Livin' the Sunbird Life: August 23-29: Finger Lakes

August 29, 2013

KOA Watkins Glen-Corning Campground, Beaver Dam, New York

As always, feel free to click on any picture to enlarge it...

So, we had a pretty good drive out to the Finger Lakes from Connecticut – once we got started, that is. We pulled out of Pat & Al’s right on schedule at 9:00 and headed for I-91. As we got closer, about 10 minutes into the trip, I had a sense that something was wrong, and it looked like I could see wet streaks “following us” in the road. I pulled off to the side of the on-ramp and sure enough, fluid was flooding from the center area of the coach’s underbelly, right where the new furnace is located. I could tell right away that it was engine coolant from the smell and texture.

Well, one of the hose fittings had let go. Fortunately, I was smart enough to install good brass ball valves on the supply and return lines, so I was able to unload the bay, crawl in, and shut them off, stopping the leak immediately. I had to top off the radiator with water, but we were back on the road inside 30 minutes. I’ll make final repairs in the fall when we’re back in Arizona. We can wait until then because the primary reason for the engine coolant loop into the furnace is to allow me to pre-heat the engine on cold mornings. We won’t have any of those before we get back.

Now, on with the trip!

Our route took us south on I-91, past Hartford, then across I-691 to I-84 west into New York. Past the Newburgh Bridge and the Hudson River, we switched off to NY-17, the Southern Tier Expressway. Eventually, this route will be upgraded to Interstate standards and become I-86; some sections are so designated already. But, it’s good 4-lane limited-access highway for the most part and we made reasonably good time, pulling into our destination, the KOA Watkins Glen-Corning, just after 3:00 PM.

Did you ever have déjà vu? How about vujà dé? It’s kind of the opposite: the intense feeling that you’ve never been in a place before. That’s how I spent the first couple of days here. You see, I was positive we’d stayed at this campground before – when I made the reservation. Once we got here, nothing looked familiar. Our prior stay was pre-blog, so I was a little light on electronic archives and couldn’t find any evidence to support my contention.

Proof of stay, 8/2004

Not willing to give up, I headed for our picture archives. I really need better organization, at least in naming conventions here, but I was able to find one lone picture from August of 2004 that shows we were here before. Actually, we were parked less than 100 feet from where we are now. It looks like it was on our first trip to Dave & Sandy’s place up North, with our first motorhome (that brings back memories!). Now I feel better!

With reasonably good weather in the forecast, we deployed our outside “stuff”. The dog pen, outdoor cooking facilities, and chairs all got some use on the nice concrete pad in our site. We had several nice dinners, most eaten outdoors. Surprisingly, it wasn’t very “buggy” and we enjoyed the outside time, as did the pups. For some reason, Merlin really likes being in the pen, so we were happy to accommodate him.

Beautiful sunset in the Finger Lakes

Steak & Bake

Sautéed Chicken over Spinach & Arugula

Geri's Famous Arroz con Pollo

I wanted to do a little waterfall photography, but it was really too late in the year. Spring is the time for rushing waters. What to do instead? They have wineries here? Oh, OK.

Using the Wine Spectator as a guide, I selected three wineries, all along Seneca Lake. Of the three, two were reasonably good (Fox Run and Anderson Road) and one was above average (Ravine Wine Cellars). We have a problem, of course, since we’ve been lucky enough to visit some really good wine regions over the years but we try to keep an open mind. We usually enjoy talking with the tasting room staff as well, and these stops were no exception. And, we somehow ended up with 17 bottles of wine. Go figure.

Tasting Room at Fox Run Winery

As we were returning to Watkins Glen, we noticed an interesting old building. Lo and behold, it’s the local Elks Lodge. We made it a point to return the following afternoon, even though we couldn’t find much information online on what might be going on. It turns out that they don’t do a lunch, but the bar was open so we had a Blue Moon (second one on the house). The Grand Poobah used to spend time in Arizona at our Sun City Lodge, so we struck up quite a conversation. It turns out that they were having an event in their banquet facility, so he snuck us a couple of plates for lunch. That’s hospitality!

We wrapped up our visit with some more relaxation on the patio.