Ithaca part 1

 Some trips start slow; this trip started slow only the first few hours on the road.

Rich had made plans months ago for his annual fall vacation. He made plans to go to Ithica, NY, and asked if I was into going. Very few trips did I not have a hand in planning this one I had none.

I took the green Sherry and, so far, fairly impressive mpg at 18, which is great considering I am driving an old van with the aerodynamics of a brick.

My ole girl needed a set of wiper blades. I bought some before take off but never put them on. By the way, have you seen the price of wipers? This econo set was purchased at O'Reilly, and they were still yikes high! Well, the stop at one of the best, if not the best, roadside rests in Chautauqua Lake, which I have written about in the past, garnered no success in removing what I believe to be the original wipers from '95.

So we stopped in Cuba, NY, to fill up my bread with cold cuts to complete the half-made sandwich that I started building at home. And what a pleasant surprise. They have a phenomenal cheese shop called the Cuba Cheese Shop Cuba Cheese Shoppe Inc.. I bought some terrific goodies. Then, a short drive through town was an old-style Carquest Auto parts store. I told Rich, let's stop; I will buy new wipers and let them put them on. Well, I was blessed. The wiper blades were 50% off. There was a short wait before they could install them, so a walk through town to kill time landed me in the Cuba Cheese Museum and Opera House. 

I recommend seeing the museum and having a snack and coffee at the adjacent store. They have connecting doors so you can go from one place to the other without leaving.

A free tour and some chit-chat with Paul, the friendly guide, before heading back to the parts store. 

They had the wipers put on in zero time. The next stop was the Giant Food Mart to buy deli meat, then onto Ithica. So that was our first leg of the journey.