Off through New York...

We had a good night sleep in the truck, a brief rain shower overnight and no leaks!  Tyler slept well and was still in bed as I puttered around our campsite this morning.

 Last night when moving the truck to our campsite, we were greeted with a small cloud of steam from under the hood.  Overheating I suspect.  That said, this morning as we drove I was waiting for the truck to break down. ( I still haven't connected the temp gauge I mounted under the dash or installed the electric fan kit both of which may require draining the radiator)  That said, the truck seemed underpowered and overloaded all through the Adirondacks.  I got used to keeping my arm out the window waving other cars around.   Why do they sit on your but when there is plenty of room to pass.

Despite my mechanical anxiety, we had a great drive, starting with a crossing of Lake Champlain by Ferry.  Seems the State deemed the Chimney Point bridge unsafe and demo'd it.   As a courtesy to residents on both sides the State's are now providing free ferry service across until the bridge can be rebuilt.

Free ferry! Whee!

When we were in Ava, NY a newer Jeep wrangler came up behind us flashing his lights,  aggravated, I waved him around and he pulled along side and asked if our truck was really a Jeep pickup as he'd never seen one.  We had a nice brief chat at 25mph on a narrow gravel road.  Only in a Jeep!

The Adirondacks are beautiful and we paused for mini-golf in the very touristy Old Forge, NY before continuing all the way to Ontario, NY.

Off the grid...

Today we left the comforts of Jackson, NH and headed west towards Lake Champlain and ‘Champy’. We circled back once to get provisions and got to cross this bridge twice.  I am not sure but I think it was somewhere west of Montpelier.

   We were aiming for Kingsland Bay State Park, right on the lake but when we arrived we found it was a day use park only.  Alas the internet steered us wrong.    

We stopped for dinner then continued SW until we came upon DAR State Park near Chimney Point, VT.  The check-in was closed with a note indicating remaining available sites.   We picked one out (44.054917,-73.413566) and parked the truck.   Tyler helped me build a nice fire to keep the bugs away.  Our first night in the truck!

Goodbye civilization?

Last nights fireworks never came to fruition, after over an hour of delays we bailed to take the boys home.  Keith heard from his sources that spectators had crowded too close to the launch/ ash fall zone and fights had broken out.   The police were trying to clear the area. 

After the boys were sleeping I heard the fireworks start at around 10:45, so much for a 9:20 scheduled start.

We awoke to the smell of Keith......cooking French Toast.  This may be our last night sleeping 'indoors' for a while. 


We are aiming for Western VT today, we'll see were the roads take us.

As the crow flies......

We took the scenic route to Jackson NH.  By scenic I mean I programed the GPS to take us the shortest physical distance.  This led to very scenic and interesting route choice.  We found ourselves on a road/snowmobile trail in South Waterford , ME.  Our first true test of 4 wheel drive.

 

We also crossed Hurricane Mt Road in NH.  I found I had to drop into 1^st gear at times to climb the 15%+ twisty narrow grade(44.069889,-71.063526 ).  Overall, we made good time to Jackson, NH and had time to take a canoe trip down the Saco River (44.001397,-71.116748 ) with Keith and his boys.