We arrived in Ovid in the Finger Lakes, New York State after a long drive over the Adirondacks. There are many classical names in the Finger Lakes after an early surveyor. Names like Seneca, Romulus, Ovid, Aurelius, Ithaca. The lakes are long and thin and spread out like the fingers on a hand- hence the name. Formed by retreating glaciers in the last ice-age dumping glacial rocks in the river valleys. For the past few months since we left Quebec we had become used to the countryside being soft rolling wooded hills or tall wooded mountains, but here in the Finger Lakes we arrived into fertile farmland and the centre of the Eastern USA wine district.
Lovely barns dot the countryside and we spent a day touring round Lakes Cayuga, Seneca, Skaneateles and Owasco.
Corning, home of Corning Glass is also nearby and we drove to their museum of glass and spent a day watching exhibits of the history of glass and seeing demonstrations of Glassblowing.
There were some lovely exhibits of modern day glass designs that took our eye. It was a lovely day and the museum is very well managed and easy to walk around with lots of demonstrations from optical fibre to smashing glass.
On the way back we stopped at Watkins Glen State Park and walked down a chasm following a narrow path carved into the sides of the walls. For a State Park it was fantastic. It was only 12000 years old so goodness knows what it will be like in another 12000 years.
There are 800 steps along the path so thank goodness we had read that there is a car park at the top and a shuttle bus at the bottom to take us back to our car. Watkins Glen was about to host its annual NASCAR car racing days when sports car race around the town. But the gorge was more than enough for u.
Next day we took the car in for its first service. It has done 9000 miles or 15000km on one oil change so that was excellent. We got a service special whereby the garage paid for the 10 qts of oil so that was a great saving. On the way home we called into Taughannock State Park where there was an another amazing waterfall – taller than Niagara but alas not as wide.
That afternoon we went wine tasting along the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail tasting some nice wines and some rather average ones. We discovered many different grape varieties developed at Cornell University which is situated nearby. Names like Pasta, Marechal Foch, Melody and Noiret. Niceish.
Then it was time to keep heading south and after another long drive we arrived at The Artillery Ridge Campground in Gettysburg, scene of the great Civil war battle and Lincoln’s famous address.
We were planning on spending a few days touring the area but alas fate played another card. I had been experiencing atrial fibrillation for some days now and it was getting worse, so we decided it was time to go to the ER at nearby Gettysburg Hospital. I was admitted very efficiently. I though they would be more interested in the colour of my credit card than the colour of my blood. But they didn’t wait to get those details and wheeled me into the ER room and I went through a series of ECGs, blood tests, X-Rays and examinations over the next few hours. The end result being that late that night I was discharged with a diagnosis of Hyperthyroidism, a condition that amongst other things can cause heart palpitations. I had to go back next day for more tests and eventually we agreed that we would treat it with some medication before leaving it to the specialists in NZ to sort out on our return.
I have been feeling better since the medication kicked in so here is hoping that they got it right as they admitted that they were not used to treating this condition. We have managed to tour the famous Gettysburg Battlefield in a marked automobile discovery route that takes you over the 48 square miles that the battle was fought in. It was very interesting see the sites of the various fights that made up the Battle of Gettysburg.
The picture show the view of the battlefield from Small Round Top being the Union lines with the Confederate Lines in the trees beyond. It will be 150 years since the battle in 2013 and all around the US there are commemorations happening at the scores of battle sites where fighting started after the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. We weren’t able to do as much as wanted. We had hoped to go to another famous battleground in Antietam but alas.
Tomorrow we hear south again and into Maryland where we are staying at a lovely State Park on the very edge of the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay at Crisfield. It’s the Crab capital of the world, so they say. So Maryland Crab Cakes here we come!
