Wednesday and Time for Wineries

Ok, after a rainy night last night, we finally decided to just go for it and see what we could find. Rain or not.

Headed toward Watkins Glen at the south end of Seneca Lake. What spectacular views of water falls on the side of the road in Montauk. I guess people whom live here just take it for granted, but we were in awe, to say the very least. We had to drive through some really small, narrow, hilly, and crowded areas that were a little stressful, but well worth the time and effort overall.

Due to the rain, we decided to stop in the town (after finding a large enough space to park the lead-sled) to have coffee and whatever. It was a quaint village Italian bakery/deli. It was absolutely wonderful, and we got to view the lake from here as well. A nice way to start the day!

Moving on to the next lake region where we wanted to find a couple of wineries to tour. Thought it would be a good day for that, since it was rainy and all, but we really do not need to have a reason, right?

Headed toward the township of Hammondsport. A great place to visit and do a walking tour, BUT, not to drive a house through. Of course we found that out after the fact, bit certainly would not change a single thing. Stopped over for a bit at the lakes-side, to evaluate the map and decide where we were to go next, when Kath goes out to ask a couple of "OLD GEEZER'S" sitting in their car at lakeside, how to get to Pleasant Valley Winery. They sat back, looked at her, and said "that's a pretty big THING to be way down here". Then they gave her directions...

Off to the winery. Small winding hilly roads, and not a lot of space for a house, but we made it to the winery.

Pleasant valley Winery is the oldest winery in the US. It's trade-named wines and Champagne are classically known as Taylor Wines, Great Western, and Pleasant Valley.

The tour was informative and interesting. Kath kept on slowing down by the wine barrels. She said she was just resting, I think she was smelling the fermentation process, which was very pungent. Of course, the best part of any tour is the tasting part on the end.

Kath had to taste ALL of the champagne's (me too). They were excellent and embellished by the two of us to the very last drop. Afterwards, we were able to purchase some, but found out that we can only have so much "BOOZE" in the coach if we go over the border to Canada, so we only bought 4 bottles of champagne. We figure we will maybe be able to drink these before we get to the next winery, then buy some more. EDUCATION... That's what we are doing here, folks. Educating ourselves.

Met up with a couple in the winery that were staying in a nice campground close by. Since we now had spent much time in the winery, we thought that we would stopover locally and have a fresh start in the AM.

More wineries tomorrow, and heading toward Lethchworth State Forest, close to Canadaiuga Lake.

Will post again when we get internet access.

Stay tuned.

LJg