21 July 2007

I had high hopes for today: get an early start, have relatively uncrowded roads, break half way through every tank, ride 500 miles, and maybe even make it into Vermont. Ha!

Well, I got going before 0800, and the roads were pretty good, to start with. The weather was delightfully cool, almost fall-like. And the towns were spaced nicely; a welcome break. Then traffic started picking up, and my average speed started dropping. After three hours, I'd gone just 129 miles. After six, 228. And one two mile stretch took more than half an hour--two roads converged at a light, and traffic took turns. Very frustrating.

I'd wondered last night why MapSource wouldn't route me over one of the bridges crossing the Hudson. Turns out it was toll bridge, but the GPS had no problem routing over it, so I had to stop and dig out a dollar.

Neither MapSource nor the GPS had any problem routing me onto I-90, but as I approached it, there was a sign that said "Last exit before tollway." So I exited. I'd been desultorily looking at lodging options, but nothing interesting was showing up on the GPS. Within a mile of taking that "last exit" I went past an old-looking Travelodge, which seemed to still be in business. I should have stopped. Instead, I kept going on the "last exit" road, which was paralleling I-90, and eventually got to the next road, and the GPS was happier.

But now I'm seriously looking for a motel, and nothing is showing up. I went through one little town, which had a sign for the next town (which sounded bigger), so I headed for it, even though it was off the route. Unfortunately, it was in Massachusetts, and thus off the maps I had loaded. So when I saw a motel, I stopped, and got a room ($70-ulp!). She said there was a grocery store three miles down the road, so after I unloaded, I continued east--and found a big town, lots of motels, amenities, etc. Dunno if any of them would have been cheaper, but they would have had internet access. Groceries were $13.

States: Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts.
377 GPS miles (7157 total), 42.3 moving average (worst yet), 79.7 max.
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