New York State Road Trip - Part 5: Wrap Up

Despite Thursday 16 August being my birthday, decided I would rather drive the 8 hours straight home rather than stopping halfway in Pittsburgh. Write ups of Pittsburgh (eg Lonely Planet) make it sound like a great town but couldn't see anything there that was uniquely different enough to warrant losing a quiet three days at home before heading back to work.

First half of the drive went to plan but afternoon included a 54 minute road block for a truck accident in a work zone, Olivia throwing up three times and Kieren having a massive nose bleed. Each of the latter stops saw all the trucks I had just passed go past us again which didn't help the sense of getting home. But we finally got home at 7pm after 10 hours on the road.

So, overall impressions of the trip:

• Lake George was ok but perhaps wasn't the best choice to stay to experience the Adirondacks as too much of the land was inaccessible to us and the town was a generic tourist town rather than a more authentic Adirondack town. Although the lack of public spaces was a recurrent theme on the trip.
• Alexandria Bay was great with the pirate days (where else do you get a chance to dress up as a pirate in public!) and the ferry tour of the two castles. If could find better accommodation, would be happy to spend some more time there.
• Loved catching the Ansel Adams exhibition in Rochester.
• Seaway Trail needs much more work to develop products that allow you to find the 'attractions' along the route. Our failure to find the lighthouses was disappointing for us but atrocious for a tourist route. Wonder what they would pay me to redesign their materials for them??!!
• Niagara Falls was more enjoyable this time, being more prepared for what the Falls are about and trying to overlook the over-development.
• Driving was ok, thanks to having a GPS - would be very difficult without one.
• We would have averaged about 28 mpg (US gallons) which is around 33.5 mpg. Petrol seems to have come down in price while we were away. Was $3.05 when we left but tended to pay more around $2.95 away and then had one fill at $2.63 yesterday. Under 70 US cents per litre or 90 Aus cents even given the latest fall in exchange rate. We probably tend to travel a bit slower here as state speed limits are 55 mph and freeways are 65 mph. Usually sat on 75 on the freeways which is about 120 kmh and still had most cars go past me. Although last stint in Maryland was more like 85 mph to keep up with the other traffic in the 55 mph zones!
• The Subaru was a bit small for all of us and our gear. Wished we had brought our roof boot (or roof box as they are called here) over so we could take a bit more (eg boogie boards) and in a bit more comfort. Kids would still be able to reach each other so a divider in the back seat would also have helped at times!

Now just have around 620 photos to sort through!

Malcolm