168 miles via Blue Mountain Road, NY 32, US 9W, I-587 in Albany, I-90, US 20, MA 9, MA 112, MA 2 and MA 122. Cumulative tow miles: 2150. Truck miles: 218. Cumulative truck miles: 3290. The extra truck miles were due to a trip to the Mount Calvary Cemetery in Kingston, a trip to Big Pink (thanks, John Bartel, for the tip) and a shopping and refueling trip after I got to my destination. I also made a wrong turn from I-90 onto US 20 and that added about 3 tow miles.
That concludes the TN7. I will do a wrapup soon, but the bottom line is this: the truck performed brilliantly and there were no major problems along the way. I have to rate this as the most problem-free trip since the trip to the west coast in 2017.
The route chosen was a toll-free route because (1) I am cheap and (2) it wasn’t much longer, time-wise, than the route up I-87 and over on I-90. The roads were mostly 2-lanes but traffic was light and there were very few points where I was delayed by traffic. The low point was Pittsfield MA which is an ugly industrial town and I did encounter some long traffic lights there. Otherwise, smooth sailing on a sunny, cool day.
The trip to Mount Calvary Cemetery was unexpectedly successful. I reduced the number of unphotographed graves from about 150 to 62, so about 90 graves photographed in a little over 3 hours. 30 graves per hour? Yeah, that is productive.
The trip to Big Pink was less successful. Let me say that this house is remote and a bit spooky. It is at the end of a half-mile poorly maintained dirt road. “No trespassing” and “private road” signs were everywhere. The house itself is surrounded by trees and is fenced, probably to deter sightseers like me. I half expected a guard with a shotgun and a doberman to appear and escort me back down the road. Well, that didn’t happen but neither did I get a good photo of the house. If you want to see Big Pink, read the Wikipedia article.
But it was only 10 minutes from the campground. I had to try.
The campground in question is the Rip Van Winkle Campground in Saugerties. Jett and I stayed here for a couple of nights last fall on our way south. I didn’t like it much then and I am still not a huge fan. I got the same site – #77, a huge pull-through – and that was nice. But the roads are narrow with sharp turns and steep hills. And the staff is not particularly helpful. I arrived at 1:30pm, which is usually late enough to check in. But I was informed that check-in time was 3pm and I should leave and return in 90 minutes. She didn’t even bother to see if the site was available. I had to execute a very tight U-turn (did I mention that the roads are very narrow?), missing the back end of a parked pickup by about 2 inches. I went a half-mile down the road and parked in a closed business parking lot (it was Sunday) and used the time to check emails and news. I had to execute another tight turnaround there – one that left some rubber from the RV’s tires on the asphalt.
The campground does have excellent cable TV, which was a treat after nearly a week with only very spotty over-the-air television.
My destination for the summer is the Quabbin Pines RV Resort in Orange MA. The arrival there was more of an adventure than I would have liked. But I will save that story for a separate post.