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| Tolls are dumb |
We decided to make this a driving day and then do stuff in
New York Saturday. So our goal was to make it to somewhere near Buffalo from
Portland. The map said that Portland to Buffalo was about 8.5 hours and since
we were leaving pretty early (I think 9:15) we should get there quite early in
the day for us. However, the traffic really sucked. Andy figured out a new
setting for his navigation app that showed the traffic coming up and he noticed
a red spot, so we went around it by going into Haverhill CT. That and Chicago
were the only times we adjusted our trip around traffic. It was nice to know
how long the back up was and we’ve found the phone to be really accurate. In CT
we were able to get back on the highway right after the accident that was
blocking traffic. Plus, we somehow missed the exit to Worcester MA and almost
ended up in Rhode Island, so we had to backtrack about 25 miles and wasted about
an hour doing that. Then Andy got a call from work so we stopped somewhere with
wifi so he could do something. That took about an hour and a half with eating a
super gross lunch at Panera. I always want Panera paninis to be better than
they actually are. I need to remember that the only good things there are the
soufflés, breakfast sandwiches, and salads. Andy thought it was particularly
gross though. So then we drove more and decided that we should eat and camp
somewhere around Syracuse.
We ate at the
Empire Brewery and it was ok. Their beer sampler is not great; their
basic beers are pretty meh. Andy and I got two beers initially that weren’t
included in the sampler so it was ok. We
shared an andoulle sausage po boy and it was ok. We also got truffle fries and
they were awesome. The place is kind of cool, with an entrance like you’re
going down to the New York Subway (not that I’ve done that!). It was really
busy but the bartenders were on the ball. We were in a pretty busy downtownish
area of Syracuse that had a bunch of bars and restaurants. It was happening.
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| Empire Brewery Sample: Meh |
So then we headed to a campground that said they were open
till 10, Riverforest, which was about a half hour out of Syracuse. I left a
review on all of the campgrounds on Google maps or whatever, because that is
how I found all of our campgrounds – I’d just type in camping and a bunch would
come up and I’d call to find out if they had tent sites and how late we could
get there. It worked out fine. Most offices closed between 8 and 10 – usually 9
or 10. This campground had horrible reviews but we went anyway. You always have
to look at how old the reviews are too – some are from like 4 years ago. The
lady at the gate was really nice and we said we just wanted a site away from
other people if possible. The one she gave us was on the water and was really
big and nice. Actually she said we could just go over there and pick whichever
one we wanted. It had a big willow tree that shaded us in the morning so we
weren’t cooking at sun up. Since we got there kind of late we didn’t make a
fire and just sat there looking at the stars. It was nice and dark so we could
see tons of stars. The only downfall of this place was that the bathrooms were
a long hike and they were under a restaurant/bar so it was kind of weird and
they were kind of dirty. Not superficially dirty, they were “doesn’t really come
clean anymore” dirty. For camping prices, I wasn’t mad about it. The site was
so awesome that I could definitely accept the bathrooms. The people sort of
near us were very quiet too.
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| Nice site! |
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| The view from our tent |
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