“Tis the week before Christmas and all through the town, not a darn thing is moving,” Bit said with a frown.
It’s cars, vans, and snowflakes. It’s all you can see, along this stretch of road.
The road is much bigger, of course, than I can see at the moment. Called by the locals, either Ridge Road, or 104, it is one of the longest roads in the state. Well, at least it was before Eisenhower, the interstate system and specifically, I-90 came though. It runs from the Canadian Border at Lewiston, it runs out about 200 miles or so…as far as SR 13, in a place where there’s no towns at all; a rather obscure end.
I’ve traveled this big road end to end, exactly twice in my nearly half a century on this planet. Doing so gives you quite a variety of sights to see… the areas 104 runs through are quite vaired, and are in fact a bit of a microcosm of life in this area called western New York.
It’s true; there’s hardly a county in the country that does not have a ‘Ridge Road”. Usually, it’s not nearly as big a fixture in the community as this is, here. “The Ridge” gets it’s name from being where the southern shore of Lake Ontario used to be, millions of years ago, and is both a landmark and a weather demarcation line. Often, when running in north-south roads… say, Interstate 390, for example, it will suddenly start snowing once you get north of the Ridge. It’s rather like turning on a switch. Apparently, the uphill swing as you move south of The Ridge tends to provide some level of added resistance to storms coming up off the lake. Often people living between Ridge Road and Lake Ontario, will get many inches of snow, when the people south of it often by only a few blocks, will get little more than a dusting. This is particularly true from Rocehster west of Lewiston where the grades are somewhat more pronounced.
Most of 104 is so far out in the country,…. (For New York State) that one needs to drive for a half hour to find a gas station in some spots, and nearly two hours to find a burger joint. But that’s not the situation today; I’m sitting in traffic along “The West Ridge” in the western end of Rochester, in a town called Greece, where I grew up. Along here are shops, and stores plazas and a good sized mall… about a zillion snowflakes, and nearly as many cars, on this week before Christmas.
It’s actually dark out just now, given it’s a little past 4:30 in the afternoon. I’m on my way home from shopping… which I’m about half done with. I’ll be going by way of one of the more popular spots around these parts, just prior to Christmas.
It’s a little out of the way street. Just your average suburban street… well, streets, actually. There’s blocks of it. I’m going to run over there and grab a few shots. See, I’m worried, that the whole thing is going away some year, soon.THe traffic on this little CuldeSac is outright nuts as a result of the size and quality of the Christmas displays. You can see the traffic here. 
I’ve parked Bit’sBox, and have started walking. That’s the box in the left of this pic. The traffic is all inbound. You see what I mean about the intensity of the traffic. Eventually, some stick in the mud will take the rest to court, and they’ll all have to tone it down. I want to grab some pictures before it disappears.
The level of illumination is crazy. These shots were taken at the Day setting on the camera. Here’s the one that started it all; They’ve been doing their displays now for nearly 30 years, and the rest of the neighborhood just piced up on the theme… it’s become a good natured competition.
Perhaps more good natured than most such; As you drive though you notice that a goodly number of the displays run across property lines and indeed are hung from house to house.
We’ve been considering making a trip to nearnby Syracuse to catch a light show of this kind in Onandago lake park. But I can’t imagine the experience being quite as unique as this one. And this one’s free, too.
I’m not sure there’s much of a point here, as far as this column goes.
But perhaps with this subject, it’s not really needed.
Tags: BitsBlog
