Day 32, East Coast trip, Oct. 20, 2023 Now At Jefferson OH, (Thousand Trails Cpg.)

We are gaining on the sunsets. By that I mean when we were in Massachusetts the sun was setting at 6:23 and as we move further west of course we get closer to the edge of the Time Zone. Tonight here in Jefferson Ohio the sunset is at 6:29. My daughter told me that in Michigan on the Lake Michigan shoreline the sun is setting 6:58 so we are gaining as I say.

The drive today was mostly on the freeways and route 104 in Northern New York. That latter route becomes a 4 Lane Hwy. For the last of 75 miles. Then it connects with the bypass around Buffalo and meets up with I- 90  skirting the edge of Lake Erie until we arrived at our exit

 

Grapes in the Lake Erie Region

It got me good as I was too close!

South shore of Lake Erie was active today.

It was amazing to me how much much this part of the country is into grapes and vineyards. Here is a bit of information about New York and his vineyards. There are four major vineyard regions in the state of New York. The one that we drove through it is called Lake Erie as it is along the coast where the waters and the clay soil keep it perfect for growing grapes. The second is the Finger Lakes which for a similar reason the area remains warmer longer in the year because of the water. There is another region on the Hudson river and the final one is on the east end of Long Island. The region we went through is mostly Concord grapes because of the aforementioned  reasons. It seems even along I 90 that the vineyards go on for miles and miles and miles.  New York has 962 vineyards, 11,000 acres planted, and produces 150,000 tons of grapes yearly.  

We also passed the Chautauqua Association which is near Erie Pennsylvania.

One of the largest buildings that we saw on the trip today was the Xerox headquarters and facility near Rochester..  Other cities that we passed along the way included Dunkirk, located on Lake Erie but was instrumental in starting programs to support cities of the same name in Europe after the war (WW2).  So it was Dunkirk/Dunquerque and towns like Hamburg that continued to supporting their namesakes in Europe. Dunkirk is also the site of the oldest locomotive works in the world. That industry there constructed over 4000 locomotives in its history.

It was not a totally sunny day today even though it started out that way. We ran through two heavy rain showers, and I even decided to get off the road during one and filled up tank with gasoline while the rain finally stopped. The mist being picked up by the trucks was not as bad as I've seen on I-90 near Chicago but you had to be careful just the same.

Geographically the state of New York extends some  65 miles from Buffalo along the shores of Lake Erie before it reaches Pennsylvania and the city of Erie. This a very picturesque drive and also a tourist mecca. Pennsylvania at that point on Lake Erie is only about 20 miles wide.

There were not many photographs taken today even though we are into deeper color as we continue west. I may post a few but they're nothing spectacular cause of the rain and the cloud

Along the route in Upper NY state

 Two goals while we are here, if the weather holds up. First to make a trip into Erie Pennsylvania where there are some lighthouses and some history of the war of 1812. The other is to visit a lake, dam, and park at the Pymatuning reservoir. It has a road that goes over the damn splitting the lake in two. This reservoir has a history of farming when the first settlers came, but became too difficult because of the marshes, mosquitoes and other harsh conditions. It was later converted into reservoir

. Thanks for reading and we just have three more days to go, until we will be back home again. All things being equal.