Here's a sampling of what I saw along the way today:
- A stretch pickup truck. No, I'm not kidding. It was the kind with the "back seat" and there were about 10 of those back-seat windows between the front seat and the bed of the truck. Very bizarre looking.
- Lake Ontario--so vast and blue under today's clear sky. Lots of sailboats out.
- A caravan of open-sided jeeps.
- LOTS of campers and 5th wheels.
- A license plate "2TH PIX" at yet another NY Thruway toll booth. They certainly collected their fair share out me before I escaped.
- Once we hit OH, a multitude of motorcyclists with death wishes. There's evidently no helmet law in this state and more often than not, the riders weren't wearing them.
- Lots of vineyards, in addition to all the other fruit.
- Once we hit OH, incredible amounts of shredded tires on the sides of the road--do they put something in the asphalt here?
- Unlike in MA, people in PA and OH pretty much adhere to the speed limit, with the exception of the guy in the red Volvo convertible who must have been doing 100 when he went by me.
- The terrain is getting flatter.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Travels with Scout (or My New Favorite Toy is My GPS!)
Okay, okay--so I didn't add to my blog yesterday, which was the first day of my trip! After five hours of driving through downpours, I spent last night decompressing at the 1875 home of my friend, Priscilla, who is an incredible fiber artist (wearables and quilts) in addition to being a teacher, world traveler, and all-around nice person. You can see who she is and and her amazing work at her blog: http://www.priscillakibbee.blogspot.com/ Priscilla took me to dinner at a bay-side (on Lake Ontario) restaurant last night where I had some delicious shrimp and she had the largest jumbo scallops I've ever seen. She lives in Wayne County in upstate New York and, according to what she told me, there are over 100,000 acres of apples and fruit trees in the county! I was amazed to see that they are now growing apples on supports (vs. as stand-alone trees), much like grapes in vineyards.
This morning, after breakfast with Priscilla, Scout and I hit the road at 8 and drove to Dublin, OH, just outside of Columbus, where we arrived at our hotel for the night just after 3. We have 747 miles of the trip completed--about one third. It was so nice just to set the GPS this morning and not have to look at a map--if I had, I would have been very discouraged by the sheer distance we had to travel!
Tomorrow we follow I70 past Dayton and Indianapolis to Westport, MO, which is just outside of St. Louis. This will be another long haul but it will also make the two following days easier. In case you're wondering, our stops were predicated on finding motels that welcomed dogs (and other animals). I used this site: http://www.petswelcome.com/ and highly recommend it.
Scout is doing amazingly well. He gets two "doggie downers" in the morning to help him deal with the anxiety of traveling and I feed him treats throughout the day. He's a little anxious at first, but then calms down and I've even caught him lying and sitting down, watching the scenery fly by. We're doing rest stops every couple of hours and he seems to love having a chance to sniff out where all the other traveling dogs have left their marks (which, of course, he overmarks). I am so, so proud of my beautiful boy.
Today was the first day that it has begun to sink in that I am now retired and setting out on my new adventure....that this isn't just a vacation but that I'm actually leaving behind not only my work life but also everything familiar about my life for the past 38 years. Every time I see the word "west," I know that I'm finally heading to my real home......
This morning, after breakfast with Priscilla, Scout and I hit the road at 8 and drove to Dublin, OH, just outside of Columbus, where we arrived at our hotel for the night just after 3. We have 747 miles of the trip completed--about one third. It was so nice just to set the GPS this morning and not have to look at a map--if I had, I would have been very discouraged by the sheer distance we had to travel!
Tomorrow we follow I70 past Dayton and Indianapolis to Westport, MO, which is just outside of St. Louis. This will be another long haul but it will also make the two following days easier. In case you're wondering, our stops were predicated on finding motels that welcomed dogs (and other animals). I used this site: http://www.petswelcome.com/ and highly recommend it.
Scout is doing amazingly well. He gets two "doggie downers" in the morning to help him deal with the anxiety of traveling and I feed him treats throughout the day. He's a little anxious at first, but then calms down and I've even caught him lying and sitting down, watching the scenery fly by. We're doing rest stops every couple of hours and he seems to love having a chance to sniff out where all the other traveling dogs have left their marks (which, of course, he overmarks). I am so, so proud of my beautiful boy.
Today was the first day that it has begun to sink in that I am now retired and setting out on my new adventure....that this isn't just a vacation but that I'm actually leaving behind not only my work life but also everything familiar about my life for the past 38 years. Every time I see the word "west," I know that I'm finally heading to my real home......
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