DAY 01 - "I feel like I'm driving an ambulance."

Waking up to a brisk, foggy morning, the painful realization of how much we will miss the serene nature of a quiet daybreak sunk in.

We finished closing up the camp for the season, packed the car with neither argument nor tears, gave a little nod to the travel Gods, and headed out.

The roadways on the Northeast are so different from where I grew up in the Pacific Northwest.

These are one-way, three-lane turnpikes lined with thick woods that form this bobsled run of now golden yellow, orange, and bright red leaves. 

And every now and then, the roadway runs through an ancient American town, situated on an ancient American river, with brick steeples or smokestacks rising high above the treetops, reminding us of the importance of principle and fortitude.

Our path took us out of the state of Maine, past the giant liquor store in New Hampshire (also reminding us of principle and fortitude), slightly stalled progress in a bit of traffic through Worcester, Massachusetts, after which the Mass Pike dumped us rather unceremoniously into Connecticut.

Connecticut was painfully slow-going as intermittent traffic backed up at these oddly placed nearly 90° turns in the roadway…who designed those?! 

We sliced across the bottom nub of New York state, forging the Hudson, where the traffic finally opened up and we cruised into Pennsylvania; coughing and sneezing and hacking our way past Scranton, we finally landed in Destination Numero Uno: Wilkes-Barre.

Phew.  Friday holiday traffic delayed our arrival a bit more than expected, but we still had time to blend in at TGIFridays for a beer and a bite before crashing for the evening.

A successful Day One. 

We’re in for a long drive day tomorrow, but, stick with us, we’ll get into the more fun stuff after that!

DAY 02