Journal Day 37

Well... we woke up to light rain, and forecast for more of the same.... so we decided to drive today, and headed off to Bangor and then picked up route 2 west..... route 2 is a Maine east/west route and very picturesque and well traveled... we followed it across Maine, watching the colors on the trees becoming more vivid as we made our way west..... then across New Hampshire and into Vermont where we turned South and followed the Connecticut river.... we found patches of beautiful fall colors, and even with the rain and overcast, beautiful mountain scenes that looked like someone had dribbled red and orange paint across them.... in New Hampshire we passed through the white mountains and saw a forest filled with large birch trees.... we both liked New Hampshire and hope to come back for a longer visit... Vermont lived up to its reputation for lovely towns and skiing centers.... it went fast, but was a nice drive and cross section of upper New England... we hope to come back and spend a few weeks in this area sometime...

We were happy to find Irving gas stations along the way... we had become accustomed to looking for them while in Canada as they generally had the best services.... were surprised to see them stretching down into the US states... in St. John, New Brunswick, we went past the Irving estates and learned about the family owned company.... places them in the top 20 richest families in the world... they are know for their philanthropy in the St. John area.... their service stations are the tops.... while coming across route 2, we stopped for gas at a Mobil Station.... Suzanne went in to ask about the restrooms, and was told that they had none, and that we could stop at the Irving station down the road a few blocks where they also had a restaurant.... we were shocked that they did not have restrooms in a large Mobil station.... Suzanne suggested that we could buy our gas there also... I had already gassed up at the pump, but we then drove down the road and parked by the Irving station, and ate in the restaurant there... enjoying the service we had also experienced in Canada... we later saw 2 different Mobil stations abandoned down the road..... easy to understand why with the poor services provided.... look for Irving to make headway in the US... they are great stations....

Although the weather cleared, we decided to just push on through and try to get home by Sunday night... our goal was to get down to I-90 (the New York Thruway) tonight... that meant driving longer on secondary roads... we wound up in the dark driving along highway 29 until we found the Royal Mountain Campground near Johnstown, NY, and 13 miles from the NY Thruway... we stopped to find it near capacity with some sort of caravan camping there this weekend.... it was pitch dark when we arrived.. they fitted us into a very tight site between some trees in the back, so we left it hitched up and just put the stabilizers down... plan to get some sleep and an early start... another long day tomorrow.... Home sometime Sunday evening....