Rushford, NY State

Rushford, New York State
(95 miles, 2 hours)

Our travels take us South again over the US border and into New York State. We traveled through some old and quaint villages each with their own identity, to Rushford where our friends have a log cabin in the woods. The Amish built their home when they bought the land, which is high above the river valley, surrounded by peace and quiet in the woods. The autumn colors were beginning to show in the sugar maples with their bright yellow, orange and scarlet leaves. I saw a chipmunk for the first time, like a small striped squirrel. We visited some picturesque towns called Angelica, Olean and Friendship and had a lovely meal with salad bar at the local Allegany Grill. One town was built around a circular park and had 5 churches arranged around it. We saw an ancient Indian oil spring, (goodness knows what the Indians did with it), and fed a boiling fury of black catfish on a nearby lake. The following day we did a strenuous walk in the woods then back for Baileys to revive us. Baileys for breakfast was certainly a first for me! We also went down to the lake and lowered the motorboat into the lake for a spin around to see the lovely log cabins and the dam. It was a beautiful day and a lovely experience.

At Cuba Cheese we sampled cheeses and dips, and went to a farm shop to buy sweet corn. Everything was sold in bushels and pecks rather than by weight. All measures were based on the old English “hogshead” the owner proudly told us, a bushel being approx 2 quarts or 4 pecks. The shop sold pumpkins, gourds, all sorts of squash, apples and potatoes and all around stood old machines from around 1900, used for shucking corn or sorting grain. We chose a dozen full cobs, which had been picked that morning and took them home, shucked them (removed the greenery) and then boiled them. We ate them with baby back ribs and they were so crisp and sweet that no salt or butter was needed. It was a feast. This was accompanied by wine we had sampled and bought and then we played cards for hours. The new word of the evening was “discombobulated” which Helen assured us is a real word, and we laughed over Roger being mistakenly called Arthur. When asked for his initial, he said “R for Roger”, but this was interpreted as Arthur Roger, so Arthur stuck! It was a memorable evening of cards and good fun.

There were many firsts for us in Canada and Rushford including seeing a chipmunk, going to an ice hockey match ( and seeing the ice-smoothing machine), tasting home cooked ribs, shucking fresh sweet corn, visiting Canadian wineries, sampling ice wine, experiencing Niagara Falls, Baileys for breakfast, stink bugs, sooty black squirrels, riding a sit-on mower, riding a restored carousel, eating pulled pork rolls at church, tasting real maple syrup and seeing peach trees.