We left Philly Friday night around 7pm or so but the action really started a bit after 11:00pm. On Rte 414, about 5 miles from Wellsboro,
a Kamikazi Bambi vaulted in front of the car. I slammed on the brakes, swerved into the opposing lane, and avoided a frontal collision, but the poor deer smacked right into the passenger side of the car. I pulled over 100 yards or so down the road where there was a shoulder, inspected the side of the car, called the police, called the insurance company, etc. A guy pulled up behind me and told me that the deer was back on the side of the road with a broken leg. There was nothing more I could do. We both felt horrible, but were fine, and the car didn't seem as bad as I was expecting, but only the light of morning could reveal the truth.
We arrived pretty late to the Penn Wells Hotel. The guy behind the front desk had the tv blaring, and was stuffing his face with some kind of grub. He looked at us, waved a finger to let us know that he was finishing up a final bite of his food and would be with us as soon as he could force down the huge wad in his mouth. Finally, wiping the corners of this mouth, the wolfman looked at us as if to indicate he was ready to hear us explain our reason for being there. Without waiting any longer for a formal greeting that would never come, I told him we had a reservation for the weekend, which prompted a shuffling of papers, a few signatures, and a doling out of room keys. Room #112. Directions to the room were something along the lines of "over there" and "up there" and possibly a "down the hall". I needed a beer. Directions to the nearest bar were very similar, along the lines of "either over there, or up that way".
Welcome to Wellsboro, PA.
We lugged our array of bags up to the room. There was an elevator, but I was feeling adventurous, so we climbed the creaky steps to a door that could have gone as easily to nowhere as to the next floor. Actually, it went to another set of stairs, that did get us to the next floor. The hallway floors were uneven and creaky, and due to some "refurbishing", the walls were stripped and signs were posted for us to excuse the temporary condition of things while they were being improved. Our room was relatively clean, creaky uneven floors, somewhat firm bed, clogged sink, window unit ac, etc. All good.
After dropping off the bags, we quickly ran across the street to where there was a bar with a band playing. I ordered and paid for a Bud. The girl behind the bar asked Vee for her ID, which she did not bring with her, and then the girl said that Vee could not stay, so I asked for my money back, and we left. So much for that. Back to the room, a bit of tv about haunted hotels, and some restless sleep.
Saturday, we woke to the sound of kids running around, screaming and the maids running vacuum cleaners on the creaky floors above us. We tried snoozing some more, but no luck, and so we showered and headed to the diner for breakfast. Vee had oatmeal and a muffin, I had the standard two eggs over medium, bacon, browns, toast, juice and coffee. The waitresses were nice, their attentiveness was great, and the atmosphere was authentic. Food was very tastey, a bit greasy, as it was supposed to be. We paid up, shuffled through the gift shop, walked the town for about 15 minutes, and after seeing pretty much all there was to see, we decided to hit the road for wine country.
Along the way, we stopped in Corning, NY. We absolutely fell in love with this town. The golden yellow fallen leaves were blowing in the wind as we walked the main street in town, and we stopped in a great little coffee shop for some cappuccinos. We stopped in a few other shops and got to see some glass blowing and beautiful glass art sculptures. We looked into the windows of some of the real estate agencies, and noticed that the real estate was DIRT CHEAP. Hmmmm....
Top down, we continued on our way, through Watkins Glen, and onto Rte.14 along the West side of Seneca Lake where it looked like we'd be able to hit alot of wineries. We stopped into 5 wineries in all, and enjoyed 3 tastings, each with a minimum of 5 wines to try. We loved the whole vibe, and had such a great time. It was fun to hear the descriptions of each wine we were about to taste, and to find out what kinds of wines we really enjoy. I am more of a semi-dry, and Vee is more of a sweet. Eventually on up through Geneva at the northernmost point of the lake, and then back down the Eastern side of the lake to Ithaca. The whole way, we snapped picture after picture after picture. The sky was amazing, the way the sun was lighting up the Fall foliage was as if the hills were on fire. We saw a giant rainbow, horses, and had to get pictures of it all.
After parking the car in a garage in Ithaca, we walked around the Ithaca Commons, perusing restaurants and the multitide of shops, and decided to eat at a pub-like place called Simeons. They seated us right away at a tiny table hardly big enough for one person, so I suggested sitting at the bar until another larger two-top opened up. I had a delicious India Pale Ale and Vee had a Pepsi. We eventually got seated at a fantastic table just inside the front window where we could see all the action outside. We shared a delicious bruschetta appetizer, I had a mediocre shrimp-scallop penne pasta primavera, and Vee had a tastey chicken dish, and we shared creme brullee for dessert. After dinner, we felt as if we had seen most of this part of the city, and we were tired, so we headed back to Wellsboro. At the Penn Wells, we watched the Contender rematch fights, where the judges must have been bought, and fell asleep.
Sunday morning, we slept late, showered, packed, checked out, and went to a homey bagel shop in Wellsboro for breakfast/lunch where we had some tastey bagel sandwiches, cappuccinos, and coffees while reading the paper and listening to the guys next to us talk about football for at least an hour straight. Then, after deciding Wellsboro really was not the town for us, we hopped back in the car and drove to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania and saw some AMAZING views of the gorge/canyon. Absolutely stunningly beautiful! Much more than I expected. The Fall colors were wonderful, and the blue sky with white puffy clouds was awe inspiring. It was pretty cold though, with the wind blowing so hard and all. They were selling hot dogs, hot chocoloate, coffee, maple syrups and other things at the entrance, but we skipped it all. We tried driving out to the lookout tower, but it was gonna get sloppy with the mud and ruts, so we turned around and headed for home. The drive down Rte 15 was staggering. All the colors, WOW!!! I talked with a real nice older fella at the gas station who was up from Wilmington NC with his wife, and he said, being originally from upstate New York, and a retired Kodak executive, that this area was beautiful, but difficult to live in as a professional person. Vee and I had that same conversation about 5 minutes before.
A few rest stops later, we were home. All in all, a beautiful weekend. We loved Corning and the wine country experience, and the amazing foliage. We look forward to doing this again, minus Wellsboro.
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