Parade of trucks draws big crowd

SKANEATELES - Hundreds of people lined Genesee Street in the village of Skaneateles early Friday afternoon to watch a parade. Some of them held signs, and some of them waved American flags. Many of them just stood on the sidewalk and gazed west, waiting to catch the first glimpse of the caravan.

But this wasn't a holiday parade coming down the village's main road. And it wasn't a new attraction added to the village's annual Dickens Christmas festival, which opened Friday.

The crowds descended upon Skaneateles to watch a parade of trucks rumble and honk along Route 20. The caravan was organized as a statement of protest against a proposed set of state regulations that would keep truckers from using certain rural, upstate routes as shortcuts.