Last day

Well this is the last day of my week long Fall Foliage 2010 trek across New England so enjoy. This was my first road trip where I spent more time in hotels than camping. I started worrying about paying for hotels but then I realized that, for the first time ever, I have paid vacation time. So basically I’m being paid to stay in a hotel. Oddly enough, I sleep better and feel more comfortable in my tent and would much rather be outdoors (except when a hurricane is dumping massive amounts of rain obviously).

Last night I had crossed the Quechee Gorge on my way into the campground (and driven along it too apparently thanks to Jack’s poor directions to the campground) but because it was dusk I didn’t really see anything. I parked and found a trail running along the gorge to a dam so I meandered on down. On the way back to the bridge I saw a balloon floating through the trees. Ballooning would be an awesome way to see the foliage. Even better would be “road tripping” by balloon. Think about it; throw a backpack and a tent into a balloon, float miles across the sky taking in the view, and then land in a field somewhere at night and camp out. Brilliant!

I hiked down the other side of the gorge. The trail said to the bottom of the gorge but really it just went downhill to where the gorge petered out into a stream. Oh well. I took a few pictures from the bridge over the gorge and headed out to find more covered bridges. About 4 miles west of Quechee is the Taftsville covered bridge. Many of these bridges are still in use so there’s no place to park and take pictures (as foolish leaf peepers such as myself tend to do). I had pulled over and gotten out and was taking pictures when I heard someone honking at me. I turned around, saw neither myself nor my car was in the way, and then saw some guying waving me over to his car. I thought maybe he wanted directions (for some reason people always ask me for directions-I must look like a local everywhere I go). When I walked over to the car I saw it was the same gentleman who was in the pizza place last night! I’m a freakin local after 12 hours! He kindly offered to take a picture of me in front of the bridge. How nice is that!?

I drove over into Woodstock and walked around the Marsh Billings Rockefeller Historic Site (the only NPS site in Vermont). The mansion was gorgeous but it was only available by tour starting at 10am and it was 8 am and I had a long way to go to get home so I just snuck around and took pictures. I took a great picture at the farm museum that truly encapsulates all that is Vermont; cows grazing in a pasture with a backdrop of fall foliage. If there was a covered bridge in the pasture covered in maple syrup it would be perfect. I stopped at two more covered bridges on my way out of Woodstock. I finally posted photos of this last day on Facebook a few days ago and Jess made a comment that said “ I bet you were sick of these freakin bridges by the end of your trip”. So true! I mean they’re pretty and quaint but after seeing 20 of them, they lose their luster.

That’s my style though. I exhaust one category of things (i.e. firetowers, covered bridges, hot springs, mountain passes, scenic byways etc.) and then I’m done with them the rest of my life. I like to come back from my trips and feel that I’ve conquered something. I would have been a great Viking.

After overdosing on covered bridges I was ready to head back into New York but I wanted to see some more “mountainy” foliage since the day had dawned bright and sunny. I decided to drive back through the Adirondacks to extend my trip since I’ve never been to the ADK’s in the fall and I’ve heard it’s gorgeous.

I went old school on this trip, foregoing Jack a lot of the time (sorry friend) so I consulted my AAA map and saw that I could cross over into Fort Ticonderoga from Vermont. I was driving along in some very rural country when I saw a sign that said Ferry to New York. That’s strange I thought. So I turn on Jack and he says “In 4 miles board ferry”. What!? Apparently I didn’t see the ferry designation on the map. Next thing I know I round a bend and there was a stop sign a few feet from Lake Champlain. There was a shack with a sign posted that said the ferry runs all day and costs $9. It was the cutest damn thing. After waiting a few minutes it pulled up to the dock, I drove on and in 5 minutes I was across. I did take the opportunity to walk around the deck and take some nice pictures of the shimmering sun on the water while we were in transit. It was my cars first ferry trip and I think Gray Rock enjoyed it.

I drove into Fort Ticonderoga but it was expensive and looked exactly like Castillo de San Marcos in Florida so I walked the perimeter, took a few shots and left (just like in the days of yore!). I’d never been that far east in the ADK’s and it was quite pleasant. There weren’t many people out and I rode along with the windows down. I stopped at a few lakes to stretch and take some pictures. Despite all the incidents I’ve had in the Adirondacks I really love those mountains. It’s probably because they almost feel like Colorado to me and I’ve really been missing the West lately. I miss having the mountains at my doorstep to escape too.

By the time I got to Utica to get on the Thruway I was starving. I got gas but decided to just grab something to eat on the Thruway. Well if you don’t know the Thruway only has rest stations every 20-30 miles and with my luck the first one I came to only had a Starbucks. I typed food into Jack and he recommended I exit and drive 10 miles. Damn it Jack. Finally I found a McDonalds right off the Thruway and got some food.

Overall I really loved this trip. Despite the rain, the weather was warm, the leaves were gorgeous and the views were spectacular. I even got home on a Saturday to give myself a day to unpack, do laundry, and relax before going back to work. That’s the first time I’ve done something like that and it was much easier to transition back that way. It’s been a month since I’ve returned and I’ve been dragging out these blog posts so as not to overload people with the trip. Plus I have nothing else on the horizon for a while so I need to make my life look interesting. I might do a PA road trip over Thanksgiving but I’m running out of my hotel coupons so we’ll see. Next year though is the “Battlefields, Blossoms, and the Birthplace of America” road trip. It’s so ambitious I have Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and a 7 page Word itinerary. Oh and Jess will be making commemorative t-shirts. We’ll be going to Philadelphia, Washington DC (during the Cherry Blossom Festival) and Gettysburg. Epic!