We hit the New York Visitor’s Center on our way into the Finger Lakes.
How cool! The Visitor Center allowed us to make a “virtual postcard” with our choice of images from the state. What a great marketing idea!The Center is impressive. Not only did we create virtual postcards butt we also posed for “Instagram-worthy” pictures.
We pulled into our campground, which was in Waterloo, about halfway between the two destinations we wanted to visit while in the Finger Lakes: Seneca Falls and Seneca Lake.
We stayed at a campground that had just opened: the Seneca River RV Park.
Most people who come to the Finger Lakes, want to visit the legendary vineyards, taste more than a few good wines, and partake in fine dining. We’re not big wine fans and I have a personal chef. So, what brought us to the Finger Lakes? One of us is a big fan of old, sentimental movies.
Our first stop was Seneca Falls… the town that is said to have inspired Frank Capra to write a screenplay he later directed and produced into the hit film, “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” was first released in December 1946. A box office disappointment at the time, the film’s copyright expired in 1974. Soon after, it became a Christmas classic as television studios began broadcasting the film (day and night, time and again) without having to pay licensing or royalty fees.
Capra visited Seneca Falls in 1945. While no one knows for sure if Seneca Falls is the real-life “Bedford Falls,” there are some uncanny similarities that seem to point to that conclusion.
In the film, George Bailey and his wife Mary live in Bedford Falls, New York, which looks a lot like Seneca Falls, New York.
Jay LOVES “It’s A Wonderful Life.” We watch it at least once, if not twice or even thrice (!) each Christmas.
In the movie, Clarence, an angel in training, is immediately dispatched to Bedford Falls to stop George Bailey from jumping off a bridge into the icy waters below.
While in Seneca Falls, we visited the “It’s A Wonderful Life” Museum. Jay was so happy to see movie props and read the stories behind the making of the movie.
Naturally, Jay made friends with everyone working in the museum!
After touring the museum, we walked over to the town’s bridge, which is now called the “It’s A Wonderful Life Bridge.”
The Seneca Falls bridge looks just like the bridge in the film, although this bridge pre-dates the film by many years.
In Seneca Falls, in 1917, a 17-year-old, newly arrived immigrant named Antonio Varacalli lost his life while valiantly saving a local woman. She tried to commit suicide by jumping off the town’s bridge (pictured above). Varacalli was a Barge Canal worker who was diligently saving his money to pay for the rest of his family to join him in America. He saw the young woman in the water and jumped in to save her, even though he himself could not swim. He was able to get her near the shore where another man carried her in, while Varacalli drowned in the cold, rushing waters.
In gratitude for Varacalli’s selfless act, the people of Seneca Falls raised funds to pay for the young man’s family to move from Italy to Seneca Falls, where they were lovingly embraced by the community.
The bridge story is one of many aspects of the film that mirrors real-life Seneca Falls.
After our “It’s A Wonderful Life” tour, we stopped at Mac’s Drive-In restaurant in Waterloo.
Mac’s is a busy place in the evenings: lines snake around the building and the parking lot is filled with cars.Mac’s serves Richardson Root Beer. Of course, we had to try it!Ooooooh. Mac’s Root Beer Floats (made with Richardson Root Beer) are what a Root Beer Float most certainly tastes like in heaven.Oh yes. Two please. We enjoyed our Float down to the very last slurp and will forever more refer to this part of the country as the Finger Lickin’ Lakes!Of course, Jay became friends with our wholesome server, a young college student working at Mac’s during his summer break.
Waterloo is known not only for Mac’s Root Beer Floats…
The vegetable stands in Waterloo are on the honor system – you simply deposit cash in the cash box. There’s even a calculator in case you need to do some arithmetic. A quick pic of downtown Waterloo.Interestingly, all of the public mailboxes in Waterloo are painted an Army green and sealed shut. I only noticed this phenomenon because I wanted to mail some postcards. I had to wait until the post office opened on Monday to mail my musings to our friends across the country.We took note of the placards hanging from the streetlights throughout downtown Waterloo. Each placard features a resident who served in one of our country’s wars.“Waterloo: The Birthplace of Memorial Day” makes a point of publicly honoring the town’s veterans.We toured the National Memorial Day Museum, which is in downtown Waterloo.
On May 5, 1866, Waterloo posted flags at half mast, and residents played martial music and marched to the village cemeteries where many of the town’s veterans, who had fought in the Civil War, were buried. At the cemeteries, Waterloo’s residents honored their war dead with ceremonies and solemnly decorated soldiers’ graves.
The museum features President Lyndon Johnson’s Presidential Memorial Day Proclamation of May 1966, recognizing Waterloo as the birthplace of Memorial Day.
Thus, in 1866, just one year after the end of the Civil War, Waterloo held our country’s first formal, town wide, annual observance of a day dedicated to honoring men and women who had died in our nation’s wars.
While we learned a lot during our visit at the museum, the thing we’ll remember with the most joy is getting to know the very witty and smart Amelia Burm! Amelia is a graduate student who works at the museum. She will be traveling to Ireland and has promised to send us a postcard from her visit. We’re holding you to that promise, Amelia!Jay makes a handsome Civil War soldier!
Following a suggestion from Amelia, I took a walk on the Cayuga Seneca Canal Trail.
I watched as the lock near the entrance to the trail filled with water to let a boat pass through.My walk was peaceful and cool thanks to the shade of the many trees lining the trail.
Across from the entrance to the trail, I noticed what looked like the remains of a cemetery. Naturally, I walked over to investigate.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that it is actually a fairly new (2008) Memorial built to look like the worn remains of a revered cemetery.
Waterloo’s American Civil War Memorial honors Waterloo residents who served and died in the Civil War.
The Memorial honors all 620,000 soldiers who died in the Civil War. Of those, 57 were residents of Waterloo. Each of the 57 have a cenotaph in the Memorial with their name etched in stone.
What a poignant way to honor the Waterloo residents who fought and died in America’s Civil War.
On our last day in the Finger Lakes, we hopped on our bicycles and rode west to Seneca Lake and a town on the Lake called Geneva.
The Geneva Trinity Church was built in 1806 and is now for sale (hmmmm…. what a home that would be!)The “Our Lady of Peace” statue is dedicated to the veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and WWI. The statue, erected in 1939, has an unobstructed view of Seneca Lake. The view wasn’t always that clear, however. A building once stood directly in front of “Our Lady,” blocking her view of the Lake. The building mysteriously burned down. A second building was constructed in the same place, and it too burned down. A third building in the same spot met the same fate. Three strikes… and the Lady who demands a clear view of the Lake, gets a clear view of the Lake. Several miles from “Our Lady of Peace,” I tried to get my own unobstructed view of the Lake butt someone kept posing for the cover of Cyclist Magazine. We watched as a wedding party prepared for pictures in a park near the Lake.We “loved” this mural in Geneva titled, “Love: Spread it With Hands and Heart.”We capped off our long bike ride with a soft serve black raspberry ice cream cone… size small (!)
All too soon, it was time for us to leave the Finger Lakes and head west to our next stop.
I played with the dogs to let us all release some energy before the drive.Wait for us! Tinkerbell and Leap head out of Waterloo.
Soon, we were on the highway and saw a familiar sight…
Go Army!
I settled into the salon and began working on our blog. Ziggy sat up front in the co-pilot seat. Ziggy assured a skeptical Frankie he had the navigator duties under control.
Suddenly, an unexpected and eerie quiet came over the bus as our driver carefully pulled off the road.
It seems our navigator, the one in the co-pilot seat, had fallen asleep on the job. He didn’t warn our driver of impending doom.
It started quietly… the faint sound of sinister laughter. A sound so dark and so evil it made Vincent Price’s laugh sound like a schoolgirl’s giggle. It rolled in over the green fields and rose up to envelop us in a thick cloud of dread.
Tinkerbell began to shudder in fear.
It was then that we recognized the evil cackle from our last engagement with The Great State of New York.
It seems New York not only remembered but held a grudge and would now exact her sweet revenge.
The Great State of New York lured and ensnared us into a heinous web: an overpass with a mere 12-foot clearance.Without any room in which to turn around on a busy highway, Tinkerbell admitted defeat, threw in the towel, and bowed her 13-foot frame to a worthy adversary: The Great State of New York.The New York State Police came to the rescue. Friendly Jay was soon sharing laughs with the state trooper, who assured Jay “this happens a lot.” We’re not sure if this really did happen a lot or whether the trooper was just trying to lessen our embarrassment. With traffic stopped along the highway, cars quickly piled up on the entrance ramp as our driver executed a 7-point-turn to get Tinkerbell out of her road pickle. The police escorted us the wrong way on a one-way highway until we could get to a place to safely change direction.As we crossed the bridge (from another route) that had been guarded by the 12-foot overpass, a humble Tinkerbell kept her gaze downward while wishfully reciting those famous last words, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home…”
And Frankie vowed to never entrust Ziggy again with navigational duties on our Summer of 2025 Tour.
Stay Tuned for Niagara Falls!
If you enjoyed our blog post, please leave us a comment and share your Finger Lickin’ Lakes stories if you’ve got ’em!
I absolutely love the history that you are sharing. Our Lady of Peace has some serious power. I am so happy that she left Jay unsinged as he posed for a picture by the lake. I see this bridge in New York did not have any wiggle room. Glad you made itt out.
It seems that Jay and I are simpatico in some of our viewing choices–“Anne of Green Gables” and now “It’s a Wonderful Life,” one of my all-time favorites. Enjoyed this blog post very much! That postcard you created–I have a picture on my phone that looks almost identical (sans Linda!), from my trip to Watkins Glen State Park last week. Loved that place!
Tinkerbell's Travels 
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