I've been a little embarassed by my blog entries lately. They started out with me doing so exciting, with me finding all sorts of great adventures. Lately, not so much. Today is no exception. I drove a lot, but that's about it. I'm in a new state though. That's exciting, right? :)
I had a lot of time to think about things while I was sick, and I realized in a lot of ways I'm sorta over this trip. I realized that when I was looking at hikes in the Adirondacks, and even after seeing beautiful pictures of waterfalls and things it all looked a bit "boring". That's all I could think of it as, which is sooooo not me. Maybe I just OD'ed on pretty nature hikes by myself. There's only so many pictures you can take of pretty mountains, trees, and water. Which is a lot of what I have planned for this trip.
I was actually feeling so over it that I considered jumping on the interstate and heading home. But I wasn't quite ready to do that....so I thought I'd head home and hit some fun scenic stuff along the way. But the more I thought about it the more I realized I have a lot of places I'd still like to see. So, the idea now is that I'm going to keep at it but try to make a little more foward progress. I've gotta accept that I can't see everything and stop trying to. I think a lot of my frustration has been coming from everything being repetitive and not moving much.
So that's the plan....so far I'm not too good at it. It's really hard for me to pass things up, even if I know they probably won't be all that interesting. Anyway, today was mostly a driving day, but I took a few scenic distractions. From Burlington, I headed north across the islands through Lake Champlain. That was pretty cool at first because there were lots of spots with lake on both sides. Then the islands got wider and it was mostly farmland, which was really strange and not expected.
I stopped on one of the islands for a great lunch spot. Actually, the food wasn't very good, but the place had the character to make up for it. All their sandwiches were based off of a famous person. My personal favorite was the Obama Wrap, which was "a whole new kind of sandwich. Not just a change of lettuce." Most of my sandwich ended up falling on the floor of my car as I was unwrapping it, so it was a small lunch. I briefly considered eating it anyway but there was all kinds of nastiness on it! (And it fell apart as it fell so the dirt got on everything.)
Once I got into New York, I stayed on the interstate for a bit and then went back on to the state highways to head to Lake Placid. I really didn't have a whole lot of reason for going to Lake Placid, I just wanted to get off the interstate. I've realized that I really don't like the interstate unless I have a specific destination I want to get to quickly. Even if I don't stop anywhere, I really like getting to see what towns look like and where people live. It's amazing some of the little towns that are out there, and where people live that I would've never thought about (like the little Vermont island farming town today).
When I got to Lake Placid I went to their Olympic museum, which was pretty cool. Lots of random artifacts from previous olympiads....the old bobsleds were the best. They had some of the first bobsleds there, and they were really really funny looking compared to today's! They looked like little old car/toboggan things. Something like this: http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/pastgames/winterolympics/n214050026.shtml
I also got to see the rink where the "Miracle on ice" happened, as well as the rink from the 1932 olympics. That was cool I guess, but hockey rinks just don't give off that amazing "this is where it happened" feel like some places do. I mean really they all kind of look the same. What I did like is that they had a video of the US vs. Soviet Union game going in the museum. It was really hard not to just stay and watch that! Mostly it all made me realize i'm REALLY excited to play hockey this winter. I miss it and I miss my PC team! They've already started playing games and I so wish I was there.
So from Lake Placid I continued on my random scenic routes until I ended up in Ticonderoga, land of the famous fort and where all the number 2 pencils used to come from. I stopped for dinner at a diner that I'd read about. It's supposed to be one of those surprise amazing places in the middle of nowhere. Well....I didn't have quite as much luck with this one as I did with the lobster roll shack in Maine. First, the stuff I read about it described the breakfasts, so I assumed they had breakfast all the time. No such luck. Their dinner wasn't bad...but it was just typical diner food though really expensive for what it was!
I should've just stayed there for the night since I was getting tired, but I thought that right after dinner was too early to stop. In hindsight I have no idea why I thought that....it was already starting to get dark. Anyway I continued on down the road which I'm sure would've been really pretty...it was right next to the lake, but it was too dark to see much of it. I got to an intersection that would take me back to the interstate. It would end up being a little longer distance wise, but I figured as it was getting dark it'd be better to be on the interstate where it would be better lit and less of a chance of wildlife.
Well...the road I turned on to get to the interstate was as dark as it gets. There was NOTHING out there. It was creepy. Totally dark...no buildings, no nothing....just lots of trees and lots of places where I could totally picture deer jumping out in front of me. And of course it took forever because I was driving so slowly watching for wildlife...though the only wildlife I saw was a few frogs and a lot of bugs. The frogs seemed to have a death wish though!
When I finally got to the interstate it was equally dark. There was more space and lots of little reflectors but no lights and no other cars. When I would see other cars up ahead or coming the other way they looked like they were floating off in space because I couldn't see anything around them. Sooooo....as soon as I made it to a town, which took waaaaaay longer than planned, I got a hotel. I didn't make it to where I'd planned where I knew there was a hostel, but I was really over it. I got a little book of hotel coupons that has $50 hotels in most of the towns around here. That's a lot more than I'd be paying for a camp site or a hostel, but it's doable....at least for now and then. Ironically, it's a beautiful night...strangely warm, especially for it being the first night of fall. I'm up in the mountains and it's going to stay in the 60's tonight! I actually wanted to camp but everything around here was seasonal and closed down...or open but so dark it was creepy. (aka a tent-only campground with no tents....creepy!) Anwyay, I'm staying in one of the smallest hotel rooms ever...it has two beds but there's just barely room for somebody to stand between them. But it's plenty comfy to make me happy. :)
Wow I sure wrote a lot for doing diddly squat today!
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First, you shouldn't be embarrassed by your blog entries. I'm really enjoying reading them -- ALL of them (well, except the ones when you were sick or when you said weren't blogging). It's not so much about WHAT you say as HOW you say it, IMO. (Sorry I missed a couple days; I actually was doing other things for a change and didn't manage to get on here. But that gives me more for tonight, right? LOL!)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's amazing how the most spectacular, beautiful sights can just become kind of routine and boring after a while. When I was a kid, we took a car trip out west. At first, we were very excited by all the beautiful sights. But after a while, they'd lost their sparkle. So, my dad would say to us, "Girls, look at that....mountain, view, whatever...." I'd look up from my book, my sister would look up from whatever she was doing (if she wasn't asleep; my folks gave her Dramamine for her car sickness) and we'd say, "Thank you, Daddy, for showing us that." It's kind of become a joke in our family whenever someone points out a point of interest. LOL.
I can understand wanting to see everything but having to come to grips with the fact that you can't realistically do that. I guess it comes down to which things you want to see the most. Hard to choose, I'm sure. I'm notoriously bad at choosing, until something finally makes me choose one thing over another.
It sounds like you do find the best places to eat at -- lots of character, anyhow. I need to branch out from the places I tend to visit all the time. Funny how I feel sad when a place goes out of business, even if I haven't ever been there.
I like seeing all those little towns, too. Given the choice, I usually take surface streets rather than freeways, for that very reason. When I went to Ohio recently, the route the GPS took me on was a 2 lane road that went through all of this tiny 1 and 2 block towns. (At least, that's all they seemed to be.) They were so cute. I felt like I was in some kind of time warp, going back like 75 years. One of them had signs from several miles out for some restaurant, and when I passed it, it was just this tiny little diner.
Good call on the hotel...it was really warm here that night, too, but I think a deserted campground is creepy, too. Just doesn't sound particularly safe, either. And given what some other hotels cost, that coupon book sounds worth its weight in gold!
Oh, and I really liked those pictures. It's so funny to see how they dressed...love the ties! I think my favorite caption was "The winner Eddie Shea (USA) and another competitor". You'd think they'd have kept a record of who was skating!
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