Inherent hazards associated with fireworks ... in New York (79FR22919)

TJ had a CB Canandaigua Lake Ale during his celebratory dinner the night before at MacGregor's, so it was only appropriate that we stopped at CB Craft Brewers the next day as we transferred our tent to a new state park (our site in Letchworth was booked for the rest of the holiday weekend). Unfortunately, the brewery was closed for Independence Day (left). Down the road, we found a similarly inviting -- and colored -- structure in Honeoye Falls, but the only thing flowing there was the waterfall next to the former mill (right).

So we headed on east to, also appropriately, Canandaigua Lake (left). At Kershaw Park south of Canandaigua, patriotic partiers were already gathering en masse by land and by sea for that night's fireworks display. Despite the lovely view, we stopped only long enough to lunch on our leftovers from the previous night's dinner (right).

 

We continued our lake and lager hopping by discovering actual hops at Abandon Brewing Company (top left). The farmhouse brewery south of Penn Yan offered a rustic tasting room inside a barn (top right). Outside on the barn deck, TJ and I drank in four tasters -- including four-ouncers containing unique brews of Peppercorn Saison and Black Currant Amber Ale -- as well as wonderful views of Keuka Lake (bottom left). At the south end of the lake, the shore at Hammondsport was thinning out of spectators (bottom right). Either there were no fireworks on tap, or they needed a nap before the show.

We experienced some unexpected explosions during our first night camping at Cayuga Lake State Park. After picking up victuals at the one open grocery store between Geneva and Waterloo, the town that started Memorial Day, we settled in to cook brats on the campfire and keep our dog from freaking out over fireworks. Sage's anxiety was already heightened by a loud (and larger than campground regulations allow, in my opinion) group that thought freedom was best expressed through Southeast Asian pop songs and Modern Talking's greatest hits.

Please, don't confuse the German duo with British band Modern English, which sang "I Melt With You"; that hit song actually would've been more fitting when someone in the group decided to set off fireworks. The embers through the trees, decidedly bigger than bottle rockets and decidedly illegal in New York, sparked a conflagration with nearby campers already fed up with the group's noise. After a heated discussion, the group stopped shooting off flammables, but the shouting continued.

After quiet hours set in, a barely pubescent park employee threatened to evict the group if they couldn't keep it down. In an effort to expedite his efforts, the confrontational campers snitched about the dangerous incandescents. The doers denied, denied, denied, and without proof, the poor guy was left with his hands tied. So much to many people's chagrin (and mine as well, to be honest), the group was allowed to stay the rest of the night; fortunately, there were no more flare-ups, literally or figuratively. The next morning, the group's soundtrack started up again before 9 a.m., so we scrammed as soon as possible. We took Sage for a peaceful walk by the park's lodge (left), which has been converted to a bath house for the adjacent swimming area in Cayuga Lake (right).