Anyone who grew up in the Corning-Painted Post-Big Flats-Horseheads-Elmira area will know where Curly’s Chicken House is and will probably tell you they make the best chicken in the New York Southern Tier. Last night, that assertion was confirmed.
We had a pretty large and rowdy group as you can see by the pictures:
Above is what the place looks like going west on Lake Street. That’s my cousin Elwyn going in the door on the right, but he probably won’t be there when you get there.
The people at Curly’s know what we’re like so they put us in a separate room – no sense driving good customers away. The thirteen of us took up two tables. We all ate to our hearts content and the bill was less than $120, so not only is the food great, but also it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Seated at this table are my cousin George in the middle, my brother Ray on the right and George’s grandson on the left. (You can really see those three better in the picture below.) On the right ( in the picture above from back to front) my sister-in-law Margie, my niece Kristian, my cousin George’s wife Judy and another of their grandsons.
In the following picture is my cousin Kevin’s wife Bonnie, my cousin Richard, and my cousin Elwyn – he’s the one you might see going in the door at Curly’s.
Finally, on the left is my cousin Ethelyn (I’ve parked my camper at her house (and Elwyn’s, of course) and my cousin Kevin,
If you’ve never been to Curly’s and you’re within 100 miles of Elmira, make it a point to visit them – they’re at 2100 Lake St, Elmira, NY. You will not be sorry you did.
Last night it got down to 46 degrees, but I was snug and cozy in my camper under my sleeping bag. Since my tire monitor said the tire temp was 42 degrees, I’m inclined to think it was a little colder than that away from the house.
Shortened Winery Tour
This morning, I picked up Ray and Margie and Kristian and we proceeded up Rte 414 through Watkins Glen and up along the east side of Seneca Lake. We thought we would take in a few wineries and learn about wine-making. Well, Ray and I learned about wine-making. Margie and Kristian learned a LOT about wine-tasting, i.e. if you taste too much, you get a little loopy. We were going to visit several and made it to three: Wagner’s Winery, Poplar Ridge Vineyard and Bagleys Winery, and Standing Stone Winery.
We started out a little early and none of the wineries were open yet. When we finally got to Wagner’s winery in Lodi, NY, we decided to wait the twenty minutes or so until they opened. It was so beautiful there, it was not a hardship.
As you can see, next to the winery, there is a pond housing a swan family. The sign next to Kristian says: PLEASE do not feed the swans. Kristian got a little too close to Papa Swan and nearly fed him her toes. He reached right through the fence after her.
Mama Swan spent most of her time preening herself and the babies (not really too small) just kind of sat there doing nothing.
My sister-in-law Margie decided to keep her toes intact and walked away from the pond.
We also found another visitor to the pond, but I don’t think the swans were worried about him – a great blue heron, who mostly sat sunning himself.
Next to Wagner’s Winery is the Ginnie Lee Restaurant, but we didn’t eat there so can’t tell you much about it.
Below is the Wagner Winery with Seneca Lake in the background though it’s hard to see from the picture. It’s that little strip of blue at the end of the roadway.
Here are Margie and Krisitan sipping their little bits of wine. They didn’t realize that little sips add up. Don’t you think they are already looking a little fuzzy?
Following is a better picture of Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. It’s a huge lake: 41-42 miles and about 500’ deep in places. Rumor has it (don’t you love a good rumor?) that there is an underground passage between Seneca Lake and the lake at what used to be Eldredge Park (an amusement park that was popular back in the dark ages when I was a kid). It is said that bodies that drowned in Seneca would sometimes show up in Eldredge Park.
The picture below is of the Poplar Ridge/Bagley Winery, where we probably enjoyed ourselves the most. The fellow mowing the lawn stopped what he was doing and gave us a great tour of the small facility. He was friendly and had a lot of patriotic signs inside. The wines, which I didn’t taste, were in the most spectacular wine bottles. The bear that sits to the right of the building (sorry I didn’t get a better picture) is something of a logo.
The last two pictures are of the Standing Stone Winery, where we received the longest tour – we saw the vines, the barrel room and where they process the wine. Jim, our tour guide, knew a lot about wine. Margie and Kristian didn’t care for the wine there. Apparently they don’t have a taste for the most expensive wines we saw today – $25.99 per bottle. We didn’t get any of that. But, please stop by if you’re in the area. The folks there are friendly and you just might like their wine. The sauces and dressings they have for sale are a nice appetizer for lunch.
The buildings shown here were built around 1850 and originally housed a chicken coop. In the barrel room, you could see that the beams were made of of hewn logs, only smoothed out where necessary.
Today has been a great day so far. It should just keep getting better … so much family to see and so many things to do.
Tomorrow will be both tough and easy: Mark and Mom are being buried, but so many family members and friends to see and enjoy being with. It will be great to celebrate the great joy and happiness Mark, Mom, and Alger have brought us all.
Until next time…
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