Monday, September 9, 2013

Challenging Trip to NY

(Schenectady, NY) Hi 70 Lo 38 -- It was a cold morning when we first got up but warmed up quickly once the sun was up. It was comfortable hitching up and leaving. We had a three hour trip and we did something we normally don’t do, we traveled the back roads. Most of the RV’ers take back roads, we usually stay with major highways, mainly because I’m following behind in the car and stop lights in towns can get us separated. Those that know me know that I can get lost in a paper bag. On two-lane roads the traffic usually backs up behind us, which is what happened today. There were trucks trying to get around, and then an accident held us up (which can also happen on a major highway). Once the accident was cleared they let Jim through, but then held me back. Jim got way ahead but he went slowly down the road till I could get caught up.
 
Some of the things we did see. (Click pictures to enlarge).
2013-09-09 views on way to schenectady NY (10)

Someone really likes cows.
2013-09-09 views on way to schenectady NY (18)

The rolling Green Mountains in Vermont. This one is for you mom.
2013-09-09 views on way to schenectady NY (4)

2013-09-09 views on way to schenectady NY (11)

2013-09-09 views on way to schenectady NY (12)

Cute churches along the way.
2013-09-09 views on way to schenectady NY (9)

The highest point on our trip.
2013-09-09 views on way to schenectady NY (8)

We had a couple of steep downhills, but nothing we couldn’t handle. The fun began when we made one of the turns toward the end of the trip when we were within about 10 miles of the campground. As soon as he turned Jim noticed a sign for an overpass that was 11’6” high.  Ooops, that’s not going to work. We need at least 13'2" clearance. Luckily there was a business we could pull  into and get out of easily, so we did a quick turn around. Jim checked for another route on Google Maps on his smart phone. Further down the road was another turn,  but  another overhead with even less clearance. Jim saw the sign just at the beginning of the turn, so he carefully backed up and continued. After pulling over and checking for yet another route, we finally made our way about six miles out of the way to our destination. Boy, that wasn’t easy. Jim usually checks the street view on Google Maps for things like overpasses, but street view doesn't cover many rural roads, including those around here. It seems New York and Pennsylvania have a lot more low overpasses than the other states we've been in so far.

We were very glad to pull into Frosty Acres Campground. The sign says the park is for sale. Anyone want to take over a great park?

2013-09-09 frosty acres rv camping resort schenectady NY (1)

2013-09-09 frosty acres rv camping resort schenectady NY (2)

Our site
2013-09-09 frosty acres rv camping resort schenectady NY (4)

I will do a full description with pictures on Wednesday, the day before we leave. The park is very open for great satellite reception, but no wi-fi. We'll be using our smart phones for our internet, and with one bar of 4G so far it's stable but very slow.

It was a challenging day, but we can’t have it perfect all the time.

8 comments:

Jessica Riker said...

Yes, being from NY, we know what you mean! We always check and doublecheck all of our routes for low clearances because we are so used to seeing them pretty frequently. We had a challenging travel day recently - definitely makes us appreciate the uneventful ones. :)

Jim and Sandie said...

New York is where we ran into (not literally) a low overpass on a two lane road. Had to unhook the car and hold up traffic as we tried to make a u-turn to get out of there. Never a dull moment. Glad you're settled and safe.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Is there a special program you can get for the Garmin or other types just for RVers with tall vehicles?

Gail Houle said...

We stayed at Frosty Acres 2 years ago and ran into the same issue! Yes, NY has plenty of lowe clearance bridges! Hope you don't have any trouble leaving there...we made a wrong turn somewhere and ran into another low bridge!!!

owensontheroad said...

We swear by our Rand McNally GPS which is for RVs especially. George put our height, length, weight, and propane bottle count in, and she never lets us go where we shouldn't.

Paul and Marti Dahl said...

Good catch on those low bridges. I hate to see driver installed sunroofs... :cD

Karen and Al said...

We would have been in trouble because we can't back the motorhome up with the toad attached.

I have an Alstays low clearance app on my Droid. It might be worth the few bucks it cost. Glad you made it.

Bob and Jo said...

Good catch on the low clearance. We have the Garmin truckers gps and so far we have not come close to a low clearance problem.

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