It’s been my Aunt Molly’s custom in recent years to go up to Willsboro in late June/early July and rent Flat Rock Camp for a week. This year, that plan was upset when it became clear that the Camp couldn’t be cleaned up after the flooding damage in time for her scheduled stay—it was barely made ready in time for my Great-Aunt Frisky, the next scheduled occupant. Since I wanted to go up to Willsboro anyway, I decided to be Molly’s chauffeur, driving to her place near Rochester and taking her from there to stay at Green Bay.
I left New York City on Thursday, June 23rd, and drove via Binghampton and Syracuse (NY-17, I-86, I-81, I-90) to Rochester. I’ve never been to that part of the state before, so I was looking forward to getting a feel for the scenery—unfortunately, I was in and out of thick rain squalls until I was nearly in Syracuse. The stretch along the Thruway was pretty boring, as you can imagine, except for a brief glimpse of some old Erie Canal ruins along the side of highway.
Molly lives in a fairly luxurious retirement complex called The Highlands at Pittsford (Pittsford is a suburb of Rochester), where she has a two bedroom apartment. We had dinner at her daughter Pam’s house, located a short drive away, along with Pam’s husband and kids. I spent the night in Molly’s guestroom, and then Friday morning we headed up to Willsboro via NY-8 at Utica.
The southeastern corner of the Flat Rock porch, June 25, 2011
Once up at Green Bay, I went over to Flat Rock Camp to survey the flooding damage, now that the water had receded somewhat. As you can see from the picture nearby, the porch was badly chewed up on the eastern side and south-eastern corner. The north side, surprisingly, was not so bad but will still require considerable patching in addition to rebuilding the railings.
The lake was still very high for this time of year, although thankfully it was below flood stage. My cousin Peter, who manages the family property, told me that preparing the lake-side facilities for the summer was a full month behind the normal schedule—that fits with my observation that the water was about where I would normally expect it to be over the Memorial Day weekend, not July 4th. The Beach House had no direct damage but it was quite evident that the banks in front of the house were eroded and will require some work to restore. We may lose some of the bushes and small trees growing there.
After a very relaxing 9 days, I took Molly back to Rochester on July 4th. Pam again fed us dinner (an absolutely delicious chicken dish that I’m hoping to get the recipe for!), and the next morning I took off for home, this time with beautifully clear weather all the way down.
