Summer 2010 Part II

Another hot, humid and hazy day. We left the RV park in mid-morning and headed 16 miles south to Corning. Corning is best known for its historic connection to glass. Today it is the home of the Corning Glass Museum and, in the historic downtown area, a number of glass making studios. We walked along most of Market street, home to a lot of antiques shops, art and glass studios. What we noticed is that Market street doesn't seem to wake up until 11am when most of the shops open up. There are many historic buildings on and around Market Street. I remember these sights from my business travels up in this area prior to NY 17/I 86 bypassing the downtown area. After less than an hour, we were off to Bath, about 22 miles west on I 86 to get some supplies at Camping World.

From Bath we went to Penn Yan to find a quilt shop, what else, that Susie wanted to see. It was advertised in a book that Susie bought during our unplanned stay in Minnesota earlier this summer (I think I'm going to regret the day she bought that book). The book lists and has advertising from shops all over the country (just what I needed). The route from Bath to Penn Yan follows a ridge line on the east shore of Keuka Lake. One would expect to find some scenic lookouts where I could have taken some pictures, but alas, no such thing. Most of the road was bordered by private property. The only scenic parking area had thick woods on the lake side making photography of the lake impossible. The view to the other side of the road was a corn field. The only consolation was that the hazy conditions would not allow a good view anyway. We finally got to the quilt shop/country store which was well outside of Penn Yan, virtually in the middle of nowhere. The shop was also a disappointment to Susie. Leaving the country store we took NY 14, along the west shore of Seneca Lake back to Watkins Glen.

For those of you who love wine, the Finger Lakes region is second only to Napa Valley for its concentration of wineries. They are found all along the lakes. In the next couple of days we plan to visit some wineries and sample their products.

Market Street, Corning

Market Street, looking West