Lucy Has Escaped!

[moosetags]

Thanks for the tips, Peter. We'll look at some of those places. We are going to lay in here for another day and take a short break from this grueling vacationing. We're looking at different options for travel through New York. We are also thinking about dropping down into Pennsylvania and doing a few days at the Penn Wood Airstream Park.

Brian

[OTRA15]

Also -- If Letchworth and the Erie Canal are too far north, Corning Glass Works has an amazing tour, in southern NYS, which is more on the way to Penn Wood.

http://www.cmog.org/

At certain hours you can watch the glass-making in operation, I believe. We stopped there on the way to Letchworth and Niagara Falls about 10 years ago.

Corning is about 40-50 miles west of Binghamton NY off I-86, just above the PA border, with I-99 nearby southbound to Williamsport PA and I-80 E/W.

Or you could take old federal Route 6 west from I-99 and go through the Sprout State Forest and the Allegheny National Forest in NW PA? From the absence of nearby Interstates, this remote part of PA looks like it may be your cup of tea. And Penn Wood is not too far below and slightly to the west.

Have fun!

Peter

[moosetags]

Thanks for the additional information, Peter. We normally don't plan our route much in advance. We just kind of go where the urges take us.

Brian

[woodenicol]

Hi Brian,
If you want to tour northern New York, you come along the St. Lawrence River which separates Ny and Canada. In Massena you can visit the lock system that allows ocean going and local ships to navigate to the Great Lakes.
If you wanted to proceed farther, there are two castles out in the middle of the river that are open to the public. One is Singer Castle which was built by the sewing machine company. The other is Boldt Castle in Alexandria Bay which is 15 miles away. You can take a boat tour and visit both if you heard this way. I live near Singer Castle.

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by woodenicol

Hi Brian,
If you want to tour northern New York, you come along the St. Lawrence River which separates Ny and Canada. In Massena you can visit the lock system that allows ocean going and local ships to navigate to the Great Lakes.
If you wanted to proceed farther, there are two castles out in the middle of the river that are open to the public. One is Singer Castle which was built by the sewing machine company. The other is Boldt Castle in Alexandria Bay which is 15 miles away. You can take a boat tour and visit both if you heard this way. I live near Singer Castle.

Thank you very much for this information.

Brian

[moosetags]

We decided to lay over for another day in Burlington and do a little housekeeping in Lucy. This afternoon we took a little tour of downtown Burlington. We made a quick stop at
Wal-Mart and came back to Lucy for supper. We started preparations for departure before settling in for the night.

Tonight's pictures include:

- Boats on Lake Champlain off of Burlington.
- Marina near Downtown Burlington.
- Coming into Downtown Burlington.
- Old commercial buildings in Downtown Burlington.
- Beautiful old home near Downtown Burlington.
- Another beautiful old home.



Brian

[Gene]

If you like architecture and interesting buildings, Buffalo has lots. There is the art deco City Hall (30+ stories, built around 1930), Ellicott Square Building with enormous atrium, Prudential building, mansions along Delaware Ave., lots of Victorian houses in Allentown (I used to own one). There was an abandoned train station full of marble deteriorating when I was there; I don't know if it was saved. Buffalo was a major US city for years before the decline started when the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened and ships didn't have to stop there anymore.

If you like tourist sites that were popular long ago, in NY, Ausable Chasm and Howe Caverns. The Adirondacks have many interesting little towns, lakes, houses of the wealthy. We may be there in a couple of months.

Gene

[moosetags]

Hi Gene. Thanks for the tips. We are currently having lunch in Lucy in the Bass Pro patting lot in Auburn, New York. We have lined up a campground half way down Lake Cayuga. We will probably spend a few days exploring the Finger Lakes Area

Brian

[moosetags]

Sorry that we missed posting last night. There was no wifi at the campground, and the cell signal was so bad that our telephone hotspot was marginal at best. I was able to get out an email, but AirForums was just not responded.

Lucy broke camp this morning in Morrisville, New York. We headed west along US 20 into the Finger Lakes Region of New York. The scenery along the way was fantastic. Some of the up and down grades were some of the most severe that we have ever experienced. Fred really had his work cut out for him.

We got a really nice campsite at a campground near Ovid, New York. It is a little off the beaten path, half way down the narrow landmass between Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake. We got Lucy settled in and headed out to do some exploration of the area. We decided to head south and check out Ithaca, New York, home of Cornell University. More Importantly, it is the home of a Super Wal-Mart. We stopped at Wal-mart and got some provisions. We also stopped at Wegmans Supermarket to check it out. We had read that it was comparable to Publix. It is a very nice store and as close to Publix as one can get. If we had to live here, this is where we would shop.

We drove onto the Cornell University Campus and looked around. It is very impressive with some really neat old buildings. We were surprised that an Ivy League University has a complete agricultural department with test farms and ranches right on the in-town campus. As Cornell has been on this site for 150 years, it had acquired all the land that it needed.

After our tour of Ithaca, we headed back up to Lucy's campground for a relaxing evening.

Tonight's pictures include:

- A horse ranch near our campground in Morrisville, New York.
- Main Street, Cazanova, New York.
- Scenery along US 20.
- Farmstead on US 20.
- A very attractive old barn.
- Fred and the girls on a break in Lafayette, New York. US 11 goes all the way to New Orleans.
- The 215 foot Taughannock Falls.
- The Cornell University Clock Tower in Ithaca, New York.
- The 1928 State Theatre in Downtown Ithaca, New York.
- Cayuga Lake view from New York State Highway 89.


Love, SuEllyn and Brian

[mimiandrews]

Cornell is noted for its school of veterinary medicine, so the ag facilities don't surprise me.

[moosetags]

Lucy is still camped in Ovid. We did some touring around the some of the towns along
US 20 in the Finger Lakes Region. We visited Waterloo, Geneva, Seneca Falls, and Auburn. We had lunch in a Drive-In near Waterloo. We continued to take in the sights until late this afternoon when we headed back to Lucy's campground.

We got back to the campground in Ovid, and grabbed a quick nap before supper. We are now settling in for the night

Tonight's pictures include:

- There is a severe drought in this part of New York, and these signs are all over the place.
- Main Street in Seneca Falls, New York.
- One of the many mansions in Seneca Falls.
- Downtown Waterloo, New York.
- Mac's Drive-in on US 20 in Waterloo where we had lunch.
- The 1913 Geneva, New York City Hall.
- The 1905 Phoenix Building in Downtown Auburn, New York.
- The 1938 Auburn Theatre in Auburn, New York.
- The 1952 Genesee Beer Sign, an icon in Downtown Auburn.
- The 1949 Hunter Dinerant in Downtown Auburn. A "Dinerant" is somewhere between a Diner and a Restaurant.


Brian

[TG2500]

If you have time, a visit to Skaneateles - just east of Auburn - is well,worth it. A picturesque village with shopping, great restaurants and sitting at the northern end of Skaneateles Lake - one of the clearest bodies of water in the world. Plenty of free parking in town and everything is within walking distance.

[Jarrod White]

Make sure you visit Watkins Glenn State Park
Beautiful rock formations.

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by TG2500

If you have time, a visit to Skaneateles - just east of Auburn - is well,worth it. A picturesque village with shopping, great restaurants and sitting at the northern end of Skaneateles Lake - one of the clearest bodies of water in the world. Plenty of free parking in town and everything is within walking distance.

Thank you for the info. We came through Skaneateles on the way across US 20 on Friday afternoon. It was mobbed with tourists everywhere. We didn't stop as there was nowhere to even pull over with Lucy in tow.

Brian

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by Jarrod White

Make sure you visit Watkins Glenn State ParkAttachment 267054
Beautiful rock formations.

Thanks for the tip. We were planning to go down to Watkins Glen and Horseheads today. We will check out the Park.

Brian

[moosetags]

Lucy is still camped near Ovid, New York. We toured south along Seneca Lake to Watkins Glen, New York. We started by driving over to the town of Ovid where we saw what are called "The Three Bears". These building are believed to be the only three adjacent public buildings in the country in the Greek Revival style. These buildings served as the Seneca County Courthouse, and administrative office building when Ovid was the county seat. The largest and smallest buildings were both built in 1845. The middle size building was built in between them in 1860. These buildings have been referred to as the Three Bears by the local people for over one hundred years. The Seneca County Seat is now located in Waterloo.

We continued along the Lake down to Watkins Glen. We looked around town for a while and then went further south to see Horseheads, New York. We came back up through Watkins Glen and continued up the west shore of Saranac Lake. We saw some great scenery and significant buildings.

We returned to Lucy for supper and started breaking camp as we plan to head out tomorrow.

Tonight's pictures include:

- The Three Bears.
- Victorian home in Ovid, New York.
- View of Seneca Lake.
- Hector Falls.
- Downtown Watkins Glen, New York.
- Vintage Canned Ham - Note sign in back window.
- Watkins Glen street sign. Block numbers a on a small race car.
- Entrance to Watkins Glen International Speedway.
- Chequaga Falls in Montour Falls, New York.
- The 1873 Cook Mansion in Montour Falls.


Brian

[TG2500]

Originally Posted by moosetags

Thank you for the info. We came through Skaneateles on the way across US 20 on Friday afternoon. It was mobbed with tourists everywhere. We didn't stop as there was nowhere to even pull over with Lucy in tow.

Brian

Yes, the busy time of year in Skaneateles (we have a house there). For future reference, nearby Austin Park has a huge lot you can always park in and walk to downtown (<10 minutes) and just past the village of Skaneateles on Route 20 is a bowling alley/office complex which also has a huge parking lot where you can park in the back . Enjoy the rest of your trip. I love following your travels!

[moosetags]

Lucy broke camp this morning in the pouring rain, and we headed west across US 20 into the western part of New York State. The countryside along this route is dotted with small towns most of which date back to the latter part of the Eighteenth Century. The land between the towns is mostly filled with corn and wheat fields. As we headed west, the rain let up and the sun appeared. We traveled west on US 20 almost to Buffalo, and turned north on NY State Road 78 to Lockport . We got Lucy settled into a nice campsite in the Niagara County Camping Resort.

It was still pretty early, so we headed over to Niagara Falls where SuEllyn got a haircut. On the way back to Lucy we stopped at a Popeye's and got some really good chicken to bring home to Lucy. We dined in Lucy and got settled in for the night.

Tonight's pictures include:

- Heading out in the rain.
- Model T Ford on the back road.
- The Model T pulling away from us.
- Wheat field along the road.
- This field had just been cut.
- Really neat reproduction Shasta TT.
- Downtown Lima, New York.
- Wheat fields in the distance.
- Vertical hops farm.
- Sign at hops farm

Brian

[duncans]

Brian and SuEllyn,

Thank you for all of your trip reports and photos. I try to follow you on a map some evenings. I had no idea that the East Coast was so green and lush. I thought that it was a mass of concrete.

It will be a long time before we ever travel the Eastern US. However, in the mean time, I'm right there following you! Just wonder what it tastes like!

Susan

I grew up on a 500 acre hop farm. I didn't know any are raised in the East.

[xrvr]

We've traveled coast to coast via mc and rv. Whenever we are remembering our trips, we always bring up Maine, NH, Vermont and upstate NY as our favorites. Beautiful country, thanks for bringing back memories! Good travels and thanks again.