Day 6: New York to Vermont

WE MADE IT YAAAAAAYYY!!!1!!1!

We're finally here in the Green Mountain State. We can't believe we did it, not just in terms of getting here but more that we actually did it — we stayed true to our plans and moved across the country.

We woke up to freezing temperatures in the RV at the campsite near Rochester, New York. Freezing. It took me about an hour to work up the courage to get out of bed into the cold and struggle from the "bedroom" into the main part of the RV, where I'd stupidly left my clothes the night before. 

According to the google, the final stage of our journey was a trifling four hours across New York and just over the border into Vermont. Considering the 10 hours I drove on Thursday and the 12 on Friday, four hours held no fear whatsoever. Alicia elected to drive first, which was great as the GPS took us along a bunch of backroads until we got on the 90. 

Yet again we had to pick up a toll ticket, which you don't even get to keep as a souvenir and which cost $20. After stopping to grab a coffee (and a t-shirt and magnet) at a rest stop we kept going, with me yapping to Alicia in an effort to keep her awake.

By this point we'd pretty much given up on looking at the scenery; this whole part of the drive was just to get us to our destination. Once I'd taken over driving at the halfway point, I asked Alicia to take a couple of pics of New York "for the blog" and just kept eating up the miles to the Green Mountain State.

The Interstate came to an end at the 7 and from there it was a bit more of a crawl through the outskirts of Troy, but then we saw our first sign for Bennington:

We continued along the 7 taking in the views of the Green Mountains and after a short while we were rewarded with this lovely sight:

From here on, hilarity ensued. The GPS was updating so slowly it told us to turn after we'd passed the roads we were supposed to take, so we ended up turning around twice in the Bennington Home Depot car park (it's impossible to do a U-turn in an RV, especially on Vermont roads) and then crawled the final couple of miles to make sure we didn't miss our turnoff. We found the house and were all YAY! and then this happened:

Not only did the 12-foot tall RV catch every branch along the drive, the branches also yanked off the cover over the skylight. Oops. Luckily we've paid for extra insurance so we're hoping that'll be enough.

Another 273 miles added to the running total gives us a final tally of 2,841 miles, 99 less than we thought. I think the petrol costs totalled around $600, including a whopping $100 to fill the RV today.

Looking back... Jesus, did we really do that? We were very lucky with the weather; it was either bright and sunny or sightly overcast every day. No rain, and thankfully no snow. Although we had our tense moments thanks to tiredness and generally being sick of the cramped RV, we didn't even argue that much. 

Colorado will always be top of my personal "worst states to drive through" list thanks to the effing Rocky Mountains and generally shitty roads. Nebraska, Nevada and Iowa tie for the coveted position of "most forgettable" — no offence meant but I can barely remember either one of them. Utah is up there for "most stunning," California wins hands-down in the "we've barely moved in 20 minutes" category, and New York, Ohio and Illinois take the title of "God these roads are lovely". Michigan, which were were in for all of 15 minutes, wins "scariest state" thanks to the tweakers and Walmart car park that looked about as safe as a tinfoil shark cage. A special shout-out goes to the lovely woman working the tollbooth in Pennsylvania who noticed I'd forgotten to put the petrol cap back on.

The Tat Total® came out to three t-shirts (Utah, Ohio and New York); six magnets (Utah, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New York and another one I can't remember as I'm brain dead right now); and three stickers (Utah, Indiana and Nebraska).

Needless to say, we're both elated to be here and absolutely shattered from the trip. We've shifted some of our stuff, mostly food, gadgets and clothes, from the RV and tomorrow we have to clean the damn thing out before we take it back on Thursday or Friday, and also arrange to pick up and pay for my Outback.

It's strange to think that this isn't a vacation and we're not returning to California, and that I'll have to wear more than just shorts and a t-shirt to take the dogs out in the morning. On the other hand, at least autumn finally feels like autumn.