GNAST: Day Five - WV, MD, PA, & NY

Tuesday, May 24

We covered a LOT of ground today. It was the longest day of the trip, rolling into our campground at 8:50pm with the last vestiges of daylight. However, you can see and hear Lake Ontario from our campsite, so there's that. And there are bunnies EVERYWHERE. We've seen at least five tonight. It's also the warmest night we've ever had while camping, at a balmy 65 degrees or so. The low tonight is supposed to be 55... which is still really warm, let's be honest. Our camp nights tend to be in the 40s.

We left our site around 10am (after mopping up the tent exterior, because it poured all night long) and moseyed through West Virginia highways and byways until Maryland, which took like 20 minutes, and then into Pennsylvania, which is like a particularly forested Kansas. It's really boring until you get to the New York border, then you get mountain highway that reminds me of 441 into the Smokeys and is a lot of fun. There's not a lot to say about Maryland or Pennsylvania. We saw one site featuring two jails and a wastewater treatment plant all crammed together. That was special. We stopped to get drinks and lunch and wash our dishes from the night before in a sink, and I found Surge at the attached gas station. So that was Maryland. Pennsylvania was just really boring. We went along I-99 by Altoona and College Station. Boring. Saw some nice horses?

Really, the most important part of today's drive, aside from the constant fighting with our ridiculous GPS named Susan, was that shortly after crossing into New York, we were playing with the XM radio and I was tired of the same five artists on Octane and the 90s station wasn't doing it for me anymore, so I asked Aaron to see if there was a boyband station or something. He found 2000s pop. It's full of Britney Spears and NSYNC and Eminem and Lil Jon and every single thing I listened to in high school and college, and I proceeded to sing myself hoarse. That is the most important part of today.

In New York we have also seen tons of Mennonites, vineyards, odd farm equipment, Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, more odd farm equipment, and AN ACTUAL AMISH GUY DRIVING A HORSE DOWN THE HIGHWAY AND WEARING A TOPHAT(?) AND FROWNING AT ME IN DISAPPROVAL. I LOVE HIM. HE IS MY SECOND FAVORITE PART OF TODAY.

The third part, obviously, would be that we can hear the waves on Lake Ontario from our tent. And I did a baller job of backing the SUV into our narrow, steep, cliffside campsite. (Fourth part.)

Today was a good day.

Tomorrow, we have to do chores on the way to Vermont. The SUV, Lapras, needs an oil change (we'll get reimbursed by Alamo at the counter later) and we need to do laundry. Probably do that in Rome.

New York is so weird, y'all. I have seen so much weird stuff here. It makes the south look reasonable.