had sheared off. Actually, we found that one of the bolts had rust on it which of course indicated that it had sheared quite some time ago, and evidently the hitch had been continuing with only one bolt. The bumpy Ontario State Parkway had just been too much for that one bolt. We managed to limp into our camping site with plans to go into Rochester to look for bolts later.
The park itself is quite pretty.
 Lake Ontario |
 Vine Covered tree |
The worst thing about it was that the site only had 20 amps. If we had had to run the air conditioner, we were sunk. Lucky for us, the weather was anything but hot. We drove into Rochester the next day and found the bolts we needed for the hitch. Jeff got it all fixed up for when we leave.
Hamlin Beach is right on Lake Ontario and has really nice trails including jetties which were getting crowned with surf when we walked there with Madison.
 Madison and Lake Ontario |
 That water sure looks good! |
The waves were crashing so hard, that she got a little water anyway. We picked Adam up in Buffalo. (He flew in rather than ride the bus) on Friday morning, Sept. 1, and drove him to rehearsal, then met him that evening to watch the individual and ensemble competition in downtown Rochester. They had actually closed off part of Main St. and held the percussion I&E's outside. The weather was really nice then and it was fun to see the DCA I&E.
The next day was the DCA Championships. We took Adam in to Rochester and then we went back to the park to wait until the preliminary competitions were to start at 2:00 p.m. Now you'll understand why I entitled this Monsoon Season in New York. Hurricane Ernesto had been crawling along the east coast and decided to veer inland - right across Western New York.
As we walked up to the stadium, rain was pelting us heavily and the wind was really blowing. When we got into the stands, we discovered it was blowing right into our faces, and IT WAS COLD! We had ponchos on and layers of clothing, but the wind was relentless. Pretty soon, we were wet through. We managed to survive through about two corps, then decided to go down below the stands and just wait for the Kilties. About that time, they decided to call a rain delay for about an hour or so.
We were wet and cold, so went out to the car and sat in the warm for a while. We waited until the Kilties were about to come on before we returned to the stands. It was still raining, but not nearly as bad. I couldn't see through my glasses for the water on the lenses and so watched over the tops of them. The Kilties did a grand job which resulted in the highest score they have received since returning to competition, but it wasn't quite good enough to make the cut to finals. I don't have any pictures because it was so wet.
Poor Adam was completely soaked, kilt and all, we drove back to the trailer and turned on the furnace for the first time since last December. That warmth sure did feel good. We then drove to Olive Garden and had a great meal.
The next day we watched the alumni corps including the Bridgemen which was a lot of fun and the finals. Adam flew back to Chicago on Labor Day and we spent some down time back at the park.
