L Lydelle: Around the Burg

10.23.2009

Around the Burg

Who ever thought that getting lost in the Finger Lakes could be so much fun?

All my thanks goes out to T-burg Mini Golf for being so much more than just a well kept miniature golf destination (which it is, I might add.) As the season for golfing is just beginning, those ingenious entrepreneurs have already devised a plan and begun planting. Those plantings sit in the background, (on the other side of a hedge, actually) and unfold slowly throughout the summer months. When the weather for golfing is a thing of the past, that inconspicuous field suddenly becomes the main attraction. And what an attraction! A map of the Finger Lakes etched right into a 10 acre landscape of corn is really quite amazing, if you ask me.

Successful explorers enter the maze at the bottom of the "S" in Finger Lakes, journey through all eleven Finger Lakes, learn a little bit about each lake on the way, find their way through a race car, a hot air balloon, a bunch of grapes, and a wine bottle, and exit at "Stewart Park" in Ithaca. There are checkpoints throughout the maze (eleven of them). At each checkpoint, you get information which helps you to correctly answer eleven questions about the Finger Lakes. If you answer all correctly, your name is entered into a drawing. The Grand Prize? An aerial trip for two over the maze and surrounding area (The Burg)! Sweet, huh?

You can make your way through this maze during any day of your choice, but if you wait for Friday or Saturday evenings, you can experience the wonder of this brilliant piece of work with a flashlight. If you wait for the flashlight experience Friday, October 3oth, the maze will be haunted! That's not really my thing, but I thought I'd put it out there.

PTB and I chose the flashlight experience. And it really was an experience. We were given the map all folded up and encouraged not to use it. We didn't use it (though at one point it was really tempting) and somehow made it out before closing time, but after we got back to home base, we opened our folded paper and just shook our heads in amazement --that we even made it out before the following morning. The opportunities to get lost are plenty. Read: 3 miles of paths! Therefore, if you plan on taking me up on this, allow for an hour. Our time: 45 minutes. But we were really lucky. And we ran through some of it. Yes, ran with our flashlight.