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Monday, 05/26/03; Amsterdam, New York
Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head…
A peek out the window in Concord, NH at 0600 showed the pavement dry! It looked like we might have a cloudy, but rainless drive today. As we carted our luggage to the cars, a drizzle started that didn’t let up until it was a full-blown rain. Nonetheless, we began our trek west to New York State. We knew this would be both a picturesque and somewhat arduous leg as we traversed the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont on secondary roads. The rain diminished the beauty and increased the difficulty of the drive. One additional problem we hadn’t counted on was that the roads sometimes kept us from reaching speeds that made the Rain-X most effective. Thus, we relied on our windshield wipers more than usual.
The secondary roads were not heavily traveled early on this Memorial Day, but as the morning wore on, more traffic appeared. Facilities for fuel and potty stops were few and widely separated. Just as we were about to leave the state of Vermont, we drove through Bennington where it appeared a Memorial Day parade was being formed.
Bennington, Vt. clock
This is a delightful town and we enjoyed the detour caused by the parade. Shortly after we rejoined SR-9, we saw a green Model A tow truck sitting by the side of the street! We almost missed it and had to turn around to take it in. There was a Hemmings gas station and the tow truck was painted with a Hemmings logo.
Hemmings tows Dennis; Hemmings Museum
Since Dennis has an affinity for tow trucks, we took a picture of his car in the “get ready to hoist position.” For those of you not into old cars, Hemmings is the publisher of a periodical containing classified ads for old cars and car parts, among other car related articles. We shopped in the Hemmings store and visited their museum.
The rain continued on into New York State and we were glad to stop at a roadside dinner for lunch. We continued our journey and soon were approaching the New York Throughway. With some difficult maneuvering, we finally got on the Throughway, but not for long! It was 1430, so we began a book search of likely places to stay for the night. We selected Rotterdam, NY, but found we were too far west when we left the Throughway, so we found our way further west to Amsterdam. Here we located a Super 8 Motel that took our coupons.
We are now out of the New England states and each day will bring us closer to home. We are certain that when, in the future, we think of New England we will recall Cape Cod and its unique homes, beautiful blossoming trees and the grandeur of its coast. We will always remember rain rivulets dashing around our Rain-X coated and foggy windshields; soaked blue paper shop towels wedged tightly around and under the windshield to sop up the innumerable leaks; shoes and socks soaked by water drops not caught by the above; and not least, the rain soaked and potholed roads we traversed. However, we know that all this is a part of the experience we sought when we embarked on this adventure and we would have been disappointed if it had been too easy.
Where will we be tomorrow evening?
The Homeward Bound Four
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