In the summer of 2002,
a friend and I took a marathon drive to New York. We used a guide book that
plotted out a 2-3 day trip to New York and a few places to see along the way.
We didn’t bother to check anything out by using the computer and we headed out
early the day of our scheduled trip. We usually know where we are going and we
have the directions to those places. And I might add we get to our destination
without too many problems.
I can remember that the
trip was during nice weather, the roads in New York State were perfect, and the
scenery was gorgeous. And thus began our trip. Along the way, we stopped in
Cuba, New York, and stumbled upon a delightful cheese shop. We bought a few
cheeses, stopped at the grocery store for a drink, bread, fresh basil, tomatoes
and a plastic knife. We ate our food at the Letchworth State Park, overlooking
the falls. Letchworth is known as the little Grand Canyon of the East. Then we
proceeded to drive past Watkins Glen, known for NASCAR races. We did stop and
took in the sights of Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion, in Canandaigua, New York.
The mansion and gardens were beautiful!
We couldn’t find the
B& B that we were supposed to be staying at. We drove back and forth and
finally gave up. We were supposedly driving along a scenic tourist drive that
was touted as one of the 15 most scenic routes in the world, according to
British Airway Magazine. It was getting dark and I didn’t quite get what was
breath-taking about not being able to see anything through the thick foliage.
We did find our way to a motel and gratefully checked in for the night.
The next morning we
stopped for breakfast, which we shouldn’t have because when we got to the
Mackenzie-Child’s factory late, we missed the one and only tour. Instead, we
did browse around the large store and it was like looking at a mini museum of
hand crafted pottery items.
Then we got back into
our car and headed to Corning, New York, to tour the glass factory. Somehow I
wasn’t in the mood and we skipped it and drove to Ithaca, where my friend
pointed out some nice sights as well and the bridge I was navigated across, and
the water below it. Because I was driving, I missed that sight. We stopped in the
town and found a ton of eclectic shops on Market Street, along with a few
bookstores to check out.
The next day, on our
return trip, we stopped in Salamanca, New York, to go to the Native American
Museum which was high on my list. Since it happened to be Wednesday…we found a
sign that said closed on Wednesday. We drove through the town which was a
depressed place and every house needed to be painted. We did stop at the local
library which kept the books in boxes. This only added to my depression. We skipped
the casino…which was my fault because I was too busy complaining about the
museum not being opened. Don’t know why I cared because the Museum was tiny and
in a store front shop.
We did stop at a winery
along Erie and sampled a few wines and brought some to take home. We should
have bought the Foxy Lady, and drank the bottle as we drove but then I would
have been stopped and arrested for a DUI! We drove some more and ended up
paying $25 to park and enter the Chautauqua Institute…which was a very weird place,
right down to the organ musical going on in the open shell area.
My friend made a book
of our trip and this sums everything up – she left two pages blank and it
pretty much represented what we missed
because we were late, too early, wrong date or couldn’t find it!!! Our trip
did end up being a big hit of misses, closed for the day, lots of miles on my
car and a whole lot of laughter with my co-pilot. And at that time, God knew
that I needed a whole lot of laughter!!!
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