New England, Day 1

Here's the first chunk of my travel journal. Most of these observations were recorded by me while dad was driving; his notes will be included.

Day 1: Aug. 7, 2008

Interstate 81- Saw three blades for wind turbine, each with its own state trooper escort.

9:15 AM- Crossed from MD into PA. The interstate is very crowded and mostly boring.
1:33 PM- Have been on 209 for a couple hours now. Drove through some very quiet, cool, green national parkland with almost no traffic and have finally stopped in historic Milford, PA for a stretch of the legs and some lunch at the Milford Diner. Back on the road after lunch and we'll be heading toward the big bridge at Newburg before we cross into New York. I'm not at all interested in driving through NYC!
2:15- Finally crossed into NY. 35 miles to the Hudson River Bridge.
2:35- Saw a pair of wild turkeys in the grass at the roadside. While there are wild turkeys at home, I consider this noteworthy because we're on a major highway. Dad is amused that I recorded this.
There are no bathrooms on the Taconic Parkway! Very annoying. Got of the parkway to find a bathroom and ended up driving past Rhinebeck. Was very disappointed that there were no public toilets in Milan and that there was a $5 fee to get into Wilcox Park long enough to just use the bathroom. I declined and we turned around and went through Rhinebeck. Argh.
Got a bit lost, but we're back on track after 40 minutes of fiddling and being lost. My fault. I misread the map. New York is nice, but they definitely need more bathrooms on the parkway!
6:09- (Dad's note) Crossed into VT
6:25- Arrived in Bennington, home of Grandma Moses and Bennington College. Checked into the Catamount Motel, which is where we used to stop when we came through Vermont when I was a kid.
I'm sooooo tired. We covered about 450 miles in ten hours, and that includes my detour to look for a bathroom. Tomorrow we're heading to New Hampshire, and after that, Maine. And after that, we drive like crazy and get home on the 12th, which means we'll be exhausted all over again.
Bennington is nice and quiet. And rainy! We arrived during a thunderstorm, and after dinner we mustered the energy to take a walk downtown and see what's there. I was a little disappointed to discovere that the Naked Sheep yarn shop closed earlier in the year.
I intend to try to visit another shop when we get to NH. Plans might change a little because there's some flooding over by Conway, which is one of the stops we have on the list.
10 PM- *snore*

Notes: I took pictures at Bennington, but the memory card was corrupted... so they didn't turn out. Bennington is a lovely town with an almost Rockwell-ian feel.