TS4-1 Hop 2
130 miles via I-90, I-88, NY 206 and NY 12, Cumulative tow miles: 282. Truck miles: 302. Cumulative truck miles: 472.
The extra 172 truck miles were incurred in Schenectady and along the Hudson River on the several excursions we took while there, as documented in the TS4-1 Hop 1 post.
This was not the hop we planned due to the disaster we encountered on NY 206 (see my previous post). The trip to that point was uneventful, except for a heavy shower that we encountered on I-88. NY 206 is now on our list of least favorite roads due to its sharp undulations. If we weren’t taxing the engine on a steep uphill section we were wearing out the brakes on a sharp downhill section. Then, about midway between Greene and Whitney Falls, we popped a coolant hose and had to limp to the only open RV park in the area, after arranging a tow for the RV.
Muddy Chenango Shores
We knew that we would be stuck in Chenango Forks, a tiny “hamlet” on the shores of the Chenango River, until the truck was fixed. As it turns out, we were there a few days longer than that, for a total of 8 nights. Our planned visits to Watkins Glen and the Finger Lakes region, plus the stop at the Flight 93 memorial, were scrapped. Instead we subsisted at a place with no television (cable or over-the-air), no sewer hookup, no cell phone service and almost no internet service. The site was muddy and became muddier as it rained nearly every day. The public restroom – which I tried to use whenever I could to stretch the capacity of the RV’s black and gray water tanks – was filthy and the shower had only cold water. Our few neighbors clearly qualified as “trailer park trash.” In short, it was a miserable place to spend 8 nights.
Was there anything good about the park? Yes, the owner bent over backward to help us in any way he could, starting with meeting us and the tow truck at the gate to guide us to the spot, helping get the rig situated and, on Monday, driving me to Enterprise to rent a car. He also dropped his rate, from $35 to $25 per night with the seventh day free. So we paid for just 7 nights out of the 8, for a total of $175. Which would have been economical had it not been for the fact that we lost our deposits entirely for our Watkins Glen and Pohick Bay reservations and received only a partial refund for our planned Pennsylvania stay. So the actual total campground expense for the 8 nights was $470.90.
The other saving grace was that the park, despite having absolutely no cell phone service, did have some internet connectivity via our old JetPack router. That surprised the hell out of me as I thought that cell phone service was a requirement for data connectivity. Apparently that is not the case. I discovered this new truth when, early Sunday morning, I tried to connect to the internet and just about fell out of my chair when I succeeded. The connection that morning was not great, but wasn’t bad. I was able to do searches for GMC dealers, book a service appointment online and book a rental car. I was also able to read email and send out an update to family assuring them that we were safe and warm despite being “off the grid” for telephone contact. Having this connectivity – which, I learned, was not always as good as it was that morning, was a real boon.
Chenango Forks is about 15 miles from downtown Binghamton NY and most of our miles during those 8 days were spent on the roads to and from Binghamton, with two trips back to the scene of the breakdown: one to take photos of the ditch that we fell into when we damaged the gray water tank and bent the flange holding the spare and another to deliver a small token of appreciation to Butch and Jackie, the lovely couple who showed some true kindness and compassion when we really needed it.
Nestled between trashy neighbors
The view from our front door