2015 Road Trip: Part 3 (NY-OH)

New York to Ohio
Day 5
4.18.15


I got up early on Saturday to prepare for a long day of driving.  My goal was to drive all the way from Union College to Oberlin, OH to meet with Josie and Colin.  And I got nothing worse than another clear day for the drive.  I consider myself quite lucky so far to get all this beautiful weather for traveling.  It was funny being up so early on a Saturday at a college, because typically everyone (or most people at least) are sleeping through their hangovers from partying on Friday.  Because of this, all was quiet as I loaded Wombat with all my gear for the drive.

Terrace Lane at Union College 

The reason I chose to take the southern route through New York is primarily to avoid the absurd number of toll charges that I-90 rips from you.  I was more than happy to take a slightly bumpier and longer route through the rolling hills and farmland of southern New York instead. Good morning I-88.  I found myself halfway up the hillsides, looking down into valleys, winding up and down with the landscape.

I-88 westbound

I did encounter some patches of heavy fog that made it slightly ominous driving at highway speeds.  As the sun rose higher, the fog burned off and I was left with blue sky overhead.  One thing I noticed while driving through this area is that there are a peculiar number of towns and cities that begin with vowels.  Oneonta, Endicott, Owego, Elmira.  In Maine, we have solid sounding names like Jefferson, or Portland, or Monroe.  In New York, I felt like I had a bunch of gummy bears in my mouth trying to pronounce these towns.

In preparation for this long drive, I found a fire tower that was still standing (apparently many aren't) to visit for my lunch stop.  Because no one wants to drive over 500 miles without stopping.  This added "POI", in GPS terms took me off the highway and into the Finger Lakes Region. I remember a lot of this landscape from my visit to Ithaca College a few years ago.  Everyone had silos, lots of farmland, and most shockingly, everything was GREEN!  I left my house with snow half covering the field.  Here it looks like summer.  I feel like I am on an expedited tour of the seasons.

Evidence of greenery.  And look at dat swing.  Mmmm.

This fire tower is located in Sugar Hill Recreation Area, just southwest of Seneca Lake.  I had the place to myself.  Very serene.  I packed lunch ingredients into the lunchbag, and headed up the short road to the tower.  Must climb tower - maybe lunch on the tower.

Sugar Hill Fire Tower

A building.  Not entirely sure its purpose.

Well, having climbed to the top, I discovered the cabin to be locked. There is a trend with locked cabins.  I should stop counting on being able to get inside them.  However, I maintained optimism, and created some lunch.  (It was double PBJs and a banana if you were wondering.) Obligatory tower selfie:

I had a goal of reaching Oberlin by 4:30 for a game of ultimate frisbee.  I became aware around this time that I had a very small chance of getting there unless I attached some jet thrusters to the car.  Despite this problem, I saw some exciting things following the not-so-great roads from the tower back to the highway.  I encountered a farm with a turkey and a goat sitting in a pen together.  Promptly after this, a beaver crossed the road.  Here is said beaver:

After finding the highway, the last (and endless) part of New York passed without too much drama, though I got very tired of the badly constructed concrete road sections.  I was blessed with a totally redone section to guide me into the great state of Pennsylvania.  As you can see on the left of the picture below, my windshield became an overpopulated graveyard for bugs.  SO MANY BUGS.  And they don't scrub off easily.  They persist even when dead.

Welcome to PA.  And a bug.  Or what used to be a bug.

I like to try doing something outside in each state I visit, but I was only in PA for 50 miles, so I didn't do much aside from opening the window.  My GPS told me there was a chance I might make it for 5pm, and I could hope that the game would still be in progress.  I'll tell you most of the rest of the day looked an awful lot like the above picture, but imagine about 50 more cars per lane in front of me once I hit Cleveland.

I arrived in Oberlin, very excited to stand up after 560 miles sitting, albeit in various positions.  Below is the map of my progress for this leg of the journey.  Total miles covered is now up to 1062!

Ultimate was so fun I didn't even get any pictures.  Then again, who wants to see a picture of a bunch of sweaty college students?

The day came to a close with a wonderful dinner cooked by Josie.  We had authentic chicken parmesan with alternative pasta and broccoli. There's nothing like having a home cooked meal after a long day.  I was taught to play a ridiculously stressful card game called Golf that evening. Like the real game of golf, you are aiming to end up with the fewest points, yet actually knowing which cards you have is controlled by very strict rules.  As usual, Colin won.

This post was on the longer side, so I will save my outings whilst in Ohio for Part IV of the trip.  Enjoy!