I Made It To New York!!!! Finally.

I'm on my way to Buffalo but it is a four hour drive so I decided to stop and rest up half way there. Turns out I've been at Lake Erie State Park in New York for three days now. I have a spot on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie and it is very peaceful. Turns out there is a Sunset Happy Hour where my neighbors and I gather on the bluff and since we are facing west, see some pretty beautiful sunsets.

One of our sunset viewers, my cute little neighbor

A bunch of sunsets cause I couldn't make up my mind:

Again, a lovely park, the only issue is that my cell phone is a little iffy. Sometimes I have three bars and other times there is absolutely no service. It will turn on you in a flash. Since I use my cell phone for keeping in contact and also for internet, it has been sort of frustrating and when I realize how dependent I've become on the technology, almost makes me want to cut myself off more. Key word: Almost.

By accident, I found I was about 40 minutes away from Jamestown, NY. So, you say? Well, it just happens to be the birthplace of the one and only Lucille Ball AND there is a DesiLu museum. I'm on my way, Lucy.

The museum is actually two different buildings. The first building is all about Lucy and Desi, from birth until they passed. Lucy was one beautiful woman. Before she hit it big, she was a model and a Chesterfield Cigarette Girl. There was a lot of reading (which I like) which gives you a basic understanding of both Lucy and Desi, how they got to the height of their fame and what they did. There were also a lot of personal items, outfits that they wore, family mementos.

Did you know Desi came from an extremely wealthy family in Cuba but they lost everything when Baptista came into power. They immigrated to Miami. He actually was a band leader, I thought that was just something they put in the I Love Lucy shows. Desi is responsible for changing the way sitcoms are taped. He is the first one who had a studio audience come in while they recorded the I Love Lucy show. They had three cameras rolling at once and then edited it later for nationwide broadcasting.

The second building was more about the show. They had full scale replicas of the apartment that Lucy and Rickie lived in. On monitors, they were showing clips of the show and you could see how it worked on the set. Very interesting.

Fun Fact: Vivian Vance, who was the older woman who played Ethel was only two years older than Lucy. That amazed me.

I had heard about how Jamestown had honored Lucy by creating a memorial park in her honor. In this park, they had a bronze statue of Lucy which is one of the ugliest, scariest statues I've ever seen. When I asked at the museum where ugly Lucy was, the receptionist knew exactly what I was talking about. Evidently they have a new statue ready to be put in place, but it was currently in New Jersey and they were waiting for it to arrive. For your viewing pleasure, I present: Ugly Lucy.

I can't leave you with that thought - here is beautiful Lucy

Picture from the web