An easy travel day, memories included

July 19, 2010
Milford (Cooperstown), NY

Sunday was our travel day, and it was a nice day for driving. It was warm but not so hot that we needed to have the roof air conditioning on, and sunny/hazy most of the day.

We left Beach Rose RV Park on schedule around 8:30 AM and headed west. After a quick hop, we were on I-495. The "easy" way to where we were going would have been to then take I-90 to Albany then I-88 (a new road for us) west from there. The only issue is that I-90 is a toll road. If we were in the Rover, that would be one thing, but the tolls increase steeply for the coach. After spending $125 in tolls to get from Virginia to Connecticut, I decided we'd be better served by taking the "scenic route" west. Beside, we'd have a chance to see areas we'd never been through before.

So, we exited I-495 after 20 miles or so and took MA-2. Other than their somewhat insane desire to place manhole covers in the middle of travel lanes, we found this to be a pretty good road. It wasn't as scenic as expected, but I'll bet it's fantastic in the fall during "leaf peeping" season.

When we got to Greenfield, MA, we were faced with a detour, unable to continue on MA-2. On the spur of the moment, we decided to change routes, heading a few miles north on I-91 to Bennington, VT, and then taking VT-9 west into New York. This route had been in the back of my mind anyway, since NY-2 (extension of MA-2)into Troy was not a "designated route" on our Trucker's Atlas, which can mean low overpasses or other things we'd like to avoid. In general, if it's OK for truckers, it's OK for us.

This route also provided a memory flash. Shortly after we crossed into New York, we came to the junction of NY-7 and NY-22. I remembered this junction from the days in the late-60s/early-70s when we had a family "cottage" in Vermont. We used to take NY-22 north as part of the route, and for years we stopped at a "roach coach" at a roadside turnout run by "Hoosick Harry" (it's right near Hoosick and Hoosick Falls, NY). Homemade hamburgers (no cheese) were always on the menu. I remember my father bringing Harry a little nip of Scotch as a tip (he always made friends with other Scotch drinkers). The whole intersection is a construction zone and the turnout is no more, but I still remember those burgers.

We were able to get through the Troy-Albany-Schenectady "metro-plex" without any issues (or tolls) by staying on NY-7. This worked out well , since I'd aimed to stop for fuel right where NY-7 meets I-88. It was a Pilot Truck Stop, and I really don't like their process of having to go in, pre-pay, pump, then go back for a final receipt. Since they just took over Flying J, our preferred fuel stop, in a bankruptcy proceeding, I'm afraid the Js will end up being non-RV-friendly. Oh, well; nothing we can do about that...

Anyway, once fueled up we were off on I-88 for an hour or so, then north to Milford (just southwest of Cooperstown) and our destination, Hartwick Highlands Campground. This is a huge property and the sites are well-spaced. One large meadow has been converted to mostly RV pull-thrus (good for us gotta-have-a-satellite-connection types), and the rest of the sites are buried in the woods (for the I'm-not-"camping"-if-I'm-not-in-the-woods people).

Today, we did our normal day-after-travel stuff. Geri started some laundry, we did some planning for things to see and do here, and we made a grocery run to the small town of Oneonta, just south of here.

Oh, I almost forgot: Maya Lynn finally sat still for a decent picture...