New York - Day 2 - Seneca Falls

Cayuga Lake State Park
Wednesday, 2 May 2018

On our early morning walk at the KOA, Dexter went into his frantically-tracking-the-scent mode.  I kept telling him it was a raccoon or something but he ignored me.  We came to the top of a rise and I could just see over the top to the meadow and saw 3 deer grazing peacefully.  The deer hadn't seen us and the dogs hadn't seen them, so I quickly took the dogs back down the hill.  But it was neat for me to see them, even if I was the only one to enjoy it.

As we were driving away toward the highway, we saw a marmot cross the road, looking like a very overgrown squirrel (which it is).  Dexter again went on high alert.  Later, farther down the road, I watched a wild turkey poke his head up in the roadside ditch, climb the rise and trot across the road.  It's lucky I'd seen him from the beginning because I'd never have been able to avoid him otherwise.  I'd have thought a wild turkey would be smarter than a domestic turkey, but apparently it doesn't include street smarts.

One of the reasons I wanted to take this trip was to see what could be found by getting off the main highway, and today I found out.  I went down I-88 from exit 11 to exit 8 (more than 3 miles) and got off at Bainbridge.  There I saw a sign saying "Welcome to Bainbridge, Home of Elmer's Glue."  Who knew?

If you should ever find yourself in the village of Whitney Point, NY, be sure to stop at The Scoop, where I had the best chocolate malt I've ever had in my life.  It's right across the street/state highway from the town's school.  Apparently it's got only one school building and all the grades use it.  Called Whitney Point Central School.  It's the class C field hockey state champions for the last 4 years!

In both PA and NY I've noticed that several towns have signs such as, for example, "Lisle Free Library."  I'm guessing these date from the time when people had to pay for a subscription to get books from a library.  Then thanks to Mr. Carnegie, we started enjoying free libraries, open to all.

I spent several hours this afternoon driving along Cayuga Lake, almost 40 miles long.  I had reservations at this state park at the north end of the lake and chose a route that hugged the shore much of the way.

Cayuga Lake from the state park

New York state highways are much like PA's, except the road surface is much smoother overall.  It seems to take a long time to get from one place to another, but that's not really a problem because the scenery is very pleasant; it's just something to account for.

today's route