Day 20 - The Finger Lakes, NY

Prior to leaving Sodus Point on Lake Ontario, we hit the small town there to see their historic lighthouses. They were kind of neat, but nothing truly unique. We got to wander the shore of the beach of the lake though, and grab some additional super smooth stones for our collection from the Great Lakes, all of which we plan to see on this trip. I managed to get a Sodus Point Lighthouse pin from the museum for our collection as well, and we refueled at the local gas station (the only one) before heading south towards the Finger Lakes region of NY. I found a campground at a state park that was far cheaper than our past two stays, so we opted to try that out. The site is just across the street from Cayuga Lake, one of 11 finger lakes in the region. The trees here are still in full color, and the weather has been quite tolerable. It was our first spot where we raised the roof antenna, and checked in on the local scene. I was surprised at how many channels we received, and we were able to watch the tail end of a few football games. We listened to the Ravens lose on the drive via satellite radio, which again was a bummer, but alas.

Upon arrival, we walked over to the lake to check it out. In contrast to the massive Lake Ontario, where we stayed on a high cliff, we were able to actually walk down to the water. A small wedding was taking place, which had great weather and timing near sunset. We then opted to hop on the scooter to try to check out a winery or two before they closed at 6:30. There are a ton of wineries here, but we only had time to see one or two that were nearby. We planned to get gas at the gas station down the street, as we were a bit low, and knew we wouldn't make it the three miles to the winery. Unfortunately, when we got there, the pump indicated they were out of gas, and the attendant came outside to inform us for sure. We asked where the next closest station was located, and he said about 3 miles away... no good. As the scooter uses more gas with us both riding on it, and it was iffy if we would make it there without running out, we opted to leave me behind so that Sarah could venture into town with less risk of running dry. Thankfully she made it fine, and I killed 20 minutes at the gas station waiting for her return. Due to the detour though, we only had enough time to check out one winery.

We went to Montezuma's Winery, just off of Cayuga Lake, which was okay. It wasn't nearly as nice, family-oriented, or personal as the winery we toured the day before, but it was still tasty. We weren't moved to purchase anything aside from the tasting though, which wasn't bad at $4 per person for 6 swallows of your choosing. We watched a bit more of the sunset outside before scooting home, as the temperature had started dropping fairly quickly.

Camp was relatively uneventful and empty, with about 30 spots and only 5 taken. We wandered the premises a bit, and called our respective families before heading to sleep without bothering to start a fire. In the morning, we hit the showers, and planned our next leg of the journey towards Ithaca, where we plan to stay at a Walmart which has glowing reviews - "Better than some campgrounds" it says.