Day 13: Change in Plans

After a good night's sleep, I'm up early (6am) to get on the road again.  I head south on 7 looking for the first ferry to cross Lake Champlain back into NY.  The first opportunity is in Charlotte, VT.  [I didn't know that there was one in VT either.]  I arrived at the dock at 7:10am, but on the weekends the ferry only runs "on the hour" so the next one was 8am, and then half an hour across the lake.  Hmmmm...  I don't want to wait so I drive back out to 7.

I've been watching the weather for the last couple of days, and it's gotten worse for the whole weekend which was planned for on and around Seneca Lake, wine-tasting at multiple wineries.  So.... I decided to drive back to Dayton (around 12 hours, I think) rather than heading to Amanda's in Michigan (which I believe at this point is 14+ hours).  Playing into my decision is that I am tired of being on the road -- in spite of so much fun and great company -- and I want to be in my own bed.  And also, that Amanda is expecting me Monday night, not Saturday night, and that it's a 3.5-hour drive between me and Amanda when I'm home.  So, I decide to head to Dayton.....  [I did a separate trip to visit Amanda and her family a month later...]

I start heading south on 7 again, heading for that next ferry, and guess what I pass??

I have to turn around and go back to take a picture.  It's a camel.  Or a dromedary?????  So I had to look it up.  Turns out that a one-humped camel is a dromedary, and a two-humped camel is a Bactrian camel -- and much less common.  I would have thought that VT would be much too cold for a camel, but "the Bactrian camel grows a thick coat of hair each winter which falls off every spring. This is to deal with the extreme variation of temperature in the Gobi desert (Mongolia) where summer highs often top 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and winter months can see significant amounts of snow."  Who knew?  Now the question still remains, why a camel in VT??

Just outside of Addison, I turn west for the next ferry crossing.  As I am approaching, I see pastures full of miniature donkeys. I'm really wondering if maybe I just got up too early, but I don't stop for a picture or to even look for some kind of sign.  But now back on my PC, I Google "Addison Vermont donkey miniature" and guess what I find....  A website for "Ass-pirin Acres" in Addison.  You can not make this stuff up!!!!  Check it out!  www.asspirinacres.com

On the ferry for the 5 minute crossing, and I end up in Port Henry, NY.

I had looked at the road atlas I had in the car, and it seemed as though heading on the 80s (e.g. 87S to 88W to 81S to 80W) was the way to get into Ohio and then take 71S to 70W.  Well....  that really isn't the fastest way, and Garmin kept trying to get me to 90W, but I just didn't want to listen.  Why would I go through Buffalo and Cleveland, that's just too far north.  I needed to head more southwest....  Yeah, in hindsight, listen to Garmin.    SPOILER ALERT:  the bottom line is that it took me 16 hours to get home (7am-11pm).  yes, that was with stops, and traffic, but ICK!  As per Google maps, the route that Garmin kept trying to get me on was estimated to take an hour less than the route I chose.  And if I hadn't been on 80W, I also wouldn't have hit all the orange barrel construction that I did.  I actually estimate that I lost 2+ hours by not listening to Garmin.    I really should have just found a Starbuck's (for free wi-fi) and spent a few minutes with the laptop.

...I've finished listening to "The Last Child" and my next book is "Swimming" by Nicola Keegan.  Good narrator, and the story starts off well, so I'm still thinking that I've got about 12 hours of driving ahead of me, and a good book and hopefully no rain until I'm well through PA.

A few things I notice driving through PA.....  on 81S there are a lot of billboards advertising Massages.  Now, when I pick a spa to get a massage, I'm not typically swayed by billboard advertising, so I think that this is odd.  Then I notice that some of them say "Truckers Welcome" or "Truck Parking Available".  Hmmmm...  This is probably a different type of massage than what I'm used to.....

I drive through Scranton -- location of "The Office", and then head west on 80.  And into orange barrel h-e-double hockey sticks....  Lots of people-watching, vehicle-watching....  speaking of that, I passed a tow truck (then he passed me) towing a beater of a white truck.  Scratched into the paint on the driver's side door of the beater was "It's not for sale so quit asking."  hee hee...  junker humor.....

I stopped for gas in DuBois, PA.  [Pronounced "dew boys", not "du bwa" as you might expect.]  Slowed way down when I saw a deer standing in the curve of the onramp.  Just before I reached the OH border, the sheets of rain came down.  The thing obscuring the "Welcome to Ohio" sign is my windshield wiper.

Now it's dark, I've just passed through Youngstown on my way to Akron, then Columbus, then home.  I still have 4+ hours to go and the rain is just coming down in buckets.  Do I stop and get a hotel room for the night???  Nope!  That's not how I want to spend my Sat night.  :-)  So I keep on truckin', I'm almost there.

I roll into Columbus about 9:45pm and when I get home at 11pm, I've never been so glad to get OUT of a car before.  :-)

All in all, a fantastic, fabulous trip, and I would love to do it again -- in a little while -- after not driving for a time -- and in a different direction....  :-)

2,955.5 miles in 13 days!  Yee-haw!