Seven Days, Seven Towns, 1400 miles

I spent most of the last week on the road, travelling through four states (NY, VT, NJ and PA), mostly for my new job, but with a side vacation including a visit to rednoodlealien and her husband. It was hectic, but a great week.

	Northway I started the trip in Brooklyn early Thursday morning, heading to Plattsburgh. I took the Thruway to Albany and continued on the Northway. As the sun came up it lit up the mountains before reaching the road.
	Plattsburgh I got to Plattsburgh around lunchtime. Most signs, including exit signs on the Northway, are in both French and English, since Montreal is so close.
	Downtown Plattsburgh
	Lake Champlain Plattsburgh is on the west side of Lake Champlain, which was partially frozen over (usually at this time of year it’s a solid sheet of ice.)
	Downtown Plattsburgh A view along Margaret Street.
	Singer Sewing Machines There was a store like this near where I grew up but it disappeared long ago. Still alive and kicking in Plattsburgh.
	Ferry On Friday, I took the year-round ferry from Plattsburgh to Grand Isle in the middle of Lake Champlain. Normally an icebreaker keeps a channel clear for the ferry, but it wasn’t necessary.
	Grand Isle Causeway From Grand Isle, I drove down Route 2, across the remainder of the lake and into Burlington.
	Burlington, VT The sun came out for a while at the end of the day in Burlington.
	Burlington Waterfront The lake should have been frozen over in January, but not with the warm weather.
	Burlington waterfront After sunset, we met with rednoodlealien at a nice but crowded coffee shop, bought some used CDs, and had dinner.
	Covered Bridge on Saturday we drove down Route 100 from Underhill to Killington. This covered bridge is near Lincoln, VT.
	Warning Sign The rescue squad apparently got tired of making trips to the falls somewhere in the late 1970s.
	Moss Glen Falls A raging torrent, thanks to the rain and snow melt. Unusual for this time of year.
	Icicles On Route 100 in Vermont.
	Snow! Saturday was warm and rainy until nightfall; we came out of the restaurant after dinner to find snow falling instead of rain. By Sunday morning the temperature was in the single digits and there was at least six inches of snow on the ground.
	Vermont Stream But the streams were still swollen and nowhere near freezing.
	Barn Along Route 4 near Killington.
	Salt? What Salt? Vermont does not use much road salt, so even by late in the day on Sunday, the roads were still dangerous. Note the highway in the foreground. Yes, that’s a highway. When you reach the border of New York State, you immediately hit a clear dry road.
	A Street. Tuesday morning, I headed out to Sunbury, PA, just north of Harrisburg. These streets are just outside town. The next street is not called “Another Street,” but “B Street.”
	Susquehanna Railroad Bridge Sunbury is right along the Susquehanna.
	Alleged Profile Supposedly, you can see the profile of Shikellamy (an Iroquois leader in the area back in the 18th century) in this photo.
	Flood Wall This wall blocks the view of the river from Front Street in Sunbury, but the newspaper office has photos of the river up so high they’re sandbagging the top of the wall.
	Downtown Sunbury The Hotel Edison, where electric light was first used to illuminate a building.
	Sunbury Back Streets A row of old houses, mostly offices.

We came home on Monday, and then on Tuesday morning I headed out to Sunbury again, leaving there on Tuesday night for Middletown, but staying over in Wilkes-Barre because the wind and rain were picking up and the temperature was dropping. Wednesday morning was warm, but still rainy and windy, but I made it to Middletown with little trouble, which is more than people coming from New York City could say: in addition to the spectacular tanker-truck explosion on the BQE earlier in the week, overturned trucks and high winds closed the George Washington, Tappan Zee and Newburgh bridges on Wednesday, forcing drivers to head to Bear Mountain (or get a kayak) in order to get over the Hudson River.

It’s nice to be back in Brooklyn, but it was great fun, especially in the new Subaru Forester I bought a couple of weeks ago (pictured, on the Grand Isle ferry, in the user icon).