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Posts tagged US 20
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 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″]
May 17, 2013: Day 8 – East Bound and Down
0May 17, 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 were initially thinking of spending an additional day in Lake George, but considering the peak tourist season didn’t start for another week and very little was open, we decided to plan on coming back another time in season. After checking out of the motel, we did a little exploration of the site of the former Gaslight Village Amusement park, comparing some areas of the site to old photos we found on the Internet. I don’t remember much about the place, except the Cavalcade of Cars was a very cool exhibit featuring one of my favorite custom cars, the Munster Koach. The site seemed fairly small to house an amusement park, I’m used to the very sprawling grounds of Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
Afterward, we decided to play a round of miniature golf, and Goony Golf happened to be open. Pat did very well beating me this time!
We then headed southwest out of Lake George on State Road 9, and in Lake Luzerne, picked up a local road that followed along first the Sacandaga River, then the shore of the Great Sacandaga Lake. Very nice ride on twisty roads, and such great views.
We continued southwesterly on a couple of other state roads until we picked up US 20 near Cherry Valley. At this point, I knew we would be near another must stop recommended by my coworker Tina, that would be the TePee, a souvenir shop overlooking Cherry Valley on US 20.
We noticed there was a small travel trailer off to the side of the TePee that served as a restaurant. We talked to the owner of the TePee inside, and she explained that her brother ran the restaurant, TePee Pete’s Chow Wagon. We bought a few souvenirs and decided to check out the fare at the restaurant. We had a nice talk with Pete, who explained that his parents, who had owned the TePee prior to his sisters’ purchasing it, were interested in him running a restaurant at the TePee. They even found an old trailer for sale in Connecticut that was being used as a hot dog cart, but Pete was quite happy as a chef downstate. They bought it anyway, in case he ever changed his mind, but didn’t tell him. Some time later, while recuperating from a back injury, Pete’s employer basically insisted he return to his job or lose it; not being cleared yet for return to work, Pete asked his parents if they still wanted him to run a restaurant at the TePee. They surprised him with the trailer, and TePee Pete’s Chow Wagon was born. Pete is quite the character, and his food is awesome. I had a grilled veggie wrap that was just delicious and Pat went for the “double barreled shotgun,” which was two chili dogs wrapped in a tortilla. Here are a few photos:
Pete’s view from the kitchen is beautiful!
We continued on US 20 west for a bit, then decided to spend the night in Richfield Springs. There were a few mom & pop motels in town, which all had reasonable reviews from Trip Advisor. We opted for the Fountain View Motel. We pretty much stepped out of 2013 and back into the 50’s & 60’s again, but the place was very clean.
Humorously, after having recently watched the movie “Vacancy,” Pat was compelled to look in the vents and other places to see if there were any video cameras. LOL
It wasn’t too late, and we had passed a place called Tunnicliff Creamery that was still open just a short distance back, so after we settled in, we decided to go get some ice cream. I think we may have had ice cream almost every day on this trip so far! Here’s the black raspberry.
We checked out the town a little (pretty small, so it didn’t take long), then went back to the motel to get some sleep.
Until tomorrow,
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=”72157633529653312″ width=”600″]
