Watkins Glen New York

After leaving Ipperwash Beach we decided not to stop at Niagara Falls Canada so we pressed on to the Finger Lakes area of New York. Bruce had gotten the great idea that we should stay near Watkins Glen, his knowledge of the history of the racetrack there and wish to see the “Glen” drove us on. On Sept. 30, about 8:00 PM it was dark and lightly raining. We needed a place to stop and discovered that the local communities apparently have laws against camping at Wal-Mart so we pressed on to Sampson State Park. The park was closed for the night and very dark, but we found the park office parking lot. After a visit from night security we settled in for the night. We paid sixteen dollars the next morning for a non-electric site, (the parking lot), then headed on down the road.
Our campground of choice was Paradise Park in Reading Center, NY, (pronounced “RED”ing), about four miles up the hill from Watkins Glen. If you have a very large rig be aware… this park has a very awkward and hard to get into dump station and no full hookups, otherwise a nice park. Edible button mushrooms were growing right in the grass near our campsite, so Lynn would go out picking and we enjoyed fresh mushrooms for several meals!



Watkins Glen is situated on the very south end of Lake Seneca one of the largest of the Finger Lakes in NY. After downloading the trike, we rode into town and took a look around the area. We found a Friday Farmer’s market in the park so Lynn did some fresh veggie shopping. There was a lot of traffic coming into town as this was going to be a beautiful fall weekend. Oh yes, and the hills around Lake Seneca are loaded with vineyards and wineries, large dairy farms, and waterfalls; a very picture perfect area.



Saturday we jumped on the trike and headed to Corning NY, the home of Corning Glass. The sun was shinning, the temp was in the low sixties and the highway to Corning went through some very colorful fall foliage. When we got to Corning we passed up the Glass Museum and went to the Rockwell Western Art Museum, (imagine that!) They had some very nice pieces including Russell’s and Remington’s. Lynn found out where the Corning Outlet store was so off we went to shop but remembered we had the trike, so she bought small. After a nice walk around town and an enjoyable ride back to Watkins Glen we drove by the “Glen”, (that’s the RACE track). All we could see from the outside was a little bit of the track. On the way back home, we had dinner at a nice Italian Restaurant overlooking Lake Seneca.


Sunday morning we rode into town to the United Methodist Church for morning worship. This church needs prayer.t's a large old historic church with some of the nicest stain glass windows we’ve seen, but the church is up for sale and the pastor is trying to find a way to hold the small and aging congregation together. We had reservations for the lunch cruise on Lake Seneca. The weather was partly cloudy and a little brisk but we enjoyed the nice buffet and tour around the lake. After the cruise we found the “Glen” souvenir shop they offered a $25 pass to take three laps behind a pace car, but, alas…no motorcycles allowed.


So on Monday we decided to take the Kenworth for those three laps around the “Glen”. (Yeah, it really took a lot to convince Bruce to do THAT!) After we watched the smaller cars do their laps it was our turn along with a big motorhome who went on ahead of us because “we were taller”. It was a lot of fun. They have a 55 MPH limit for these laps and after the first lap the pace car saw we weren’t in any danger of exceeding that limit, so he pulled over and let us go, shifting that Eaton 9 speed and hitting those air brakes in every turn. Lynn was trying to get pictures as we went around. Not the easiest thing she has ever done! Even got a movie of the last lap and she said, “I hope all this jiggling doesn’t hurt your eyes!” We even passed a Ferrari while we were on the track, (ok, so he was parked!). Had a tough time getting THAT picture…we were going Sooooo FAST! (Actually, it was the jiggling!) Great fun! Lynn said I didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day and the next time we see a race from the “Glen” we will have an idea of the conditions.



Our last day here in the Finger Lakes area we took off on the trike to drive around the lake. It was a little cool, (Lynn says “cold!), but when we got to Geneva we stopped for coffee to warm up. It was fun to see some of the places we spotted from the boat from a different angle, especially some of the vineyards. This whole area is very pretty especially with the fall colors, and will be one of those places that we will try to visit again in our travels.