There's Always Room for....

We're heading out to the wide open West again after four years, but the journey is as important as the destination.....

Jell-O Museum - Le Roy, NY

I always say this country has so many little hidden gems that you only find when travelling by RV or other ground-level means.  On our first night, we stayed in Le Roy NY, a spot we chose only because it was located at the approximate distance from home that we wanted to travel that first day.   

Well, it turns out that Le Roy is the home of Jell-O  -- yes, that favorite of potluck dinner fruit molds, frat party Jell-O shots, and patients preparing for colonoscopies.  The dessert was invented in Le Roy in 1897 by a carpenter named Pearle Wait (his wife came up with the "Jell-O" name).   The town’s wealth, as evidenced from the many well-kept Victorian homes on Main Street, is all based on the Jell-O factories that prospered there until being sold to Kraft in 1964.  Now a bedroom community to Rochester, Le Roy still has a museum dedicated to Jell-O, with a brick walkway that includes a tribute from Bill Cosby; even the local MacDonald’s features vintage Jell-O advertisements.

Brick walkway at the Jell-O Museum

As the poster says, "Even if you can't cook you can make a Jell-O dessert!"   YUM....

Another little-known fact about Le Roy is that the campground at which we spent the night (Frost Ridge Recreation Area) was once a ski area that claims to be where U.S. World Cup skier A.J. Kitt learned to ski in the 1970’s.