AN AUTUMN DRIVE

Hi again travelogue fans, it's time for this years installment of 'miles to go before......'. (and although this sequence of blogs is starting on Nov 1st, we have no intention of dragging it out for the whole month).

Yes Harriet and Mike once again take to the road to see the sights and visit the states of the USA (visiting states that some of us had never been before).

This was a carefully planned and well thought out excursion - we knew we had to be Sioux Falls on a specific day and in Rapid City two days later (our only advanced reservation). All other stops and starts would be day by day. To ensure our survival we packed 2 weeks worth of warm clothes in case it was cold; we also packed 2 weeks worth of light clothes in case it was warm; most importantly we had a suitcase full of snacks, a box of wine for Harriet and a bottle of Scotch for Mike (any guesses as to which suitcase was first out of the car each night??).

As with most of our recent excursions we once again had camera issues. We took all three cameras we own. The Advantix for shooting panoramas (unfortunately many of the shoots were taken in a misting rain so the view was limited). The ever useful digital - the brand new one (see prior blog pertaining to camera and sand on the Cape). Because it was new and we don't pay any attention to owner's manuals, we had it set for the highest level of detail, hence all the pictures were great but suck up huge amounts of memory. Also there is a great feature on the camera that allows for 'multiple shots' with one click. Of course we didn't know that we had it set that way until we noticed we were getting 2,3,4 or even 5 shots each time. By then of course the battery died from overuse (we did however remeber the charger so all was not lost).

Saving the best for last, the Camcorder - again a device we had not used since England last year. We charged it up prior to leaving and so the first time we tried to use it thought we were golden until when we turned it on it gave the message "NO CARD" and wouldn't work. Since we did not bring the manual (what for, any idiot can point and shoot), we didn't know that the device is capable of taking 'stills' and saving them to a memory stick and somehow by the magic of modern day technology the setting had been changed for that situation. So, of course we decided that one of us had screwed up and forgotten the card so the camera went unused the whole trip. Upon our return home we perused the manual and realized that a simple turn of the wheel to the proper setting would have made everything fine (arghh- but no one wants to see more rocks).

Now that everyone is properly brought up to speed on the pre journey particulars, lets get on with the actual trip.

Day 1. Niskayuna to Charleston, WV (Why West Virginia I hear you cry - because it is on the way to Kentucky - ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer). Approx 675 miles and 11 hours.

On the way, we got to Cumberland, MD on Interstate 68, where there was a significant gap in the mountains:

Okay, not so significant, but it is the gap at Cumberland. It is not the Cumberland Gap. For the geographically challenged, that is found at the very southwest corner of Virginia, where it meets Kentucky. This is actually a picture of Rocky Gap, complete with rest stop.
That covers the excitement of Day 1. We did have a really nice meal at local/ southern chain called "Tidewater Grill". Good food and local brews.
See you tomorrow.