Day 7: Fall Adventure 2023: Drive Thru only; Home

Beautiful night sleep at the Valley Country Club. Thank you Harvest Hosts.

Morning walk was down into the valley and then back up. My watch recorded only 68m of elevation gain but it felt like a lot more than that. I stopped to take some pictures.

Post walk we hit the road headed for home. Approximately 530 km left to go. This time, almost all divided highway. At yesterday’s pace 530 km would take us about 76 years. As we headed north, we decided to pop off the Highway at Scranton, PA to fuel up and maybe get some Krispy Kreme donuts. Many years ago, while on the way to the Annapolis Boat Show, we diverted to this exact Krispy Kreme and then managed to get back onto the wrong (ish) highway. It’s a bit of a confusing setup. We were well primed and entered the area with a higher level of awareness. Oh, the parking lot at Krispy Kreme is closed, drive thru only. That would have been good to know before we entered the parking lot. The only safe way out was through the drive thru. Helpfully, someone had already knocked the “Clearance 9.0 feet” sign out of the way. We are only 9’4″ so clearly we will fit. With a slight bump over the curb and a nudging of the marking cones and caution tape, we made it through, collected our donuts and hit the road.

The drive was generally uneventful. We stopped near Syracuse, NY at a highway rest stop and had a nice picnic lunch.

We chose to cross the border at Ogdensburg, NY which gave us the opportunity to fill up the gas tank right before entering Canada, do a last round of grocery shopping at Price Chopper and grab a fountain Coke at McDonalds (they still have $1 drink days). Price Chopper had live lobster on sale and their steamer was repaired which allowed us to stock up on some lobster. Seafood goal of the trip was definitely met, although not it the expected way.

Border crossing was uneventful. We were behind three dudes on motorcycles. I admired their bravery for taking on the steel grated Prescott to Ogdensburg bridge. I hate those bridges even in a car. I still have nightmares of the steel grate bridges Dendog and I crossed on the Alaska trip.

Trip over. Another great one. We would definitely go back to Assateague again. We really lucked out on weather on this trip.

Things we forgot to mention:

• We passed Christmas tree farms in and around Reading, PA. We may have passed THE Christmas tree farm. I should have paid more attention.
• We passed a small convoy of antique surplus military vehicles. We assume they were going to some gathering. At the lead of the pack were a pair of Willys Jeeps from WW2. Complete with trailers. The Jeeps and trailers were full of camping gear. Lead Jeep also had baby in a car seat in the back seat of the Jeep. Child seat was sideways jammed in with the camping gear. I guess it is nice they are including the family
• We enjoyed the Harvest Hosts experience, but so far, Harvest Hosts is not an economically choice. It gives different experiences but if you are doing your part and frequenting the hosts, you probably won’t save money compared to US state park fees.

That’s about it. Great to be home. Mrs Milddogs had exactly the same list of things we missed while we were away. 1) Our children. 2) Amy – she did not come with us this time. 3) The bidet – you just can’t go back!

Until the next adventure or notable thing, enjoy the ride.