This morning's breakfast with houseguest Bryan included leftover spaghetti and meatballs and Delmonico steak from last night's Manos dinner, alongside fresh scrambled eggs made with sauteed shallot, cream cheese, and ground black pepper. Also brewed a pot of Tim Horton's. Bryan is an appreciative guest; he raved about the strong coffee and the delicious eggs. I think he called them "spectacular."The drive to and from the Binghamton airport was easy, if way too early for my tastes. It's in a valley north of Binghamton, and the "direct" way is to take exit 71 off Route 17, but of course that doesn't work from Ithaca. Their suggested directions from Ithaca involve taking 96 or 96B south to 17 east, but that only makes sense if you start out downtown or thereabouts, and even then I'm not so sure. Owego during "rush hour" might be even more of a pain than usual.
I instead took the route that both Google Maps and my GPS agreed on, which was 79 east, and a right turn on 21 to go past Berzerkshire. (Hi, ladies!) It was a beautiful drive, a hair under 45 minutes each way, and I definitely wouldn't want to do it in a foot of snow. I'd take the highway routes, which would probably make it a little over an hour, but better roads.
The airport itself is probably a hair bigger than Ithaca's, with flights on US Airways, Northwest, United, and Delta, to Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and DC. Knowing how close it is, I'd certainly consider using that as an alternative to the loathsome Hancock International Airport in Syracuse, if for some reason I couldn't get a decent itinerary out of Ithaca. (Having the additional destination cities as bouncing points should help.)
