Day 34 (Sept 16)

Today's what we long-distance hiker types call a "zero day", ie, instead of advancing further along the trail, we sleep in one spot for two nights. For us that spot is the Villager Motel in downtown Watkins Glen. It's cheap and has a heated pool -- a real treat to be soaking wet all over without fearing for our lives.

This is Lafayette Park, near the motel:

It has the least ambiguous trail marker we've ever seen, which also doubles as a bench. The bench/marker in the background is for the Catharine Valley Trail, a bike/hike trail perpendicular to our route, leading south towards (but not quite to) Elmira.

Zero day notwithstanding, we put in many miles of running around town here in Watkins Glen. The library is peaceful and hospitable. The laundromat, wow, thank goodness! We grab some sponge candy at the Great Escape:

(In Buffalo we'd been told that the weather was still too warm for making sponge candy, but that was high summer and now it's feeling distinctly autumnal. Technically we still have a week of summer left.)

Walmart on the east edge of town turns out to be our only choice for resupply. No denying the impressive selection, but the video screens scattered around the store blaring advertisements for nearby products are blatantly dystopian, like some kind of sci-fi nightmare world where we're no longer free to browse the aisles in peace. This will probably be the last real store we find on the trail, though (based on what I can glean from the maps and internet) so we grit our teeth and shop through it, leaving with several heavy bags of food and sundries.

We take dinner at the fancy hotel at the harbor at the south end of Seneca Lake. Though we've been on the Finger Lakes Trail for two weeks now, this is the first time we've gotten up close and personal with a Finger Lake. It's pretty. Our favorite waterside indulgence, "wine with a view of boats rocking," is made possible here by the Lamoreaux Landing Chardonnay.

Well-fed, clean and frisky, it's temping to have a little night on the town -- I think maybe there's one joint still open for another hour -- but prudence wins out and we retire to our humble motel room. The carousing will have to wait until the next town.