Wrong! I could see the car at the checkpoint and it sat there forever, then they opened the trunk. Several minutes later, they escorted the car to the secondary inspection unit. I could see that the "they" were two female agents. The next car had another five plus minutes of interrogation and was sent on its way. The next car was at the checkpoint for five plus minutes, another trunk opening and by this time a male agent came to the booth and was observing them. Several minutes later, the car was sent off to secondary inspection. By this time I had surmised that one agent was training another agent.
As we all know, when we are training an employee on the job, we are very thorough and meticulous...no shortcuts allowed. With four cars in line, the male agent took over and you could see the two females in discussion outside the booth. I know how it is training someone and I also suspect that these female agents have to be top-notch and very thorough interrogators in order to keep their job. No shortcuts allowed.
By this time 30 minutes of waiting, we managed to change lanes and got through at the same time (quickly) in the new lane as we would have if we had stayed in initial lane with the male agent. Oh well, got to have some drawbacks to our travel time.
Stopped to get a view of one the oldest lighthouses on the Great Lakes in Buffalo.
We found a good local franchise restaurant yesterday for lunch...Tim Horton's and there was one at the first tollway service area we hit today. So it was donuts and coffee for brunch. Very tasty!
The Eastman house is in Rochester, NY and we visited this lovely place. I did not take any photos here, just wanted to take in the photographic experience. The gallery had a display of photos from a photographer named Hines. He was born in Oshkosh, WI and then moved to New York. He took a lot of photos of "unpleasant" situations....immigration, child labor, poverty, war warriors, etc. Some of them were such haunting images. Made me feel that my landscape images are unimportant.
The house has a lot history of Eastman and his creating KODAK and the camera that was simple enough for a child to use. He changed the world of photography from a professional status to every-man-is-entitled-to-have-photos status. The house was very beautiful too! I bought a book in gift shop that I know will challenge me in my own photography status.
Next stop was Syracuse, NY for the Erie Canal Museum. We all learned about the Erie Canal in school and it's one of the many facts we lose track of in our years. Apparently the Interstate/Tollway road 90 that we traveled on from Buffalo to Utica (tonight) follows the route of the Erie Canal.
The museum is housed in the weighlock building that was used to weigh the boats to charge them a toll for usage of a canal. Some of the canal is still evident today and others spots are covered. The scene from inside the museum looks out on the original canal.
Below is a map of New York and the canals that run/ran through the state.
This canal opened up New York and the Midwest to travel, commercial development, and immigration.
The town we are staying in tonight was on the canal. In fact the grassy median in front of the restaurant tonight was once the Erie Canal.
We are never to old to learn something new!
Now it's time to get off computer....a nasty thunderstorm is hitting Utica!
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