Erie to Buffalo

It was hard not to stop to see the vacuum museum, or the world's largest rocking chair. Or to stay until next weekend for the Mennonite quilt show. But I had a destination, I was driving to the sea. I thought I'd found it once, but it turned out to be Lake Erie.

I was guided by google maps and old neon signs. One of my greatest guides was Road Food. My friend Sarah and I discovered the Road Food book almost twenty years ago, when we first drove across the country. They have a website now.

It's a great way to try local cuisine and get away from the corporate chains that line the highway. There are some incredible old gems, especially Parkside Candy, an ice cream parlor built in 1927, in Buffalo, New York. It looked like not one thing had changed at Parkside since 1927. The paint was peeling, the booths were worn, and the little plastic letters listing ice cream flavors had yellowed. It was a magical place in pink and pale green. I felt like I walked into a vintage photo, a grown up granddaughter, pulled by the hand of her young grandmother into a memory. The clattering of high heels, the rustle of shopping bags, the smell of waxy lipstick and set hair.