Blakeslee was the nicest motel of the whole trip. Again we were almost the only ones there. I think the discovery on this trip is that May is the perfect time to travel through the mid-central states. The weather is perfect and nobody is traveling.

We stopped for coffee and caught the local flavor in the guise of superman with a backpack, American flag and cowboy hat. He stopped in front of us, turned toward us saluted and continued walking up the road. There is an interesting story there. Lost a bet? Making a point about a local comic book store closing? Maybe he started in California and is on his last leg of a trip to the east coast raising money for something. Or maybe just felt like it.

We did the usual sorta random crawl north through the Poconos. There are a lot of professional people up here in the middle of nowhere. Lots of professional buildings with small businesses. Maybe this is where the city folks summer and mom or dad has an office up here? Or people retire early and keep working from this beautiful country.

There are also lots of Jewish resorts for kids and families. Some look newer and some of the signs look like they were put up in the 50's. Probably dad dropping the kids off at the same camp he stayed at when he was a kid “Dad do I have to. The cabins are gross and there is no TV”. There were also some Ukrainian resorts, not sure the connection there.

We crossed into New York and saw casinos and topless bars in the Mohegan Indian reservation. We clipped the lower Catskills and over the hills to New Paltz, Poughkeepsie (traffic and lots of it), and over the state line into Connecticut. From here we had to cut diagonally over to get to the center of Mass and end up in Vernon VT. CT and Mass are mostly north-south roads so it is hard to do anything diagonal. The western part of these states is very pretty and fairly rural. I always avoid Mass and CT because I always associate them with cities and traffic but these western parts make for pleasant riding.

Well Dave officially pulled my navigators license after some wrong turns. I was just trying to see if he was paying attention (guess he was). He knows these parts generally so he took us on some great back roads and landed us on just the right road to head back to Vernon. We stopped near UMass at a BBQ place he somehow knew about which was great, packed with college kids. We pulled into Vernon at Rene and Daves house (Le' Palace de Rene') about 8pm with 2997 more miles on the odometer than when we pulled out 2 weeks ago. (I actually road around the block to make it 3001).

This was the worst motel yet. No power, no TV, no hot water. A lightning storm had hit the night before and there was no power. We had a candlelit supper on the back porch and told tall tales of our adventures while Rene's new kittens entertained us. Oh yeah, no Wi-Fi again so have to post tomorrow.

Tomorrow I drive back to Starksboro..