Road Trip: Day Two

Starting Location: Binghamton, New York

Number of States: 1

Number of Stops: 6

Ending Location: Cooperstown, New York

Total Miles Traveled: 316

Today we headed out from Binghamton, New York. First stop was the Carriage House Café, which is known for its brunch. We arrived quite hungry and were not disappointed. In particular they are know for their Brie French Toast. As we could not decide what to eat, we ended up with a variety, and the Brie French Toast was just the appetizer

While Jen's highlight was the Brie French Toast, and John loved the sausage that was made nearby, my highlight was the prosciutto cured Salmon with Brie, bread and blueberries.

From there we were headed out on our mission of the day.

MISSION OF THE DAY: Find the best winery in the Keuka Lake. In terms of geography, Keuka Lake is one of the "Finger Lakes" in upstate New York.

It is about an hour drive west of Ithaca and the drive takes you through Watkins Glen. Watkins Glen not only has a race track, but has a Wal-Mart, where not everyone drives their car to get there. The drive up to the Finger Lakes was really beautiful, despite the pockets of rain we hit. In the 5 hours we had in the region, we made it to 5 wineries, which we did not think was too bad.

The most beautiful winery was the first one - the Heron Hill Winery, which was rated a top 10 winery in Travel & Leisure for tasting rooms.

The downside of the Heron Hill Winery was the person who was pouring was a bit in a rush and had only worked there 5 weeks. So we learned more about her grand daddy's new, red barn house that was designed by her ex-boyfriend and could be seen on the hill and the 1979 vintage wine she had on her birthday (she was born in 1979), than we did about the winery and its wines.

The most fun we had was at Bully Hill, There we happened to meet Ed and Linda (who were dropping off Linda's daughter at college), and Dianne - who was pouring for us - and goes to college up in Maine:

John loved the wine here because it was very sweet and tasted like grape juice. The highlight though may have been when Linda misheard something I said and thought Jen had been a stripper. We got a good laugh out of that. And then before leaving could not resist just a fun photo.

But we also had fun at the Hunt Country Vineyards. While we did not have as many laughs, we did meet Sandy, who is a retired 2nd grade teacher. Sandy was very sweet (as you would expect from a 2nd grade teacher), but her best contribution was turning us on to cheese with mushrooms and leeks. It was delicious. Although I think that may have turned into our dinner somehow.

We ended our tour at McGregor's, but we only had 25 minutes, so had to drink fast. While others had recommended it, we were a bit disappointed because Bob was rushing us so much. But I will say we had a great view of the lake and the sun, and as an aside, they had the nicest port-a-potties I had ever used, complete with flushing, air freshener, and hand sanitizer.

From there we headed to Cooperstown so that we can start with the Baseball Hall of Fame. Although our drive towards Cooperstown actually began down a random road with random sights, like these horses, an abandoned bus in a field, and this guy: What you probably cannot tell unless you maximize this photo is that he was just strolling down the road with a shotgun in his hand. But he seemed quite preoccupied looking for something other than us as he headed down the road.

But our most eventful moment of the day had to be when Jen was driving about 55 MPH down a gravel road, apparently seeing - but not slowing down - for a huge pothole. While we did not get a flat tire and our teeth did not jar from our jaws, the car alignment was definitely jarred out of whack, as the car kept pulling way to the right. Not that this slowed her down - on that bad road or any other. And lucky for Jen, a few hours later she just hit another pothole (although not quite as hard), and she now swears the alignment has somewhat readjusted itself. I guess we shall see.

We eventually made it to Cooperstown. It happened to be the Little League Championship so we drove by - and then it was off to find a place to stay. We ended up at the Baseball Bed and Breakfast - kind of appropriate.

Tomorrow: Baseball Hall of Fame, Albany, the Adirondacks, and then into Vermont.