Jul 4, 2006

There and Back Again

It's been a bit quiet "here" because last week I drove down to my brother's place for a few days and, well, plenty of things happened...

Don't Play in the ParkI started full of confidence with Sheryl as my navigator and a nice Google Earth print-out of my route in hand. I'd heard about the heavy rains in Pennsylvannia but I didn't think it would affect me. Wrong! Although we had sunny dry weather for the entire trip I spent 3 1/2 hours going 15 miles along the I-90 just west of Utica because of flooding miles ahead. I was desperate to get off and fuel up, because we were down to an 1/8th of a tank (moments before hitting the traffic jam I'd said "getting low. Let's fill up at the next exit." People were strolling between lanes, spreading out maps on their cars, chatting...

We finally crept off the highway, just as the low fuel light came on, tanked up and got a real New York road map. We made some good headway traveling south to an alternate route east but guess what? The same flooding, this time including an overpass that had collapsed, killing two truck drivers, led us onto a detour along farm roads that took another ninety minutes and left us heading back where we came from.

What Lies AheadEventually an empty road beckoned to us and we headed off on our own detour. This took us quite a way south before we again encountered flooding. This time we had to pick our way across flooded roads and almost-submerged bridges. With nightfall approaching we checked our new map and decided to check into a motel in Cooperstown. What a funny little place! It's a very pretty and well preserved example of small-town America and totally devoted to baseball. Its where the bats come from, and the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum... Sheryl saw the restored main street and got a shopper's glint in her eye only to be disappointed by the uniformly baseball-oriented shops.

Cooperstown DinerAfter a sociable breakfast the next morning at the Cooperstown Diner (which I later discovered is Bill Bryson's pick for the "ideal diner in the ideal small town") we made our way uneventfully to Woodstock, where we got last-minute cell phone instructions to divert to my sister-in-law's new office where I was to help get their computers set up.

And this story is going to have to "be continued"...

Listening to: A Fine Day for a Parade by Fountains of Wayne from Utopia Parkway.

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