Terrific stuff, thanks for sharing.

You're welcome, Nit. Thank you for the compliment.

Today, woke up at the top of Maine (I saw it referred to as the "crown" on a sign yesterday--never heard that). Not a ridiculously early wake-up like camping, was in til almost 6.

Got to the end of the road again.







Crossed into Canada. The border agent quizzed me for a while, but not terrible. He did ask twice if I had any weapons. USA #1!

I told him how I'd gotten a new passport just before COVID hit, so it's pretty empty. He said he could stamp it, but must've forgotten.

He mentioned that a road had washed out, so I might want to go toward Quebec. Planning to do that anyway, but thanked him for the info.

While still in New Brunswick, came across Lac Baker Park.



Which had some interesting sculptures



And this building. Don't understand why the door was installed if it's an open building.

[Crap, missed copying another. Someone needs to make photo upload work in edit mode. Below.]

Then up the road to Quebec. Came upon St Marc du Lac Long



I noticed in Quebec, the road signs are in French only (apparently travaux means construction or some such).

Later, when scanning the radio stations, happened across the first couple notes of Limelight by Rush. This happens to be my favorite song, so I listened. The DJ started babbling over the record when it went into the guitar solo. Wonder what Zeno would think of this.

BTW, the road signs in NB are French/English.

Anyway, turned off at Grand Falls to start heading east, wanting to hit the other maritimes.



There's nothing but forests in the middle of NB. Not many side roads, but I found one, made my quick lunch per usual. It's like this a lot.



Crossed the Tobique River



At one point on this provincial highway, there was a sign that sad 137 km to next gas. That seems like a significant part of the width. Pounded along through the woods, hitting occasional rain.

Didn't see a name sign for this river.



Upon getting back to the other side, took a wrong turn to stay in the emptiness instead head toward the coast.

Saw this by Doaktown.



Not the end of the world, but I was getting hungry, and none of the little villages I went through had an obvious food place. Fortunately, I pack some snack bars, so that got me through. Found my way to the Trans-Canada highway, which is built like an interstate. Surely there will be something before long.

Went almost 100 km without an exit, much less a town. Reminded me of Wyoming with trees.

Eventually got to Moncton, found a room in the Days Inn. Went looking for something to eat. Normally I try to avoid the stuff I can get any time, but that was all I saw, so hit the PFK/KFC. It was everything you expect.

There's a casino across the main street from the hotel, so I checked that out on the way back. Some table games, but mostly machines, and no poker room. Nah, I think I'll just hang out here.

Worked out kind of good the rain kept me from camping. Looked at the website for tolls to PEI. I don't have any Canadian money, wanted to see if I had to hit the bank first. $50.25 for two axles. Sure, it's CDN, but that's still a lot. The website mentions a passenger shuttle fare, which is only $4.75. There's some chance I'll go down just to shuttle over, walk around a little, just to say I've been there. But I imagine there's a fare as well as the bridge toll, probably not worth it.

Anyway, tomorrow should be turnaround day. If nothing else, wander to Nova Scotia, then back to USA #n.

Hopefully can sleep in some tomorrow; the hotel-provided breakfast doesn't start until 7.

Lol was there garage doors or something? They must put up some type of panels in the colder months.

At my work in the manufacturing areas they’ll keep the garage doors up but you’re required to go through the doors. Apparently one time on one of our facilities the garage door collapsed on someone.

Could've been that. I thought about that but forgot to check before I left.

Also last night realized I'll get the occasional 25 hour day now. Today was the first one, going from Atlantic to Eastern.

Woke up in Moncton, NB to more fog. Decided I'd head toward Nova Scotia and see if things cleared up.

They didn't. Could see that I wasn't going to see anything, so turned around. Back up in Moncton, things had cleared.

So I decided to detour to the southern coast, to Saint John. Foggy there too. Didn't see like much to see. Headed out, which also means up. Near Grand Bay I caught my last sight of the Atlantic for a while.



Drove up to Fredericton, where I stopped at a tourist info office which had a little path into a swamp, woodsy area. Walked with my lunch along the path and saw a giant beaver.



Continued on the Trans-Canada highway. At one point, I noticed a new display: Engine water norm, oil temp 217, forget the third. This just popping up made me nervous. But, there was a little graph on each piece, and oil temp was on the high end of cool, not nearly into the red. Kept an eye on that.

Got to customs to see this.



TBF, it was about 12:30 Maine time, so probably lunch break. Cars seemed to be moving about every five minutes, so it looked like a long wait. But, about 12:45, they opened a second line.

I expected every other car to go into that line. Nobody was moving, so I went over there, probably got about seventh in line. Customs guy asked me a couple standard questions, asked me to roll down the driver's side back window and took a peek, then bade me safe travels.

Gas was $1.639 CDN/liter in Canada, so I got to the border pretty low. Mildly worried about running out before the next town, but the second line made that a non-issue.

Found the start of a new road.



Some nice scenes along US 2. Don't have my notebook, and can't be bothered to walk back up to the car. I think this was Smyrna, ME.



Can't remember the name of this place, but it kinda looks like New England Wire & Cable's building. Free beer to the first who gets that reference, without looking of course.







Stopped in Lincoln for something to eat, and googled up campsites near Bangor. Thus, I find myself in the Cool River Campground in Brewer, ME. It's pretty nice, free wifi and an airconditioned little laundry to give an update.

It's hot here. ~92 this afternoon. Hope it cools off enough that the tent won't be too bad. Good shade, I think it will be ok. Plus, I have beer in the cooler.



Tomorrow's plan is to keep going west on US 2 through Maine, NH, Vermont, then start SW. Perhaps go through Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame. Turn right at Cleveland.

Oh yeah, I keep thinking of things I meant to mention while driving, then forget when I have access.

On my other trips, it's usually ~10-15 days til I'm tired of being on the road and am ready to turn around. That didn't really hit til the fourth or fifth this time.

I can tell when I start getting more worried about 'making time' rather than seeing the sights.

I think it's a good sign that I lasted longer. Perhaps growing a bit more patient.

Half a good day, half bad.

Awoke early as usual and left the campground. Driving along, saw this



I guess that's a sign they don't have many fires?

More nice scenery across Maine







Paul & Babe popular up there, as they were where I grew up



Getting hungry late morning, was going to stop somewhere around the ME/NH border. Just before that, noticed a small sign that pointed to a covered bridge, and thought that could be nice. It was kind of meh. The bridge is now just a walkway over the river at a swimming hole, so it was kinda noisy.

On the way down the road, there was a Maine ski "mountain".



No. Just no.

Got into New Hampshire, and took the Mt. Washington auto road. It was clouding as I went, so I rolled the dice that the $45 toll wouldn't go to waste. Kind of a tense drive. The road's pretty narrow and really steep in spots. But, me & the Subie made it up there. On the way up, had the windows open. As one car passed going down, could smell them burning up their brakes. Hope they made it ok.

Got up there, and it started to rain, with the occasional breakthrough. So, no great photographic experience.



I did not know this is on the Appalachian Trail. I guess I've hiked a few feet of the AT now.



They have a little cog train, for those that want to do that, as well as a van shuttle.



Here's when the sun tried to break through









But mostly the rain just got steadier as I went downhill. So, that scrapped plans to take a few of the short hikes in the national forest a ranger had advised me of earlier.

Along the way west, came across this



No sign explaining it. Looking on the interwebs, the idea is that it was built in the 1800s as a fire watch tower.

Then finally,



That's 49. I guess I'll have to find an excuse to go to North Carolina now. Maybe see a Panthers game, I understand lots of seats are available.

Vermont was cloudy and rainy all the way across. Kept looking for a reasonable hotel room. Apparently, Vermont doesn't allow budget hotels. Either crackhead level, or $200+/night.

Sigh. Well, here I am. Sad dog. In the scheme of things, unlikely to make a difference in my life.

It'll be fine, just a little frustrated.

Just head south and pick up Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway to knock out North Carolina while you're on that side of the world I'll swap you North Carolina for Hawaii; that's the only one I'm missing. Tough road trip from here.

We drove up Mt Washington several years ago. Got there very early to minimize the chances of someone impeding us on the way up. Wheeee!!! I can't even imagine those guys who set the records driving to the top.

The wind was blowing so hard at the top that I thought it was going to blow our doors off their hinges when we got out of the car. And blowing snow--in early October. Cold as hell! But we were really glad we drove it rather than taking the cog railroad. Afterward we drove around sightseeing and when we came back by about 2pm or so there was a line of cars probably a half-mile or longer waiting to go up the mountain. IIRC it was Columbus Day weekend, which is a bigger deal in that part of the country than I realized.

Great pics! Sounds like a great trip except for a couple of speed bumps.

i'm not sure how the hell i didn't discover this golddog thread until today
but here sit waiting until his next post.

Yep, that's it in context. As I was checking in last night and mildly blowing off steam about why Vermont doesn't have any mid-range hotels (this seems to be literally true), there was another woman standing near the desk.

As part of the conversation, I said that travel is about experiences, and getting stories. Sometimes the story is, "well, ****, Lufthansa went on strike the day I was to return." And sometimes it's, "And the lion walked not four feet from out truck!" Frustrating in the moment, but we get over it.

Anyway, did not sleep well inside. I think I tend to stay up later taking advantage of the interwebs, but still get up with the sun. I guess that's my burden.

So took off. Went up US 2, which takes you through the Lake Champlain area.





Kind of a crummy morning. Crossed over into NY to get to this.



I've now driven all of US 2 (It's mostly in the west, from the UP to Everett, WA. What I drove the last couple days is the eastern segment, from Houlton, ME to Rouses Point, NY).. As mentioned last summer, I grew up 2 1/2 blocks from this highway; it's always been "my" road.

Did not realize customs was right there (looking right at the intersection just past the above).



I do believe the border is a few miles up though.

Plowed south on I 87 through the Adirondacks. They're nice, but the combination of tired and bad light made me not want to go picture hunting. The couple of stops I did make weren't particularly scenic, but it was all nice.

Eventually got to Albany. Did some bad map reading and went through town to connect to the westbound route I wanted. I think I saw the state capital, but not sure. More like some ugly office buildings. Albany looked pretty rough, mostly.

Get a ways west, and found a campsite. Did some laundry, have a few things draped over the car seats that weren't quite dry (mostly the towels).

Problem is, I'm really tired, but the thing I want to see nearby doesn't open until 9. Not sure how I'm going to fill the time between waking and it opening, or how I'm gong to stay up late enough to reduce that difference.

Looked at the atlas while laundry was running. I think I'll be on the interstate mostly between here and Cleveland, although tomorrow's activity is likely most of a day ,so will get out of town late.

Then through to DSM & Omaha to visit some pals from my life back there. Probably another week or so on the road.

based on that post it sounds more like you woke up next to lake complain
i'll be quiet now

Hah! We all have our days, I suppose.

Damn free wifi. Had a nice write up, failed to post.

Went to baseball HOF in Cooperstown this AM. Nice, almost overwhelming there's so much to see.

Now starting to make some miles back towards my land.

First, the campground I stayed in just north of Cooperstown was nice.



There was a little pond past the tent area. When coming back from a walk, two people had let their dogs splash around in there, including two gold dogs, so scratches were given all around.

Campground set in a pastoral area.





Did get up late (for me). Sun was already up by the time I rolled out around 6:30. Cleaned up, packed up, a nice cool morning. Went into town to have breakfast. While in there, it started raining. What better way to pass a rainy morning than the baseball Hall of Fame?

Parked over here.



Which is a few blocks away. Learned later that this is the high school's home field, and occasional other events. They used to have an exhibition with ex-MLers, but the guy wasn't sure if that was still going on or not.

There's a lot, lot, lot to see in the museum. They had different areas for displaying different parts of the game (record, latin influence, women in baseball, and many others).

Of course, I gravitated toward things from my memory. They had a whole area dedicated to Hank Aaron. Here's the jersey from #715



Oddly enough, they had the bats from #714 and #716 displayed, but not #715.

And here's the consecutive games played record display.



But not exclusively



They have a 'locker room' where each team is represented with various stuff.

My adopted team



and original



The Pine Tar incident. In case you can't tell, they have the TV coverage on that little monitor.



Rollie Fingers' Brewers jersey from 1981 (?), when he won both MVP and Cy Young. Right around the peak of my fandom.

Babe Ruth's retirement uniform



I liked that they weren't always just a stuffy keeper of records and memorabilia. In an area with art being exhibited, they had this



I think it was titled, "Factory Rejects" or some such.

Here's the plaques. They have a bunch of these alcoves, each one containing several plaques (and thus crossing several years).



This is at the head of the room



I found some of my boyhood heroes (Molitor, Fingers, Yount) and other important people (Robinson, Aaron) too. Here's the wall where Yount is displayed.



Above, George Brett. Left, Nolan Ryan. That's a pretty good start.

Later on, they had a display about baseball in the movies. Quite a bit of stuff, but none of the pictures turned out, all fuzzy. Of course Robbins' Durham Bulls jersey, Redford's Roy Hobbs jacket, and Jackie Earle Haley's uniform from The Bad News Bears.

Just outside, saw a display for the Ford Frick award (announcing excellence) and found Bob Uecker's display. Some outside art too



Didn't go measure to check if it's 60'6"

Here's what it looks like



Cooperstown is a tourist trap because of this. The main drag (~4 blocks) stuffed with souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants. But, that's part of the deal going to a place like this. Hell, Idaho Springs is a tourist trap, and they don't have a hall of fame (I think).

After lunch, started heading SW. After a couple hours of driving, came across the Tioga Downs casino. Thought about it, decided I'd be OK with stopping early if they had a room, but made that decision too late to make the exit. This worked out ok, as the next town down was one of my ex-neighbors surname, so I got to text them the welcome sign as I turned around.

Anyway, back to the casino, but the hotel was full. Walked by the poker room anyway to stretch my legs. One game, currently 8-handed, of something. Didn't want to jump in and then try to find a room somewhere late, so didn't even check the game or stakes.

Looking at the players, I'm pretty sure I would've taken them for about $150 in a session, so I'm going to log that when I get back. That's reasonable, right?

Continued along, occasional rain, so not a camping night. Pulled off at a little town called Bath, found a motel, and here I am.

Idaho Springs had a family before this post happened

Cloudy over in NY. Seemed like just as I hit PA, it cleared.

Blasted through Cleveland, now at a Quaker Steak & Lube on the marina in Vermilion. Super nice day to sit on the dock and have some wings.

Those uniform displays with feet and shoes but no head or arms kinda freaking me out.

And definitely count at least $150 for your non loss in poker!

I've started just pounding out miles because I'm ready to get home, and someone back there let me know they could use my assistance. Nothing critical on the latter, more that I'm ready, and that's an excuse. So, I've passed on some nice, pastoral, midwest scenery.

Here's the lunch view



Kinda reminds me of the sailing trips I got to on, mentioned upthread. Except I didn't drink, as I was driving.

Down the road, saw this in someone's yard in Sandusky as I was passing by.





Not sure you can tell from the detail, but they have the bark like it is on palm trees. Really good work, I want some of that in my yard. Disappointed in myself that I didn't think til down the road that I should've rung their bell, or leave a note, or something, to tell them how cool I thought their yard was.

Oddly enough, this was the next town, not far away.



"No, I said I wanted a vacation to Margaritaville!"

Another nice campsite in NE Indiana



Except for the dumbasses who didn't teach their bastard children not to yell in public, especially at dusk and after dark in a campground.

This morning, cruised across Indiana. When I connected to I90, that meant I'd completed driving all of US6, from Bishop, CA to Providence, MA, over the years. Another one of "my" highways, as it runs through Denver and DSM. In fact, I lived right on US 6 for a short time in DSM, though it's known locally as Merle Hay Road.

After navigating the crush of traffic, I got off the highway and saw this place.



where these guys spent some time



The actual gate that Jake (and me) walked through



It's now a museum with a self-guided tour. That didn't sound too interesting to me, as they're more focused on the prison's history than The Blues Brothers. Apparently Prison Break was filmed here too. The people at the tour desk told me that gate wasn't working when they wanted to film, so the warden got the film company to pony up to fix it, then gave them one take (since it was an active prison at the time).

Just down the street, there's an auto parts store with a pretty cool mural



The tour desk people also told me of a museum in downtown Joliet with this display. Since it was on my way, I checked it out.



Supposedly some of the actual suits from the film.

At this point, I'm planning to go to Des Moines to visit some pals from my life there, but took a detour through Dubuque. While up that way, I noticed that the road took me within a few miles of Wisconsin, so I popped in, just to add to the 'states visited on this trip' count.

On the way back, I saw this by the side of the road.



Figuring nobody would mind too much, I climbed the gate to get a closer look.



Some fun public art. It looked like the ray gun thing on the bottom and some of the other pieces might light up at night.

Anyway, along this detour, I saw a nice old farmhouse.



They had this, too.





Sadly, they had some of that green plastic snow fencing along the outfield. I was hoping to pull a Terence Mann and just disappear.

Also, it's surprisingly tough to figure out how to take decent pictures of a baseball field.

Sadly, a late-80s version of Amy Madigan did not make an appearance.

From there, I plowed along toward DSM. Stopped and got a room near the casino. Played for about an hour, picked up $13. What do you guys think of this?

I think we're six or seven handed at this point. $1/$2. First hand, I make a WTF call with QJo to try to show I'm here to play. IIRC, it was straddled, I wandered into a J high flop, bet, one caller, checked down and I won.

The second hand, though, frustrated me. Remember, I've never played here before, no idea of the style. OTB with A2ss. two callers before me, I elect to call, SB calls, BB bets $16. Seems like a lot.

First two players in call, I think and fold, SB folds. Of course, flop is A28 r, BB bets out $25 and takes it down. I wonder if I should've called with the small suited A, getting > 3:1.

Back now. Will have a writeup of the last couple days later.

Also will likely dribble out things I realize I forgot to mention for a while.

That trip report ended like a John Grisham novel.

Enjoyed following along. Looking forward to reading the final installment(s)!

I'm not sure if that's a good thing; don't know Grisham. I'm glad you enjoyed reading!

As many of you know, I went to school and got stuck for quite a few years afterward in Des Moines. The hotel/casino night was out in a suburb, on the NE corner of the metro area.

Despite being up late for cards, was awoken by thunder about six and couldn't get back to sleep. Not a strong thunderclap, just rolling thunder off in the distance. For whatever reason, there's rarely thunderstorms here in Denver.

I used to live in the NW corner, so headed over to the Jiffy Lube I used to go to. On the way there, though, the rain became torrential for ~ 4 miles of I 35/80. I meam, 25 mph, wipers on full blast, can't make out the lane markings, pouring down rain. Plowed through and had the Lubeians take care of the Subie.

From there, drove down to the old campus. Got to see my dorm is still there. As expected for the summer, doors locked. I would've liked to have walked down the floors I used to live on, but NBD.



A new (to me) statue with Old Main



Drake's done a lot of updating and renovations since my years, and even since I left town. When I was in school, it was a not-very-good part of town (for DSM). That's mostly been urban-renewaled into businesses, nicer apartments, new facilities for the school, blah, blah, blah.

At some point this spring, I was digging through a closet and found a box with a couple Drake things I hadn't looked at in many years; a program from the Drake/AAA Classic, and a cap I had from working the breakfast line as a student.

The Drake/AAA Classic was a short-lived four-team Men's BB tournament during the time I was student manager. This particular year, Georgia was an invitee. The prior year, they were a Final Four team.



Anyway, I asked at a marketing office I found in Old Main, who told me there's a archivist in the library. Went there totally expecting them to say, "no, this is trash," but they said how cool these items were. Maybe just midwest nice, and they went in the garbage as soon as I left.

From there, wandered around the athletic facilities, thinking I could leave a note for the BB coach, telling hime I was passing through town, and how much I appreciated him returning Drake to competitiveness (well, for the Valley). It was a long time around and after the years I was in school that Drake was fielding bottom dwellers. It's nice to have a reason to follow them.

Still shoulda beat Miami. Couldn't finish, they did.

Anyway, from there I buzzed out to WDM to meet my friends Dave and Karen, and see their latest house. Quite nice, got to meet Flynn, the 7 month old Bearnese/poodle mix (quite excitable, but a good boy) and see the 67 Corvair that Dave bought last year. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of any of it.

We went for lunch and met another old co-worker, so spent a few hours catching up. That was nice.

From there, buzzed over toward Omaha. Right before the land drops off to the river flood plain, there's this scenic view tower.



I guess it's scenic in kind of a pastoral way.



Also have a friend who lives in western Omaha, so got hold of him and let him know I was close. When I got to his exit off Dodge, he came up and we went to a bar and grill around the corner for a burger and to catch up.

That was great, every time I'd been though the last several years, something kept us from connecting--schedule, someone's sick, whatever. Really nice to see Scott again and hear about the family.

Stayed the night in Branched Oak recreational area, kind of NW of Lincoln. It was pretty nice.



I was the only person in the campground. Nice an quiet. While putting the chair away just after sundown, I noticed the grass was already damp. Hmm, seems strange to have dew at 9:00PM.

It was far enough out that the stars were out pretty good when I got up in the night. While getting out of the tent, I noticed that the rain fly was pretty wet. More than condensation. Also, the first time I'd had condensation drip on me inside the tent. Not much, maybe 10-12 drops total that I noticed. Back to sleep til today.

it is easy to image your experience from this description.
might just be the kick in the ass i need to get back out and car camp.

Woke up to fog.



Well, that explains the dampness. Took a bit longer than usual to pack up, trying to wipe that off the tent and rain fly at least decently before rolling them up. They're currently on the front porch railing drying.

Sunrise in NE. Pick your favorite.





Kind of rainy across most of Nebraska. A little break here & there, then some more rain.

When I crossed the North Platte river, it was full.



Usually, it's one of those "a mile wide and four inches deep" series of meandering streams, not completely covering the riverbed.

Just going around North Platte, there was a zone where they had the upright bars between the lanes of traffic. Must've drifted, caught one with my mirror. Seems like the only damage was that it knocked off a piece of trim. Kinda frustrated, it's still a pretty-new car (I think today might be the two-year date). I may go to a junkyard and see if I can find one and figure out how to remove/install it. Kinda looks like a snap-in-place piece of plastic.

Went over to Ole's Big Game Steakhouse in Paxton for lunch. It's a midwestern bar & restaurant, good steaks, burgers, chicken, that kind of thing. Ole was this guy from BFE Nebraska who, back in the 40s and 50s, went all over the world hunting, and his trophies are on display here. Needless to say, not for the PETA crowd. I admire him though. Imagine how difficult it must've been back in those days to get from Paxton, NE to the Yukon or Africa or whatever.

Anyway, when you enter, there's this.



I was given the first booth. As you can see, there's also tons of photos he took and wrote info on about what it was scattered about.

Some stuff in the other room



From there, it was pretty much a drive into Denver. Got home, went to the post office to grab mail & restart, unpacked the car, and made a sandwich for dinner. Did some unpacking, but pretty tired. I expect it to be an early night, and the real unpacking (laundry, cleaning the car, etc) begins tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone for reading, I appreciate the comments.

Here's just some general stuff.

Miles driven: 7580.2
Days: 23
MPG: 34.8
Gallons of fuel saved by the engine shut-off when stopped: 2.227*
States visited (new to me in bold): 18 (CO, KS, MO, IL, IN, OH, PA, NY, NJ, CT, MA, RI, ME, NH, VT, WI, IA, NE).
Provinces: (QC, NB, NS)
Showerless days: 2 (oddly enough, the first and last days on the road. Private campground all have facilities, and most state parks do.)

Saw gas as low as $2.96 in Ohio, as high as $4+ near Chicago. CDN$1.629/l in Canada, so I only got enough to get back.

Frustrated that I couldn't find camping a couple really nice nights. Also frustrated by Vermont's apparent "no mid-range hotels" policy. Glad I missed the flooding, hope people are doing OK. Didn't know about it til yesterday morning. It was on in the hotel's breakfast room. "Wow, I was just there."

Maine is fantastically scenic. Go there. Everything from the coast, to up north, to the western woods is nice in it's own way.

Be wary driving east-west on Cleveland's highways. There's a couple of sudden, sharp turns where you go from 60+ to 35 quickly.

Great to see John and Mike again, that was the highlight of the trip.

Be OK with never going to Boston again. Don't like loud, crowded places to begin with.

I was surprised at how large people are in the midwest and northeast. I'd forgotten.

I'm sure there will be more forthcoming.

*One of the few things I don't like about the Subie. I applaud the idea, just seems poorly executed. Sometimes it doesn't shut off when stopped, because the engine's too cold. Or too hot. Or doesn't feel like it. When it does stop, seems like it clicks back on way too easily (shifting weight in the seat. No idea why the trigger isn't "the brake is released>", and nothing else.