On the Road Again

We finally have the fifth wheel tires turning again.  We have been talking about doing the east coast for a number of years and now we are finally making it happen.

Wednesday, June 19 – Day 1

  We left Winnipeg just after  0900 with sunny skies and a light wind (an RV’ers delight).  After crossing the border we stopped in Pembina, North Dakota to fill our auxiliary fuel tank – diesel is $ 4.00 / gallon.  We followed I-29 to Fargo, ND and then turned east onto I-94.  The terrain is gently rolling and is a welcome change from the pancake flat prairies. The checker topped grain silos also add interest to the scenery.  The recent rains have really helped the “greening up” of the corn crops. 

We made a detour into Fergus Falls, MN to purchase some groceries at the Wal-Mart.  A detour indeed – our cashier was feeling particularly chatty and spent a great deal of time telling us about how she managed to polish off a full box of Skinny Cow chocolates by herself in one sitting.  It appeared to us that she accomplished this feat on a regular basis.

Sauk Centre is one of those names that you see on the green directional information boards that you pass on your way to somewhere else.  We pulled into their municipal campground for the night. The campground is called Sinclair Lewis Campground after the author; one of the town’s native sons. (I had confused him with Lewis Carol, who wrote Alice in Wonderland – but Sinclair Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Babbitt.)  

The campground is located beside a small lake which is surrounded by cottages/homes.  It also adjoins City Park.  Janet and I strolled through the park where every, Wednesday summer  evening they have entertainment in the outdoor band stand.  Tonight happened to be a country and western duo.  While we were listening to the music I noticed off to the side that a city policeman was “horsing around'” with three young boys.  Oh, the life of a small town officer!

What a delightful little town. It still retains a number of older Victorian style buildings including the boyhood home of Sinclair Lewis. There is a museum dedicated to him which unfortunately was closed by the time we found it.  The locals say that the  Palmer House Hotel in the downtown core is said to be haunted but as with so many apparitions it may be the result of too many spirits.

 

Thursday, June 20 - Day 2

We got an early start today hoping to bypass Minneapolis after the morning rush.  What a breeze.  The last time that we had been to Minneapolis was in 1996 with the boys on our Disney adventure.  It was as easy getting around the city then as it was today.  The directional signs are numerous and clear in their directions. 

I suppose that being “prairie people” that we are really impressed by the size and by the numbers of  deciduous trees we pass on the roads in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  I expect that we will see more of them as we continue eastward.

We made it to the southern part of Wisconsin today and pulled off the road for the night at a small town called Edgerton, just off Interstate-39/90, south of Madison, Wisconsin.  The Hidden Valley RV Resort is just a few minutes from the interstate and is a very well maintained campground.  My only complaint is their lack of Wi-Fi.  During our 2009 trip to Alaska I had whined about the same thing – five years later the campground owners still haven’t gotten it!  Most people today have even more wireless devices, yet the owners still refuse to keep up with the times.  That is the last rant for this trip!  (About Wi-Fi anyway!)

 

Friday, June 21 – Day 3

“Hell has been described as a pocket edition of Chicago.”
Ashley Montagu

That just about sums up my opinion of Chicago as well.  We had departed Wisconsin around 8:00 hoping to get around Chicago quickly. Wrong!  About 20 miles outside of the Chicago city limits we ran into 35 miles of interstate construction. 45 miles per hour in two narrow lanes.  And the worst thing about it – we had to pay a toll.  But as I knew that was just the start of the toll booths – it took 6 stops and $18.60 to get through the “windy city”.

We got onto Interstate 90 just east of Chicago and we passed through the northern part of Indiana.  The only notable thing here is Elkhart, IN the home to most of the Recreational Vehicle manufacturers in North America. The roads were poor – many as bad as in Winnipeg!  The entrance and exit ramps were bumper to bumper.  The tolls through Indianapolis were $24.70.  Please do not tell the Provincial Government about Toll Roads – they’ll would likely put the money into general revenues and the roads still won’t get fixed!

Through the Buckeye State of Ohio, we stayed on Interstate 90 and decided to camp for the night just east of Toledo in the sleepy burg of Perrysburg.  Not too much going on here so we retired early.

Saturday, June 22 – Day 4

The alarm clock woke us bright and early at 6:30 AM.  As I was putting on the coffee I looked out to see that the people from across the road were already outside having their coffee and headed for the showers.  I thought, “What stamina, they were out partying around the camp fire well after we had gone to bed”.  The day was bright and warm as we got into the truck and were pulling out at 9:00 AM.  WHAT???  I had set the alarm using Central Time – we had lost an hour coming into the Eastern Time zone on Day 3.  Duh!

We continued around Cleveland, Ohio and then went through Pennsylvania  along Interstate 90 which roughly follows the south shore of Lake Erie.  We only got a couple of glimpses of the lake though.  As we crossed into New York state headed towards Buffalo, we noticed numerous vineyards along the highway.  The grape vines are just starting to bloom with white flowers.  I didn’t know that there was such a large wine producing area here.

After getting around Buffalo, NY, we continued eastward on Interstate 90 to the little town of Phelps, NY about 100 miles west of Syracuse, NY.  We stayed at the Cheerful Valley Campground in the “Finger Lakes” region of New York State.  The campground was crowded with families out for the weekend.  There is a huge playground for the kids and there is a creek that runs through the property with giant weeping willows cascading over the banks. A beautiful campground just far enough off the beaten track.

Sunday, June 22 – Day 5

Another travel day…we seem to be averaging between 350 and 400 miles per day.  A far cry from the 500 mile days when we used to vacation with the boys. I suppose everything slows down as you age.  Just after Syracuse we started to get into the Adirondack mountains of upper New York state.  We passed several locks of the Erie Canal and saw some quaint old buildings from the roadway.  We crossed the Hudson River in Albany, NY and we were soon into Massachusetts, but not before having paid $34 for the use of the roads – which by the way, were very good.

  Just after crossing into Massachusetts we passed the turnoff to Stockbridge.  For anyone who has heard the anti-war song, Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie, you may remember that Guthrie was arrested in Stockbridge.  Just a detour.

Speaking of detours.  Traffic was wild on the Massachusetts Turnpike, heading towards Boston after the weekend. We had taken Interstate 495, which was supposed to be a quick route around Boston.  Now imagine taking three lanes of Interstate traffic and funneling them into a single lane…it takes 30 minutes to go 3 miles.  We crossed into New Hampshire at about 4:00 PM.  A few more miles down the road and we were in the resort town of Hampton Falls.