July 8 - Pine Grove, PA to Mendon, VT - 410 miles

We left Pine Grove, PA, in the rain and fog this morning.  This was to be our planned day of riding mostly Interstate highways so that we could make a lot of miles closer to Maine.

Riding a motorcycle in light rain isn't bad, but riding in the rain AND in the fog, on an INTERSTATE is pushing it a little.  Luckily, the fog didn't last long.  Another factor in our favor was that today being Sunday, there were very few 18-wheelers on the particular Interstates we rode.  And then the rain stopped after about 100 miles.  We rode through Scranton, PA, Binghamton, NY, and Albany, NY on these interstates, and just sailed through with little traffic on this Sunday.

After Albany, Deane had planned for us to ride up the Hudson River, so our ride included that in the process of getting to Vermont.  That was the highlight of the day, riding right along the river, seeing the small dams built a long time ago to provide for locks of the Champlain Canal transportation, and the historic houses still lived-in along the banks of the river.  Apparently the Champlain Canal transportation was partly on the Hudson River and partly in canals (which we could still see).

We were particularly impressed with the turn-of-the-century homes and buildings, most in reasonable shape, and some in very well restored shape.  Neither of us had been in this part of New York before, so it was a real treat.  We finally reached Vermont, under very threatening overcast, and found our motel.

Norm is out doing our laundry (yes, we do wash our clothes while motorcycle touring), while I am writing the commentary, so that we'll have clean clothes when we start into the Canadian areas.

Tomorrow we're off through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine for our travels.

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