LAKE GEORGE, NY.  Last night we decided to gamble on putting out the slides, hoping that the failure of the hydraulic system was a fluke.  The added space seemed palatial.  The joy ended the following morning.

 As we packed up to drive away from Verona today, the front (hydraulic) slides would not go back in.  We tried to raise the hydraulic leveling jacks, and they would not respond.  We tried many things to no avail.  This sort of scenario was becoming all too familiar.  After we had tried and tried, and the 11:00 deadline to vacate our site passed, we had a moment of studied composure and intense prayer.  Once again we tried and the slides and jacks worked.  Whew!  Thank God!  We left 15 minutes late but the park manager was OK with that under the circumstances.

The drive to Lake George was easy enough but in overcast blustery skies once again.  We drove through historic towns like Amsterdam, Galway, and Saratoga Springs, which simply looked like old towns with really old buildings.  In better light they likely would have looked better.  Some of the houses must have been nearly 200 years old and quite stately, but it had been a long time since most of them had been painted, and rusted out cars were sitting in messy yards. Sad to see so much left to decline.

When we got to Lake George, it clearly was a tourist town, with outlet malls for Orvis, Coleman, etc. lining the main streets, but it was past the season for tourism, with many stores and RV parks closing for the year in a couple weeks.  There were boat rides on the lake available, but it was chilly and overcast.  Not very enticing, so we did chores inside the motorhome, only now we shall be sure to keep the front slides in and the jacks up until we get to Essex Junction, VT.