A Trip Across the USA
Jon Vermilye's Photo Page
April 25 - We're Off!
We left at the crack of 11:30AM - Hey, it's a vacation, we are practicing
sleeping late. It rained off & on, mostly on, for the entire trip. Stopped
at Letchworth State Park - lots of water going over the falls, but dull skies & too
much rain to do anything worthwhile. I'll include one image below, but I hope
to get better ones either on the way back or later this summer.
We took NY 19 out of Letchworth to PA 6 to PA 66 through the Allegheny National Forest to PA 322 - stopped overnight at the Motel 8 in Clarion, PA. I know, we are suppose to be camping, but with all the money we saved not renting an RV, any time it is raining, under 40 degrees, or even just because we feel like it, we will hit a motel.
Lets hope we can drive out of the rain tomorrow.
April 26 - Day 2
We were breakfasted and on the road by 8:45AM. So much for sleeping late! It rained off & on all morning, but cleared to partly cloudy by late afternoon.
The GPS is an idiot! Actually, it is the Street Atlas 2004, not the GPS that has problems. It has few options as to the type of roads it plans your route around. Your choices are standard, preferred & avoid for classes of roads such as Interstate, State, County & Local, etc. If you pick avoid, it will always find a way to stay off the class of road, even if it takes you miles out of your way. I can accept that, but the preferred category is hard to use. I chose national, state, and local roads preferred, and it directed me off the main road (Ohio Rt 7) I was on up & down almost every street in the first town we came to, then, on the other side of town, back on Rt 7. There does not seem to be a practical method to stay on a chosen route until you want to get off it. Would make sense to me...
We stopped & ate lunch on a side road along the Ohio River. Lots of industry along the river, including a town called Industry which, for some strange reason, has lots of industry. We Drove 397 miles so we are a bit ahead of the planned schedule. That will give us a chance to do more stops along the way. One of our stops today is in Portsmouth, Ohio, the town we are staying in tonight. They have a flood wall along the river, and rather than leaving it as a large blank concrete "thing" they painted it with murals of the history of Ohio & the area. There are around 52 panels, each about 15' X 30' and very well executed by Robert Dafford of Lafayette, LA over a 10 year period from 1992 - 2002. I included a photo of one of the images as well a shot down a section of the wall.
Since our stuff is organized to work out of the van rather than suitcases ( much better for camping) we prefer to stay in motels that have pull up outside corridors which seem to becoming a rare item. We stayed in the 4 Keys Motel in Portsmouth. An interesting place; Cheap & the good news - Our car didn't get stolen & we didn't get shot! Actually, everything was clean, but a bit worn, including the neighbors.
|
|
|
| Letchworth Middle Falls in the Rain | Portsmouth, Ohio's Flood Wall Murals | One of the Panels |
April 27 - Day 3
Another early day - on the road by 8:30. Continued along the Ohio River through Ohio & Indiana. Missed a wonderful picture of a barn in mist against the hills on the way out of Portsmouth. There was no place to pull off the road. Oh well, photos of fog & mist rarely look as good as the real thing. I did get a chance to photograph a tug & barge going up the river. I don't know how they manage to get them through the locks & around the bends.
Indiana Rt 66 (state, not US 66) along the river is beautiful, but I don't recommend it for anyone that suffers from motion sickness - many curves & ups & downs. Gas prices have been interesting. So far every stop has been less expensive than Oswego @ $1.87 per gallon. The prices were $1.89 at the start of Rt 66, so as we came out of the hills we found a station @ $1.75. Filled up, and 2 miles later it was $1.54. Now, only 30 miles further it is back up to $1.80.
Stopped for the night in Evansville, Indiana after 395 miles. We are now one day ahead of schedule, which gives us a free day to do something. Sounds great. Since it is going to frost tonight, we are in the HomeLife Studios & Suites. Inexpensive, and a beautiful room. Another plus is a Ethernet connection in the lobby. If it works, I will post these updates tonight.
Take care & I'll update the pages the next chance I get!
 |
A Tug & it's Barges on the Ohio River |
This page is maintained by: vermilye@oswego.edu
Last Update:
March 25, 2012