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Around the World Mini-Golf

Around the World Mini-Golf

Around the World, Close to Home

By Andrew Kahn

Thursday, November 29, 2012

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My grandfather was not a golfer, but he kept a putter in the trunk of his car all summer. With six grandchildren on summer vacation, he often entertained us with a round of mini golf. Living on Lake George, that course just happens to be one of the best in the world. My grandfather was the course owner’s dentist, and because of that he got a discount (or maybe it was because he played several nights a week). He still spent a small fortune at Harry’s over his lifetime since he always paid for our round—and our ice cream cones afterward at the adjacent Pink Roof. He had a knack for improbable holes-in-one and an infectious laugh that could be heard several holes away. I think of my grandfather every summer when I return to Lake George and play at Harry’s.

Paul Bunyan sculpture at Around the World

If you’ve been to Lake George Village in the last 50 years, you’ve seen Harry’s. You can’t miss it. The 25-foot Paul Bunyan statue, the gigantic Florida orange, the Empire State Building replica—everything about Harry’s is big.

Harry’s has two 18-hole courses: Around the World and Around the U.S.A. My family, during our annual trips upstate, used to alternate between the two, but significant changes to the U.S. course in the early 2000s made it less appealing. For the past seven or so summers, we’ve played Around the World exclusively.

Around the World combines the thrills of competitive mini golf with the excitement of a junior high history class. Each hole represents a different country, some more easily identifiable than others. The Blarney Stone on the third hole is obviously Ireland. Most people would see the kangaroo on the 15th and think of Australia. But the guitar on the fifth doesn’t scream Spain and most wouldn’t recognize the Matterhorn on 16 (or know it was Switzerland). That’s the beauty of Around the World, though—you learn while you play. Can you name the three major pyramids in Giza? I can: Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, also known as the 17th hole.

From the first tee, a beer stein for Germany, to the last, Italy’s Mount Vesuvius, Around the World is a miniature marvel. The most impressive hole has to be the sixth, Canada, where a larger-than-life, axe-wielding Paul Bunyan straddles a long, winding, hilly passageway that includes two water hazards. I’ll gladly take a three on this hole.

On the back nine, Australia, with its boxing kangaroo, is the most memorable hole. Strike your ball with the precise amount of force and it will travel up a ramp and—just maybe—into the kangaroo’s pouch before exiting through his tail. Do this and you get a two-stroke deduction and bragging rights for life.

Like most beloved places, it’s not really about the place itself, but about the memories: my grandfather’s deep breath before each putt; my younger brother racing ahead to the next hole before the rest of us were finished with the previous one; the tense moments as the final scores were tallied and then announced. It isn’t summer without a trip to Lake George and it isn’t Lake George without Harry’s.

The Pink Roof

When my grandfather was still alive, we’d mention his name and get the family discount, even if he didn’t join us. Eventually we stopped—either because he had passed away or because the employees were no longer familiar with the name. But we’ve never stopped playing. We still take to the practice green, shaped like a map of America, as if we’re preparing for the final round of the Masters. We still laugh when someone fails to get it in the middle string of the Spanish guitar for an easy hole-in-one. We still go to the Pink Roof or Martha’s for ice cream after.

Just last week, a friend on vacation texted me, “Where are the best mini golf courses in Lake George?” That’s an easy one. “Harry’s in Lake George Village,” I responded. “Good luck on Bunyan.”

Andrew Kahn is a freelance writer who lives and works in New York City. He spends a week in Lake George with his family every summer. He once shot a 31 on Around the World, which may be the course record. If you’ve shot better, or just want to congratulate Andrew on his fine round, please email him at andrewjkahn@gmail.com.

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Photos by James H. Miller

Photos by James H. Miller

Way Out West (of Lake George): the Painted Pony Rodeo in Lake Luzerne

By James H.Miller

Friday, August 31, 2012

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Nights at the Painted Pony Rodeo should begin with their signature “Rodeo Fries.” Dripping with gravy and mozzarella, this unruly fare embodies all the raw gratification that accompanies a couple of hours around the Painted Pony arena.

Founded in 1953 by Don “Wild Horse” Baxter, the Painted Pony Rodeo has brought a taste of the Wild West to the Adirondacks for 59 years. The cowboys and cowgirls who compete come from all over the country in order to qualify for the American Rodeo Finals in October and the National Rodeo Finals in November.

From June until Labor Day, Painted Pony has multiple shows at their location off Howe Road in Lake Luzerne, just 5 miles west of Lake George.

Following a cowboy prayer, and a collective, bellowing “yee-haw” from the grandstand, the competition opens with bareback and saddle bronc riding, calf and team roping, steer wrestling, and cowgirls’ breakaway and barrel racing. Cash prizes are awarded to the night’s winners.

In-between riding events, the rodeo funny man and MC humor the audience with their wry back and forth exchanges. (Funny man in an Elvis costume: “I wrote a song about Chinese food.” MC: “You wrote a song about Chinese food?” Music starts.)

There are other competitions, too, such as the Painted Pony dance contest featuring members of the audience, who never quite know what they’re signing up for. The winner receives a t-shirt to abate any embarrassment.

At intermission, and throughout the show, the concession stands sell rodeo souvenirs, western clothing, and beers and burgers.

The show concludes with the undisputed favorite: the bull riding. Daring cowboys took turns riding bulls that looked as menacing as their names (Diesel for instance) for at least eight seconds.

The Painted Pony Rodeo has upcoming shows at 703 Howe Rd. in Lake Luzerne on Friday and Saturday, August 10 and 11, and Wednesday, August 15, all which begin at 8 p.m.

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Fort William Henry Guides Offer Tour of Haunted Sites

By Mirror Staff

Sunday, July 29, 2012

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The Fort William Henry Hotel is not haunted, says Fred Austin, a Lake George resident and aficionado of all things paranormal who’s worked at Fort William Henry for many years.

“The location of the hotel is where the fort garden was,” says Austin. “It fed not only the fort but the nearby encampments. Since no one was killed there, the hotel is spared the hauntings. The Fort, however, is a different story.”

On summer evenings, the Fort’s guides offer a tour whose emphasis is somewhat different than daytime tours, which dramatize the historical significance of Fort William Henry and its role in the French and Indian War.

The Ghost Tours guide visitors through haunted sites, the places where spirits have been seen, heard or felt.

The Ghost Tour guides are the same young students who don costumes to conduct the daytime tours, which is appropriate, since it is the guides and other employees of the Fort who have the most experience with the spirits.

According to Fred Austin, the Fort’s ghosts are said to be the unhappy victims of the massacre of 1757.

In August of that year, after enduring a siege that had lasted six days, outnumbered three to one and deprived of any hopes of re-enforcements, Lt. Commander Munro, the Scots veteran charged with the defense of Fort William Henry, surrendered to the Marquis de Montcalm on the condition that the garrison be allowed to march out with the honors of war – flags, arms, but no ammunition. Montcalm agreed to escort the garrison to Fort Edward. The wounded were to remain at Fort William Henry until they were able to travel.

Somewhere between Lake George and Halfway Brook, the soldiers, along with women and children, were attacked by Indians allied with the French. It has been estimated that anywhere from 200 to 1500 people were killed that day,

“Many of these souls and many hundreds of others are said to still roam areas throughout Lake George Village and west to Prospect Mountain,” said Austin.

There is, for example, the Limper, whose distinctive gait has been heard on the bastions and is, perhaps, the spirit  of  an amputee whose skeleton was found when archeologists explored the site in the 1950s.

There’s also the Slammer, who delights in slamming doors in the faces of guides. And the ghosts of officers who punish guides dressed as conscripts for entering their space.  There’s the voice that urges tourists to leave the powder magazine.  And plenty of orbs, flashing lights and streaks of color.

With so many reports of similar incidents, all occurring in the same place, it’s not surprising that the stars of the television show “Ghost Hunters” arrived at the fort last summer to conduct an investigation.

“They spent considerable time investigating numerous claims of specific paranormal events,” said Austin. “They always try to find a natural explanation for things, but likewise, they acknowledge it when something is truly paranormal.”

And, reportedly, there were many things the Ghost Hunters could not attribute to natural or human causes.

“These could be memories or energy patterns within the fortification,” says local ghost expert David Pitkin.

The Ghost Tours are held every Friday and Saturday evening and begin at 7 pm. The cost is $14.95 per adult; $7.95 per child.  Call 668-5471 for more information.

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Big Apple Circus Set to Feed the Imagination

By James H. Miller

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

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While the Big Apple Circus hosts a brilliant array of tricks, leaps, and flips that are certain to make you blink, for Guillaume Dufresnoy, who has been the artistic director at the circus for three years, it’s about what people are able to come away with after seeing the stunts that’s essential.

“To see these people do extraordinary things, children can make connections to their own sense of potential,” he says. “Adults may not think they can jump off a second story, but they may say ‘if these people can do this, then I can do XYZ.’”

“It’s the deepest thing I feel that the circus brings,” he adds.

Both children and adults have the chance to witness the spectacle for themselves when Big Apple presents its final “Dream Big” show in Lake George at the Charles R. Wood Park on West Brook Road, with performances that begin July 14 and run through July 29.

The artistic director’s hopes for what people can walk away with from the circus are consistent with Big Apple’s “Dream Big.” Unlike some other circuses, Big Apple works its talent around a larger creative theme. In this show’s case, the set is designed as a machine that converts all dreams into reality; and while the machine is sometimes defective, the dreams nevertheless always come true.

“The idea was really about how we wanted to show that you don’t need anything to dream or to make your dreams come true,” says Dufresnoy

What also sets Big Apple Circus apart is the tent where the action takes place. Made in Italy, it seats 1,700 and is constructed in such a way so that no member of the audience is father than 50 feet from the performers. It makes the circus an intimate show where the minutest details, down to the performers facial expressions, are on display for all. “It’s the right size between big entities where the action, emotion, and humanity gets lost, and the very small ones,” says Dufresnoy.

When Dufresnoy was growing up in France, he says he was fortunate enough to have parents that regularly took him to see classical concerts, theater, as well as the circus. When asked whether those first experiences of the circus inform what he does at Big Apple, he says he tries to retain those essential qualities. “It gave me a real familiarity with circus art,” he says.

However, Dufresnoy’s actual involvement with the circus happed by accident. It was on account of a girlfriend, a gymnast and circus enthusiast that led him to become an aerialist for a number of years.

Today, rather than doing summersaults in mid-air, Dufresnoy appears to do them as a busy artistic director. Only a month after the premiere of a circus production, he begins work on the next two or three. He starts considering new themes, hiring new talent, attending meetings, collaborating with the director, and booking performances around the world.

Dufresnoy has had a noteworthy stint as artistic director for taking in creative teams and designers that have never worked in the circus before, such as opera designers, which have added a lot of ingenuity and artistic flair to the traditional circus. “It bring us new ideas, and new ways of looking at our art form,” says Dufresnoy.

Yet, Dufresnoy’s job is really a balancing act between pushing the thirty five year old institution forward and keeping up with tradition. “I inherited a gem of a circus, a real cultural entity. It’s important that I preserve the core values of the circus, but also bring as much new talent and new ideas in as possible,” he says.

Tickets may be purchased at BigAppleCircus.org

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Leo and Linda Goulet on their hybrid motorcyle / car

Leo and Linda Goulet on their hybrid motorcyle / car

Americade is an International Event

By Paul Post

Friday, June 8, 2012

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Leo and Linda Goulet turned quite a few heads on their way to Americade.

The couple came all the way from Long Sault, Ontario on a kind of hybrid vehicle — half motorcycle, half car — that gives them the best of both worlds.

Goulet owns Leo Motors, a body shop, where he spent 160 hours working on the unique vehicle with friends Dennis Pilon and Bobby LaPierre.

“I told Leo he’s going to cause an accident because everybody wants to look at it,” Pilon said.

Linda Goulet, who rides on the back, said that passing truckers would slow down along side their vehicle to get a better look at it while traveling down the Northway.

The couple quickly drew a small crowd of admirers wherever they parked the three-wheeled vehicle, such as Beach Road, in Lake George.

The front part is a 1981 Honda Goldwing. The back is the rear end of a Toyota MR2.

So the Goulets can enjoy the freedom of open air riding, like any other biker, while relaxing in the comfort of a much larger vehicle. The rear end even has a trunk for storing their gear.

Pilon helped with the body work while LaPierre did the intricate wiring job. The drive system is from the Goldwing. But the fuel-injected engine and a front dashboard are from the Toyota.

“It handles really good on the highway,” Leo Goulet said.

The cycle-car is painted a beautiful black cherry and has four cylinders. However, they’re already building a more powerful six-cylinder version of the vehicle using a Fiero car, made by General Motors.

On the way to Lake George they stopped in Warrensburg.

“Someone came up to us and said, I’ll give you $9,000 on the spot,” Pilon said.

However, Leo has no plans of parting with his beloved new toy.

The Goulets were making their eighth visit to Americade, which got off to a slow start because of the weather but finished with a flourish as sunny skies returned to the Lake George region during the latter part of the week.

“It brings in so many people,” said Linda Williams, an employee at the Lake George Shop, a souvenir store on Canada Street. “We get the same people year after year.”

Some motorcyclists aren’t able to pack larger souvenirs, so the store ships things to wherever people want them.

“That brings them back because they know you do it,” Williams said. “The more accommodating you are, the better off you’ll be.”

Some people traveled halfway around the world to reach Americade this year, such as Jan Sorensen of Denmark, and Rob Roberts, one of the event’s many volunteers who came all the way from Hawaii.

Steve Kellogg from Green Island, near Troy, belongs to the Red Knights, a group of motorcycling firefighters. Nearly 400 of them got together for a dinner at the Lake George firehouse.

“I like coming here for the camaraderie, meeting people from everywhere and the chance to see beautiful machinery,” he said. “It makes a wonderful weekend.”

Featured activities included stunt shows by two-time world champion trials rider Tommi Ahvala of Finland and women’s national champion Caroline Allen. Nationally-known comedian Alonzo, winner of NBC’s Last Coming Standing, entertained crowds and bikers took part in a night-time light parade, a kaleidoscope of color as they rode around an illuminated hot air balloon.

Of course, most people simply like taking scenic day trips throughout the Adirondack region.

There were more than 240 vendors, a record, at the TourExpo trade show, which Co-Director Christian Dutcher attributes to Americade’s reputation as the world’s largest, well-run gathering of touring motorcyclists.

“I think that’s because we target a specific demographic,” he said. “Americade at its heart is a convention. The die-hards, who plan to come here months ahead of time, will show up regardless of weather conditions.”

That’s what brings the manufacturers and dozens of other firms who sell motorcycle accessories, knowing they’ll have a large audience to deal with.

“Even during the recession we’ve done well,” Dutcher said. “Everything that’s done is very carefully considered. We set a very high standard for ourselves.”

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Photo by Clea G. Hall

Photo by Clea G. Hall

Speedboats Return to Lake George This Weekend

By Buzz Lamb

Friday, May 18, 2012

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When Jason Saris, Rick Gage and Norm Dascher realized they needed to change the perception of performance boating on Lake George they approached Lake George Village Mayor Bob Blais with an idea.

They decided a different tactic was necessary to re-charge the enthusiasm for Lake George among the go-fast crowd.  That was three years ago and on May 18 – 20 the hot boats will be back at the lake.

The concept was to provide a venue where off-shore and high-performance boats could come to Lake George for a weekend of fun and be able to demonstrate the capabilities of their boats without being stressed by speed and noise limitations. If you like performance boating, this is the event to attend.

“Last year’s crowd was a testament to how much the Performance Weekend (formerly known as the Queen’s Great Boating Weekend) has grown in just two short years,” Gage said.  An idea that was conceived by three friends has created an event that has become an economic force in the community and a must-attend event for performance-boating fans.

“I am very excited to see the performance boats return to the Village again this year,” said Mayor Blais.  “Our part of the lake is a great location for this event and I’m glad that it has turned into an annual occurrence,” Blais said.

The event’s sponsor is Performance Marine of Bolton Landing.  Saris and Gage have been partners in the high-performance boat company since 1987.  “The driving force is to more effectively reach out to recreational boaters,” Gage said.

The Saris racing team. Photo by Sharkey Images.

“It amazes me how this event has evolved,” said Saris.  “They’re not vying for a purse or huge trophies.  The only thing I can think of (why it’s grown) is that we’ve kept it simple and fun.  Everybody loves Lake George and this is a way for them to get out on the lake and unleash the power that these boats have,” he said.

“This is not a formal competition,” Saris explained.  “The driver’s enjoy this event because it is simply a demonstration.  They can get out on the lake, show what their boats can do and not have to go through all of the rigorous safety inspections required during sanctioned races,” Saris said.

The Lake George Performance Weekend is also a key economic boost for the local economy.  It is held the weekend before Memorial Day, which would typically be a slow weekend at the lake, but that’s no longer the case.  “Some people will attend the Performance Weekend and stay the following week for the holiday.  The result last year was packed hotels and motels and bustling restaurants,” Gage said.

The tentative schedule calls for a boat parade down Canada Street on Friday evening followed by a reception at a local restaurant, which will be open to the public.

According to Gage, there will be a driver’s meeting at 11 am on Saturday.  The main Offshore Demonstration Races will take place from noon to 4 pm followed by a reception/party at King Neptune’s Pub in Lake George Village.  The awards ceremony is open to the public and includes live entertainment and a spectacular fireworks display over the lake.

Spectators will be able to walk along the Village docks to gawk at the fancy paint jobs or to ooh and aah at the huge engines with the big blowers and gleaming exhaust pipes. The powerboat demonstrations may be easily viewed from any vantage point along Beach Road.

This year organizers have added a two-day custom car and motorcycle show in the Beach Road parking lot and there will be a sailboat race at noon on Sunday. All of the weekend events are free and open to the public.  For more information call Rick Gage at 518-644-3080.

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Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga Opens for 2012 Season

By Mirror Staff

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Fort Ticonderoga opens for its 103rd season on May 18 with new exhibitions, events and programs.

“Fort Ticonderoga is a family destination and a center of learning. A visit is an interactive, multi-disciplined experience,” said Beth Hill, Executive Director. “It’s about exploring the beautiful gardens, finding adventure in our events, marching with the Fife and Drum Corps, and learning about a historic trade. It’s a walk through the restored Fort, a stroll overlooking Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains of Vermont, and an afternoon in our exhibit galleries exploring our premier collections.”

Highlights of the 2012 season include Fort Ticonderoga’s newest exhibit,  “Bullets & Blades: The Weapons of America’s Colonial Wars and Revolution.” The exhibition will showcase nearly 100 weapons from Fort Ticonderoga’s internationally significant weapons collection including many never-before-seen recent acquisitions exhibited together to illustrate the remarkable beauty and broad diversity of muskets, pistols, swords, and related weaponry used in America and at Ticonderoga through the American Revolution.

Last year’s exhibit,  “Art of War:  Ticonderoga as Experienced through the Eyes of America’s Great Artists,” continues for a second season and brings together for the first time fifty of the museum’s most important artworks. Fort Ticonderoga helped give birth to the Hudson River School of American Art with Thomas Cole’s pivotal 1826 work, Gelyna, or a View Near Ticonderoga, the museum’s most important 19th-century masterpiece to be featured in the exhibit.

The King’s Garden, one of North America’s oldest gardens and the largest public garden in the Adirondack-Lake Champlain region, will open on June 1 and offer daily tours and garden-related programs.

Kicking off the 2012 season is a weekend-long celebration of Ethan Allen’s capture of Fort Ticonderoga from the British in 1775.

Throughout the weekend, visitors will explore this dramatic story from the perspectives of both the British garrison and the Green Mountain Boys and meet such historical characters as Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and Captain Noah Phelps, Connecticut Militia Captain and patriot spy.

On Saturday, re-enactors based in Vermont will cross Lake Champlain by bateaux to begin the assault on Fort Ticonderoga. As the Americans advance toward the Fort, the British garrison under Captain William Delaplace will go about their daily routines.  In a special evening program, visitors can take a front row seat inside the walls of the Fort at 9 pm to watch the re-staging of “America’s First Victory.”

Saturday’s events will include a book signing at the Museum Store by authors participating in the Fort’s annual War College of the Seven Years’ War. The signings will take place from 1 pm to 1:30 pm.

Fort Ticonderoga is open daily through October 18 from 9:30 am until 5 pm. General admission is $17.50 for adults, with discounts for senior citizens and children.

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European Cars on Display at Saratoga Auto Museum

By Buzz Lamb

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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“The British are coming!” says Jean Hoffman, a trustee at the Saratoga Automobile Museum (SAM).

Ms. Hoffman says the nationally renowned museum will host its 4th Annual “Invitational at Saratoga” May 18 – 20 on the grounds of the Saratoga Spa State Park.  According to Hoffman, the gathering of exquisite automobiles from around the world is quickly becoming a premier East Coast automobile event.

First held in 2009 as a supplement to SAM’s longstanding Spring Auto Show, the “Invitational” immediately became a popular kick-off event for the Spa City’s summer season.

Just like the thoroughbred horses which come to the city in July, horsepower and speed are the buzzwords of the “Invitational.”

The three-day weekend begins with a $45 per person cocktail reception at 6 pm on Friday at SAM.  Members of the public are invited to meet special guest Wayne Carini of Chasing Classic Cars fame.  Carini will get the weekend underway as Friday’s featured speaker.            According to a recent article written by Don Weberg, Carini is one of those guys that pretty much any car guy or gal can relate to. He’s constantly on the quest for the rarest, most sought after, most unique cars ever built, cars that he personally loves, and more to the point, cars that his clients are looking for.

Saturday’s line-up of Euro cars has historically attracted over 200 widely recognized examples of British, French, German, Italian and other European makes and models.  According to Hoffman, anyone who owns or drives a European made automobile is invited to enter their vehicle in the show.  “Saturday is not by invitation only…only Sunday,” she explained.

The “Euro Experience on the Field” will be followed by a fund-raising dinner and auction at the Gideon Putnam Resort in Saratoga Springs.

The auction will feature items such as one-day of driving with the Sports Car Drivers Association School at Lime Rock Park or your chance to bid on a package which includes two tickets to the Tonight Show, a photograph in the Green Room with Jay Leno and a tour of Jay’s car collection in Burbank, California.

Featured guest speaker will be noted actor Ed Herrmann, best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt on television, and to younger generations for his role as Richard Gilmore in Gilmore Girls and as a ubiquitous narrator for historical programs on the History Channel.  Tickets are available for the 6 pm Saturday event at a cost of $150 per person.  Contact Becky Earls at 518-587-1932 ext. 16.

Rounding out the weekend’s activities, the Sunday “Invitational” should provide attendees with an up-close-and-personal look at cars from around the US and beyond.  The “Invitational”, as the name implies, is open only to select collectors with rare classic and historic automobiles.

Over 100 extraordinary vehicles and vintage motorcycles will be on display Sunday.  The featured marque for 2012 is Cadillac, one of America’s most highly respected names in automobile manufacturing.  Reportedly at least 20 vintage Caddies will be featured during the “Invitational”.

Saturday’s and Sunday’s events are open from 10 am to 3 pm each day and the cost of admission to the grounds is $15 and children under 12 are admitted free.  No pets are allowed.

As an added bonus, the Museum itself will welcome visitors without charge with paid admission to either the Euro Show on Saturday or the “Invitational” on Sunday.

According to Hoffman, all proceeds from the weekend events will benefit the Museum’s Educational programs and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northeast New York.

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Steve Tomb of Adirondack Pedal Cab Company

Steve Tomb of Adirondack Pedal Cab Company

Make Way for Pedal Cabs: Green Rides Coming to Lake George

By Anthony F. Hall

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

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Increasingly common from Vancouver to Manhattan, pedal cabs are making their way to Lake George.

Two area teachers, Steve Tomb and Mike Smith, have launched the Adirondack Pedal Cab Company, which will manage a fleet of 22 pedal cabs, also known as rickshaws, bicycle taxis, and pedicabs, in Lake George and North Creek.

Tomb and Smith hope to have the cabs on the streets of the two communities by Memorial Day.

If all goes according to plan, they told the Lake George Chamber of Commerce in March, the company will expand into Bolton Landing and Lake Placid.

“The timing is right,” Tomb and Smith told the Lake George Chamber. “These three-wheeled vehicles are changing the face of transportation and provide an exciting opportunity for customers and tourist communities.”

According to Tomb, who teaches English at Johnsburg High School, the idea of introducing pedal cabs to resort communities came to him while traveling in India on a Fulbright fellowship.

“I saw all these rickshaws and I thought we should have something similar in the Adirondacks: the cabs are emission-free, they engage you in the community you’re visiting, and it’s the type of small business that communities support,” said Tomb.

Tomb said that he, Smith and their partner, Ken Murray, are in the process of securing whatever permits may be needed to operate a livery in Lake George Village.

The business will be supported in part by solar-powered electronic ads mounted on the rear of the cab.

“Our orientation is hyper-local; we want to support local businesses,” said Tomb. “We’ve already been approached by a national brand, and we turned them down.”

Drivers, who must be at least 18, possess a drivers’ license and able to pass a background check and survive rigorous training sessions, will lease the cabs in four-hour shifts and work for tips. No set rate, no minimum fee, will be charged for any ride.

Tomb expects to recruit college students and vacationing teachers as Adirondack Pedal Company drivers.

“The tipping model works for the drivers,” said Tomb. “Personality will be the key. The ride should be a Lake George experience, not just a convenient way to get from one place to another. The driver will function as a guide. He or she will have to know Lake George, the businesses, the places of interest, the stories. The best driver will be someone who not only knows Lake George, but loves it.”

Tomb said he and his partners began coming to Lake George when they were growing up in Saratoga County.

A graduate of LeMoyne College and SUNY Cortland, Tomb and his wife Suzanne (who’s a social worker at Hudson Headwaters Health Network) moved to North Creek to be near her family.

Prior to settling in North Creek, Tomb said he “traveled a lot, teaching Outward Bound programs, guiding, teaching people to be guides, developing curriculum for Adventure Sports programs.”

The Tombs have three sons, triplets, who will be twelve years old in April.

“They’re amazing. One of them designed the logo for the company. They have their own egg business; they have 40 hens and have local businesses as customers, including Bar Vino. I’ve tried to instill in them the entrepreneurial spirit – that’s what’s uniquely American, as I discovered in my travels. It’s what’s driving us to make our Adirondack Pedal Cab Company a success.”

For more information, visit adirondackpedalcab.com

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Adirondack Adventure Festival to be Held in North Creek

By Mirror Staff

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

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North Creek and will host the third annual Adirondack Adventure Festival on May 4  through May 6, the same weekend as the White Water Derby.

Events include guided bike tours and hikes, fly-fishing demonstrations, nature education programs, trout releases into the Hudson River, live music, a craft fair, as well as a range of opportunities for dining and shopping.

Vendors, demonstrations, exhibits and registration for activities will be located at the Riverfront Park at Railroad Place adjacent to the North Creek Train Station.

New this year is a tour of the Saratoga and North Creek Railway train, the North Creek Depot Museum, a spinning wheel exhibit and demonstration and live music on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  A complete schedule is available at www.adirondackadventurefestival.com.

The Warren County Hatchery will have a fish tank stocked with live trout to be released into the Hudson River at the end of the day on Saturday. North Country Wild Care will bring Birds of Prey and the Wild Center will have exhibits on the Adirondack wilderness and wildlife.

Adirondack Community College’s Adventure Sports Program students will act as biking guides for the 50mile and 20mile road bike tours on Saturday, as well as provide free river rafting rides on both Saturday and Sunday.  The Cold River Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club will lead a guided hike on Saturday to Little Rabbit Pond.

This year’s White Water Derby is the 55th. Starting from North River on 11am on Saturday, May 5, the Novice and Giant Slalom races will take place on the Hudson River with the Chuck Severance Race running immediately after.  The Downriver Race will be held on Sunday, starting at 11am from North Creek to Riparius.

For more information on the 3rd  Annual Adirondack Adventure Festival,  please contact Pat Hamilton, at the  Gore Mountain Regional Chamber of Commerce at (518) 251-2612 or  info@gorechamber.com

For more information on the 55th Annual White Water Derby, or to schedule an interview with Derby Director, Katie Nightingale, call (518) 251-2005, or e-mail Katie at info@whitewaterderby.com

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