CORNING, THE GLASS THAT ISN'T

Monday, October 8

     World's largest glass pumpkins.

The cows were bellowing in the pasture and the geese were honking as they flew by as we prepared to leave the campground this morning.  The Canadian Geese are heading south and they do make a lot of noise.  I started get things around to hitch up the trailer this morning and the electric jacks on the front wouldn't work.  I got out the hand crank and tried it, but I couldn't budge it.  George came over to help but he had no idea what to do.  I tried to run the jacks down and that worked, but when I tried to run it up it balked, and then a bolt on the turning mechanism sheared off.  Luckily George had another and I was able to fix my problem.  What a relief!  I just replaced the motor and one jack last summer.  I don't want to have to do that again.

Everything fixed, we pulled out of the campground around 8:15 behind Ron and Sherry and ahead of Earl and Eunice.  We drove about 35 miles back down to Cooperstown and on to I-88 where we headed west toward Corning, New York - another 160 miles.  We stopped for gas just west of Binghamton and Ron said it smelled like rain.  Those words hardly left his lips when the rain hit.  It came down in buckets accompanied by high winds for the last 60 miles.  Luckily it stopped just as we got to Corning and the Corning Glass Museum.

We had lunch in the museum and spent about an hour looking at the gift shop as we waited for our tour to begin.  Almost everything in the gift shop was quite expensive and there wasn't anything we wanted there anyway, so we got out cheap.  Everything we looked at was made in China or Japan.  I figured it would be made by Corning!

Our tour took us to the innovation lab where we saw a demonstration on light being used in glass fibers for communication - fiber optics, and saw how window glass used to be made.  We also attended a Hot Glass Demonstration where they made a glass pitcher from just a blog of molten glass.

     Craftsmen in the Hot Glass Show

Jenna and I watched a craftsman make a penguin and a hummingbird.  We also looked at glass from the very earliest days of glassmaking up through modern times.  The museum has some exquisite glassware from all periods of time.

     A crystal candelabra.

      A crystal table and boat.

      A Chilhuly chandelier

       More Dale Chihuly glass

There were several pieces of Chihuly glass along with a few remaining pieces of Steuben gIass. (Steuben glass isn't made anymore.) I found it interesting that Corning doesn't make glass anymore. They sold their last glassmaking plant in the 1990s. We were really looking forward to the glass museum but left less than impressed. Some things were very good, but our guided tour was mainly a bust.

After the museum we drove another 25 miles to our campground in Bath, New York. Jenna took a picture of the sunset tonight.

We start again at 8:30 tomorrow with another museum, a cruise, and winetasting. We'll see how that goes tomorrow. Until then, Happy Trails!