Since today was the first beautiful day we’ve had (at least when we’ve been here) this year, I decided to celebrate by going on one of my roadgeek rides. Today’s journey took me to the Southern Tier of The Empire State, including the thriving metropolii of Auburn, Ithaca, Elmira, Owego and Binghamton.
I rarely will admit this, but I love New York.
I observed a couple of things:
– It was refreshing to see the rapidly melting snow and to realize that the only portion of the state that I drove through that still had snow was our area.
– I thanked the Universe for Wegmans for with my water and iced tea consumption during this ride, I basically drove from Wegmans to Wegmans so that I could use their conveniently located restrooms in the front of each store. I consider my urine too good for the Wal*Mart potty, God Bless Wegmans.
– I ate relatively healthy courtesy of Wegmans, as they had a wide selection of healthy choices for lunch and snack.
– I discovered that there is a certain quaintness to several Southern Tier village downtown areas, including Horseheads, Elmira, Owego, Endicott and Sayre, Pa.
– I don’t miss my mustache like I thought I would, as I caught the eye of more than a few. Humility 0, Confidence 1
The ride was absolutely gorgeous and I made several notes for my roadgeek website and took several pictures as well.
Along the ride I listened to about five hours of podcasts on my iPod. I am now well-versed in all things Mac once again. Sip of kool aid anyone?
Life is good.
We’ve taken Rt 17 through the Southern Tier numerous times. There used to be a great bread-and-coffee shop in Horseheads but the recent construction in the I-86 conversion screwed up traffic and it closed. Back to the old Dunkin’ Donuts standby.
Canandaigua can be a nice stop (during warmer months) when you’re passing through. There’s lake recreation, a summer arts festival, etc. Plus there’s a Wegmans.
I had to laugh, I checked out your site and opened up the DOT region map and knew what it was right away. I feel like such a dork.