Watkins Glen State Park, Part 1

Continuing with my recent vacation to upstate New York, I met my wife, daughter, Mom and Dad in Watkins Glen. As I've said before I'm not a race fan so this was just a relaxing vacation. Monday we went to the Watkins Glen State Park and walked DOWN the gorge trail. We took the shuttle bus to the top and walked down, down, down, down 788 steps (as counted) in the 1.5 mile hike. It was an enjoyable walk and the steep walls and flowing water made it much cooler. The drought was evident with low water levels but the falls were still beautiful. I probably took 100 picture here alone. Here are just three of maybe nine I'll eventually post but I'll save them for later. Enjoy.

What's in a Name?

Here are some restaurants from vacation. The Crooked Rooster in Watkins Glen, NY is the brewpub of the Rooster Fish Brewery. We ate here, I had the bleu cheeseburger, very good but my daughter's chicken fingers were more the size of chicken fingernails. the atmosphere was nice and relaxing, we hit it late afternoon, but the waitress seemed pissy and was tipped accordingly. The Snooty Pig in Corning, NY didn't look open, but we were headed for the Market Street Brewing Company, where the food and service were excellent. And the Triple Play Cafe in Cooperstown we passed up also, we had eaten at Rednecks BBQ outside of town earlier. Never know what kind of place you run into when you're out and about, ask the locals, that's what Rachel does.

Syracuse Chiefs vs. Buffalo Bison

We caught a baseball game in Syracuse on Saturday night. Syracuse, the triple A team for the Toronto Blue Jays played Buffalo, the triple A for the Cleveland Indians. Sal Fasano catches for the Chiefs, he was the O's backup in 2005 and Gustavo Cachin was on a rehab assignment from the Bigs and pitched, but not too well. he got pulled with bases loaded, his relief unloaded them when he served up a grand slam. But in the end Syracuse won. Alliance Bank Park was a decent enough stadium except for the hideous carpeted field. Turf that was a color not natural. Obviously it is also used as a soccer/football field, but artificial turf on a minor league field? What were they thinking? There is talk that they may see the light and go au natural next year, let's hope so. The mascots were some strange orange thing called Scooch and a train conductor named Pops. Throughout the game commercial trains were passing diagonally past the left field corner giving it a uniqueness that I did like. All in all I did like it, the hot dogs were good, and the between inning antics included an adult tricycle race and a sack race. The score board was nothing special no pictures just some cartoony images, the out of town board for the International league, Toronto, and the New york clubs was manually operated, but not often enough to keep your interest in what was going on elsewhere. We left in the 8th, it was already pushing 10 PM, and we needed to get up early the next day.

Random Picture, Cortland, NY

Just a random picture from the playground at Yaman State Park in Cortland, NY. This old merry-go-round just screamed, "take my picture". I took a bunch this one turned out the best.

Fireday, August 3rd from Upstate New York

The first picture is the Cooperstown, NY Fire Department. On Induction day they call in help from all over. This is at 9:30 AM, there are additional ambulances at the induction grounds. I counted at least 3 Medic Gators. The ambulance parked nearest to where we stood was from Canandaigua, NY, a 3 hour (160 miles) drive from Cooperstown. Had the sun been out the whole time I don't think they would have had enough help. Because when the sun did shine, it was hot.

The second picture is from Alliance Bank Park in Syracuse, NY, we caught a game Saturday night and saw this poster, thought it was cool. More on the ball game later.

Cooperstown Report - Holy #%*!

Just back from the front lines known as Cooperstown, NY. Yes, I said it, "Holy #%*!". At 9 am the place was full and for the next 4 hours a steady stream of people, 3 across, continued to pour in on foot. Buses from the outer parking (where I parked, at $25 per car) like they were on a schedule, dropping off another load. Tour bus after tour bus after tour bus. and at 1:30 pm the stage finally came to life. Thank God there were some clouds, otherwise I don't think there were enough ambulances in town to haul away the heat exhausted. We found refuge beside the U-Haul truck that the museum was using for storage at the souvenir stand. Here there was about 2 or 3 feet of shade and we could watch from around the back. What an experience. I think all went well, you just had to realize what was going on. After the ceremony it was a simple case of good planning gone bad. Waiting for the buses everyone felt they deserved to be on the first bus. Nobody was more tired than them, nobody else had anywhere to be but them, this was all about them. I got a chuckle out of this. I told my son, "We'll get there eventually, and by then there won't be a crowd". Two hours after the closing we got to our car and two hours later we got to our hotel. All in all 6:30 am until 8 pm for a 3 hour ceremony. In hindsight I'm happy My son and I went, and I'm happy my wife and daughter didn't. They met us on Monday.

Top picture is the Cooperstown Newspaper for Thursday August 2, 2007. The next picture is from Main Street and Pioneer Street downtown, the third picture is Cal Ripken, Jr.'s induction speech from here we stood (you can see the corner of the U-Haul truck) and the last picture is after the crowds thinned out and we moved closer. It was while Kansas City Royals announcer, Denny Mathews, was speaking. Denny won the Ford Frick award.

Dollar General, Gettysburg, PA (PG XVII)

Painted Gentleman 17. The Dollar General Store in Gettysburg. No, the Dollar General is not some low budget officer in the Union Army, it's a discount store with all the prices are even dollars (not the Dollar Store, where everything is one dollar, that's different). And to find this without even looking for it. The biggest surprise is to find a mural on the side of a building in Gettysburg that has nothing to do with the battle. I'm sure you've heard of the battle. This gentleman is a tribute to the Lincoln Highway, U.S. Route 30. It runs more than 3000 miles from Times Square in New York to Lincoln Park in San Fransisco passing through 14 states. I think, a year or two ago, they were painting replica gas pumps to celebrate the Lincoln Highway and that's where this may have come from.