TN7 Hop 12: Honesdale PA to Croton-on-Hudson NY

116 miles via PA 670, PA 191, US 6, I-84, NY 17, US 6 again, NY 293, US 9W, US 6 yet again, US 202 and US 9. Cumulative tow miles: 1905. Truck miles: 138. Cumulative truck miles: 2891. The 22 extra truck miles were due to a refueling trip to the nearest diesel depot, 11 miles away.

This was a difficult hop to plan and even more difficult to execute. There are a lot of “passenger cars only” roads near New York City and I very much wanted to avoid those. Also, the route chosen by both Google and the GPS took me over the Bear Mountain Bridge, a bridge over the Hudson River that I had never traversed before and looked like it might have weight restrictions. So my plan was to go a few miles further east, over the I-84 bridge, then head south on US 9. But when I got to NY 17 and both Google and GPS were telling me to take it, I caved. I was thinking that NY 17 could be taken to the Tappan Zee Bridge which would be close to my destination. But the Tappan Zee is too far south and I ended up heading to the Bear Mountain Bridge, images dancing in my head of my rig rolling over a scale and flashing lights and sirens going off. “Too heavy! Turn back!” In fact there was an ominous sign about a weight limitation of 10 tons somewhere ahead and I did mental calculations as I drove. Yup, pretty close.

But the weight limit on the Bear Mountain Bridge is 58 tons. I needn’t have worried.

What I should have worried about was the narrow, winding segment on US 202. It is a scary road. Beautiful, but scary, with a low rock wall all that separated my rig from a dive into the Hudson River. 10 minutes of white knuckles.

Not a long hop, but a memorable one.

My home in Honesdale PA was the Ponderosa Pines Family Campground. This campground is remote. I had to traverse about 5 miles of roads that didn’t have route designations and I could use only the GPS because my phone had no cell service (until I arrived, then the cell service was fine). When I checked in the office staff told me that I could take any transient site (there were about 8 along the lakeshore) because I would be “all alone down there.” I didn’t know quite what they meant because there were lots of seasonal RV sites all around the transient sites. But, as I discovered after I set up and took Rusty for a walk, none of them were occupied. This must be a weekend family getaway campground. I truly was by myself “down there.”

All alone in a very dark, very quiet campground. And by quiet I mean no sounds other than the owls – no planes, no trains, no automobiles. And no sounds from other campers. Downright spooky. But quite serene.

There was dense fog in the morning, followed by heavy rain all day. The lake rose about 6 inches. A nearby town, Prompton, had over 4 inches of rain and some street flooding. I prayed that those tiny roads that led out of the campground would still be passable when I had to depart. They were.