Further Down the Road

   The goal of this trip is Manchester, Vermont. We could have gotten there in three long days on the Interstates, but we had given ourselves five days of back roads and only used freeways as needed. There were two areas I had always wanted to see but have never been to: the Adirondack Mountains and Lake Champlain.

   After two days on the road, we had made it to Saginaw, Michigan about 100 miles north of Detroit. We would avoid Detroit and Cleveland by nipping east across southern Ontario and back into the US at Buffalo. As we headed south from Saginaw on the freeway the rain started, heavy at times, at times blinding. The traffic slowed then everyone got off the freeway and onto the detour paralleling the freeway. Flint may be a beautiful city on a sunny day, but it seemed like Detroit had sent all its scrap metal to the great junkyards of Flint.

   The detour went on for many miles and ended just in time for us to turn east and cross the St. Clair River  into Canada. Most Americans including myself do not have a firm picture of the Great Lakes. The glaciers gouged them out willy-nilly 12,000 years ago. Men had fought and died to set the boundaries 200 years ago. I need a map to think about it all now. Going through Canada is supposedly a three hour short cut north of Lake Erie. Based on the exit signs along the highway, the area has as many vineyards as Napa Valley. 

   Thanks to the heavy rain and slow traffic, the three hour short cut took five hours. At least the rain quit once we were in New York state.  We found a fine chain motel near Rochester with all my favorite amenities. Next morning was beautiful and we were ready for a day of exploring the Adirondacks. 

  The Adirondacks are basically a gigantic state park with lots of town, villages, small farms and logging operations. The park was established in the 1880s to protect New York City's water supply from overdevelopment. Half the park is preserved as wild and any development on the other half is strictly regulated. We spent the day riding up and down hills on winding roads, past pretty lakes and through small towns. We stopped at a dam and watched a fisherman in waders at the bottom of the waterfall catching and releasing trout. 

   We ended up at Plattsburgh, NY on the west shore of Lake Champlain. We wanted to end the day in the cool city of Burlington, Vermont. The best way to get there is to take the car ferry which we did. We crossed the two mile stretch with about fifty other cars. The lake is up to 14 miles wide in other places. The ride only took 15 minutes. There's something otherworldly about crossing a body of water sitting in your car.  There were over a hundred cars waiting for the ferry on the Vermont side. Glad we weren't going that way. Burlington is a unique city but our motel was in a stretch of suburban sprawl that could have been anywhere. We did our best to keep our personal uniqueness alive as we walked to the Longhorn Steakhouse for supper.

Ausable River, Wilmington, NY