2014 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

Since Monday was a holiday for the feds here in Canada, Gunner and I decided to take a trip to the wilds of New York state to visit Adirondack Dodge Parts (ADP) in Remsen (or is it Prospect) NY. The reason for this visit was to seek out some of the harder to find Dodge M37 family of trucks parts. The majority of ADP's parts are listed on their webpage, but there were also a lot that were not listed and won't be until the next webpage update. It would have been quite easy to shop on line, but like the title said, I was looking for a change of pace from the usual.

So Gunner and I hit the road early on Monday morning and crossed at Prescott to Ogdensburg. There were only three cars ahead of us at the US Customs and we zipped through in record time. Our first stop was in Watertown to check out the Harbor Freight Tools store - the US's equivalent of our Princess Auto. Both are discount outlets, but the price differences were astounding - even with a loss of 15% of value on the loonie and the Queen's cut paid at the CBSA, we still came out well ahead of the cost at Princess.

The trip to Watertown ate up more time than we had planned, and we didn't get to Remsen until around 1 PM. Having a GPS saved us some time, but when we got into the back roads, its route selection process caused a bit of angst. I had selected the direct route option, and by gum, the GPS selected the most direct route - including a bumpy ride on a washed out mountain road. After the kidney bruising ride up the trail, we arrived at the correct intersection and proceeded up the "driveway". The paved road disintegrated into a patchwork of asphalt and gravel, then turned into a rutted gravel road that eventually turned into a sand trail. We were deep into the woods and contemplated turning around. Curiosity got the better of me and I told Gunner that we will just go around the next bend to see what was there when the road ran out. We had arrived at a cabin with a 40 ft sea can located behind it. After arriving at the front door, an elderly gentleman named Fred greeted us and welcomed us to ADP.

Fred runs ADP more as a mail order business than a storefront, but he happily allowed us to shop to our heart's content. After blowing our budgets on things M37, we thanked Fred and headed back to the Great White North. The ride home was punctuated with a visit to one of Gunner's friends who resides near Ogdensburg. After the visit we hit the border and paid the crown's share of our purchases and headed for home. It was a fun day running the roads of New York. Gunner had many stories about his latest trip to the UK and Europe, and we caught up on the goings-on in the gunner world and the Swords and Ploughshares Museum operations. The parts we picked up will serve us well, but we are still looking for a number of M37 parts, which we hope we can find at the upcoming Acton swap meet.

Photo - Fred and Gunner at ADP standing in front of Fred's snowplow