Friday, September 25th – The Adventure Begins

I could not have asked for better weather to begin my first day’s drive.  My game plan was to be out of the house by 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, but some last minute packing and arranging took longer than expected.  (Doesn’t it always?”)  I think that probably worked to my advantage since it put me a little behind the Chicago morning rush hour.

Initially I was thinking that if I could get to my Saturday sightseeing locale, that would be ideal, but then again, I was happy that I found a nice rest area in Pennsylvania, about 20 miles from the New York State border.  The drive through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio was one I have done several times.  It’s a rather unremarkable route, along the various tollways.

Prices have sure gone up since my last jaunt across the Great Lakes Region; $9.20 through Chicago, $8.20 in Indiana and $15.25 to Ohio’s economy.  Ironically, as I exited the tollway at Youngstown, Springsteen’s “Youngstown” hit the airwaves via Sirus/XM’s E Street Radio (channel 20).  Seemed so fitting, especially since I had been flipping between a variety of satellite radio stations throughout the day.

By the time I reached Pennsylvania, night was upon me.  I wasn’t particularly sleepy so I continued on until I stopped for the night at 11:30pm.  My day’s journey was just at 825 miles and 14 hours (including stops for gas and lunch/dinner).  Fortunately there were no signs prohibiting over-nighting in the rest stop, so I had bathroom access immediately outside of my truck, should I need it.

When I have told people I am “car camping” for a portion of this trip, friends were surprised by that.  Sure, I enjoy nice quaint cottages and B&B’s; and there were a couple of those also on the itinerary.  But the fact is, I like saving the money so that I can do more activities while on vacation.  I first tried this method of over-nighting while in Denali National Park for the 2011 Road Lottery Weekend.

On that trip, I flew into Fairbanks and rented a Suburban truck for the five day weekend.  All I had for bedding was my sub-zero sleeping bag (which I needed since temps dropped into the mid 30’s) and a small throw pillow.  I got by just fine for the four nights, so that opened my eyes to an entire new way of exploring and being mobile without being tied down with reservations, etc.

The following summer I road tripped to Yellowstone National Park via the Badlands in South Dakota.  That was my first experience of driving and camping along the way.  The nine day experience gave me the confidence to tackle this international road trip, with a mix of camping and lodging along the way.

Part of my preparation for this trip included packing a fair amount of food that would be easy to fix on the road and healthier than options typically found driving across country.  No fast food joints or truck stop diners were in the plans.  I bought a 26 quart Koolatron electric cooler on Amazon a couple of months ago, allowing me to plug in through the cigarette lighter in my truck.  An AD/DC adapter made plugging in easy at night when I was over-nighting in motels, etc.

With just under 125 miles left to Hyde Park, NY I tucked in for sleep around midnight.