New York - Days 6 & 7

Lakeside Beach State Park, near Rochester
Monday, 7 May 2018

Sunday's route

Sunday, I drove from the west side of Seneca Lake, past the other, smaller Finger Lakes to Letchworth State Park.  More on that park later.

Geneva City Park at the north end of Seneca Lake

numerous farms in this photo

Too bad the morning was mostly overcast because this area is really pretty.  All along the way was farmland, as in this photo below, and many of the houses I passed had huge weeping willows in the yard, like this one (above) at the Geneva park.

Upper and Middle Falls

Letchworth State Park is known for the gorge running through it, carved centuries ago by the Genesee River.  The 550' gorge is known is the Grand Canyon of the East; certainly not as jaw-dropping as the real one but stunning nonetheless.  And the waterfalls are beautiful.  The Upper Falls are 70' high and 300' wide, though they don't look so impressive in this photo - the Upper Falls are the ones under the bridge in the distance.  The Middle Falls are 107' high and 285' wide.  You can see how that much water could carve a canyon.

In the park I saw several black squirrels and was lucky enough to find one that would sit still long enough for me to take a picture to prove he really is black.

Apparently, Heaven on earth for squirrels is here: there must be a million of them in this park, and Dexter was on the edge of his seat.  There are several "Wildlife Crossing" signs in the park and I promise at one of them I saw 2 squirrels crossing the road.

The whole way through the park I kept thinking it must have been built by the CCC and, sure enough, near the falls is a statue and plaques commemorating the work they did: 3000 of them staying in 4 camps from 1933 to 1941.

Monday's route

I had a route all planned out but got short-circuited when I learned the south entrance to the park was closed - probably till Memorial Day, like everything else I've wanted to see.  So I had to go out a different entrance and got turned around, making a substantial sidetrip into the New York countryside.  At least I can add Bliss to the places I've been, and not everybody can say that.

In one town I saw a store named "Junk and Disorderly."

Out in what seemed to me like the middle of nowhere - but was actually near the village of Darien Center - was a giant amusement park named Darien Lake Theme Park.  Giant, with a roller coaster that must have let the riders see two counties away.

Elba, NY, proclaims itself the Onion Capital of the World.  (They may want to have a little discussion with Walla Walla, WA, or Vidalia, GA.)

I guess in every road trip there comes a time when you come close to a fatal traffic accident, and today was mine (I hope it's the only one).  I was on a 2 lane road with no shoulder, coming up a hill, and saw a semi stopped at the top of the hill on the other side of the road.  Just as I got to the crest of the hill I saw another semi coming the other way, and he had pulled into my lane to go around the parked semi.  I had almost nowhere to go and he was going pretty fast, and I'm still not sure how I was able to pull over enough to avoid him.  What I am sure of was that it was only by inches, because I saw him right there.  I'm guessing he was as spooked by it as I was.  A little farther down the road I pulled over at someone's mailbox to regroup.  I wasn't really scared because it had happened too fast and was already over, but I may have been in shock, or in denial, or stunned, or something else numb.

For some reason I can't put my finger on, I wanted to go to Batavia, which is why there's another jog in the route I took.  It seems a nice enough town but has a very expensive grocery store that I stumbled on.  Why do I keep finding weird grocery stores?  Everything I bought cost a lot more money than I've seen it anywhere else.  Oh well.  I have supplies.

It was in Batavia that I encountered my first instance of road rage.  I'd pulled out of the grocery store parking lot into the center turn lane and sat there waiting till I could pull into traffic.  I heard somebody lean on their horn and they gave me the finger very decidedly, then pulled in ahead of me at a turn lane, at which point I could see it was a woman (I normally think of men in this context, apparently a sexist thought).  There were 2 odd things about that: one is that I hadn't done anything at all that should have been a problem for that driver, and the other is that the license plate frame read "Massage Therapist."  If she is one, I'm glad I'm not going to her, and if she isn't, I hope she was hot-footing it over to a session.  But you know, I've come a long distance to have this be my first time.  Not bad.

I'm scheduled to spend a couple of nights at this state park and consider myself luckier than I expected because my campsite is right on Lake Ontario, which has gorgeous sunsets.

Lake Ontario makes a nice background

the sunset out my bedroom windows