Day 58

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Posted by: Onaxthiel: Staying up late enough means that even I, one of the earliest risers out there, will occasionally wake up late and still tired. On this particular day, our plan was a bit different than most. We were going to nerd out with my buddy B and some of his friends until the Steelers game came on. Then Obfuscator and I would get out of town and cover as much ground as we could before the denizens of Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania resumed driving. This worked out fairly well and I think we created some new converts to a favorite game of ours, the Riddle of Steel. It had to be a somewhat abbreviated game, since we needed to be on the move in the early evening. Mostly, this technique worked. We didn't have much in the way of driving difficulties until hitting some construction on the north side of Pittsburgh. That spot slowed us down enough for me to get some photos of the surrounding area.

We made two decisions on the road to Erie. 1. We would proceed into New York for the night to camp. 2. We hate New York drivers. Seriously. Over the course of two to three hours we had the same two to three New York plated cars blow past us, only to slow down to lower than the speed we had been maintaining in front of them, multiple times. Keep in mind that Obfuscator had the cruise locked in at about eight over the entire drive. While we were passed rather routinely, New Yorkers were the only people who we would pass us three to five minutes later. Then they would speed up hard a few minutes later to blow around us and slow down again. Luckily after leapfrogging about two times each, they would give up the game and we would then go a few rounds with a different New York driver. In their defense, once we were in their home state we figured out that they are completely terrorized by police. Between the Pennsylvania border and Lake Chattaqua, we spotted four cops in their midlane zones.

About ten o'clock we arrived at Erie State Park. In many places I would say that it is a bit tightly packed for camping. In New York they call this an efficient use of space. We were late enough in the season that we found a spot that had no campers in the adjacent spaces. This was lucky, as if anyone had occupied them, we would have been sleeping withing inches of their tents. Or possibly their cars. One way or another, not much space. The best thing about the site was the showers they had. Hot, free, and with enough water pressure to blow stubborn hippies out of the parking lot of the pentagon. This was a much better deal than that provided at some parks we have visited. (Cough! Yellowstone! Cough!) It was good to see the sky again.

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