From Vermont to Rochester, NY

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I had a family reunion in Florida for a couple days, so I had to fly out from Rochester. We had a VERY long day of driving from Vermont, where we drove through some Amish country. Rob was quite amused by the horses and buggies driving alongside the car. That day, we finally bought a cargo carrier for the top of the car, followed immediately by a group squabble of how to appropriately secure it to the roof. I’d say we spent a good hour in that Kmart parking lot in the middle of nowhere New York. Time well spent, I’d say. However, we got the cargo holder on, found a campsite, and rolled into Sodus Point, NY around 9er. Carol in the office gave us the old lecture about how we had to be quiet because this was actually an old folks RV community, but she was nice enough to give us some incredibly oversized firewood.

By this point, we had learned how to appropriately set up camp, so I’d say in 5-8 minutes we had the tent up, air mattresses inflated, and a fire going. The popcorn maker turned out to be a bit finicky, but still gave us some d-e-l salty and oily delights. We ate more soup prepared upon the fire with a side of nacho Doritos. Oh, and some s’mores.

The next afternoon I had to fly out, so I went and ran by the marina in the morning, then took a chlorine shower and we got movin’. I believe that the airport was my first experience with alone time in about 2 weeks. It was pretty glorious just reading in the terminal all by my lonesome. I flew from Rochester to Atlanta, where I then drove with my family down to the Gulf Coast.

The beach was pretty rockin’- I forgot about real humidity for a few months. It’s quite nice for the skin. Anyhoo, I got to see some of my dad’s relatives and hang by the beach. Of course, we did tons of shopping at the outlets and I ate millions of pancakes and crab cakes and shrimp and other shellfish. Saturday afternoon, it was time to fly back to the gang (still in Rochester). They picked me up where I promptly ate a double cheeseburger from McDonald’s (one of my favorite foods, though I try to limit my consumption to once a year. We shall see how that pans out over the course of the trip), and crashed in the Airport Comfort Inn. Classy.

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