Due to popular demand, and after a fairly long hiatus (has it really been last September since I last blogged?) my viewing public will be treated to "12 days in New England" through RedhedMary's eyes. We decided to take a trip to celebrate our 30th anniversary, and it evolved into three nights each in Cape Cod, Maine, and New Hampshire, with travel time in between. With Steve not working, it also became a camping trip to cut down expenses a little.
Here is the saga of Day 1:
Everything was loaded up the night before both in the car (taking the '11 brown Outback) and the little camper, except for a few last minute things and the cooler.
Let me tell you about the little camper: it's made to pull behind a motorcycle, and my mom & Phil bought it about 15 years ago to pull behind their small car. They later upgraded to a hard sided camper and gifted us with the little camper. I've also been referring to it as "tent in a box" since it is basically a tent on an approx. 6 x 8 ft. mattress platform, with a small "basement" area (all tent) under the front for storage. There is also storage under the platform, which can be accessed whether or not the tent is up.
Ok, back to Day 1. We finished the last minute loading, and left at about 10:00 a.m. Not even to Lowell, and we couldn't remember whether or not we closed the garage door. D'oh! Back home to check - we had, of course, closed the garage door. New start at about 10:15 a.m.
I-96 down to US 23, through Ann Arbor and Toledo, then on to some Ohio highways to get over to the Akron area. We stopped for lunch at a "quaint" little roadside area on Ohio 13 which had flush urinals but pit toilets for the ladies. Go figure. While Steve was in the restroom, Max and I headed for the cache that was in the rest area. First find of the trip, and the only Ohio find of the trip as well. A nice picnic lunch and then on we went.
Went through Akron and we were able to see (from the interstate) the main Goodyear plant where Steve had done an internship while in college. Kept on going - soon made it into Pennsylvania. The interstate was getting more scenic - and we were getting ready to stop. Finally made it to our first campground, stop for the night, at Clearfield, Pennsylvania. The campsite turned out to be mainly an RV park - we were put into a pull through site near many RVs, made us feel pretty small. Very friendly owners, they even gave Max a dog biscuit when we checked in. (Max isn't into hard biscuits, picky little thing that he is, but it was a nice gesture nonetheless.)
Set up camp and cooked our first dinner of the trip. Hamburgers and mashed potatoes on the Coleman stove. It was soon dark, we would find darkness came earlier and earlier the further east we were. Since the campground had wifi, I was able to catch up on my email and facebook in the camper since we had brought an electrical cord that let me charge the iPod.
Max slept between us, on his dog bed. There was just enough room for him there. We kept him attached to the cable which gave him plenty of freedom inside the camper but would keep him from running off if he did somehow get outside. He was content to stay with us though, so the cable wasn't really needed but we used it anyway.
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