FL Rally and Club Ride - 1. Getting to the Finger Lakes Rally

1. Getting to the Finger Lakes Rally

The end of August brings cooler temperatures in the North Eastern U.S. 

The first Monday in September is a Holiday in Canada; it’s the Canadian Labor Day. This is also the weekend where the Finger Lakes BMW Club put on a rally, a get together, every year. For years I have visited this Rally. This year we want to return. It’s the Finger Lakes Rally’s 44th Anniversary.

All Camping is on Grass and Most Spots Are Shaded

Our Ontario BMW Motorcycle Club uses this Rally to have a club meeting so a lot of Canadians ride south to be at Watkins Glen’s Hidden Valley Camp Ground, where the Rally is held. The Camp is a beautiful spot. A spot I would like to own, hidden in a treed valley surrounded by rolling hills with a small idyllic river running through it.

Cabin Used By the Ontario Club - No Thanks.

A lot of people use the cabins that are set up permanently at the camp, just taking a bunk bed. We prefer our own domicile, even if it is just a lowly tent. We were one of the first people to arrive, but I am jumping the gun.

First we have to ride to this spot. We thought we would leave on Wednesday, August 29^th for the rally, but somehow life got in the way. I received a notice to pick up a painting I had bought and needed to go to Buffalo to pick it up. I could not haul the painting, a real piece of art, on the bike. So I needed to take the car. That killed the day. It usually takes 2 hours to go from here to Buffalo, then I do my thing over there, and drive back to Toronto; A total usually of 6 hours, including lunch.

But come Thursday August 30^th, we left early in the morning on our bikes. We had, as usual, lots of traffic on the 401; the only really good road going from east to west trough Toronto. Oh, sure they have a toll road (407) but this road is cumbersome to use for us, besides, it’s very expensive and their toll system is archaic, they will send you an invoice once they scan your license plate but add handling fees, camera fees and postage, etc. to the original toll. No thanks!

We opted, after we crossed the border in Lewiston, NY to ride along the Southern shore of Lake Ontario. We wanted to take the local roads, the roads less traveled. On a road map we had consulted, Route 18 was the way to go. We had a bit of searching to find this road, but then Route 18 turned out to be a lovely road to ride. Except, by the time we got to it, we needed gas. There are not that many gas stations along the way. The road is really, really rural. Farms galore! Quietude greeted us, and lovely housing right along the southern shore of the Lake. 

I found it very strange that here, across the Lake from Toronto, the housing was so ‘cheap’, the land available, no industry in sight. Across the Lake to the north, in Toronto, you would pay millions, billions of dollars to have this kind of view. The northern part of Lake Ontario, the shoreline in Toronto, Canada has some of the most expensive real estate in Canada but here, on the southern part of the same Lake are just farms and some vacation homes. There are hardly any towns, just large tracks of land and farms. No industry to speak off, no traffic, nothing but agriculture and just a few houses; most facing the Lake. 

Click Here to see our route

It amazes me that the northern part of New York State, of the whole U.S. really, is so ‘under’ populated and yet Southern Ontario is where most Canadians live. 

We had a lovely ride. The weather was in our favor, but we kept on looking for a gas station. We had an early lunch at a Golf Club Restaurant we passed and not far from there we found a gas station too. 

We were just west of Rochester and while our ride was lovely, we decided to take the highway system around Rochester, NY. Rochester itself is a busy, metropolitan kind of city and traffic increased many-fold once we came near Rochester. We saw lots of traffic lights which we now avoided by taking the Interstates. I 390 led to I 490 which led to I 90. But phew, we made good time. We looked for the local road, #14 heading south in NY State and thought we might stay for the night in Geneva, NY but found the hotels way too expensive. 

The Finger Lakes Region, that is what the area is called, has turned itself into wine country. Some very good wines are grown here, yet most of the vineyards are small enterprises. It seems that Geneva, on the northern end of Lake Seneca developed into a tourist center because of those vineyards. The prices and the fancy restaurants, the hip shops and the atmosphere of the town give me those vibes. It’s the American way, you find an attraction and everything around this attraction is like a magnet, hotels and restaurants sprout up like mushrooms.

We rode through the town, feeling we could get a better deal on a room a bit more south, right on the shores of Lake Seneca. 

Well, we found a few hotels, some very old, some lovely but we did not find a good hotel for us. Once we stop riding for the day, we like to have dinner within walking distance of the hotel. All the hotels we stopped at gave breakfast but not dinner. So Carol remembered a motel in Watkins Glen, NY which was not that far away. Watkins Glen was also the town we needed to go to the next day, so we would already arrive, but a day early.  

Unpacking at the Budget Hotel, Watkins Glen, Nice Place

Once we rode into Watkins Glen, NY, we saw the Colonial Inn and stopped to see if they had room. Yes, they did but this place was a total dump. There must be something better. We found the ideal hotel for us just a bit further south when we saw other motorcycles parked in the parking lot. The Budget Hotel on Route 14, right opposite the Top’s Food shopping center, was ideal. We had a few restaurants nearby, we could walk to them to eat dinner, we found the beer store across the way, and it even had an ice cream place which I visited for dessert. 

Covered Up in Case of Rain

All it all it was a good day, the predicted rains never came.

Tomorrow we will start with the real rally story.