it's hard to believe that we've been traveling almost 100 days! When talking with our grandchildren last night, several of them asked how many states we've been in on this trip. Let's see...Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, New York. That's 16 states, plus 3 Canadian Provinces: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Most of it was in the pop-up, but since we left Massachusetts for New York a few days ago, we're officially camping in our new travel trailer...On The Loose with Lucy! And I must admit, we LOVE the change!
Yesterday, Sunday, we attended church at the Chapel In the Glen, an Independent Bible Church in Watkins Glen. A really neat thing about the church is that they are committed to ministering to troubled teens in a nearby facility called Freedom Village. Since that was Curt's calling for the last 15 years of his work before retirement, that really resonated with us. May God bless their work with these young people.
After church we drove up Seneca Lake a ways to meet our friend, Chris Norment. We were a little early for our rendezvous, so we drove down a National Forest road and took a short hike. The weather was beautiful, and the woods were so inviting.
Then we continued on to Wagner Vineyard. Chris knew about this place because it is owned by the family of one of his former students at State University of New York at Brockport. There was a wonderful restaurant where we could sit outside, enjoy lunch overlooking the vineyards and lakes, and catch up on the 10 years since we had last seen each other.
Chris is one of our first friends as a couple. Curt met him at the University of Neveada at Las Vegas (UNLV) just a few days after we were married. We all connected immediately. Chris was working as a researcher in Death Valley National Park at the time, so he spent most of his working days in Death Valley but needed occasional lodging in Las Vegas. We invited him to use our second bedroom whenever he was in town. We've had some amazing adventures together in the past: rock climbing, mountaineering, big water rafting (including an 18-day trip on the Green and Colorado Rivers), backpacking, cross-country skiing, etc. Later, after Curt and I moved to Montana, Chris and his wife, Melissa were married at our house overlooking the Gallatin River. Unfortunately, Melissa wasn't able to come yesterday. She has just started a new school year with 4th grade special education students, and having just returned from an extended trip to Australia, she really needed to stay and prepare her classroom. We would have loved to have seen her, but we know how important it is to start the year prepared!
Those are grapevines there, between the grass and the lake. The depth of the vineyard is MUCH greater than it looks in the photo.
Another really interesting part of the day was getting to meet Ian Wagner, Chris's former student. We visited with him for a while, and it was fascinating to learn more about how a vineyard and winery/brewery operation works.
We sat out in the sunshine all afternoon (almost 5 hours!) and had such a wonderful visit with Chris. He has just published his fourth book, and he and Melissa are going to be traveling soon to Antarctica! They travel more than almost anyone else we know, to some amazing places. We worked out a possible way to get to see both Chris and Melissa again next summer, in Washington State. Hope it works out!
The Finger Lakes are a series of long, skinny lakes running roughly north-south, kind of the way your fingers extend out from your hand. They were formed by glaciers which carved deep grooves for the lakes. The glaciers created very fertile valleys for all these delicious grapes to grow, and the deep lakes provide a more temperate climate in the winters which protect the vines from deadly temperature extremes. That's why the Finger Lakes region has literally hundreds of vineyards and wineries.
On our drive, I noticed many beautiful old barns, so after a while I started snapping photos wherever I could. Here's the Barn Parade:
And one shot I just wasn't quick enough to capture was my first view of a black Amish horse-drawn buggy taking the corner at a city intersection at an impressive clip, right in among all the cars and trucks.
We found our way to Keuka Lake State Park where we are now happily established for 3 nights. The park is so beautiful and serene... in contrast, it makes our last 5 nights we spent in a KOA seem like we were in the inner city! However, it was a great location for what we wanted to do, so we don't regret it.
This is what the campsites look like...large grassy openings separated by these beautiful shrubs and trees. It's so peaceful and fragrant....and GREEN!
After we were established and spent a couple hours planning and making reservations for our next stop, we drove into the tiny nearby town of Branchport for a few essential groceries.
But the real find of the day was when we drove up a long hill called "Italy Hill." We pulled into the drive of a farmhouse where we saw a sign that said "Grapes and Pies." It was next to a very large vineyard, and as we opened the car door, the sweetest fragrance of grapes just hung in the air. It was heavenly. The stand operated on the honor system. Take what you need and put the money in the box. We had enough ones to buy a basket of grapes, but we didn't have change for a twenty, which was probably a good thing...otherwise we'd be stuffing ourselves with homemade grape pie right now!
Then back along beautiful Lake Keuka to our campsite, for a tasty dinner of pot roast and onions cooked in the crockpot...and a relaxing evening. What a life!
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