Another Roadside Attraction
Southern Tier N.Y.S. August 2019
Exit signs of major NY highways noted local attractions a la Tom Robbins 1972 book, Another Roadside Attraction.
Of course we didn’t stop at all the attractions but one sign made us Google the Newton Battlefield.
A close look at a local map of Buffalo showed a road following the Lake Erie shore. It would be a slower route but was on our way to the Original Kazoo Co. Museum in Eden, NY. Turned out it was the Great Lakes Seaway Trail-A Scenic Byway. Gorgeous, lakefront homes of the wealthy Buffalonians were along the road. Big money houses at a steal of a price. Of course the weather is pretty miserable up there for much of the year.
The Original Kazoo Co. visit was a delight. Then on to Hammondsport. The Glenn Curtiss museum was fabulous beyond words. It came close to Peter Jackson’s Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim, New Zealand. We spent the equivalent of a whole day at the Curtiss Museum. Nomi spent more time in the museum shop. We had arrived about an hour before closing time. I sweet talked them into letting us have a ticket that could be used the next day too. I mentioned Mass MoCA’s two day entrance ticket.
Curtiss started as a bicyclist & then racer & then bicycle shop owner. He put a motor on a bicycle, & began building & racing motorcycles. When he put a V-8 engine on a motorcycle & raced it, he became the “Fastest Man on Earth.” At that point his wife begged him to give up motorcycle racing. He did & took up flying instead. He was in litigation with the Wright Bros. for decades, was responsible for the aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy Base in San Diego, & creating the recreation of “Aerial Yachting” amongst many other accomplishments.
Another pleasant surprise was the Rockwell Museum in Ithaca. The permanent exhibit of US western art was great plus & a marvelously inventive exhibit by a painter we had never heard of, Nancy Lamb.
As a child I thought that the Catskills ended in Ellenville & Monticello, the Borscht Belt. I didn’t know of the 700,000 acre Catskill Park. Many of NYC’s reservoirs are there.
