Traveling through western New York we elected to avoid I-90 and follow Route 20 as it winds along the top of the finger lakes.
We stopped at the Canandaigua City Pier where sailboats were floating on their moorings. It reminded me of memorizing the names of the Finger Lakes in geography classes.
These boat houses look like ideal spaces to relax and enjoy the lake.
1010 49,521 Hopewell Center, NY
Just after leaving Canandaigua, we passed a sign for the Pagent of Steam. Beth persuaded me to turn around, and we pulled into an area like a fairgrounds brimming with old tractors. The event ended yesterday, but a few tractors were steaming up to move onto trailers. I’ll put more tractor photos at the end of today’s post.
1148 49,541 Waterloo, NY
Entering Waterloo, we noticed a sign proclaiming it as the Birthplace of Memorial Day. It was a perfect excuse to stop and explore. Here we found the National Memorial Day Museum.
The history of Memorial Day
City Hall is found at the end of Memorial Day Place.
Business looks healthy in the shops that line both sides of Main Street.
If we didn’t have our own bed with us, The Gridley Inn looks like it would be a delightful place to spend the night.
Always on the lookout for intersting buildings to model, the faded, hand painted advertisements on this wall caught my eye.
1230 49,545 Seneca Falls, NY
Garmin decided that we were approaching the State Line, despite being nowhere near it. We do turn off our propane when driving, but we don’t understand why the message popped up here.
We did make a note to stop in the future as it is said to be the inspiration for the town of Bedford Falls in the 1946 movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Another place we marked for a future trip. The refuge has a three mile loop where visitors should plan to spend at least 1.5 hours.
1406 49,579 Syracuse, NY – Costco for gas at $4.099
1541 49,643 Holland Patent, NY
16 Stone Brew Pub is a Harvest Host and was our destination for the night. The bartender greeted us, but didn’t know what Harvest Hosts was. Despite that he said our stay wouldn’t be a problem. We met the owner later and he apologized that they had only recently joined the program and we had the only waiter he hadn’t told about Harvest Hosts.
As it was early for dinner, we set out to walk around town.
The train station is now Village Offices.
Some reminders of a past before automobiles still stand in this front yard.
Folks share books in the town square Little Library. The park didn’t just have sustenance for the soul, but for the body as well. A kind gardener left summer squash on the park bench to share.
Benny’s Place slogan is “A Respectable Gin Joint.”
We found at least one other restaurant, a Stewart’s shop, and a bakery.
Returning to the pub, we learned that the building also hosts apartments upstairs.
We enjoyed a sample flight of house beers and a veggie flatbread pizza.
Here’s the view from their porch overlooking the town square. It was a relaxing spot to wind down from a day of driving.
There was evening motorcycle traffic and the occasional clip-clop of a passing horse and buggy.
We can definitely recommend this as a good overnight stop.
