282 miles via NY 28, I-88, I-81, I-476, US 22, 222 and 30. Cumulative distance: 606 miles
GTW Hop 3: Milford NY to Gordonville PA
The “B” on the map is our refueling stop, this being the first hop (of very few, I hope) that we could not complete on a single tank of fuel. We can’t assume that any service station will have diesel (though on this hop it seemed to be much more readily available than in MA or NH) and we certainly have to be careful about where we take our huge trailer. So this was a truck stop that was very easy to get into/out of.
This hop was more difficult than it should have been. It started with a sign posted just a couple of miles from our starting point in Milford, NY, on NY 28: “Vehicles over 9′ seek alternate route”. Huh? We had traveled that same road just 2 days before and there were no low bridges, overhanging wires or any other kind of height obstacle. And was it referring to NY 28 or to some other highway (it was posted near an intersection)? It caused us considerable angst, but we made it to I-88 without bumping into anything.
We also ran into a lot of traffic near Scranton and again south of Allentown. Some of the roads were pretty rough (the contents of the coach arrived more jumbled than usual) and we had a major battle going on between Google and the GPS – they diverged widely on which route we should take. We settled for Google as our level of trust in the GPS dropped after the low bridge fiasco. And it got us to our destination unscathed.
The campsite (Country Acres) is very nice and, surprisingly, is nearly full, which is in vivid contrast to the empty Beaver Valley Campground in Milford. Maybe there is a reunion of fallen Amish who now travel the country in Class A’s? The best thing about the site: it has cable! We haven’t yet gotten the antenna to work, so we have been off the TV grid for 3 days.
I made the rookie mistake of thinking the site was level without checking (hey, it LOOKED level). We spent the night tilted left. I will have to correct that today.
So was the trip uneventful? No, we had another petite disaster. At least I hope it was petite. We lost our better sewer hose somewhere on I-81. Flew out of the back of the truck, apparently. I just hope it didn’t become a disaster for some trailing motorist. Hopefully it either landed on the side of the road or was immediately crushed by an 18-wheeler. Lesson: never leave anything loose in the bed of the truck if there is *any* chance it can become airborne.
The GTW is now about 10% complete. We will celebrate the milestone by doing laundry.