It’s Day 294 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I drove for almost an hour and a half to get from the Vintage Drive In Theatre, just east of Avon NY to the Transit Drive In south of Lockport NY.

Rick Cohen is a national treasure. I just want to say that right up front. The owner of the Transit is a huge fan of all drive-ins and backs that love with hard work and community outreach to benefit the whole drive-in universe.

But first, let me touch on the origins of the Transit, which opened on August 1, 1952, built by a group of Buffalo businessmen: Anthony Ragusa, George Tater, Louis Battaglia, and John Battaglia. The group also operated the Lockport Drive-In, which had opened in 1946 in neighboring Gasport. In 1957, Irving and Mary Cohen bought the Transit, and it’s been in their family ever since.

According to the Transit’s excellent History page, Irving and Mary’s older son, Gary, managed the Transit from 1957 to 1963. Macy, their younger son, managed the theater from 1963 to 1986, increasing the parking capacity from 600 to 990 cars by 1973, introducing in-car heaters and a 12 month schedule from 1972 until 1977. Rick, who is Macy’s youngest son, recalled those years in an article in The Daily Beast, “Man, we packed them in there in the middle of the winter, 10 degrees out, to see adult movies.”

The History page continues, “In 1987, Rick began managing the Transit, and immediately began a more aggressive, dedicated approach to the business.” Rick converted the drive-in to FM stereo sound, installed a platter film system, and rebuilt the original 1950’s neon marquee. An even nicer marquee was installed in 2014 after someone crashed into the old one.

The Transit installed a second screen in 1994, a third in 1996, and a fourth in 2001. Most recently in 2016, they added a fifth screen mainly to avoid turning away customers during popular movie weekends.

But Rick Cohen doesn’t just improve his own drive-in, he reaches out to help others. In 2010, he held a fundraiser to replace the burned-down screens of the Admiral Twin in Tulsa OK. In 2015, he walked back from Florida to raise money for a digital projector for the Auto Vue in Sidney OH. His motto on that History page is “What (the world) really needs are more dedicated, loyal drive-in theater managers.” And I would say, like him.

The YouTube video of the day comes from WIVB, Buffalo’s News Leader. I’d also recommend checking a little promo video from 2011 featuring an uncredited rooftop cameo by Carload’s friend, drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs.

With those five screens available, I had a lot of choices, so I picked a movie I hadn’t seen but which didn’t have a hint of terror in it. Unless you’re scared of ponies.

Miles Today / Total: 60 / 33505 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: My Little Pony: The Movie / 182

Nearby Restaurant: I found another diner! Tom’s Diner has the black and white checkerboard tile floor, though not enough red vinyl furniture for the full effect. On the other hand, there is a jukebox, and that more than makes up for it. For lunch, an open-faced roast beef sandwich seemed very appropriate for its surroundings.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Oh yeah, there’s a Hampton Inn in Lockport. Sometimes it’s nice to sample those different mom and pop motels, and sometimes it’s nice to stay somewhere that feels familiar even when you’ve never been there before. My room had all the modern amenities and USB charging ports. Breakfast was the fine Hampton standard. This place is the hotel equivalent of comfort food.

Only in Lockport: Way back in April, I told you about an underground boat ride in a former mine in Missouri. Here, the Lockport Cave has that beat with “America’s longest underground boat ride” through the water tunnels under Lockport. “The tunnel was the invention of Birdsill Holly, a mechanical genius, whose inventions were manufactured using Erie Canal water power provided by this tunnel.”

Next stop: Sunset Drive-In, Middleport NY.

It’s Day 293 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took about 80 minutes to drive the 60 miles from Delevan Twin Drive In in Delevan NY (of course) to the Vintage Drive In Theatre, just east of Avon NY.

In the Summer 2002 issue of Life in the Finger Lakes magazine, it said, “In the 1960s, a harness racing track …, the East Avon Downs, was located just north of Route 5 and 20. In the 1970s it was converted into a successful flea market.” (Historic Aerials shows farmland on that site in 1951, and a simple oval with no grandstand in 1971, so I’ll take that with a grain of salt. Maybe it was a practice oval for the 180-year-old Avon Springs Downs three miles west. But I digress.) Paul Dean bought the site in the early 1990s, and in 1997 he did the reverse of so many places – he added a drive-in to an existing flea market.

The Vintage opened in June 1997, the work of Dean and David Philips. In an article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Philips dismissed the idea that building the drive-in was an unlikely gamble. “Everywhere else drive-ins are opening, not closing, and I had the property so I took the opportunity,” he said. On Opening Day, it had one screen up and a second under construction.

The Baltimore Sun wrote the next year that the Vintage had been the first new drive-in built in the northeast in at least 10 years. Business was so strong that Dean planned to build a third screen for Year 3. “This is the future,” he said. “I’ve had business advisors say, ‘You’re crazy. It takes up too much property.’ But it’s a classic case of what is old is new again. People want cheap, wholesome, outdoor family entertainment. I’m going to make money with this.”

I guess he was right. A decade later in 2008, Dean told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that “his original investment in equipment was in the mid-six-figure range, and that his investment has been a good one.” And during the 2009-2010 offseason, the fourth screen went up.

The Vintage uses flat parking lots, smaller screens set fairly close to the ground, and FM radio sound. The layout is probably unique, with three screens in a row along the south (from east to west: a projector, a double-sided screen, a two-way projector, and the most recently built screen) and one screen and projector along a parallel path to the north. The concession stand has a 50s diner theme, a row of arcade games, and a mini-golf course right behind it.

On this night, the Vintage continued its yearly Fright Village promotion where half of its grounds are transformed into a haunted housing block. The scary public domain movie Night of the Living Dead is included with admission to the village, and that sounded like a better show than the new stuff on the other two screens. On a reasonably warm night for late October, it was a real treat.

Miles Today / Total: 60 / 33445 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Night of the Living Dead / 181

Nearby Restaurant: It’s almost too small (nine locations) to be a regional chain, which is surprising considering the burger quality at Tom Wahl’s, home of the Wahlburger. I love a good malted milkshake, and it’s rare to find one as good as they make it here. The signature burger comes with Swiss cheese, another of my favorite combinations. It was just what I wanted, at fast food prices.

Where I Virtually Stayed: If you’re going to stay in Avon, you’re going to want to stay at the Cedarwood Travel Lodge, another one of those little motels that happens to be nice. My comfortable, wood-paneled room had a mini-fridge, which is always nice. And best of all, I didn’t have to drive far away after a scary night at the drive-in.

Only in Avon: Less than a half mile south of the Vintage, where Rochester Road intersects Routes 5 and 20, there’s a statue of a white horse. According to the blog Stagecoach Days, that’s all that’s left of the White Horse Tavern, “one of the most noted of the hostelries of the stagecoach era that survived well into the 20th century”. It was built in 1812 and “was an important early stagecoach stop”. In 1930, its owner added this statue. After the tavern burned down in 1955, the statue was left to mark its location.

Next stop: Transit Drive In, Lockport NY.

It’s Day 292 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. An hour’s worth of twisty state highways brought me from Portville NY to the Delevan Twin Drive In in Delevan NY of course.

A contemporary article in the Arcade (NY) Herald, hosted by NewYorkDriveIns.com, said that Opening Day for the Delevan was Sept. 24, 1959. It was built by Elgin Boylan and had 400 speakers for 400 cars. HistoricAerials.com shows it under construction(!) earlier in 1959 and in operation in 1961.

I sometimes turn to my shelf of old International Motion Picture Almanacs for clues within their annual drive-in lists. The IMPA is far from perfect, but the Delevan is a particular example of how wrong it can be; it wasn’t listed in the 1961 edition, and the 1963-66 editions showed it with a capacity of 365 cars, owned by “Al Boylain”.

The 1978 IMPA changed the owner to “Mendola, G.P.” (NYDI says that was Gasper “Pat” Mendola) and corrected the capacity to 400, and that’s how it stayed through its final list in 1988. But the IMPA listings were often on autopilot in the 1980s, with any real-world changes going unnoticed.

NYDI says the Delevan was later operated by Macy Cohen and Phil Leiffer, then later yet by Ron and Mary Sahr. A 1992 Springville Journal article referred to it as Sahr’s Delevan Drive-In Theater.

Don Loomis and his wife Josie bought the drive-in in 2000. The drive-in’s web site used to say that he added the second screen in 2005; aerial photos show it was there in 2006 but not in 2002, so that’s probably accurate. Loomis had converted one screen to digital projection, but when Josie was diagnosed with cancer, they made the decision to sell. “We planned to do this the rest of our lives,” Don told The Buffalo News in October 2014. “We didn’t buy it just to sell it. But it looks like it’s time to pull the plug.”

Dr. Michael DiBella, an emergency room physician, bought the drive-in in the 2014-2015 off-season after Loomis listed it on eBay. “I’ve always wanted to own a drive-in,” he told The Buffalo News in April 2015. “It’s a piece of old-fashioned Americana, and I wanted to preserve part of that.” DiBella changed the name to the Delevan Twin Drive In. (For some reason, his name is spelled Mickel on the drive-in’s web site, but it’s Michael everywhere else including all references to his day job in Buffalo.)

The Delevan is closed for the season now, though its Facebook page says it might reopen for the latest Star Wars movie in December.

I was so desperate for a video that I embedded a January 2017 report from WKBW, Buffalo’s News Leader, that should have been a non-story. During the 2016 season, DiBella wanted to accept credit cards but couldn’t get a landline installed, so he used an old-fashioned imprinting machine to make credit card charge slips. (Am I the only one old enough to remember back when that was the usual way charges were handled?) He kept the slips but forgot to phone them in. When he got around to it after Christmas, it freaked out nervous cardholders, but as the report shows, DiBella bent over backwards to make it right for every patron.

Miles Today / Total: 38 / 33385 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 180

Nearby Restaurant: Just north of the drive-in is Chanderson’s Steak & Seafood, a great place for dinner. There are few things tastier and more satisfying than a well-prepared ribeye steak, and this came with a full soup and salad bar to help me believe that I was eating healthy. Add a glass of merlot, and it’s a perfectly rounded meal.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Google said the closest hotel to the Delevan Twin is the Chaffee Lodge just a few miles north. This is one of those Mom and Pop motels where they’ve done some serious renovations. My quiet room had the full set of modern amenities. The great price left plenty of cash in my pocket for breakfast down the street at the Strawberry Fields Cafe.

Only in Delevan: The World Series begins next week, so we’ll turn to arguably the most famous person ever born in tiny Delevan, Frank Isbell. He was a full-time first baseman with the American League pennant-winning Chicago White Sox in 1901, then moved to second base where he was had the highest batting average on the 1906 World Series champs. If you’re really into baseball, you may recognize how rare it is for a player to shift to a more difficult position on the defensive spectrum, but I guess it worked for Isbell.

Next stop: Vintage Drive In Theatre, Avon NY.