Sunday, July 1: Off at 9 am, our first stop Seneca Falls NY, just short of 400 miles. We arrived about 4, traveling on I-90 most of the way. As everyone knows, Interstates are NOT the way to go if you want to see America, but they are if you want to get somewhere. The Prius performed beautifully, and we were grateful for the functioning AC in the 95 degree heat.

We checked into a "Microtel," a chain we hadn't tried before. Micro it was, with a tiny room that barely held a queen sized bed. But everything was clean and functioning (except for a slow drain in the sink. Instant hot water for an excellent shower.

Seneca Falls is a sad little mill town with a strong sense of decay. Nearly all the mills shut down long ago; a few were converted to other uses, but most stand dark and empty, windows shuttered or shattered, frayed plastic tarp fluttering from leaky roofs. There has been an effort to gentrify here and there, with a scenic walkway along the canal, and canal boats for hire.

Entering the town from the west, you pass a few blocks of nice little houses, all built around the turn of the 19th/20th century. A couple in rocking chairs on a front porch, a boy on a hammock, another mowing a lawn. We also passed the remains of a set of 1930s-era tourist "cabins," roofs falling in, windows broken, doors falling off their hinges. Someone should preserve them, along with Burma Shave signs, as a reminder of automobile travel 60 or 70 years ago.  Downtown has many empty store fronts, but a few businesses still struggle to keep alive.  We had an atrocious meal at a restaurant that shall remain nameless.

Seneca Falls is famous, as many people know, as the birthplace of the Women's Rights Movement. In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha Coffin Wright, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann M'Clintock organized the Seneca Falls Convention, issuing a "Declaration of Sentiments," calling for the first time for women's suffrage. The National Park Service operates a Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, which, unfortunately, we did not have time to visit (we arrived after it had closed, and had to leave early the following morning).

Seneca Falls is also reputed to be the model for "Bedford Falls" of the film "It's a Wonderful Life." That may or may not be true, but we did pass a street named Bedford Falls Road, lending credence to the rumor.