Finishing off in New York

 Philly Cheese Steaks on Wednesday and Shrimp and Crab Boil Dinner on Friday, Should be good!

It had been pretty rainy and it didn’t stop either, most days had at least a shower. That didn’t stop us exploring some more before we finally broke free of the Rochester area and moved south to be in the Watkins Glen area.

The Glen at Watkins Glen

We had a little trouble finding somewhere to stay, with the schools out families were on vacation and most of the state parks were full. Commercial parks were full at weekends. Eventually we found a park called Gardner Hill CG just east of Elmira. It was a slightly run down older place with all grass surfaces but everything worked and $35 a night was good for the area. There were several very old and run down looking trailers to one side of the park but we felt comfortable there.

Elmira is close to several local attractions and museums which we had a week to visit.

Vintage Glider week at Harris Hill

My flying background has been mainly in gliders and a facility called Harris Hill was high on my bucket list. Widely acknowledged as the home of US gliding it had hosted the US gliding championship many times and is closely associated with the Schweizer Aircraft Company who have been the main builder of gliders in the US from the start. It is also home to the National Soaring Museum. Quite by chance it was a national vintage glider meeting while we were there and I took a LOT of pictures. We even got Barbara in a glider! (sort of).

The Intrepid Glider Pilot

A little way up the road is the town of Watkins Glen which for many years was the home of the US Formula 1 Grand Prix. Another bucket list item for me was to visit the track. We followed the State visitors guide which , for some strange reason, brought us not to the track but to the research library? With a little googling we arrived at the track but we were told that we could not look around.

Playing at being a racer at "The Glen"

We must have looked disappointed so the guard looked at us and said “But”. Our interest peaked, “If you would like do do 3 laps of the track behind a pace car in your own car then join the line forming on the left”

Barbara did a good job of capturing the action

15 minutes later we rolled out on the track and got to look at the place from the racers point of view and had a blast playing at clipping apexes and running over curbs just like real racers but at 60mph instead of 200!!

Before Watkins Glen was known for racing it was known for its waterfalls. In the Glen itself cutting thru a narrow twisting gorge the river cuts thru 500’ of rock. It twists, turns and drops creating 20 small and large falls in about 1 mile.

Entrance to the Glen

There has been so much rain in the last couple of weeks making the water flow quite spectacular.

Rochester College

Mark Twains Study in the college grounds

 Elmira has a really beautiful College which contains exhibits of one of America’s best known authors, Mark Twain. Twain married a girl from Elmira and they spent many summers at her family’s farm and luxurious downtown mansion. Several of his books were written here and he is buried in the local cemetery.

Grave of Twain and his father in law

Corning is famous for the glassware produced there, Corningware. They have a Glass Museum that traces the making of glass back to the Egyptians and beyond. They also show the specialized glasses such as Pyrex and other used in industry and aerospace.

Tiffany Glass lamp

More airplanes (Whoopie for me) at the Wings of Eagles museum followed a chicken BBQ at the Elks lodge and were in turn followed by an aimless wander thru the lovely countryside taking pictures of barns.

Wings of Eagles Museum

Still on the lookout for more model airplane supplies I stumbled across and ad for balsa wood, pictures showed a couple of boxes with useful wood in them for $25 and I drove over to see them. They were part of an estate sale and I was pointed to the back of the garage and told everything on 3 shelves came with the wood for $25 so I hauled it back to the rig in the Edge.

Ahhh! Model airplane engines!!

It was quite a tight fit in the car and I had to fold the back seats down to get it all in. Much of it was N gauge model train stuff, engines, rail cars, scenery tracks, books. The model airplane stuff was in the usual Zerox paper boxes with lids on them.

Tiny N Gauge locomotives

As I opened one box after the next I discovered engines, some never used, fuel tanks, wheels, accessories of all kinds and more books. Looks like E-Bay is going to be busy soon!

Rolling stock too.

We moved west again to Balston Spa near Saratoga Springs which is famous for horse racing, more torrential rain came but we still managed to see Lake George and take a lunch cruise of the tour boat there.

Minnie Ha Ha tour boat

Lakeside luxury hotel

Then we finally left New York and moved into one of our favorite states, Vermont.