Far below Cayuga's waters

Corning, New York — 3273.2 miles

Once upon a time — well, actually, it was 1969 — I applied to Cornell, and was accepted. Sometimes I wonder how things might have happened differently had I contrived to attend (back then, applying to four schools didn't cost a season's worth of gas for the truck), but if I had, certainly this wouldn't be my first trip to the Finger Lakes region.

Up into the Catskills on New York 17, which occasionally flashes "Future Interstate 86" signs. Judging by the number of intersections at grade, it's a far future indeed. But it's a nice drive, especially where it skirts the park, and patrolling seems to be limited to some very specific We Mean It zones.

And for some reason, seeing these mountains and all that greenery, or something, propelled me into some sort of a funk; I'm thinking that I'm on the return leg, after all, and roads become a lot less scenic west of Bristow or so. But maybe it was something else after all, because it took me two spins of "Surfin' Bird," the definitive road-trip song (it's impossible to ignore, yet you can't focus on the lyrics), to get me out of it.

There are signs all along 17 for a store called "Memories," which made me think it might be some sort of Jewish Wall Drug. It's not. It is, however, an interesting little antique store, bits and pieces of other people's lives for sale by the side of the road. (Hmmm. Maybe this is what set me off; is my existence ultimately to be boiled down to a handful of tchotchkes?)

South of there is a Mobil station styling itself "Wally-Mart." Paging the lawyers....

And just off the exit in Corning, where the road really is Interstate 86, is a futuristic glass building. This is not the Corning Museum of Glass: that's in the next block. This is just the Parking Pavilion, and a shuttle runs the 1500 feet or so between the Pavilion and the Museum door. There's tons of stuff in there, including enough glass paperweights to hold down the Federal Register, but the big show lately is a tripartite exhibition of Czech glass works that I found incredibly compelling.

In the Museum — specifically, in the GlassMarket gift shop — was a character I recognized from a dream a couple of nights ago. I'm reserving further comment pending additional revelations.

Posted at 4:00 PM to World Tour '05