Another long day of driving for us, 12 hours on the road. We drove through the mountains of WVa and into Maryland, through Pennsylvania and New York.
I have always had such preconceived ideas of what Pennsylvania and New York were like but this trip and the route I took this time ate those ideas right up. Not only were they not smoggy and all cement and ugliness, but absolutely beautiful. The mountains were large, covered with trees and rounded, lushness and varying shades of green were all around us.
Not only was it not crowded and packed with human activity, it was spacious with long stretches of no houses or buildings. Did I mention it was breathtakingly beautiful?
We put away the Garmin early on, she had got us lost too many times because she kept losing her signal. I had packed my Tom Tom so we got it out and the nice british lady took over. Her directions kept us on track and we drove without incident. Between the 3 of us drinking lots of water, we visited just about every rest area along the path between Falling Waters WV and Vermont.
Corgan was co-pilot, manning the paper map and as we got closer to Vermont on the map, he kept telling me we were already there. But the road had changed from interstate to small country road along quaint little stretches of incredible landscapes. We turned left as advised by our British lady and found ourselves in a line of other cars. It was too small of a road to even pass so we sat there a moment and then were boxed in by other cars behind us.
It appeared we weren't in Vermont yet after all. In fact, we had to ferry across the Charlamaine to get there.
The next worry was if we were too late to get a ferry across as it was already approaching 5 pm and we had no idea when the last one ran. Luckily, when we got closer, we saw that it was 9:30pm.
The cars started going in and they looked like they were about to close the gate when Corgan asked the man if we could possibly get onboard too. I had already called Laura and told her we would be there within the hour. The British lady had our time down pretty precise, just failed to mention the little thing about a ferry.
They squeezed us in with literally just inches on either side of cars and motorcycles already loaded.
Once we started moving, I let PeeWee out and he looked back and saw the water moving behind us and I was worried he would think it was the ocean again and try to run to it, but I think the movement of the ferry had him stumped. He was happy just to stand there and let people ooh and ahh over him for a bit.
Once on solid ground again we made it through the small towns of Vermont on to our destination. It could not have been more perfect.
Laura and her family live on a mountain surrounded by deep and peaceful woods. With 2small children, they will need the spacious home as those little boys grow older. The house sits off an unpaved road and blends in with its natural surroundings. It is multi story and has a master bedroom overlook that is perfect for night sky viewing. The night skies are fantastic here, no light pollution at all! It has been so long since I have seen the milky way so brilliant and easily visible. I wanted to just stay outside for a while, but my weary eyes and body begged for that soft bed that was awaiting me.
When I turned the bedroom light off, it was as if I had no eyes at all. I could see absolutely nothing. The darkness was complete and total. It was wonderful.
It is so cool here, even in the summer, that they don't even have a need for their air conditioner. The whole house fan keeps it not only cool, but continually pulls that fresh mountain air in. It is indescribable. My window was open, no worries about gangs or some idiot down the street going beserk. My only thought as I went to sleep was "I wonder if that bear that comes here in the spring comes in July." Then, bear or not, I slept.
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