It *is* readable, if you want it bad enough.
Almost to the half-way state. Kind of sad, actually. Then I’ll have to start planning next year’s trip. To celebrate being in Massachusetts, I went to a CVS and bough cold medicine. Probably should have stopped off in Alston to see my old apartment, but alas.
State over.
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Maine, the deuce-deuce. But you’d think they’d at least wait till you’re out of sight of the “welcome” sign before telling you that you may as well expect delays given that you’re in Maine now.
What else should I expect? Lobster restaurants?
Spent the night in a hotel in Bangor, which is pronounced Bang-gore here. It’s fun to say.
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This is how Vermont says good-bye:
Which, coincidentally, looks a lot like how New Hampshire says hello.
Well, except New Hampshire also tries to get all formal about it:
“Bienvenue”?! Did we lose a war or something?
And I’m pretty sure the welcome sign is actually in Vermont.
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Big number 20. One more state and my roadtrip can legally drink.
Rain has stolen most of my bug-splatters. The Wilmington Notch campground, however, donated some pine needles as replacements. Long may they ride.
Crossing the bridge over Lake Champlain (Lac Champlain), there’s a broken-down fortress that the US built on the lake before realizing that they had chosen a site legally in Canada.
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Oh yes, a previous home-state. I paid taxes here once — no, twice! Ah yes. Fond memories of taxes I have.
It would kind of be cool if the bug splatter were on the sign. Then again, that would be a very large bug traveling at a high velocity, which might actually not be that cool.
I stayed at a campground at Lake Erie State Park that night, whatever day this was. No idea, seriously. Anyway — was a decent enough campground right on he lake, no need to worry about trees separating campsites (because there weren’t any, you see). $17/night, pretty average. BUT there were free showers available, BUT the showers were really moldy. Tough.
I also had a skunk run through my campsite that night that tore through my garbage. It was a little weird listening to a skunk eat stale potato chips, so I put my headphones in. No one and nothing got sprayed, most importantly.
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That makes three-eighths (3/8ths) of the way there in terms of states. It’s not like I’m excited about blowing through states, just that it happens so I might as well enjoy it.
Daylight! Legible! Huzzah!
Someone on some other website told me I should visit Presque Isle in Erie if I happened to be driving through, so I did and I’d sort of like my 40 minutes back, although I took this photo of a lighthouse:
Bravely warning sandcrabs away from the 25-mph park road!
I’m sure real lighthouse people (they have those, right?) could explain why it makes sense to put lighthouses somewhere other than right next to the water, but it’d probably be a long and boring explanation, so — you know.
I’m also now saying that I’m in the “northeast” and no longer in the “northern states”. It’s a fine line. A fine line that I’ve drawn between Ohio and Pennsylvania. And it was weird starting out driving in Bengals AM radio country and then traveling through Browns and Steelers territory before ending up in Bills AM radio land. It’s also weird how much of AM radio is now on FM.
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And I had this dream last night where I was rafting down a river with members of my family and we got to a spot that looked like a waterfall, but everyone else said it wasn’t, but I was pretty sure it was so I jumped out of the raft and then they all continued and it turned out to be a 20-foot waterfall and I called 911 and couldn’t quite figure out where I was (I thought I was in Central California in a river near a national park other than Yosemite, Sequoia, or Kings Canyon, but I couldn’t think of what that park would be called and then someone helpfully suggested it was “Hehla Park”, which meant “holy” in some unknown language, but that person didn’t know what he was talking about, so I disregarded), but then it turned out that no one got (physically) hurt, so I hung up.
The photos are still illegible, but at least we’re back to a prime number.
Pennsylvania will be legible. Promise. But hey, you can just about make out the speed limit!
Good times, overcast skies in Ohio. Stayed in hotels two nights in a row! Seventeen states means 35% of ’em down.
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Third of the way there! Seems like midwestern states that start with the letter “I” have a lot to say when it comes to welcoming folks. Wonder how many accidents that causes. Maybe zero.
Crossin’ the tame Mississip’.
Iowa’s a disarmingly pretty state. A disarmingly pretty state that I didn’t spend much time in on this trip, but still: disarmingly pretty. It has hills and stuff and not every roadside is bracketed in corn. Go Iowa.
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Right, night-time, on-freeway going 75 photograph:
So I took a make-up photo day before yesterday. It’s a little more legible.
I ended up staying in Illinois till yesterday (Friday). I am, as you may thereby deduce, way behind on postings.
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Trust me, that’s what it says.
Indiana is a fantastic state, however, under the auspices of this trip, I only acknowledge it because it happens to be one of the Lower 48. I’m thinking there’s some pretty decent probability I’ll be coming back this way for interviews or campus tours in the next few months anyway. At least I hope so — Purdue looks like it might be a very good fit.
As for the photo — well, night and speed aren’t very helpful. Indiana was the first state crossed into on an interstate freeway and also the first crossed into at night (a little while later Illinois became the second). Fortunately, I’ve done very little night driving on this trip (maybe three days total). Unfortunately, the days are getting shorter.
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