Epic East Coast - Day 36

Most of today was taken up exploring the gorge that the Watkins Glen creek has cut through the sandstone and shale in the area.  We drove down the highway to the village of Watkins Glen and stopped at Watkins Glen State Park.  Actually, we stopped in the village first, as the road into town was a bit of a parking lot, due to three lights in a very short area and likely an increase in traffic due to it being the race weekend.  That solidified my plan to avoid that route to the track tomorrow, as it looks slow.

The gorge was a very beautiful walk, filled with small waterfalls and pools and a lot of stairs.  It was also less stressful once we finally convinced the boys to slow down and walk with us, rather than running ahead and leaning over rock walls with a 100 foot drop.  At the end of the gorge, we took a simple gravel path along the top that was a bit easier to walk than all the stairs, though one section had a very steep grade that I was happy we were walking down, rather than up like the gasping, sweating people we were passing.  We also met a number of Canadians and managed to finally convince the kids of how close we are to Ontario right now.

After lunch in Watkins Glen we drove south to another waterfall that was supposed to be impressive, but it was not.  It was very tall, but only a tiny trickle of water was falling.  As we left, another visitor arrived and exclaimed that he had never seen the water so low, so maybe it's been a dry year here.

We drove back to Penn Yan to take the boys to a mini-golf location, which is right in the middle of a corn field.  The golfing was fun, but 18 holes was a bit too much for the younger kids and they were pretty exhausted when we finished.

We returned to our suite for a rest and then planned on going to a nearby diner for supper, only to discover that it is only open for breakfast and lunch.  With limited options we just went to the restaurant beside it, which ended up being a less than optimal choice.  None of the food was very good, except for the slices of pizza that Alex ordered, but we survived.  It was then time for a quick trip to a grocery store and then a return to the suite for showers and bedtime.  Tomorrow we split up - Sandra is staying in town with the two younger boys, while I take the two older boys to watch qualifying and the Busch race (or whatever that series is called now).  I think I have a rural route planned out that will get me into and out of the track and skip most of the traffic - Penn Yan is located off all the main routes out of Watkins Glen, so I'm hoping we'll be able to skip most of the traffic, as we won't be trying to get to an Interstate.  We'll see how it works tomorrow.