Wednesday,
16 May 2018
 |
| today's route |
I
was aiming for Elmira
to pay my respects at the grave of Samuel Clemens, aka
Mark Twain. His wife’s
family lived in Elmira and he and his family spent quite a bit of
time there. He wrote some of his most famous books there (Huckleberry Finn, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi) but left
for good in despair after the premature deaths of several of his
children. After his death, his body was brought back to be buried
with his wife and children. Woodlawn
Cemetery seems as old as the
town – it’s very large and beautiful with graves much older than
those of the Clements family. The dogs and I all enjoyed our walk
there.
By
then it was 11:00 and we were all getting hungry but I had a plan in
mind. I drove an hour away
into
Binghamton and, getting turned around only once, went
to The Original Lupo’s Char Pit. They don’t claim to have
invented the spiedie but do claim to have
perfected it. A spiedie (pronounced speedy) is
a regional speciality – you can find it only in the Binghamton area
but, there, it’s wildly popular. It’s marinated pork or chicken
(usually), cut in chunks and charbroiled on a skewer, then the cook
uses a sandwich bun as if it were a potholder to pull the meat off
the skewer. And that’s it – meat and bun. Nothing else. It’s
the marinade that provides the flavor, which is piquant and
delicious. I had no trouble wolfing down a
pork version and didn’t
even add salt, which is
almost unheard of for me.
 |
| You can see I'd already started eating. |
After that I planned to get some
important chores done. It’s time for Dexter’s annual checkup and
I’d located a Banfield Vet Clinic at a PetsMart only a few miles
from Lupo’s. But when we went there, the store told us the
Banfield’s had closed about a year and a half ago and that the
closest one they knew of was in Albany. I’ll certainly call that
to the attention of someone when I find another outlet, and this time
I know to call ahead to confirm when I think I’ve located one. In
the meantime, I’m going to be nervous because it really is time for
Dexter’s shots (fortunately not his rabies shot - NY state parks wouldn't let us in without it - but everything
else).
Then
I went to a CVS to pick up 2 prescriptions I’d called ahead about,
only to discover one of them didn’t have any refills left
and I need to call my doctor to get another one. Of course, then I
have the problem again of planning ahead to locate a CVS I can get to
easily to have it sent to for filling. Meanwhile, I’m out of that
medication, which is supposed to help my blood pressure.
Well,
I’m not expecting any serious stress ahead, and when I can get a
wi-fi signal, I’ll look up my doctor’s phone number. (I’m
absolutely certain
that I brought her business card but couldn’t find it or any of the
others I know I brought, even after a 20-minute search. They’ll
show up when I don’t need them and I’ll need to figure out a
better spot to put them in.)
I’d
originally intended to spend more time in Binghamton because it calls
itself the Carousel Capital of the World, but earlier in the month I
looked them up and learned that, of the 6 remaining antique carousels
here, all are closed until Memorial Day. I can tell you that the
flight simulator was invented here, and IBM was founded near here,
and in 1858 the New
York State Inebriate Asylum was established as the first in the
country to treat alcoholism as a disease. Interesting
place, huh? Binghamton’s at the confluence of the Susquehana and
Chenango Rivers, so there are 11 bridges in town.
This
state park, a great deal of which was built by the CCC, is located
around 2 kettle lakes formed about 11,000 years ago when the glacier
sheet retreated. It’s pretty and wooded and quiet.
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