Heading around the last turn

I left the motel in Rochester this morning thinking I'd find my way to the Ontario shore.  I couldn't get near it but a little further east I did find a spot to take some pictures.

Getting bored with looking for elusive Great Lakes, I headed south a bit for the Finger Lakes area.  On a Sunday morning Seneca Falls was locked up tighter than a drum, to my great disappointment.  I walked the streets for a bit and couldn't find a thing open except for a few breakfast places, and I had already had breakfast.

Before arriving at Seneca Falls I managed to get a picture of Seneca Lake from a state park.  It was early enough and no traffic, so I asked the gate attendant if I could just snap a couple of photos and be on my way.  What a nice young man - he didn't mind at all:

I thought, OK, I'll just get pictures of the Finger Lakes.  The situation with them is similar to the Great Lakes - I drove the entire length of Lake Cayuga and when I got to the state park near the southern end, the tourists were out in force.  The gate house wasn't close enough to the lake shore that I didn't even bother to ask. 

I got back to US 20 after an awful lot of driving in the upstate NY wine region, and when I reached Auburn I decided to look for a motel.  I found a lovely little place on the outskirts of Auburn.  

I asked if I could dry my tent fly in the field  and was told I certainly could - and that I could hang it over the fence if I wished.  I did that and it dried  and is now rolled and fitted into its spot in my car.

Sometimes these little places are real gems, and I would take them a thousand times over the chain motels.  The prices this time of year are killing me though.

I'm really tired of driving.  I'm tired of looking for what I can't find.  I'm also tired of not feeling at my best.

My head injury is just about over with, and my tailbone hurts when I sit or lie down a certain way, but then I can usually move a bit and it goes away.  Now I have a pain in my shoulder that suspiciously reminds me of the frozen shoulder on my other arm I had in 2006 or 7, which I attributed to taking Boniva.  The operation and physical therapy following it was excruciating, and I worried about it when the doctor wanted me to take Lipitor.

I did begin the low dose of Lipitor, but this morning I found the website where actual patients report side effects - not the doctors or the drug companies.  I am worried enough about it that I think I will stop taking it for 3 days and see what happens.  Hundreds of reports on this web site that I've read so far mention terrible leg cramps at night, and that was the first thing I noticed when starting the drug.  They have gotten worse and are far more painful than any leg cramps I ever had before.

My shoulder keeps me awake at night and prevents me from getting into a comfortable sleeping position.  I don't have any pain meds with me because I don't take aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.  I bought an individual foil wrapped Advil and took it a couple of days ago when things were at their worst, and it was a temporary help, but I worry too much about stomach distress to even try another Advil.

So I'm ready to get off the road for a couple of weeks and maybe see some local sights - the last time in Hudson Valley I visited the Roosevelt house and museum, and this time I will visit Eleanor's cottage.

I really love New York, and I hope I can get back to this part of it for another visit in the future.  Right now I've driven down so many dead ends looking for water that I'm ready to give up.  

So far I've driven through Duluth, Cleveland, and Rochester, and I guess I'll face Albany.  If Albany isn't too difficult to drive in I'd like to take a tour around the downtown, but that probably won't happen, as I can imagine the traffic on a work day in the state capital.