Heading South -- NY thru PA to MD

Yeah---we survived the tail of hurricane Florence as it swung north through Pennsylvania and New York! We had over three inches in southern NY, but nothing like what the coast of VA, NC and SC are still experiencing. Our prayers are with those still out of their homes and without power. Today, we enjoyed surprisingly good weather, as the rain squalls ended in the night and we awoke to sunshine and fluffy clouds.

Our Damp Campsite in Watkins Glen with double glide chairs

In fact, we awoke to the whine and growl of  cars on the Watkins Glen International Raceway this morning.  We visited there, watching a practice run on the Grand Prix style looped track. We climbed sixty steps to the top of the grandstand for good photos and it WAS STILL VERY LOUD! The twenty plus cars were the smaller Mazda type race cars.  We heard them in the campground over five miles away this morning.

This One is For You, Seth!

In fact, today the weather rose into the mid eighties as we traveled south from NY through PA and into western Maryland.  We passed some very swollen rivers, including the massive Susquehanna River which was quite brown and muddy and over its banks in places. We had forgotten how big this major river is, as wide as the Columbia River near Scappose, down river from Portland, Oregon

Swollen Susquehanna River

The roadways were dry and traffic became heavier as we headed south toward larger cities. But, at least the highways are smoother than New York, and no rivers blocked the roads.

 

Our Route Today

We arrived into Maryland (MD) in late afternoon and pulled into a memory from our past. When we lived in Washington DC for four years, we saw much of eastern states by camping at several of these unique parks. 

Entering western Maryland

Remember Yogi Bear and Boo Boo on the cartoons. Well, we are at Jellystone Park in Williamsport.  There are 79 of these parks in 30 states and three provinces. they are similar to KOA's, but with cartoon bears scattered throughout the forest. The office was closed, a sign of autumn for camping, but we had reserved a site on-line last night, so we wound around some very narrow gravel roads, along Boo Boo avenue and Forest Ranger Road, until we found our campsite on Cindy Avenue (she was Yogi's girlfriend/bearfriend).  Cell service and TV is better here so we decided to post a blog. 

Yogi Bear and Ranger Smith Welcome Us

We added PA and MD to our map and then grilled a steak and corn on the cob to go with some of our recent wine purchases from New York.

Our Map Is Filling In

We are only staying here for one night and we head through a corner of West Virginia and south into Greenwood, VA.  We will be there for a couple of nights while we revisit Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, and maybe Highland, home of James Monroe.

Thanks for tuning in,

Neil and Pamela