North to Finger Lakes- it's all vineyard and trees!

Farewell to Fantasy Island
American camping at its best.... not
But it is on a nice river. 

We drove north through Amish/ Mennonite country- not a buggy on the road but whoops, what is that?  Men in straw hats tending big fire pits. We flipped a quick U-turn. Well, not quite…. Remember what we’re driving.  But we did return to the Amish market where the men would selling the best  BBQ chicken ever found on earth. . . . . . in four hours.  (And didn't feel free to take photos but the men were scenic and there was a horse) 

But a pattern was definitely  forming for the trip.  Gales of laughter would be frequent.   We would be too early or too late for everything. Farmer's markets were always yesterday or tomorrow. Shops were closed, great art shows were next month.  But we would never have to worry about what our travel buddy would eat- she ate whatever you ate.  A 1 ton camper pick up could zip trough traffic and U- turned on a dime IF you just pretend it is a VW bug.  And wandering without a set plan opens you up for really fun adventures.

And the Amish/Mennonite- I thought they were Mennonite but there was no electricity in the country store.... where we bought a healthy breakfast. A pumkin whoopie pie. http://www.joyofbaking.com/PumpkinWhoopiePies.html   A recipe for those who still bake!

Again no pictures.  Why? Delicious!

Later that day in Mansfield, PA we stopped to measure the back seat one more time to be sure we really could not  squeeze the coveted loom into the back seat. We made the decision not to drive six hours back to Philadelphia and attempt to load the loom.  It didn’t seem possible and the risk involved lots of extra driving.  But we discovered our first lesson of travel as we attempted to measure the truck’s back seat- a sense of humor goes a long way- people seem to be drawn to two women laughing themselves silly and loaned us a tape measure, checked our oil, offer directions, or at least smiled with us.

Also in Mansfield we had yet another regional meal- Janet experienced the touch screen menu at a Sheetz fuel station- food to go.  http://www.sheetz.com/main/food/menu.cfm   She really must get out of the Denver area more often and eat at more gas stations.  We had a pretty decent made to order breakfast burrito and were on our way.

It's a restaurant, it's a gas station-
it's Sheetz!

With regional gourmet food.

This is for my dear friend, Jan, who loves Tastky-Kakes!
Childhood in Pennsylvania...

On to Corning,  New York

Fabulous museum.
These are glass boats-/ships-/birds- cool things that seem to swim/float in the air/ water. 

Next stop? The Corning Glass Museum- which really is much more than an entire museum dedicated to a little white bowl with blue flowers on it. (I told you so.)  How to make glass, how to break glass, how to buy glass and the entire history of glass. 


Who knew the Persians were making such fabulous contemporary designs three thousands years ago? And how did it survive intact? Fascinating and we could have stayed all day.  We almost did.


But the Finger Lakes called. 

Fabulous Internet shot, not my own.
Captures the beauty of America's Lake District. 

We drove through the cute town of Watkins Glen and up along the west side of the Seneca Lake- vineyard, vineyard, vineyard, soft serve “ice cream”, a glimpse of lake and the pretty other side; then more- vineyard, vineyard, vineyard, soft serve “ice cream”, a glimpse of lake far below. Trees, lots of trees. Not quite what we expected but very pretty. 


 Gotta say, the East coast would really look much more distinctive if most the trees were cut down- the scenery began to look the same as we drove from state to state. 

This was an actual scenic overview in the Finger Lakes area.
I cannot get the sign to show up- it's embarrassed that the scenic overlook,
overlooks a pretty normal dairy farm and lots of plastic wrapped hay.
Where's the lakes?