Moving to Glimmerglass - Fun on the Way

 Sunday August 7, 2016                                                                                 Most Recent Posts:
Between Cayuga Lake and Glimmerglass State Parks                     Potters, Glassblowers, Musicians and Food, Hazzah!!
New York                                                                                             Sterling Renaissance Festival

 

We leave Cayuga Lake State Park where we have found SO many wonderful things to do but can’t really recommend the campsites with hook-ups.  Too close together and too close to a constantly busy road.  But the ones without hook ups are fantastic with the caveat that if you want to spend time in the lake, you are much closer in the smaller campground right on the road.  There is a tunnel under the road connecting the two campgrounds and the lake.

Leaving Cayuga Lake,  we take, NY Route 20, a “scenic route” that lives up to its name.  Little towns, green mountains.   Up and down we go through the hills of upstate New York for  102 miles and when we are only about 13 miles away from Glimmerglass (I just love the name) we drive through Richfield Springs, New York right by the village park where there is an antique car show going on.  Usually it is hard to just stop for something in a 35’ motor home with a tow dolly.  But Richfield makes this very possible by having lovely vintage homes along their wide main street with parking spaces in front of them.

David pulls Winnona and Ruby over and we take up 3 or 4 spaces.

 

 

Some really beautiful houses on this main street.  Winnona should enjoy herself in such company and in the shade.

 

 

 

We don’t ooohh and ahhh too much over the houses  now, got to get to the car show.  It’s later in the afternoon and who knows how long it lasts.  If this was a week-end event, Sunday is the closing day.

 

 

The steps up to the park take you by a fountain that smells of sulphur  There is an historical sign telling us this spot was what the Native Tribes called Canowauges healing water, great white sulphur spring,   Of course when the invaders took it over it they brought the resort era from 1800-1940.  We are only staying at Glimmerglass for a week and there is a lot to do near by.  Not sure I can get back to this cute little town. I’d like to learn about its history and see pictures of the “springs” in the various time periods.

 

 

There are a lot of cars and a lot of people here in this little town’s show.

 

 

All the folks look pretty regular except for this woman. Since she was the only one who appeared to be in costume I snapped a stealth photo of her.  I wondered what she was up to and found out later.

 

 

The first thing we both see is this 1951 Ford.  David had a 1950 Ford when I met him in the early 1970’s.  It was his only car.  I had a Fiat Spyder.  Tells you something about each of us.  We kept both cars for as long as we could.  They are still our respective favorites.

 

 

Wish his Ford  had that knob on the steering wheel for turning.  I remember after we married, taking my parents to the airport and driving it with a pillow at my back so I could reach the clutch.  It felt like driving a truck with a giant steering wheel.

 

I am sorry to see nearly all the cars have their hoods and trunks open. I understand that the owners want to show off their shiny engines and the fanatics want to see those things but I’d like to see the car as it would be driving down the road.

A boyfriend of mine in high school had a Belaire like this that he often let me drive.  I loved this car then and still do.  I think it would make a great toad but a soft top wouldn’t work with kayaks and it would be a shame to ruin it with a bike rack.

 

 

It’s around 2:00 when we arrive.  Maybe 30 minutes pass and then the loud speaker starts saying something about ice cream.  I tell David I’m going looking for it.  He shows pretty much no interest.   So when I find that the ladies of the local Lions Club, which is sponsoring the show, are selling homemade pie for $2.00 a slice, $3 with ice cream, I say yes please.  It’s hard to pick which pie to have but I finally choose a cherry crumb.  Wish I could have two or even three, there was a blueberry and a pecan which also look terrific.

 

Almost forgot to take a picture of it before it was all gone.  It was delicious.  I had to go back after I finished to get the above picture.  By then most of the pies were gone.  David missed out.  He who hesitates is lost.

 

 

I take lots of pictures of lots of these old beauties but, I’m not including them all.  I like being able to see this coupe with its hood and trunk lids down.  It’s amazing to me that I am an antique older than this car.  I think it is the better looker.  Wish I could get a restoration job this good. With continued care it could be around forever. 

 

 

$4000 for this beauty in 1960 and $87 of it is for the swivel seats which I think lots of people would love today.

 

 

Another one with the top and hood down is this 1940 Oldsmobile.  Styles really changed in those 20 years from 1940 to 1960.

But if they didn’t, how would they get us to buy another car?  Prices changed too.  You could buy this Olds new for $840.42.  Looks a little bit like a ‘gangsta’ car doesn’t it with that great long nose.

 

 

 

But my favorite of the show is this fantastic Woody complete with rooftop wooden canoe.

 

 

I guess you might call the canoe on the Woody a “gimmick”.  For sure Betty Boop in front of this Ford Fairlane 500 is.

 

Doesn’t look like the size of the steering wheel has changed much.  Still looks gigantic to me.  Seems that with the advent of power steering, which was around in the 60’s, they could have made them smaller.  Or maybe nobody but me found the size to be a problem.

 

 

Seems like cars by this point have gone from the long front end to the long back end.

 

MisBeehavin probably tops the gimmic department.

 

 

By the time I see her, her rooftop bees have fallen down for a nap.  But her owner is obvious.  She’s the one in the bee outfit that I saw when we first got here.

 

I can spot her in the crowd which gathers for the awards ceremony.

 

Looks like they have enough trophies for every single car to get at least one.  Wonder if there is a “gimmick” class.

 

 

We are in the back of the crowd and can’t understand over the PA system what’s being awarded so we head on out to take a look at some of the neat “antique” homes before leaving Richfield Springs.

 

 

Maybe Richfield Springs is a town that likes gimmicks enough to even have them on their porches.

 

Another 13 miles down the road and we pull into our campsite at Glimmerglass State Park on Otsego Lake’s northeastern shore.   Otsego Lake was the inspiration for the imaginary lake Glimmerglass in the Leatherstocking Tales written by James Fennimore Cooper a native of nearby Cooperstown, New York.  Otsego Lake is the source of the Susquehanna River which flows south through New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and into the Chesapeake Bay.  It is 464 miles long and the longest river in the US without commerical boat traffic. 

 

 

You can just see Winnona and Ruby through the trees.  Our site has a HUGE side yard and a sweet little stream running through the back.

 

Like all the New York state parks we’ve been in, the campground is a circle and the sites on the inside share the center as their backyard.   This backyard has a stream in it.  There is one bathroom in each loop and all sites have electric but no water.  A single dump site is available for the entire campground.  Might be a long line on Sunday Mornings.   Glimmerglass has two campground loops with a total of 37 sites.  We are in the far one.

 

 

We have some interesting neighbors.  I thought this was a great idea for keeping your tent dry in the rain.

 

This little red number is a “Retro”, a new trailer based on the original Shasta below with its “wings”.

 

 

More neighbors we see when we walk around.

 

We’ll get out on our bikes for a look around the park tomorrow.