Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Squid on Wheels: Erie Canal Adventure Day 8

Rome to Little Falls

[A brief thought before I get started ... when we arrived home on Saturday, we first went to Whole Foods to stock up on some necessities. While Mike and Squidette went into the store, Little Squid and I watched the bikes. In the ten minutes that I was waiting on the street, I saw more people than I had seen for all of the preceding 10 days. I'm not sure what that means but it is significant. We saw very few people on the streets in any of the towns and cities we visited. Now, we did, mostly, stay confined to one narrow corridor as defined by the Erie Canal but, we also spent an entire 36 hours in Syracuse. Was the lack of people on the streets due to the pervasive car culture? Was it just that these places are so small that there just aren't that many people to see? Or, could it be that New York City is just way too crowded? Or, all of the above. What do you think?]

***
We had some difficulty leaving Rome. It seems, that while all roads may lead to Rome, not all roads lead away from it. Some, in fact, pretend to lead away but circle right back.
Once we did finally find the trail out of Rome, we had little difficulty with directions for the rest of the day. The only mechanical difficulties of the trip occurred on the final stretch into Little Falls when my chain lost it's moorings. A quick flick of the fingers (making them rather dirty) restored order to my world and we landed there safely.

Our day started with the only chain restaurant of the trip, a Denny's for breakfast. Lunch was at a nice diner in Frankfort which was followed by a trip to the Remington Arms Museum in nearby Illion.
No, I am not really a gun loving type of gal. I don't dislike them, per se, but my passions run to fiber, not flintlocks. Despite that, the museum was quite interesting (and very small) and had some nice examples of workmanship on the firearms on display.

Then, eying threatening skies, we hustled on to Little Falls and our Inn for the night.
The Canal Side Inn is known more for its food than its lodgings, mainly because the food is fabulous and the rooms are few. The rooms we had, however, a suite, were lovely, clean, well appointed, and the sofa bed much more comfortable that the one in the high class hotel in Syracuse.

The chef is also the owner of the whole establishment and he and his staff graciously fed us the bistro menu (lighter fare and lower prices) in the main dining room. We left feeling well fed.

Once again, we had landed in a town too late to go into any of the shops (no museums here) but had a lovely walk on the waterfront and in the historic canal area.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could have sat by that stream (river?) for a long time just watching the water tumble over the rocks.

I think the lack of people in towns IS due to the car culture.

Where I live you would be sunk without a car and walking anywhere is a dangerous proposition. I would LOVE to live in a small town where I could walk to the necessities of life instead of drive.

penny said...

I agree. I think it's the car culture. Lots of streets (and associated roadwork on them) form my only recollection of the brief time (about a day) I spent in Syracuse.