Bobby Anderson
Staff Writer

A piece of national history right here in Oklahoma City will soon be repurposed as the 23rd Street Armory is brought to life once again.
The home to Oklahoma’s National Guard for decades, the building will soon be revitalized by new owners COOP Ale Works.
The Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) recently accepted the company’s proposal to acquire and redevelop the armory, which includes restoring the building and creating a unique experience.
“Oklahoma City is our home and we always wanted to return to the core of the city. In planning for a final home for the brewery, we wanted to find a place that is meaningful to our town and state, and gives us an opportunity to create an incredible experience,” said Daniel Mercer, co-founder of COOP Ale Works. “The Armory, with its unique history, structure and space, is the perfect fit and we believe it will become a venue that attracts visitors from across the state, country and world.”
Under COOP’s proposal, the 87,000-plus-square-foot building will be purchased from the state for $600,000 and returned to its former glory with updates to the interior functionality. The exterior will be maintained to honor its unique history with modern refreshes, including updated windows, while the inside will be transformed into a bustling brewery production floor, full-service restaurant, 22-room boutique hotel, multiple event spaces, offices and meeting rooms.
In total, COOP plans to dedicate $20 million to the overall project.
A 60-barrel, state-of-the-art brewhouse on the first floor will be the heart of the operation. Fermentation, conditioning, packaging and other production equipment will occupy the remainder of the 22,000-square-foot drill hall floor. More than 30,000 square feet of perimeter space surrounding the production floor will house brewery storage, offices, barrel aging, cold storage, shipping, receiving and more.
On the second floor, the east wing will become an 8,000-square-foot restaurant and taproom, with indoor and patio seating for more than 160 patrons. The full-service restaurant will serve a diverse collection of food and beverages. On the third floor of the east wing, dedicated event spaces will be available for community and private events.
Sean Mossman is the director of sales and marketing for COOP Aleworks. The need for expansion for COOP started two years ago, just two years after moving into a second venue.
“We began to start looking for places that could house a much bigger operation for us,” Mossman said. “Among the things we really wanted along with space was to create a brewery Oklahoma City could be proud of. To accomplish that we needed to move back into the urban core which is in the process of being revitalized.”
“When we saw the Armory and it became available it was a real no-brainer. It checked every box.”
COOP Ale Works is a craft brewery based in Oklahoma City, dedicated to brewing full-flavored beers. Since 2009, COOP has created a core lineup of six year-round canned beers in addition to four seasonal canned beers.
A 22-room boutique hotel will tie the experience together. Hotel rooms will occupy the second and third floors of the west wing of the building with a refined lobby located on the west side of first floor to welcome guests.
The proposal also includes five acres surrounding the armory building as well as leases for two adjacent properties. The additional properties will provide substantial parking, opportunities for retail and downtown living, and green space.
A new building would have been easier but Mossman said COOP wanted to strengthen ties in OKC.
“We focused early on for something on the Register of Historic Places or just meant something to the community through time,” Mossman said.
The 23rd Street Armory, constructed in 1938, was designed by architect and Oklahoma Army National Guard Major Bryan Nolen and was built as part of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. At the time of its original construction, it was promoted as the only armory in Oklahoma funded entirely by state funds generated from oil wells located on the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds. The three-story building served as the state’s hub for the Oklahoma National Guard and the storied 45th Infantry Division.
“Our commitment to preserving the building is really important from our perspective as is doing honor to the 45th Infantry,” Mossman said. “We’ve gotten testimony from dozens of people who have went through that building and it means so much to them and they’re excited somebody is doing something with it that’s meaningful and it’s not being knocked down and forgotten.”
Mossman said COOP will invest $20 million into renovations with projected annual economic activity of $26 million to OKC.

“Honor Your Living Legend” designed to showcase seniors and impressive contributions to loved ones and communities

story and photos submitted

Home Care Assistance, Edmond/Oklahoma City’s premier provider of in-home care for seniors, is pleased to introduce a campaign that recognizes the lifetime accomplishments of seniors. Family members and friends submit stories and photographs, which are shared publicly on HonorYourLivingLegend.com and through Home Care Assistance’s social media pages. The goal of the campaign is to give people a platform to express their admiration for aging loved ones and in doing so, remind the community that older adults should be respected for their contributions.
With a mission to change the way the world ages, Home Care Assistance fosters a positive view of aging and honors each client’s lifetime legacy by providing compassionate and dignified care that enables older adults to maintain their independence at home.
“Honor Your Living Legend is our way to celebrate the legendary lives of our clients and seniors at large,” said Melissa Hill, Co-Owner of Home Care Assistance of Oklahoma. “Our mission is to change the way the world ages by promoting aging as a rich and meaningful stage of life, and this campaign is just one of the many ways we accomplish this. Older adults boast many years’ worth of accomplishments, relationships, experiences and memories. We seek to respect and honor them by shifting the focus away from their care needs and towards the legacies they’ve created.”
Candidates for Honor Your Living Legend are dynamic individuals who have given a lifetime of service and love to their communities and families. Living Legends can be publicly acclaimed or individuals who have influenced others’ lives in less high-profile ways such as a mother who taught her children to read or a well-known entrepreneur whose real passion was volunteering and helping those less privileged.
For more information about Honor Your Living Legend or to submit a story, please visit www.HonorYourLivingLegend.com.
Home Care Assistance is the leading provider of home care for seniors across the United States, Canada and Australia. Our mission is to change the way the world ages. We provide older adults with quality care that enables them to live happier, healthier lives at home. Our services are distinguished by the caliber of our caregivers, the responsiveness of our staff and our expertise in home care. We embrace a positive, balanced approach to aging centered on the evolving needs of older adults. For more information on Home Care Assistance of Oklahoma, visit www.homecareassistanceoklahoma.com.

Announcing the publication of ‘Fear, Religion, Politics; Well I’ll Be Darn’ by Dr. John E. Karlin, former professor of Sociology at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma City University and Phillips University, Enid, OK. Dr. Karlin spent over a year in research and writing this excellent work which is currently listed on amazon.com.
This book is non-fiction and written with three parts.
Part One: Entitled ‘The problem that won’t go away’, examines the relationship between the fear of death and religion. The problem that won’t go away is our own mortality and the consequences of our consciousness of it.
Part Two: Entitled ‘The dream’ examines the goal/objective that Jesus Christ’s life, words and actions indicate that he was trying to achieve during his own lifetime.
Part Three: Entitled ‘A dream gone awry’ examines the relationship between religion and politics today. That relationship has and continues to destroy any chance of that dream coming true.
All three themes are intertwined and explain the political atmosphere today.
For more details call: Dr. John Karlin at 405-598-6590.

Dear Savvy Senior, A good friend of mine got a bad case of shingles last year and has been urging me to get vaccinated. Should I? Suspicious Susan

Dear Susan,
Yes! If you’re 50 or older, there’s a new shingles vaccine on the market that’s far superior to the older vaccine, so now is a great time to get inoculated. Here’s what you should know.
Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is a burning, blistering, often excruciating skin rash that affects around 1 million Americans each year. The same virus that causes chickenpox causes shingles. What happens is the chickenpox virus that most people get as kids never leaves the body. It hides in the nerve cells near the spinal cord and, for some people, emerges later in the form of shingles.
In the U.S., almost one out of every three people will develop shingles during their lifetime. While anyone who’s had chickenpox can get shingles, it most commonly occurs in people over age 50, along with people who have weakened immune systems. But you can’t catch shingles from someone else.
Early signs of the disease include pain, itching or tingling before a blistering rash appears several days later, and can last up to four weeks. The rash typically occurs on one side of the body, often as a band of blisters that extends from the middle of your back around to the breastbone. It can also appear above an eye or on the side of the face or neck.
In addition to the rash, about 20 to 25 percent of those who get shingles go on to develop severe nerve pain (postherpetic neuralgia, or PHN) that can last for months or even years. And in rare cases, shingles can also cause strokes, encephalitis, spinal cord damage and vision loss.
New Shingles Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new vaccine for shingles called Shingrix (see Shingrix.com), which provides much better protection than the older vaccine, Zostavax.
Manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, Shingrix is 97 percent effective in preventing shingles in people 50 to 69 years old, and 91 percent effective in those 70 and older.
By comparison, Zostavax is 70 percent effective in your 50s; 64 percent effective in your 60s; 41 percent effective in your 70s; and 18 percent effective in your 80s.
Shingrix is also better that Zostavax in preventing nerve pain that continues after a shingles rash has cleared – about 90 percent effective versus 65 percent effective.
Because of this enhanced protection, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone age 50 and older, receive the Shingrix vaccine, which is given in two doses, two to six months apart.
Even if you’ve already had shingles, you still need these vaccinations because reoccurring cases are possible. The CDC also recommends that anyone previously vaccinated with Zostavax be revaccinated with Shingrix.
You should also know that Shingrix can cause some adverse side effects for some people, including muscle pain, fatigue, headache, fever and upset stomach.
Shingrix – which costs around $280 for both doses – is (or will soon be) covered by insurance including Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, but be aware that the shingles vaccines are not always well covered. So before getting vaccinated, call your plan to find out if it’s covered, and if so, which pharmacies and doctors in your area you should use to insure the best coverage.
Or, if you don’t have health insurance or you’re experiencing medical or financial hardship, you might qualify for GlaxoSmithKline’s Patient Assistance Program, which provides free vaccinations to those who are eligible. For details, go to GSKforyou.com.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

Miniaturized Heart Device Provides Patients with the Most Advanced Pacing Technology Available

INTEGRIS Heart Hospital is one of the first hospitals in Oklahoma to offer the world’s smallest pacemaker for patients with bradycardia. The Micra® Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS) is a new type of heart device, approved for Medicare reimbursement, that provides patients with the most advanced pacing technology at one-tenth the size of a traditional pacemaker.
The first procedure at INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center was performed by Terrance Khastgir, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist with INTEGRIS Heart Hospital, on Aug. 7, 2018.
Bradycardia is a condition characterized by a slow or irregular heart rhythm, usually fewer than 60 beats per minute. At this rate, the heart is unable to pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the body during normal activity or exercise, causing dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath or fainting spells. Pacemakers are the most common way to treat bradycardia to help restore the heart’s normal rhythm and relieve symptoms by sending electrical impulses to the heart to increase the heart rate.
Comparable in size to a large vitamin, physicians at INTEGRIS Heart Hospital have elected to use Medtronic’s Micra TPS because unlike traditional pacemakers, the device does not require cardiac wires (leads) or a surgical “pocket” under the skin to deliver a pacing therapy. Instead, the device is small enough to be delivered through a catheter and implanted directly into the heart with small tines, providing a safe alternative to conventional pacemakers without the complications associated with leads – all while being cosmetically invisible. The Micra TPS is also designed to automatically adjust pacing therapy based on a patient’s activity levels.
“This device will allow our patients to get the most advanced technology in pacing the heart for slow heart rate,” stated Khastgir.
The Micra TPS also incorporates a retrieval feature to enable retrieval of the device when possible; however, the device is designed to be left in the body. For patients who need more than one heart device, the miniaturized Micra TPS was designed with a unique feature that enables it to be permanently turned off so it can remain in the body and a new device can be implanted without risk of electrical interaction.
The Micra TPS is the first and only transcatheter pacing system to be approved for both 1.5 and 3 Tesla (T) full-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and is designed to allow patients to be followed by their physicians and send data remotely via the Medtronic CareLink® Network.
The Micra TPS was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April 2016, and has been granted Medicare reimbursement, allowing broad patient access to the novel pacing technology.

Lewis Perkins, RN, BSN, MSN, DNP is named Chief Nursing Officer for INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center and it’s affiliated entities.
Lewis is currently the System Vice President of Nursing at Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky where he has worked since 2011.
Lewis has an incredible career in nursing leadership with significant MAGNET experience, he serves on the APRN Practice Committee for the Kentucky Board of Nursing and brings a wealth of nursing leadership experiences and innovative ideas to the table.
Lewis will begin his duties at INTEGRIS on Oct. 1. He and his wife (also a nurse) have a son in college and a son in high school who will be re-locating to Oklahoma City at the end of the school year.

Last month, Sen. John McCain died from glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. The same disease took the life of Sen. Edward Kennedy.
But here in Oklahoma, Norman’s Mike Schuster continues to live with the disease. As he nears the three-year anniversary of his diagnosis with the deadly cancer, he’s already doubled the life expectancy for patients with glioblastoma.
Doctors can’t say why Schuster has lived where others have succumbed to the disease. But they believe it may be because of an experimental drug he received—one that was developed by scientists at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
For Schuster, the first clue that something was awry came in the fall of 2015, just past his 50th birthday. While at work, he passed out with no warning.
He was rushed to the hospital, where an MRI revealed a brain tumor the size of a kiwi just above his right eye. “I’d been healthy all my life,” Schuster said. “No medical issues at all. I just couldn’t believe that this was happening.”
Of the more than 120 types of brain and central nervous system tumors, Schuster’s type, known as a glioblastoma, is the most aggressive. The standard treatment regimen involves surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Still, the tumor almost always grows back.
With treatment, the median survival—which means half of patients live longer, and half die sooner—is 12 to 18 months. Only 1 in 20 glioblastoma patients will live five years.
In a procedure that lasted six hours, doctors removed as much of Schuster’s tumor as they could. When Schuster regained consciousness, his surgeon explained that he’d succeeded in excising most of the tumor. But, he said, like most glioblastomas, this one had “tentacles.” Tiny arms of the tumor had grown into surrounding brain tissue and could not be removed.
Schuster began follow-up radiation treatment at the Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma. Even though Schuster couldn’t feel the electromagnetic waves pulsing through his brain, “you could smell it,” he said. He also started chemotherapy, taking a pill called temozolomide. Together, the treatments were intended to kill the tumor cells that remained in the fissures of his brain.
“If you leave even a single cancer cell in the brain, it can regrow,” said Dr. James Battiste, the neuro-oncologist who oversees Mike’s care at Stephenson. “The brain is fertile soil for these tumors. That’s why chemo and other therapies are so important.”
Following radiation—doctors limited his treatment to six weeks for fear of triggering a secondary cancer—Schuster stayed on temozolomide. But just after the one-year anniversary of his diagnosis, an MRI revealed a new tumor.
A second surgery once again removed the primary tumor. This time, doctors kept Mike awake throughout the procedure to ensure they didn’t damage crucial areas of his brain. Still, many glioblastoma tentacles had escaped surgeons’ reach, remaining lodged in Schuster’s brain.
Schuster knew those tentacles were, in essence, seeds that could sprout another full-blown tumor in a matter of weeks. He told Battiste he was willing to try anything to beat back the glioblastoma. He’d read about clinical trials of experimental medications. Was there one that might help him?
Battiste, in fact, was testing a new drug that, he said, “just seemed suited for Mike.” It was an investigational medication for glioblastoma that had been born just down the block from Stephenson, in the labs of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
Known as OKN-007, the experimental medication was discovered by OMRF scientists Drs. Rheal Towner and Robert Floyd. In pre-clinical glioblastoma experiments, the compound dramatically decreased cell proliferation (spread) and angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels), and it turned on the process of removing damaged cells so they can’t become cancerous.
“Those are the three major factors needed in a cancer drug,” Towner said. “This compound seemed to do all of them.”
Oblato, Inc., a New Jersey subsidiary of Korean biotechnology company GTreeBNT, has acquired the rights to OKN-007 from OMRF. It will move ahead with further trials of the drug in glioblastoma.
At Stephenson, Battiste has been cautiously optimistic about the performance of OKN-007 in Schuster and his other patients. “We’ve gone to the highest dosage levels the FDA would allow, and we haven’t seen any negative effects from the drug.” Although evaluating the medication’s effectiveness at stopping the regrowth of tumors is not a primary focus of the early phases of the trial, “it’s helpful to see things looking good” on this front, too, he said.
In August, Schuster celebrated his 53rd birthday. When he sees other patients with brain tumors, he said, they appear thin and frail. He, on the other hand, has added 15 pounds since beginning OKN-007 infusions. “I’ve had no side effects at all,” he said. “I’ve also been able to get back to the gym and am doing some yard work. I feel really good.”
He continues to travel to Oklahoma City each week for infusion treatments with OKN-007. “I really appreciate all of the support we’ve received from Stephenson and from people at OMRF,” he said.
While fighting glioblastoma has brought numerous challenges, Schuster said the experience has also revealed silver linings. “My friends and family and their prayers for me have turned into blessings.”
Of course, neither Schuster nor his doctors can know for sure if the drug is responsible for keeping his cancer at bay. Nor can they say if, or when, the disease might recur. “I can’t worry about stuff,” Schuster said, “that’s out of my control.”
Still, he feels certain he made the right decision when he opted to participate in the clinical trial. “Let’s just say I’ve been very blessed. It’s pretty cool how this stuff is working.”

by Kaylee Snow

HOLLIS – It only took 21 years for Jane Testerman to land her dream job.
She only wishes it could have happened sooner.
Testerman, who now helps her husband Charlie full time with his three businesses – Testerman Farms, Circle T Trucking, and Testerman and Son Harvesting – says her lengthy career in teaching was only holding her back.
While she spent her days impacting children at school, she was running herself in circles between keeping farm records and working at school.
Testerman was anxious to be outside if it was a nice day. She loved being outdoors.
Testerman’s husband is a fourth-generation custom harvester of wheat and corn. With a partnership between him and his father Doug, Testerman Farms consists of about 2,000 acres of cotton and 3,000 acres of wheat. Additionally, the Testermans have a small herd of cattle and the trucking business, where they haul grain, fertilizer and cotton modules.
Testerman recalls the challenges she faced trying to juggle teaching and agriculture.
“They’d start cutting wheat in May before school was ever out,” she said, “but I was ready to go with them.”
With her husband often gone on harvest, she kept things afloat back home, managing paperwork and directing trucks. The record keeping kept her busy.
“Plus then we had our livestock in the barn, our show stock,” she said.
The Testermans’ three daughters, Blair, 25, Mylah, 20, and Hadie, 14, who are “quite the characters,” all exhibited sheep and pigs, but cattle was their main focus.
“When we got a little more involved in the stock shows, I had to take off work to go, and so that was hard for me,” Testerman said.
A Farming Family
The Testerman daughters have been farming since they were babies, literally.
“Blair had been around the harvesting since she was a little over a year old,” Testerman said. “Mylah was about 9 months old when we started harvesting, and Hadie was a week. I had her, and a week later we left on wheat harvest.”
Rhonda Ellison, who has known Testerman for many years through Harmon County OSU Extension, said, “Jane was expecting their second child during one harvest season, but it didn’t slow her down. As each of their three daughters came along they were each taught the value of hard work, following in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents.”
Testerman says the reason she loves agriculture is because of the next generation.
Since the girls have traveled and have grown up around the hired help, they have learned valuable life skills. Testerman is convinced agriculture was the best place for her children.
“They lay down at night and they say their prayers, and they’ll be praying for the hired hands, listing their names off,” she said. “So we taught them a lot of right from wrong by working on the farm and being around the hired help.”
All the girls can run the equipment – combines, tractors and grain carts.
“I mean it’s definitely a family business,” Testerman said.
The girls often get frustrated with boyfriends who do not understand farming.
Testerman will tease the girls, asking, “Why get a boyfriend if you know more than the boy does?”
She knows without a doubt her kids know how to work because of their experiences with agriculture. It has exposed her children to outstanding people as well.
“Agriculture – whether it’s farming, harvesting or livestock showing – all of that puts the kids around good people that are hardworking,” she said.
Her kids understand the need to pray for rain – to keep livestock alive.
“Everybody prays for rain, and it’s not just so our yard will grow,” Testerman said. “They all know where it comes from and that it takes hard work to get those things.”
“We’ve been to every swimming pool from here to Colorado,” she laughed, “and I cook during harvest. Sometimes I’d run a tractor grain cart, and then it got to where we had so many hired hands you can’t afford to eat out all the time, or somebody would have to get off equipment and run to town to get food.”
Life After Teaching
On top of keeping records and directing trucks, Testerman now keeps all computer software up-to-date for accounting purposes for all three businesses. As technology has advanced, she now enters the amount of fertilizer and water used by each sprayer into a computer system. She picks up parts and runs the hired hands around – who say they would rather have Charlie in charge because Jane works them too hard.
“Since I quit teaching, my role has quadrupled,” Testerman said, who describes herself as farm hand and secretary.
She is busier now than she was when she was teaching.
“I learned early on that learning all of those things was not necessarily a good thing,” Testerman laughed, because the more she learned, the more she was put to work.
Because the Testermans have “lots of different irons in the fire,” they have had to cut back.
“We’ve gotten more involved in local farming and trying to stay home more,” she said. “We figured out it was harder to travel so much doing custom harvesting and then tend to your own farming at home.”
Currently, the Testermans still custom harvest 10,000 to 12,000 acres, all within a 60-mile radius of home and the Texas Panhandle. This past year, the crops overlapped.
“We were still picking corn in Texas, picking our cotton here, and hauling the cotton modules,” she said. “So we were spread very thin.”
With 2017’s cotton harvest being the largest since 1933, Testerman said it feels like “the longest cotton harvest ever.”
“We haul cotton round bales for three or four different gins locally,” she said. “We start that in October, and that usually ends in February. We’ve had a couple of years that it ended in March, but this year it lasted until the end of April.”
Memories
Testerman’s earliest memories of agriculture come from two places: her dad and 4-H. Her dad, Larry Odom, was the district conservationist for the Harmon County Natural Resources Conservation Service from 1972 to 2008. She exhibited sheep through 4-H, which is where she first fell in love with agriculture.
Now her kids have shown livestock for 16 years, and by the time her youngest graduates, she will have attended 20 Oklahoma Youth Expos.
She laughed and said, “I expect a plaque.”
Some of her fondest memories include her daughters’ stock show success. Blair had two breed champions with her steers.
“In 2013, Mylah won the youth expo with a steer, all her sheep made the sale, and she had the third Chester in the sale,” she said. “In 2018, Hadie exhibited the bronze medallion steer.”
FFA and 4-H are very important to the Testermans, who are currently working with the superintendent to build a multi-purpose facility. Martin Lewis, Doug’s first cousin, passed away this past year and left money to be donated to a good cause, which involved youth and/or animals. The Testermans chose to use that money for the facility, and this enabled the school to start building.
“The school can use it for their activities,” Testerman said. “The community will be able to use it, and then it will be for livestock shows. That way they can host some jackpot shows if they want.”
She also organizes the Keaton Owens Memorial Scholarship in honor of her nephew. She gathers funds each year, which are then awarded to FFA and 4-H students to help fund next year’s show project.
“Agriculture has kind of consumed our household and everything that we do,” she said.
Like all farmers, the Testermans face challenges every day, from drought and erosion to the rising costs of equipment and chemicals.
“The people that think farmers just set their own hours and throw a little fertilizer and water down and the crop grows, it’s not like that at all,” she said. “It’s a lot of hard work. There’s a lot of prayer in farming. Please let it rain. Please don’t let it hail. It seems like I probably count on the Lord above in farming more than any other thing I’ve been involved in … You’re not just doing it for yourself. You’re counting on it for other people.”

Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn t4z@aol.com

A road trip guarantees a real senior travel adventure. A week’s driving through the glacier formed Finger Lakes of West Central New York State, is barely enough time to explore this sampling of Americana.
Flying in and out of Rochester gives you the opportunity to tour the Eastman House (www.eastmanhouse.org) with its photography research center, and the unique Strong National Museum of Play (www.strongmuseum.org).
On your way to your overnight in Canandaigua you’ll see the Erie Canal with a quick stop in Pittsford, and see how the canal is adapted today to leisure activities. Also on the way in Mumford is the Genesse Country Village and Museum (www.gcv.org).
And what would a road trip be without getting slightly lost, or thinking you are lost? A correctly programmed GPS system in your car will become invaluable and a real comfort while traveling the many back roads of the expansive Finger Lakes. This was my first time with a talking map, and after we came to an “understanding” the device was an asset to the road trip adventure. Continuing on you may want to drive the twisting wooded roads of Letchworth State Park, which is listed as the grand canyon of the east, and does have some surprisingly nice scenic turnouts.
Over night at the comfortable Bristol Harbor Resort in Canandaigua is highly recommended and a brief home base for touring the Canandaigua Lake area. The town itself has quaint architecture and a stop off at the finger lakes visitor bureau at 25 Gorham street, can be helpful for last minute directions and touring advice. The office encourages visitors to contact them for information on the area and what sights a first time visitor might like to see. It was invaluable to me, as I picked from their extensive catalog the areas I found interesting and they were able to offer a suggested itinerary.
Jump in your car and drove south on Rt 21 towards Naples. Let your intuition choose which of the road side offerings to sample gifts, wines and foods. There are so many it would be hard to see them all but I enjoyed the small but packed Monica’s pies (www.monicapies.com). A most original and indigenous treat are the grape pies, a sweet treat with a homemade goodness, which has won many awards.
Grapes in New York state of course are made into wines and the Imagine Moore Winery (www.imaginemoorewinery.com) has a congenial wine tasting house right next to a vineyard. I found their wine good enough to buy and take home. Other notable wineries in the neck of the Finger Lakes is Arbor Hill Grapery (www.thegrapery.com) and the Widmer Wine Cellars (www.widmerwine.com).
Being an art glass collector I was tempted to purchase at the local artist gallery, Artisan’s – Gifts from the Finger Lakes, (www.artzanns.com) with their well priced local art, including paintings, pottery and a few pieces of art glass.
Back to Canandaigu’s New York Wine and culinary Center (www.nywcc.com) where I was privileged to sit in on an evening Wine and Pasta pairing demonstration. My dinner in Tuscany exhibition with Chef Lorenzo Boni gave me a new appreciation of Barilla Pasta and their sauces. Now I relive a little bit of my Finger Lakes experience every time I go to my local supermarket.
Be sure and take time to relax by strolling Canandaigua’s lake shore drive and city pier with its historic boat houses. Also be aware that the Ontario county courthouse is where Susan B. Anthony was convicted and fined one hundred dollars for voting.
Another famous Finger Lakes town is Watkins Glenn, know for its race track, where it is possible with an appointment for you to drive your own car around the track. I chose to take a relaxing (and can be romantic) evening boat ride on Captain Bill’s Seneca lake dinner Cruise (www.senecaharborstation.com). An over night at the Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel (www.watkinsglenharborhotel.com) is a convenient and luxurious oasis with gorgeous views of lake Seneca.
Allow plenty of time if you wish to venture into the Watkins Glenn State Park, where waterfalls and nature combine. My time was brief as I was off to Hammonsport to be introduced to the Glenn Curtis’s Museum centering on aviation, motorcycles and other firsts. The firsts continue with a tour of the Pleasant Valley Wine company established in 1867. Forty-Five minute guided tours are offered to explain the complicated process of wine, sherry and champagne making in their expansive facility.
Next month Part Two of Touring the Finger Lakes of New York.

Mr. Terry Zinn – Travel Editor
Past President: International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association
http://realtraveladventures.com/author/zin