We were only 150 miles away from Watkins Glen this morning so we managed to get here by 1:30 or so – we took our sweet time because… “the journey is the destination”. The forecast was for rain tonight and then lots more rain tomorrow and the next day so we decided to go to see the Watkins Glen Gorge today while the weather was good and then tour the Corning plant and museum tomorrow.

We really got lucky with our lack of planning and scheduling again (serendipity is fun) because our visit falls right between Labor Day and the final Watkins Glen International race of the season on Saturday, September 8th. This huge state park campground with over 300 camp sites will be full beginning on Thursday but we’ll be gone by then.

When we checked into the Watkins Glen State Park campground the ranger there told us that rain would not interfere with touring the gorge because you can always walk under the wall overhangs and stay dry. We took her advice and headed for the gorge right away. We actually did have light rain during most of our hike but hardly got wet at all without even trying to stay dry.

We walked up the Gorge Trail – about 1.5 miles and 800 steps to climb – and then back down the Indian Trail. I could not stop taking photos. Around every bend in the trail was more awesome scenery. The cloudy and rainy day lighting is perfect for photography so I got lots of good ones. The trail was wet but sneakers were fine, especially compared to some of the fancy footwear of the many Labor Day tourists. There were lots of tour buses and most of the tourists were from other countries – hardly any Americans.

GMC content: our exhaust manifolds are leaking again. I have a suspicion that some sort of physical disturbance is what caused it this time and the last time. I thought I was having success with the Remflex exhaust manifold gaskets but they have failed on me twice. The first time they failed I am thinking that the installation of two new mufflers disturbed them – cutting, pulling, welding, etc. – and they failed about 800 miles later. This time I am thinking that the road in and out of my sister’s house in Maine was so bad that I dragged the bottom of the coach – the mufflers and exhaust pipes are very low – on the ground. The manifold gaskets have both failed now in the less than 300 miles since we left there. I will buy and install a third set and give the Remflex gaskets one more try. After that headers might be in order.