Western New-York ? Don't miss the gorgeous finger lakes area.
The Watkins Glen state park is a nice place to visit and take a day off. They have a lovely campground too.
On the historic side, there is the Erie Canal that goes from the Erie Lake to the Hudson River. The construcrion of this canal greatly contributed to the economic and industrial devellopment of all the area, more than two century ago.
Before the cars and roads era, boats where used, from new-york, along hudson river and erie canal, to bring rich european tourist from new-york to niagara falls.
The lock system is still there, in Lockport.
See the
Erie Canal article on wikipedia.
There is also a nice museum, in Victor, on the five native american iroquoi tribes that were living in the area, before us : the onondaga, the seneca, the cayuga, the oneida, the mohawk....
Also,
@peterz lives in that area. He might help you with some advices for nice country roads, things to see, restaurants, etc.