One Lap

Date: 10/20/2013

Day: 24

Location:  Niagara Falls, NY

Miles Today: 301

Total Miles:  5022

A Domestic Day, The Finger Lakes, Seen on the Road

A Domestic Day

Today was devoted to a drive to one of the many wine regions of New York; we chose the Finger Lake region in the north central part of the state, south of Lake Erie.  If you have never been loose in New York with a car, you rapidly learn that it's a big state; getting form one section to another takes some time.  One does the getting about on "Thruways," which are toll roads as opposed to freeways which are, well, free if you don't count the gasoline tax.  They work like any other interstate, with fewer on and off ramps.  Much of the way could have been through Kansas.

The Finger Lakes

During the last ice age (2 million years to about 10,000 years ago) the roughly parallel valleys and hills of the Finger Lakes region of New York were shaped by the advance and retreat of the Laurentid Ice Sheet that was as much as 2 miles deep.  Preexisting river valleys were scoured into deep troughs; many are now filled with lakes. The two largest lakes, Seneca and Cayuga, are so deep that the base of their lake beds are below sea level.

Today the finger lakes moderate the local climate.  The area around Seneca lake is home to more than 50 wineries.  We visited half a dozen.  How was the wine?  Interesting and well enough made, but not to our taste.  We prefer California fruit forward wine. 

Seneca lake is the big one in the middle.

This picture of the Finger Lake region snow bound, was taken form the Space Station in 2004 and is downloaded form Wikipedia.  Seneca lake, the big one in the middle is 38 miles long and up to 618 feet deep.  These are serious landforms.  They look a lot like claw marks, don't they?

If the wine was, to our palate, no more than interesting, the scenery is outstanding.  There are lots of bed and breakfast establishments and interesting road house-type restaurants along the wine route. This would be an interesting place to revisit when the threat of snow isn't riding on every thunderhead.

 

Seen on the Road

The Wurlitzer factory of North Tonawanda, New York, soon to be a Wal-Mart.
 

Wait; hold your nostalgic angst.  The Wurlitzer plant actually closed forty years ago, stood unused for several years and was turned into an industrial park in the 1980's.   Today  it contains a purveyor of archery gew-gaws, a large used book store, a dog training facility, lawyers offices and a medical billing firm.  This in addition to the soon to open Wal-Mart.  Not romantic, but practical, one supposes.



Tomorrow on the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Wellington Boot, Col