East Coast 2021:
Day 2 - Albany, NY

	Saturday, September 11, 2021: We had another long day of driving planned, so we started early and were out of the hotel just after 7 AM. It would have been nice to have discovered that Debbie's watch had fallen off the nightstand at this point, but we were many hours down the road before that happened. Fortunately, the nice hotel staff mailed it to us, arriving the day we got home.
	Our first stop was at a nearby gas station, where they were playing "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel over the loud speakers. Tom re-enacted the boombox scene from "Say Anything..." It was a Gas 'n' Sip on a Sunday morning and there was one chick in sight. Well, okay, it wasn't a Gas 'n' Sip, but hopefully, you get the reference.
	Besides topping off the gas tank, we were here to buy ice for our coolers. We were re-learning how to travel without the luxury of a refrigerator in our RV.
	We were in the land of Tim Hortons, and that meant that we got to have fresh donuts for breakfast. Yum!
	One of our favorite movies is "That Thing You Do!" which is partially set in Erie in the 1960s. One of the scenes is a talent show set at nearby Mercyhurst College. We were surprised to learn that it was a real place, and that it still existed, even if the official name was Mercyhurst University. We had to visit.
	Next we headed northeast, and were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise over numerous vineyards in northern Pennsylvania, ...
	... and occasional glimpses of Lake Erie.
	Welcome to New York! It's the 32nd state we've visited this year.
	We drove through the small town of Evans, ...
	... which had flags hanging from lampposts with pictures of local veterans.
	Named "Hometown Heroes," it featured a picture of a veteran, their name and rank, their branch of service, and either their years of service or the wars they fought in.
	The most recent entries were from the "Global War on Terror."
	We made a stop in Derby, New York, hopefully to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff, which is on the outskirts of Buffalo.
	We were there before it opened, and unfortunately, we couldn't see it through the closed gate. Oh, well. Maybe on our next visit to the Buffalo area.
	We took a short detour to a local park to get a closer look at the lake.
	These seagulls squawked at us to remind us that the beach belonged to them. "Mine!"
	We took a quick snapshot of the Buffalo skyline and departed.
	Look at the vintage decoration of the Red Top restaurant. The neon sign advertises "Charcoal Broiled Hot Dogs" which sounds delicious. We'll put it on the list for next time.
	Debbie's sharp eyes noticed a buffalo statue next to the car on the "Built with pride in Buffalo" stand outside this automotive plant. We had to turn around and try get a closer shot, ...
	... which was very difficult. It's the tiniest thing, but Debbie nailed it!
	Another small town (Lackawanna) and another Hometown Heroes display. This vet is from the Korean War, ...
	... this one served in Vietnam, ...
	... and whoa! This one honoring Father Nelson H. Baker was from the Civil War, and it was aptly hanging in front of ...
	... Our Lady of Victory Parish Rectory.
	We were trying to find Buffalo statues, part of the Buffalo Roam! tour in 2004.
	What's this? We wandered unexpectedly past Tesla's Giga New York, also known as Gigafactory 2. It is a photovoltaic cell factory, manufacturing the solar cells for the Tesla solar roof.
	This lift bridge spanned the Buffalo River.
	The nearby streets had Irish flags hanging from the lamp posts.
	This is an interesting bike rack, and Debbie recently realized that she has a collection of photos of interesting bike racks. Add this one to it!
	Carbone's Pizza?! No way! This is not part of the beloved St. Paul-based Carbone's pizza chain, but it had to be photographed anyway.
	This mural announced that we were in the neighborhood known as the First Ward. Originally named according to the voting district it represented, it is now just the name of the neighborhood.
	And it is apparently "Fabulous!"
	We passed a soccer field with a Labatt's brewery in the background. A group of silos were painted to resemble a six pack of Labatt's Blue. Nice!
	This majestic statue stands guard near the Bison City Rod and Gun Club.
	This mural proclaims that the Packard is "America's Roll's Royce."
	This wall is all that remains of Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building. He loved that Cherokee Red color, didn't he? The red concrete on the sidewalk represented the location of the original atrium from the building. Stones along the walkway marked places of interest, such as the location of the original entrance to the building.
	It must have been a beautiful building while it stood. It was designed by Wright in 1903, and built between 1904 and 1906 for the Larkin Soap Company.
	Nearby displays show how it looked on the inside, where exactly it stood, ...
	... and what it used to look like. By 1943, the Larkin Company was in decline and they were forced to sell the building. It was demolished in 1950.
	It's hard to see in this picture, but you are looking at Sahlen Field, the home of the Buffalo Bisons, a minor league baseball team affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays.
	There are some really interesting buildings in Buffalo. Let's take a closer look at this one, shall we?
	Gorgeous!
	Debbie's quick camera skills caught this buffalo statue on an overpass near the Peace Bridge.
	Speaking of the Peace Bridge, here it is. There were signs posted near the entrance reminding travellers that they needed a negative COVID test and had to be pre-registered if they wanted to travel to Canada.
	While we're here, lets head to the shore and check out ...
	... another Frank Lloyd Wright designed building.
	This is the Fontana Boathouse, designed in 1905 by Wright for the University of Wisconsin crew team, it was finally built in 2007 by one of his former apprentices and is now the home of the West Side Rowing Club.
	We were on part of the Empire State Trail, a 750 mile long multi-use trailway, a part of which runs from Buffalo to Albany. It has the distinction of being the longest multi-use trail in the United States. The logo shows the trail's location within the state.
	We were also on part of the Canalway Trail, which is a trailway that runs parallel to the former Erie, Oswego, Cayuga-Seneca, and/or Champlain canals. How cool is that?!
	This statue was outside of the appropriately named Buffalo Chophouse.
	Debbie noticed what looked like a Statue of Liberty on top of a nearby building, ...
	... and sure enough, we were looking at the Liberty Building, built for the former Liberty National Bank and featuring twin Statues of Liberty on the roof; one at either end.
	We were in the Theater district, and Shea's Buffalo Performing Arts Center was apparently putting on a presentation of ...
	... Frozen!
	There were lots of beautifully maintained theaters in the area, ...
	... as you would expect from the Theater District.
	We continued our tour looking for all things Buffalo; well, all things that were Buffalo statues. This Buffalo nickel statue was tucked away in a small park. Luckily, we were here on a Sunday and the lack of traffic allowed Debbie to jump out, get a quick picture, and jump back in without holding anyone up.
	We drove past Frank Lloyd Wright's Walter Davidson House. It featured a large lion sculpture in the garden.
	Our next stop was Frank Lloyd Wright's David Martin House. It was built between 1903 and 1905 for Darwin Martin. We had already decided not to take a tour this time around, so it was a relief to learn that it was closed for a private even this morning anyway.
	The grounds are quite large, with large stone sculptures on the lawn.
	The Martin House complex consists of the main house and a conservatory, connected by a long pergola.
	The house is adjacent to the Barton House, also designed and built by Wright for Darwin Martin's sister, Delta Barton.
	The New York Adopt-a-Highway signs are completely plain and devoid of any of the interesting images that we'd seen other places recently.
	We headed east and entered the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. Oddly enough, we seemed to enter the corridor at least six times without any signs telling us that we ever left it.
	Maersk!
	This buffalo statue appeared to be made from stones.
	This impressive sculpture is a recreation of the famous "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo taken in 1932 as ironworkers completed what is now the GE building in Rockefeller Center.
	Red buffalo.
	Black buffalo.
	On the way to get lunch, we passed a large sculpture garden. We will come back to this shortly.
	Hey! It's a Peace, Love, and Tiny Donuts franchise. We had visited the original in Pittsburgh in 2011.
	We stopped at Mighty Taco for lunch. Tom enjoyed his burrito, but Debbie was underwhelmed by her tacos. Maybe it should be called Mighty Burrito.
	We were travelling on September 11th, and there were reminders everywhere.
	Remember that sculpture garden we passed earlier? It was no ordinary sculpture garden. It was Russell J. Salvatore's Patriots and Heroes Memorial Park, and we had arrived just in time for their 9/11 tribute, which was over-the-top.
	The park had a little bit of everything, including its own Statue of Liberty.
	Even though we'd just had lunch, we felt that there was still room for Jell-O.
	More correctly, there was still room for visiting the Jell-O museum, which had a brightly painted cow statue on the porch to welcome us.
	Who doesn't love Jell-O?
	There was a box to vote for your favorite Jell-O flavor. It wasn't a secret ballot. You could see everyone's vote right through the box, so we'll go ahead and reveal our choices: Tom's was lime and Debbie's was raspberry.
	There were displays with the various recipes that you could make with Jell-O.
	This one let you use either one box of Lime Jell-O or one box of Lemon-Lime Jell-O. So flexible. So delicious.
	This timeline covered all of the really, really important Jell-O related events from the creation of Jell-O in 1897 up to the introduction of Magical Jell-O in 2006.
	Hey! It specifically mentioned Jell-O 1-2-3, Debbie's favorite Jell-O product in the whole world!
	For those of you (including Tom) who don't know about Jell-O 1-2-3, here's how it worked. It was a single packet of Jell-O that when prepared formed three separate layers: a creamy top, a mousse-like middle, and an everyday Jell-O bottom layer. We can only speculate that it was discontinued because the wizard who made the powder decided to stop using their powers for good and moved on to other things.
	The Jell-O companion products were well represented, including this snow globe, a figurine packaged with a box of cherry Jell-O, and ...
	... these Jell-O Barbies. The Barbie set came with a Barbie, naturally, and also included a Jell-O mold and a box of Jell-O, which was a special "Very Berry Barbie" flavor. How could a person resist that?
	We're pretty sure that this display is made of plastic, not Lemon-Lime Jell-O, but how would you know without trying to eat it?
	When Kraft Foods acquired the Jell-O brand, it introduced Jigglers, a new formulation that would set in just one hour, and containing four times the amount of gelatine, allowing it to be eaten as a finger food. In 1991, they introduced alphabet molds, which you could send away for. They also had other product tie-ins, including Power Rangers, Jurassic Park, and NASCAR molds. We have both the alphabet set AND the silver race car mold! How cool is that?
	Yikes! This is creepy. Make it stop!
	We were very tempted by the Jell-O T-shirts, but managed to hold down our shopping urges until after we looked at the transportation part of the museum downstairs. Then we bought four cold-activated brightly-colored cups for our grandkids.
	This Jell-O delivery wagon is from the 1890s was used to haul Jell-O to local merchants as well as north to the Erie Canal for destinations far and wide.
	We finished our tour, purchased our souvenirs, and headed out of Le Roy on the New York Thruway. We both admired again how the route is clearly displayed in the thruway logo. Well done New York.
	We had to stop and photograph this historical marker detailing the invention of Jell-O by Pearl Bixby Wait of Le Roy, New York. How appropriate!
	To pass the time driving, we played a game where we tried to name the largest city we could think of in the United States that started with each letter of the alphabet. We were trying to come up with a large city that started with the letter "R" when this exit sign came into view. No cheating, New York.
	Ten minutes later, we were on the letter "V" when New York again had a suggestion.
	We saw an exit sign for the Women's Rights National Historical Park and decided to go there. The park was established in 1980, and covers a little more than six acres in Seneca Falls, NY. The main attraction is the Wesleyan Methodist Church, where the first women's rights convention was held. In this sunken courtyard is a wall showing ...
	... the "Declaration of Sentiments," which was the convention's defining document which declares that "all men and women are created equal."
	We walked around the other buildings in the exhibit, and marveled that the first convention was held 52 years before the passage of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution, which finally gave women the right to vote.
	There were many interpretive displays showing the history of the Wesleyan Chapel and the history surrounding the convention.
	We were really glad we stopped. It is a very compact park, and worth the time.
	The visitors center had a banner over the door celebrating 100 years of women having the right to vote.
	The map that the park ranger gave us showed the George Bailey Bridge and the "It's a Wonderful Life" museum on it. We decided to go check them out. Here's the George Bailey Bridge, actually named the Bridge Street Bridge, on Bedford Falls Boulevard, said to have inspired the story of "It's a Wonderful Life."
	Crossing the bridge, we got a good view of the National Women's Hall of Fame.
	The Seneca Falls Canal runs through the town, just like the canal in Bedford Falls.
	It took a little bit of driving around before we were able to find the It's a Wonderful Life museum, but we finally found it. It has a sign out front that says "Welcome to Bedford Falls," so we knew we were in the right place.
	Back on the road, we passed an auto repair shop that had a bunch of vintage cars and trucks spread around the property, including this mock up of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard TV show.
	We passed though the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, but we completely missed the turn off to the entrance, so this is the only photo we took. Bummer.
	We passed over sections of the Erie Canal and vowed to plan a future road trip that traced its path.
	On our last trip through this area, we passed these cliffs when they were coated in ice and weeping water. They are still very remarkable looking at the tail end of summer.
	About two hours later, we passed this bridge spanning the Mohawk River that was in remarkably good shape for not being connected to anything at either end.
	This drive is very scenic, with beautiful hills on one side and a beautiful river valley on the other.
	Tonight's stop was at a Super 8 Motel outside Schenectady, NY.
	It wasn't a motel that you would write home about, but it served its purpose: it was clean, it had beds, and it had Wi-Fi.
	We got settled in and and got connected just in time for our scheduled Zoom meeting with ...
	... our wonderful friends Audrey and Dean. We had a nice long chat with them, which is always a great way to end a day. Day 3 >