I was refreshing myself with my '25 season updates, and quickly realized I was already behind on the updates....back then! I had actually gone on that first drive on 5/18/25, my last update was 5/31/25



That first drive would be one that I repeated throughout the season. A drive that showcases, in both scenery and roads, what the Finger Lakes has to offer. South down Cayuga Lake, clip Ithaca to the State Eatery (formerly the restaurant known as the State Bakery), around to Watkins Glen, north up Seneca Lake, and then branching west, towards Bristol and Canandaigua Lake. Also, as I will cover in a later update, this route uncovered some great, new vistas and roads, after I made a couple of alterations to it. You know, in the name of exploration.
The shot above was taken just past Taughannock Falls State Park. A bit blurry, but as you can see, not much of a shoulder to park on. So I kept it quick, running across the road, quickly frame the shot, click, click, click, running back to the car, drive away! View it later, and...curses, it's the best shot out of three! Oh well, it'll have to do. From that point, into Ithaca, the right hand side of the road is littered with gullies, most, replete with cascading, run-off triggered water falls. Gorgeous! There is a smallish one behind the car in the above pic. From these natural, water carved, slate wonders, to the manmade embellishments, sometimes added to them, as in the pic below...



well, this is the view across the road, lakeside, from,...as in the pic below...



Which, again, not the best picture, just the best of like, six! Just look at those concrete barriers, didn't want to sit there for too long. Luckily, traffic was sparse that morning.



Here's a view from inside the car. I always wanted to bike this section of 89 so I could stop at all the gullies and take pictures.



A quick couple of turns to stay headed south through Ithaca, and up another beautiful NY valley, to: the State Bakery. This is the first time I had been to their new location, since they had moved from Canoga. Have I mentioned them before? Man, I love this place! And now, the drive there, is even better. Even though they more than doubled the time it used to take to get to their wonderful food. Bigger place, more business, I say good for them! If you're ever in the area I highly recommend the whole experience. Mmm...yum.



After a great breakfast, I continued on my new route, all the way to my turn-around point in Bristol. Again, more pictures of this route will be included in future updates, but, unfortunately as you might have noticed, the day was quite overcast. It didn't really pour until I arrived in the Bristol area, where I shot these pics.



Pretty cool looking water beading on the paint. Looks like blue lizard skin/scales, in my opinion. I did wax it for that car show last season, remember?



Hence the new wiper blades, with all this rain and the fact that one of my blades was falling apart...
Also posting this picture as a record of those damn part numbers!

 

The next weekend I took the same route, same overcast conditions, but luckily it never rained. As I was nearing the turn-around point in the drive I took a screen shot before I started up Griesa Hill Rd. I nick-named it "Greasy Hill Rd" a long time ago and believe it would make an excellent Hill Climb course. Just before Woodville, headed north on 21 out of Naples, it branches off to the left, with a steep ascent that ramps up quickly, and seemingly never lessens it's angle, through several great curves, until you're suddenly at the top.





This is a pic from a small parking area at the top of Greasy Hill Rd. The southern end of Canandaigua Lake is in the valley behind the car and Italy Valley is on the right. Beautiful countryside!

 

I was visiting friends in Honeoye Falls and found Griesa Hill Rd by accident. Great road!

 

The next weekend was when I went the same route, but after Watkins Glen I found a more desirable (curvy) backroad way into Potter. Overcast again, but also, fortunately, not rained out. I remember some of the road was not paved because of roadwork, but visually, the rolling hills of lush farmland and being the sole car for the entire backroad "short-cut", made it worth every mile.







Potter is a little Town? on the way to Middlesex, that I had been to once in my teen-age years, and more recently in life, had met someone who grew up there...but this (route) was the first time I had driven through it. As an adult. In a S2000. In my opinion, another hill-climb course!
Great set of s-curves climbing out of town right into a couple of long sweepers, before finally cresting the valley, and leveling off for a bit. One time, somewhere around this section, on a Sunday, I came across dozens of school-age Amish children on bikes. It was quite the spectacle, many of the them stopped to look at the S2000, and it seemed word was traveling faster than me, because they were turning to look before I even drove by them. It felt like something out of Monty Python, where I had brought the shiny convertible sports car to the Amish people just as the "animated" sun breaks through the clouds. And the heavenly music plays.

 

That early June was again plagued with smoky skies from the Canadian wildfires. First pic below is a view looking East over Cayuga Lake.



Same day shot, taken from the upper viewing parking area at Taughannock Falls State Park. You can just detect the slight haze from the smoke. The falls were quite wide that day from all of the rain that spring. Usually much narrower, but still holds the record tallest drop on the East Coast!



Of course, on my regular route once again, the pic below was shot in Montour Falls. Finally, I stopped in for a photo shoot, having thought I should stop every previous time when passing by.



Next weekend was a total loss due to rain.





The next weekend, under very overcast skies I set out on Route 90 towards Homer NY, just to mix things up a bit. The above pics are shot on 90, after driving through several miles of rainfall, it finally let up. Spectacular valley views still blocked by both clouds and smoke?, unfortunate, but it was starting to dry up by the time I reached my turnaround point.



Awesome stretch of road between Genoa and Locke, whose curves are dictated by Pine Hollow Creek, which it follows through the woods. Another spot to stop in for photos, just not very kind to low-slung sports cars, once they leave the roadway.



This last one is of Turnpike Rd. A fantastic set of curves with dangerous blind turns cutting through rolling farmland, that is a turn off RT 90 and close to home. The digging equipment was there to begin the roadwork and subsequent re-paving of one my most favorite back-roads! So much a favorite that I had to check my previous posts, to see if I had mentioned it before. Surprised I have not.

 

Then after 22 years of sole ownership, while back to my regular route, down to Ithaca and back up along Seneca Lake, this happened:



to that! No regrets for every smile inducing, yet, value eroding mile! All worth it, for sure.



Above is a rest area I always stop at, just about halfway up the hill out of Watkins Glen. The southern end of Seneca Lake is down in the valley just beyond the S.



Next weekend, again on my usual route, I got the chicken & waffles at The State Eatery. Not my first time, just the time I remembered to take a pic! Mmm...amazing flavor!



Also this time at State I discovered this parking lot up 'above it all'. The lower parking area can be quite packed some times, and I've never had anyone else park up there since I've been using it. Plus, great views of the surrounding valley.



Oh yeah, as you might have noticed, all the pics in this update are quite sunny! Clear skies at last.
Look at the Tank on this guy! It suddenly appeared in this gravel area next to a small gas vendor? at the intersection of another section of this route, almost home...



Where I wrapped up the day of driving with a 'New York' style slice and a beer from my favorite local Italian eatery, Avicolli's. Inadvertently, catching the almost full Moon in this shot of the car.

 

As summer set in, I switched up my weekend drive route. Shorter and much more local, but easily more frequent. Great route around parts of 89 and 90 which pretty much circle around Montezuma Wildlife Refuge.



I would stop in at an observation tower every time, to try and capture one of the usually spectacular East coast sunsets. In my opinion, having lived on both coasts, the East is the winner. Mostly which I attribute to it having way more cloud coverage to reflect the great colors of a sunset. California's skies were almost always perfectly steel blue sky to the horizon, devoid of clouds.



Not to say my cell phone pictures do the actual sunset any justice... Don't worry, I'll only post one more time with sunset pics from this observation tower.





Then this guy passed away:



If there was a soundtrack to my life, Black Sabbath would play heavily in it, especially during my teenage years. R.I.P. OZZY!