Most people now call it I-86, but I still call it the “Southern Tier Expressway.” That expresses what it truly is.

On an overcast day last fall, my wife and I were returning from the Syracuse area where one of our kids lives. It is quicker to take the Thruway to get home, but I always opt for the back roads and the expressway that threads through the hills of the Southern Tier.

As we came up the big hill heading west from Bath, the clouds were almost touching the ground as we came to the summit of the pass at Howard. When we drove by Hornell, I said to my wife, “I think we will be in the clouds when we go over the Alfred-Almond Pass” – and at over 2,000 ft. above sea level we were.

It was a dramatic day to drive the Southern Tier Expressway. From Steuben County to home, the clouds hung like a draped cloth over the hills as the road wound its way west.

As we drove past the last sharp, almost-a-mountain hill, that juts up from the valley floor near Steamburg, I mentioned to her again about how the clouds were obscuring its top. I call this place “Mount Parment” after a friend who had the idea years ago that it would be wonderful place to build a magnificent Monticello-type home overlooking the valley floor and the expressway down below.

Then, as we neared home rounding the bend right behind the Cheney farm and the Chautauqua Lake overlook service area, we again touched the bottom of the overcast. We came out of the cloud, slowed down and crossed the now two-lane Chautauqua Lake bridge from Bemus to Stow and were home.

It was one of those miraculous, cloud-filled days on the Southern Tier Expressway.

There are old, pre-expressway memories, now only remembered by a few. When I was in college, there was no expressway. It took about 2 hours to drive to Houghton, N.Y. Now, with the expressway, you can reach Route 19 near Belfast in a little over an hour. Houghton is just up the Genesee Valley from there.

Charlie Henderson, a former Assemblyman from Steuben County, told me once that he was responsible for the northern loop that the expressway now takes going through Hornell, instead of following the route of old Rt. 17 through Wellsville.

I don’t know if that is true, but I always thank Charlie (now deceased) when I climb those magnificent passes at Alfred/Almond and Howard which takes the Southern Tier Expressway past his old hometown. The views there are incredible no matter what the weather is.

There are a myriad of stories of how the Southern Tier Expressway was built. Most “tip their hat” to Senator Robert Kennedy who made sure that the 13 counties of the Southern Tier of New York were included when the Appalachian Regional Commission was formed. That federal agency became the source of much of the funding for the highway’s construction.

All of that, of course, is now ancient history. The highway is there. It transits one of the most varied landscapes on the Interstate Highway System, and those of us who live along it never get tired of the beautiful drive!

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.