Summer school 1999 came to an end on August 6. The weekend was used to recover, and then we (Tim, Gail, Anna, Stephanie, Sarah, David, and Kayla) piled into our Plymouth minivan on a beautiful Monday morning and headed North and East from Akron, Ohio. We were on vacation! Our first stop was Watkins Glen, NY, a state park I had visited as a teenager while attending summer camp at Montrose Bible Conference. Watkins Glen is situated at the southern end of the NY Finger Lakes region.
Watkins Glen is famous for NASCAR racing. The original race circuit ran through the downtown streets and made a circle around the glen that is the main attraction at Watkins Glen State Park. The word glen means a small, narrow, and secluded valley. There is a mile and a half trail through Watkins Glen. It follows the gorge, passes through some rock-hewn tunnels and includes over 800 steps. According to the park brochure, most of the visitors walk the trail uphill. To experienced parents of small children, that did not seem to be the most intelligent option, so we rode a shuttle bus to the top entrance of the glen and then walked downhill to the lower entrance. As we observed the visages of the upward bound hikers, those who had chosen to take the advice of the brochure, it was clear to us that we had made the better choice! Here are some of the views along the trail.
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We spent two nights in the park campground. The kids got to paint rocks at the nature center during their afternoon activity time. Fortunately we stayed to help them as the activity director apparently did not speak English. Actually, she never spoke at all. She mixed paint, and made hand motions as a form of direction to the kids that had come to participate in the park sponsored craft time. The kids came up with a variety of designs and as the cleanup was left to our silent partner, we all left happy. Later that day, we visited a Thrift Store in a nearby town (Elmira) and then saw an impersonation of Samuel Clemens in a local park in Horseheads. Samuel (a.k.a. Mark Twain) told us he used to spend his summers writing on a farm nearby and answered questions about his life. Sarah asked him if he went to the good place or the bad (a reference to a line in Huck Finn) to which he gave a rather vague answer, seeming to think it might have depended on how God viewed the things he had accomplished in his life. He also entertained us by reading two chapters from one of his most famous books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The weather was cool and cloudy which made for good hiking and pleasant sleeping, but the occasional drizzles put a damper on some of our plans. Wednesday, we packed the tent and headed down (actually it was up) the road, bound for the northern extremities of the state.
Click here to continue the journey!