Almost there!

Greetings from Albany, New York! I am finally in the home stretch of what is starting to feel like a never-ending drive.

When I left this morning, I thought there was a chance I might find it in me to make the entire drive to Portland today. Alas, I discovered fairly early on that it wouldn’t be possible. I was just too darn tired. I did find my Starbucks though, which I should add was a perfectly normal Starbucks – clean and not at all threatening. I was also relieved to find my Prius in a perfectly normal state when I went out to load it. I had been fairly confident I would survive my night in Toledo unscathed, but I wasn’t so sure my car would. I’m so glad everything turned out fine in the end.

Today was a driving day, pure and simple. No side trips, except for an inadvertent one at the very end of the day. Toby continued to go with the flow of things and spent more time today looking out the car window. I'm not sure what he thought of the view but like to think he was having a good time.


Basically, I drove toll roads today. First I-80 (the Ohio Turnpike) until I cut off on I-90 a little bit before Cleveland. Then along Lake Erie, cutting through a small bit of Pennsylvania, and then for hours through New York. Right now I’m in a Motel 6 in Albany, which is about 35 miles from the Massachusetts state line. I had forgotten how expensive the toll roads are out here. I need to find a bank first thing in the morning so that I have enough cash to pay for the rest of the trip.

Aside from the drive through downtown Cleveland, the rest of the day was spent driving through either farmland or what I think was the southern part of the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, it rained nearly all day but never so hard that it felt unsafe. Probably the worst rain occurred while I was driving on I-90 through Cleveland. According to Wikipedia, this is “one of the most peculiar and hazardous" stretches of I-90 in the country and is known locally as “Dead Man's Curve.” This section of I-90 also includes a bridge of the same design as the one that failed in Minneapolis. I’m so glad that I didn’t know these facts before I drove through town. In an effort to make my driving even more hazardous in Cleveland, I decided to try my hand at making a very brief video. (“You may think I’m foolish for the foolish things I do.”) Check it out. It gives a sense of what it was like driving today. And it only took three takes!



Even though I didn’t stop for anything besides coffee and gas, I did see exits for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Kent State, Niagara Falls, Attica, the Adirondacks, and one exit for BOTH Oswego and Auburn, New York (!). I crossed the Erie Canal twice and passed some gorgeous factory buildings as well as numerous grand houses (some boarded up) in the middle of nowhere yet smack dab against I-90.

At the very end of the day, when I was reeling with exhaustion (which started around 11:30 this morning!), my GPS took me off I-90. Assuming it knew what it was doing, I followed the directions on the screen and ended up on a "scenic" tour through downtown Schenectady, adding an extra twenty minutes (at least) of driving time to the end of a very long day. Oh well. Perhaps the powers-that-be knew I was too tired to be driving in the rain at freeway speeds and decided to slow me down and keep me safe.

Highlights of the day: Seeing Lake Erie in the distance. The kindness of strangers. Making my video. Crossing the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line at exactly noon. Driving through some beautiful wine country near Westfield, NY (added to my list of places I could live). The small herd of fake buffalo alongside I-90 (which fooled me for several seconds) as one approaches Buffalo, NY. The license plate that read UNAMUSED. Stopping at the Dewitt Service Area on the New York Thruway. (Auburn people will recognize the name - a now defunct state mental hospital in town - and just the place for me to be at this point in my life!) Driving through Schenectady and trying to figure out if there was some "greater purpose" in the detour dictated by the GPS. Arriving at the motel exhausted but intact and only four hours from Portland!!!


Total mileage for the day: 595.5
Total time in the car: 10 hours and 40 minutes
Total mileage so far: 2893 (only 271 miles to go!)
Destination tomorrow: Definitely Portland!