Saturday July 4th, we took an afternoon drive along the western hills overlooking Lake Keuka. This is wine country. There are over 100 wineries in the Finger Lakes Region with 15 or more around Lake Keuka. In fact the first winery licensed in America in 1860 is in Hammondsport, NY which is just a few miles from our campground. We had seen some open spaces from the opposite hills on our way to the Windmill Farm, and I wanted to find them so I could stop and take photos. We used some of the wine tour maps as a guide to some likely spots. We found some great spots to stop and enjoy the views.
At these we saw similar open spaces on the side we had been on a few days previous. In the shot below, the open space to the left on the distant hills is another vineyard.
Here is a shot looking across a field of grape vines toward the lake.
Grapes for wine making appear to be the prime crop for this area. I read that they expect to have a bumper crop this year and produce more grapes than the local wineries can use. Good news for these folks during tough economic times.
Here are some photos from Depot Park in Hammondsport
looking up the lake.
We had hoped to find a local festival to celebrate the 4th, but we did not learn about any in the immediate area. However we came across a parade about to form in Hammondsport on our way back. We had seen some firemen dressed up riding in a vintage fire truck in one of the small towns we passed through. He was followed by two more firemen in what looked like a golf cart with large fire extinguishers rather than golf bags in the back. We eventually realized they were on their way to Hammondsport for the parade. We must have passed a dozen or so community fire trucks including several more vintage ones. Here are the only two pictures I could catch.
We also came across a small antique car club having a show and forming up for the parade. Here are a few of the neat vehicles we saw.
Unfortunately we had to get back to the campground to check on our dog Clay so we missed the parade. We got our fireworks “fix” watching the annual PBS special from the Capitol. It is always outstanding. It was followed on PBS by an interesting show about the company from Tennessee that puts on the fireworks display. We learned a lot about how all that works.
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