Day 26 - The Road to Niagara

Monday, June 25, 2018
Posted from: Sleepy Hollow Lake Campground - Akron, NY
Miles driven: 298
Total miles: 3962

No overheating today. The weather was perfect. A very comfortable 71 degrees. We travelled almost the full width of New York today...300 miles straight across. It only cost us  $12 in tolls. We were a little shocked.

Today’s travel was relatively uneventful, and I have intended to jot down a couple thoughts on traveling out east in general, so here goes.

Rest stops in New England are called Service Areas. They are wildly convenient, but I wonder how it impacts the local economy. You could drive thousands of miles around New England on interstates and never get off. The service areas have fuel, groceries, restaurants, coffee, and of course the usual bathrooms. For us with a combined length of 53ft, these places have made our vacation just a little bit easier. We are either the giants who totally mess up traffic at a small station, or the little guys at truck stops where we can’t pay at the pump because we aren’t a big trucking company.

At these places we can stop, use the restroom, fill up the truck, make lunch in the camper (we did buy lunch once), grab a couple groceries if we need them, and maybe a coffee.

One we stopped at today was a particular favorite. Not because of the awkwardly unnatural blue water fountain in the picture below, but because they had a little farmers market. I didn’t take a picture because there were several Mennonite folks selling. I’m not sure they are okay with photographs, so I tried to be sensitive to that.

We bought an apple pie and fresh strawberries (we missed the Iowa strawberry season).

Toll roads. Another concept we don’t have west of the Mississippi River. I mentioned in the Day 1 post that we purchased an I-PASS transponder. This magical little thing is a must if you are traveling in this quarter of the United States. It makes the whole process so much easier, removes the stress, and it’s even a bit cheaper. The I-PASS works with all of the EZ- Pass toll booths outside of Illinois. And there are a LOT of toll booths. So far, we have paid $140.20 in tolls on this trip, and we still have to travel back through Illinois. Our single biggest toll was $24 to pull the camper on the JFK Memorial Highway driving from Maryland to New York. That day cost us almost $40 total.

We arrived at the campground early enough to enjoy some of the fun activities. Not much was going on because it is Monday, but maybe that was a good thing. This was another campground with a lot of permanent sites, but there were several campers in the short term area with us.

The boys went to the playground, and Grace set up the hammock.

This campground had a brand new pool that wasn’t open yet, but they also had a small lake with a beach. The water was perfect and there were lots of fish swimming with us.

Trying to catch fish. He's trying to be very sneaky. 

There were little fish everywhere.

Matt went back a few minutes early to get the fire started, but when I got back to the campsite, the fire wasn’t looking real hot. He was chatting with our neighbor. Turns out they are taking a very similar trip to our two month 2016 trip out west with four of their kids. They were on day three. Wow. I’m excited for them and their trip!

We decided to cook over the campfire tonight, so we needed more firewood. You pay for ten pieces and then pick out the pieces you want from a giant wood pile. We sent Grace and Cameron. Naturally they decided to pick out the biggest pieces. They were laughing so hard carrying it back. Cameron had to stop and take a moment to be goofy for Dad who was taking pictures of these crazy kids.

Um...awkwardly large kids...

After our hobo packets, we had marshmallows. 

Caleb is missing from these pictures because he became quick buddies with the 7 year old next door named Cooper. We scarcely saw them apart after that. Caleb rode Cooper’s scooter while Cooper rode his bike. We watched them make laps around the park.

The neighbors came over and joined us at our fire. We had a great time chatting... until midnight. (We may have lost track of time.) The boys were hanging out in our camper having fun.

I hope we hear more about their trip at some point. They sold their house and have plans to travel for the foreseeable future. Amazing. And inspiring.