Monday, July 2, 2012

This'n'That; July Second #1: Curtiss Museum

What A Delightful Day!
    With upcoming surgery appointments, readying our rental property for sale, the "Young Miss Lovely" and I mutually agreed that we'd not be able to take our usual early-summer vacation.  As a result we had decided to take 'day-trips' to area museums and other points of interest.
    To that end, we decided to drive the 125 miles to take in The Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, N.Y.  What a delightful day we had.... from the late breakfast, to the museum itself, to a dessert on the way back to the Rochester area!!  What a way to distract one's self from contemplating how the current dictatorship will shit on the American taxpayer, next!!
    Once we got into the Village of Hammondsport, we found the 'Keuka Artisan Bakery' on Shethar Street and had a delicious breakfast sandwich--a REAL one--not that crap-on-a-biscuit one gets from the fastfood joints.  We both had ham-and-egg on seeded-rye; real rye bread, two slices about 7"x4" each!  Just DELICIOUS, and reasonably priced. If I have a complaint about the whole eating experience, it would be the non-availability of diet sodas.



We then wandered the village a bit including the village's "waterfront" area, the south end of Keuka Lake,


before we headed back to the south end, to the museum.
    From downtown Rochester, N.Y., we used NY-590 south, I-590 south, I-390 south, I-86 east to Bath, N.Y.  From exit-38 we used village streets to NY-54 north, toward Hammondsport.  The Curtiss Museum is on the south end of the village, on the west side of the road.  The museum entrance kinda 'sneaks up' on ya when using this route.  Another way--from the Rochester area--is NY-104 east, NY-14 south, NY-14A south, EITHER NY-54 south OR NY-54A south to the south end of Hammondsport.  You will see:



Once you're in the parking lot, near the building you'll find:
Once inside the building, you'll find things you never expected to see in an aircraft museum;  things like:
The earliest--up to the modern era motorcycles--such nampplates as Curtiss, Henderson, Indian, Harley-Davidson, BSA, BMW, Whizzer, etc:


The motorcycle Glenn Curtiss used to become a motorcycle racing champion; the world's fastest man (1907-136.36mph);
A close-up of the Curtiss-built V-8 motorcycle engine:
There are about a dozen antique cars--many from the personal collection of Guy Bennett, Wayland, N.Y.--as evidenced by this 1928 Chandler Dual-Cowel Phaeton Touring Car:
Several boats, like this hand-built mahogany power boat:

and this 1931 CeeStepper from Penn Yan Boats:


Various aircraft--mostly seaplanes--are still the main concentration, like the first Curtiss plane, the 1908 Curtiss 'June Bug:'



And the 1911 A-1, the VERY FIRST U.S. Navy plane:

How 'bout "America" the first multi-engine ever built.  Built by Mr Curtiss in 1914 for Rodman Wanamaker (of the department store 'Wanamakers') to be capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean, to win a 'Times of London' $50,000 prize: 


    When we finished at the museum, I surprised the "Young Miss Lovely" with a stop for ice cream, at a stand--in Kanona, N.Y.--that I remember from the early 1960s when I was a teenager:

I got a 'small' soft serve 'twist' cone.  I swear the ice cream stood a good 7-inches off the edge of the cone, which was full as well!!  "Lovely" had a 'small' peach frozen yogurt, which was three huge scoops, barely hanging on to the cone!!  All that for $4.05, tax included!!
Then we packed our full bellies home!!
Til Nex'Time....
[A youtube video of one of the museum's boats] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODWXrsGilTM
[More photos I took at the museum]https://picasaweb.google.com/112034064879483131006/GlennCurtissMuseumJuly12012#

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