The Road Trip Has Begun

Last Day before leaving

It was cold this morning… about three below zero and. we finished loading all of the last minute items in the camper. It felt like an ice box inside, but I knew that would change as soon as we got rolling along. It was 7:02 when we left the house. We drove pass Pleasant Street Convenience Store and waived to Stump and some of the guys in the store. I usually stop in for a coffee, but time was a wasting and I wanted to travel at least 365 miles to get out of the next storm heading for New Hampshire.

Doesn't that look  like a cozy snow cave!

The sky was blue and the temperature never climbed much above 6 degrees above zero. Some of our soft drinks (stored outside the camper shell) froze, but did not split. We temporally stored them inside in the shower. The new slider window finally worked better after we plugged some air leaks in the donut area. (That is the part that seals between the truck cab and camper. This was a homemade item that I didn’t have time to road test before the actual trip.)

In late afternoon, the sky became milky white and soon the snow started falling. We pulled into a Wal-Mart  in Utica, NY about an hour short of our intended goal. The snow increased to nearly a white out. We were here for the night.

So far on this trip, I was looking around for what was of interest to view and see. The one major thing was the Erie Canal that parallels I-90 to Lake Erie. There are many locks for shipping barges to navigate the waterways. I don’t exactly know how long the canal is, but it is very long.

It's not a bridge to nowhere, but part of the Erie Canal 

Now for an update; the first morning just before leaving home I was tightening my shoe lace when I felt a sharp pain in my back. I pushed off with my left leg to relieve the pain. I was sore, but we proceeded to leave Berlin. My leg got progressively worse. The first night we stayed in the camper. The furnace ran about 14 minutes every hour. The next morning, we left very early and drove as far as Erie, PA. It was now 2pm and my leg was really bothering me. I had been taking 1000mg of Acetaminophen with no results. It was time to find a hotel! The Econo Lodge was it. I was in bed at 3pm and stayed there until 5:30 the next morning.

My leg was still tender but better. Helen got a call from her sister. Her mother took a turn for the worse and may be hospitalized on this day. It was a sign for us to head back home.

That is what we did and saw