Ellicottville - April 2023

Our first Skuhlie trip of 2023. We decided to go to Ellicottville, NY in April, This is the earliest we’ve started our adventures, but this year has felt very long already and we needed to get out and enjoy a close-by bus trip. Ellicottville is a popular winter destination because of @holidayvalley Ski Mountain. The town is at the base of the ski mountain making it wonderfully convenient for those going skiing (which I adamantly do not do!). Ellicottville really is a quaint town with a nice downtown and unique shopping.

On the way, we stopped at @letchworthstatepark for a quick hike with Lucky, our cocker spaniel. Letchworth has an abundance of hiking trails of many different lengths and difficulties. The river has carved a gorge through the middle of the park that is as deep as 550 feet in some places earning it the nickname, "Grand Canyon of the East". We have explored the Northern tip of the park previously, this trip we visited the southern part and took Lucky on the Mary Jemison Trail. Lucky had a great time and the trail was incredibly dry despite the heavy rains we've had lately. We saw a train pass by while on the trail and the waterfalls were powerful this time of year.

We enjoyed a late lunch at @ellicottvillebrewing Company. As we have a short school bus, parking wasn't a major challenge. We found a good corner street parking spot. We’ve enjoyed their beer at many places, so it was nice to go to the “source”. I got the Southwestern Quesadilla and Don got the biggest Schnitzel I have ever seen! I got their Blood Orange Hefeweizen highly recommend it. Don got the Chilly Willy, always picking the beer based on the name, haha.

We spent the night at @ellicottvilledistillery using a @HarvestHosts spot. The cocktails offered are so dang good, creative recipes and not your usual ingredients. We highly recommend a visit! We got a tour of the facilities by one of the owners and met Renee the creative mind behind the cocktail recipes. It is great to support local, especially when they work with a passion for something they truly enjoy.

Our overnight was supposed to be cold. We knew this before we chose to do an April trip in Upstate NY, and it didn’t disappoint, it was COLD! 20F overnight low and we have no heat in the bus. We have a heater, but we need to plug in to use it, we probably could have asked but as Harvest Host, we

’re supposed to be 100% self-sufficient. We have insulated curtains, lots of blankets, and Lucky to curl up between us. We made it through the night, but decided that 30F would be the lowest temperature we’re willing to deal with. Live and learn!

Friday morning, we turned the bus on to start up the heater, turned the stove on to boil some water for coffee, and removed the insulated curtains from the sun side of the bus to encourage the greenhouse effect in the bus. The inside of the windows were crusted with frost, and my gel pillow was frozen! It didn’t take long for the bus to warm up and the coffee to do its job, an adventure indeed!

We headed to Alleghany State Park for a hike and this is where our day took a total turn. I got bit by a tick before we even got on the trail. We were standing by the trail head sign figuring out which trail to take when I felt the bite on my hip. Seriously?! I, of course, did everything wrong and tried to pull it off, only to leave the head inside me. We went to a local pharmacy to buy tweezers to pull the head out, the pharmacist highly advised to head to urgent care. Apparently, ticks are very prevalent this year as is Lyme disease. We headed to the closest urgent care, 20 minutes away in Olean, NY. The Well Now Urgent Care was staffed by only one doctor, and the wait was about 1 ½ hours so much for our plans for the day. I can’t speak highly enough for all the staff at the Well Now Urgent Care Center. They were very positive, efficient, and professional. I haven’t had as good an experience in any healthcare facility before. They removed the tick head from my hip. Yeah, that was a weird sentence to write. I received a dose of doxycycline to protect me from Lyme disease and was sent on my way to continue our day.

By this time, I was ready for a beer and food. I was famished! Luckily there was a local brewery to check out. We had lunch at Four Mile Brewery, the nurse had recommended the nachos and that is what I ordered. A huge portion of nachos that looked good to enjoy later on the bus too. I got a Raspberry Wheat to accompany them. Don got pulled pork flatbread pizza and a Clouded Judgement IPA. The brewery must be a very popular destination. It has a large outdoor space with bocce, giant chess, ping pong tables, baggo, and much more. My favorite is the paintings on the building of their biggest sellers. What a memorable and cool photo spot.

We reserved a Harvest Host spot at the Glenn Curtiss Museum for tonight, but after the tick and Urgent Care experience we didn’t make the museum before closing time and they are closed on Sunday. Don called to tell them of our situation while Karen waited in Urgent Care, they were very understanding. A big disappointment, as we’ve really wanted to go. We headed to Hammondsport and walked by the lakefront. Keuka Lake is one of the 11 Finger Lakes and it is a very quaint town. We’ve been here a couple of times before and have enjoyed meals at several of their downtown restaurants in front of the town square where they host various festivals over the summer. This is also a great place where to rent a pontoon boat and enjoy Keuka Lake.

We returned to Glenn Curtiss Museum to get settled for the night. Enjoyed lazily reading my book until I started feeling like I had another tick on me, did they follow me to the bus? No, it was all in my head, but being 45 minutes from home and a shower, we decided to call it a day. I had to go home and wash the tick thoughts out of my head.

All in all, a successful first Skulie trip of the year. There were a few bumps along the way but what Skulie trip is complete without a few bumps? This was the inspiration we needed to jump-start our Skulie adventures and we are already planning our next trip in a couple of weeks.