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Posts tagged Lake Erie
May 10-19, 2013: Overview-East Bound and Down
0May 21, 2013
by Jennifer
in Road Trips
Back home again in Indiana! Wow, what a great trip that was. It was loads of fun as Pat and I explored many two lane roads throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont (just a hint), New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
Here’s the overview of our trip, and posts for each day will follow (and will be hyperlinked below as they are added).
- May 10-11, 2013: Not much to report, as these were “get from point A to B as quickly as possible” travel days. Slabbed from Indianapolis to Dubois, Pennsylvania on Day 1, and DuBois to Connecticut on Day 2.
- May 12, 2013: Spent the morning in Waterbury visiting a friend, then my cousin. In the afternoon, it was onto the PEZ Candy Museum in Orange, then to Mystic, Connecticut.
- May 13, 2013: Visited Mystic, Connecticut – downtown and Old Mystick Village. Meandered our way to New Haven. Spent the next two nights in downtown New Haven.
- May 14, 2013: Rode the Metro North to New York City. Spent the day mostly hoofing it around midtown Manhattan, but also went downtown to visit the 9/11 Memorial. Took the Metro North back to New Haven.
- May 15, 2013: Left New Haven, visited another friend in central Connecticut, then continued meandering northwest on some state roads, then on US 7 into Massachusetts. Took NY 23 to the Hudson River, then followed US 9 and NY 9J. Spent the night in Schenectady.
- May 16, 2013: Today’s destination was Lake George, New York, a favorite tourist destination of mine from my teen years. Before heading north, we took a detour back east to Bennington, Vermont to have breakfast at the Blue Benn Diner. Traversed northwest and spent the afternoon and evening in Lake George on a cute motel on the lake.
- May 17, 2013: Spent the morning in Lake George. There was not much open yet, since we were still in the off season (just a week away), so we checked out the site of the former amusement park Gaslight Village (now demolished) and figured out which motel my parents and I stayed in when I was a teen. Played a round of mini golf at Goony Golf, and then headed southwest / west on US 20, visiting an iconic tourist stop, the Tepee.
- May 18, 2013: Continuing west on US 20 through New York state, through the Finger Lakes area, visited the town that inspired Frank Capra’s vision of Bedford Falls in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, continued on US 20 into Pennsylvania along Lake Erie on PA 5 (Circle Lake Tour).
- May 19, 2013: Continued along PA 5 (Circle Lake Tour) by Lake Erie, visited a memorial to those lost in a bad train wreck in 1876, saw the longest covered bridge in the US, and the world’s two largest loaves of bread.
What a ride! Stay tuned.
Pat & Jennifer
May 19, 2013: Day 10 – East Bound and Down
1May 19, 2013
by Jennifer
in Road Trips
Above is today’s trip map created using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app.
Click the link above for a bigger map.
Today was the final day of our journey, and so far it’s been a great one!
After checking out of the motel, I opted for just coffee today. After having so many big breakfasts and a big dinner and dessert last night, I needed to give my stomach a rest. We continued into Erie on State Road 5, which was the Circle Lake route, and found a Dunkin’ Donuts in town. We made our way back to the scenic route and passed by this motel where we stayed several years ago.
Along this route, the majority of the trip is in New York, and there is very little of Pennsylvania to go through. So before you know it, we were in Ohio. We continued to follow the Circle Lake Tour, and decided to stop at a park on the lake, Conneaut Township Park. What beautiful views! We decided to take a walk down on the beach and toward the lighthouse.
I checked out my Roadside America app again, which showed a town coming up called Ashtabula, featuring several interesting locations. The first was the longest covered bridge in the United States.
The next location were several memorials to people who perished in the Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster, where a train bridge crossing the Ashtabula Rover collapsed during a blizzard, killing 92 of the 159 people on board.
By the hospital, there is an audio memorial, and the hospital is relevant to the disaster, because there were no medical facilities nearby at the time. As a result, a local farmer left his land to be used to build a new medical facility.
After we finished with the SR 5 portion of the Circle Lake Tour, we decided to take the Interstate home (at least for as long as Pat could tolerate it). We bypassed Cleveland and picked up I-71. After another obligatory stop at Grandpa’s Cheesebarn (and some free ice cream as a result of a Foursquare check in special), we continued on 71 until just north of Columbus, where we got on US 36. In Urbana, we found via the Roadside America app, two of the World’s Largest Loaves of Bread.
We continued on US 36 only a bit longer, then picked up I-70 east of Dayton and continued back to Indianapolis on the Evil I.
Until next time!
Pat & Jennifer
Today’s Photographs
Below is a slideshow of all of today’s photos.
Click any photo to stop the slideshow and view the photos on my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157633538947210″ width=”600″]
May 18, 2013: Day 9 – East Bound and Down
0May 18, 2013
by Jennifer
in Road Trips
Above is today’s trip map created using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app.
Click the link above for a bigger map.
We checked out of the motel and decided to have breakfast in town at the local establishment, the Chef Diner.
The food was very good and very plentiful here, as was the local conversation. 
We continued west on US 20 throughout New York, and we quickly approached the Finger Lakes area, but not before passing through some nice country, with rolling hills.
Seneca Falls was recommended by a friend to be a good place to spend a little time, a nice town with shops and restaurants, etc. But it turns out that there’s more to Seneca Falls! I remembered reading about this, but didn’t remember the name of the town or where it was, but once we got there, I found through my new Roadside America iOS app, that there was a bridge in town that was called the George Bailey Bridge. Filming location for “It’s a Wonderful Life” perhaps? No…not quite. Turns out that the town of Seneca Falls was visited by Frank Capra in the mid-40’s as the screenplay was being developed. There are many similarities between the fictional Bedford Falls and Seneca Falls, which they have noted at their website, the Real Bedford Falls. We didn’t have too much time to spend in town, but we did enjoy some gelato at a local Italian shop, and then a walk over to the George Bailey Bridge (the Bridge Street Bridge). The bridge in the film certainly did bear a strong resemblance to this bridge.
After leaving Seneca Falls, we continued on US 20 through Buffalo and along Lake Erie. We knew that Erie, Pennsylvania was difficult to get a good, reasonably priced hotel room. The better hotels are expensive and lesser hotels and motels with sketchy reviews still had pricey rates. We stumbled upon a little mom & pop east of Erie, but no one was to be found in the lobby! We followed the instructions to ring the phone (basically the base of a cordless phone that you press to ring the phone). Despite many rings, no one came. A guest who “sort of” checked in was just as confused. He was able to find a check in card and key, but no owner. They weren’t sure if they followed the right process, but at least they did have a key and room. The husband went over to the local bar / restaurant across the street, but no one knew where the owner was. The clock on the desk indicated they would return at 9, but it was a long time away, so we decided to move on. Just down the road, we found another mom & pop called the Colonial Motel in North East, Pennsylvania, and it looked very clean, so we decided to stay. It was reasonably priced and had good wifi. Winner!
We had dinner at a nearby restaurant called the Freeport Restaurant, highly recommended by the motel owner. Before we did, we stopped at a park right down the road on Lake Erie to watch the sun set:
After a good dinner, it was back to the motel. Tomorrow was our last day and we’d be heading home.
Pat & Jennifer
Today’s Photographs
Below is a slideshow of all of today’s photos.
Click any photo to stop the slideshow and view the photos on my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157633529592554″ width=”600″]
