Thursday, 8 Oct 2009

Woodland Campsites, Somerset, PA

Current Temp 41°

I got up early this morning to watch the sunrise, it was beautiful, very red. I tried to take a picture of it, but the photo never does it justice. This campground is empty except for us and I have all the shades open. We are surrounded by trees in various shades, from green to yellow to red. Anne says this is supposed to be a very good year for “leaf peeping” as she calls it, so far in Western Pennsylvania it has been great. Cat and I are both tired of driving all day and passing through country we would like to explore, but we have a goal of visiting New England this month and will have to come back and spend more time later. That is the problem with working, you can’t spend a week or a month everyplace that looks promising. We will be pushing through today and try to reach Mystic CT today.

We hit the road just before 9 and made our way onto the Penn turnpike, they charged us $4 just to go about 30 miles last night, they said it would cost $17! To get the rest of the way through PA, Damn. The scenery is lovely through PA. BTW, its Cat’s turn to drive, we have been switching each tank of diesel, and competing for mileage. We both have won a buck a couple of times. Cat has the record at 10.64, but my last tank was 10.58, not bad. Not Prius numbers, but not bad for towing a 16,000lb camper. I have decided to call our home a “camper”. There are many names for recreational vehicles, RV’s, trailers, 5^th wheels, motor coaches, travel trailers, class C, class A, bus type, cab over, etc. I like camper, because its generic and without negative connotations (i.e. trailer). It is nice to be traveling all over and still get to sleep “at home” every night. It is a little disconcerting taking your house and everything you have with you (well maybe not everything).

We had to get off the Penn turnpike, it cost $16, and I thought the Golden Gate bridge was expensive. We have been passed many times by cops, but never have to worry about speeding since I rarely go above 60 mph. Cat on the other hand often gets up to 70. She likes to go fast.

We just fueled and switched in Smartlesville, PA. Rob’s driving now. I only got 9.62 on that last tank. Lots of big hills.

1:42 (5min late) we entered New Jersey. Pennsylvania was really pretty. We need to spend more time there. We’re supposed to cross into New York in one hour. Another long state.

2:40 we were paralleling Manhattan. The skyline was very pretty. I tried to see the Statue of Liberty, but wasn’t able to. This is ridiculous to be so close to such a place and not go there. Definitely going to come back to New York before returning to the West Coast.

We have been listening to a good book “The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly. We just finished it. It was very good. Now we are in trouble, because we don’t have anymore books to read. We do have Sirus radio so maybe we can listen to the book channel.

We entered Connecticut at 3:39pm. Another 3 state day. We should get to our next home port at about 5pm. We get to stay 2 nights and cruise around without the rig. That is always nice.

So we finally got to the campsite at about 6pm. It was just starting to get dark. It was slow and go all the way from the Bronx. Very slow driving. The rv park is nice. It is really grassy with a lot of room between spots. We hooked up easily. I fixed dinner (something haven’t been able to do much of lately) and we relaxed and watched some TV. Bones, CSI, my favorites.

Tomorrow we are planning on riding the bikes down to Mystic Seaport to explore. NO DRIVING! I think it is about 5 miles from here down the there. It will be so nice to move rather than sit in a bouncing truck all day. I’m sure YumYum will be happy as well. Since she rides in the RV while we travel she really get bounced around. Poor thing.

Anyway, we are in for the night. We look forward to exploring tomorrow. Current Temp here in Old Mystic, Connecticut is 51° it says there is a 40% chance of rain tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t. Nighty night.