Day 53 – Oneonta, New York

While we were preparing to leave the KOA in Brattleboro this morning, I noticed that the park was starting to fill up, with new arrivals coming in very early.  Yesterday evening, arriving back from our tour, I saw that several Class A diesel motorhomes, like ours, had arrived and were parked near each other.  Looked like a rally for big brown motorhomes; maybe we should have joined in.  Anyway, it appeared that the Fourth of July weekend was going to be a big one for the KOA.  They were already putting out their decorations, lots of red, white and blue bunting; looked really nice!

We headed out around eleven, after Don had made the decision to follow his Navigator’s advice and stay on the Interstates for the trip.  His main motive in this was fuel stop availability being better on the big highways than on the State routes.  And we needed a fuel stop; our last fillup was shortly after we arrived in Maine!  So, we headed south on I-91 into Massachusetts, planning to make a stop in the town of Whatley for fuel, as there were supposed to be two truck stops there.  When we pulled off the highway, Geri spied one of the places, called “Roady’s”, apparently possessing two diesel pumps.  Don said he didn’t like the looks of it, and crossed over the 91 to find the other truck stop.  Well, there were two more gas stations, neither of them a truck stop!  Agreeing that Roady’s was going to be our fuel stop, Don ingeniously turned into a dead end road in order to get turned around and back across the 91.  With his usual luck, the end of the road was parking area for a steel fabrication company, lots of turn around room, once he avoided the railroad switch engine that was trying to pull into the lot.  Anyway, flush with fuel from Roady’s, we headed south again until we hit the Mass Turnpike north of Springfield.  Don managed to get into the wrong lane at the Turnpike entrance, and wound up without a card showing our entrance point.  Geri was sure the State Troopers were going to come after us.  When we finally exited Massachusetts and the Turnpike, the kid in the toll booth had no problem, just charged us the maximum toll for our rig. 

The Mass Turnpike immediately became the New York Thruway, another money maker which we were finally able to exit for $8.85 some 60 miles down the road.  Finally winding up on I-88, we cruised through the bucolic and beautiful country of Schoharie and Otsego Counties that we last saw six years ago, when we were returning from our first Transcon in the La Palma.  When we arrived in Oneonta, we had no trouble finding our campground; it wasn’t too far off the 88, but it was almost straight up from the town’s main street!  The road up the hill to the RV Park had to be at least a 12% grade in some places, and Don had to gun the big diesel full tilt to claw our way up.  Once we were there, we admired the view from the place; we didn’t admire the appearance of our truck, which was no longer red, but a very dusty brown.  Once we got set up in our site, Don hosed off the truck good enough to drive down to a car wash, and returned it to its normal color. 

We’re in a very beautiful spot here, surrounded by baseball freaks (we’re near Cooperstown).  We’re going to be here through the Fourth, and Don is already planning a genealogical expedition to Schoharie County, where one of his ancestors was planted after emigrating from Germany.  From what he’s been reading to Geri and me, she was a very opinionated woman, fond of direct action.  He might share some stories about her later.  We had some frozen dinners, resulting in some tasty plates, worked on the blog, watched a little TV, and then to bed.  Expect an exciting day tomorrow!