Day Six - NY & VT

Wednesday, May 25

Woke up this morning and confirmed that yes, from our hilltop, wooded site we could in fact see Lake Ontario through the trees. Our campground owners gave us half-off on our stay because we were nice people and had only been there for 12 hours. Shady Shores Campground in upstate New York is pretty awesome. Everyone go there. Before checking out, we went to the water's edge and poked our toes in (it's cold) and Aaron skipped a few rocks just to say that he had.

In Syracuse, we found a laundromat down the road from a quick oil change place. I did laundry and hung out with a friendly retired couple discussing the merits of moving to Charleston while Aaron got the oil changed. I had to change like $13 into quarters because I only had three one-dollar bills and a ten. Who needs quarters? I am drowning in quarters.

That was when New York stopped being okay. Despite everyone's recommendations of the beauty of the Adirondacks, we found it a rainy, dreary, gray, desolate place full of derelict buildings and awful road conditions, and absolutely nowhere to stop for gas or food. We had plenty in the tank, and have food in the car if we wanted to stop and actually prepare something, but it took a definite mental toll. That place was as desolate as Idaho. IDAHO. We arrived at Ticonderoga in dire need of a pick-me-up. The Maplesfield gas station with wifi was a nice touch. Aaron found a diner where we got our first real meals of the day at 4:30 and oh man, it was so needed. Our idiot GPS, Susan, kept bypassing all the pockets of civilization until then. We just kept finding rusted out farming equipment and cemeteries. So many cemeteries. I'd like to visit some, because I love old cemeteries, but I'm afraid some redneck dressed in a Confederate flag (THEY EXIST AND THEY ARE ALL OVER NEW YORK) will gun me down for trespassing on his family's land or something.

Not long after Ticonderoga, we entered Vermont, where XM radio got signal again and the roads magically improved. XM station Octane even streamed Disturbed's set from Rock on the Range! (We went there a few years ago and that's how we learned to hate Ohio, but not seeing Disturbed this spring was one of my concert season regrets.) The welcome station was super nice and handwrote us directions to our campsite, and we had a lovely drive in. Our campsite is nicely manicured again, with a playground and showers on timers and next to a river in the Green Mountains. We're tenting on fluffy grass! No gravel tent pad tonight!

We didn't actually visit Fort Ticonderoga, or Fort Stanwix in Rome. Neither of us paid enough attention in high school to remember why they're significant (beyond their existence) and frankly, New York sucked out our wills to live and we just wanted to get out and get to Vermont already.

Tomorrow, we're hitting some actual historic sites to populate our passport, and then meandering up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to meet my good friend Alex and her amazing dog Ruten, and then we shall frolic and screech and generally misbehave all over New Hampshire and Maine for... 4-6 days, something like that. It'll be grand.

Things that are odd: it's warm. Like, 80+ during the day and only 50s at night. What. What is this.

Things that WOULD happen: a tropical low stalking me up the coast. I see you, you cute little low. Do not screw with my flight home.

Hilltop tent site!

You CAN actually see the lake! Just very slightly.

Lake Ontario!

It's a rocky lake.

Welcome to the northeast: cemeteries EVERYWHERE.

So what is it you people love about the Adirondacks again? I like gothic stuff, but man.

The ice? Is it the ice you like?

I deliberately picked the campsite by the playground.

Vermont is pretty.