Wandering up the #7 (again my posts are out of order...this proceeds the latest post about the van show)

So coming up through New York I had a pretty simple plan...find #7 and drive north upwards through Connecticut and into Massachusetts (I had to spell check that..lol) in an attempt to collect as many states as possible. At this point Canada wasn't all that far off and I was having mixed emotions about that.

However the drive up the #7 is just fantastic and outside of the crazy rain that was just pouring down in a solid sheets in front of me soaking the van through it's leaky front window...I was in drivers heaven!!

However there were two instances of puckering that occurred...one just outside of this town (one of the 50000 small towns along the way) I managed to miss a stop sign warning and hol---eeee jeeezuz does it ever take awhile to take this beast from a full roll to a dead stop. My front right tires just locked right up without any pressure at all and for a second I was scared to death!!

The second was ignoring a sign that suggested an easy 15mph around a corner.You know how you see those signs and you think,,,ah give or take 10 isn't going to matter. Like driving through the Golden twisties in BC and just when you realize you are going too damn fast you are already into it and can do nothing but hang on for dear life. Cars though are amazing and you can pitch them into corners that would make your stomach sick and they handle it just fine...the Chariot however...the Chariot is like trying to turn a battleship that is under full power. I hit this corner and instantly I knew that I should have heeded the sign warning...brakes locking up, ass end sliding out, oncoming traffics eyes getting as big as dinner plates....and 2 seconds later...back to normal. Well everything but my heart rate...it's after times like that I am happy to pull over and chill out for a few minutes while my innards sort themselves out.

This was the area of the country where I sampled the best apples of my life. I have no idea even what kind they were as the rain/thunderstorm that was pouring down stopped any and all socializing even though the blonde beauty selling apples for her volleyball team certainly deserved some chatting up. But they were the best apple I had in 9 months and I savoured the flavour of the 8 of them I bought wishing that every state had such a delight!

The pics here are from some road side waterfall..forget the park name. It was a great place to stop for some lunch and a read. The one things I have found about this area of the country is that it's gorgeous no matter where you go. That could be because I'm on cloud 9 floating through blacktop dreams every time I sit behind the wheel of the van and fire it up...but most likely it's because this area is rich in history, rich in scenery and when you pay for gas at the pump...you'd better be rich or wearing your rose coloured glasses. New York was most definitely an awakening back to expensive gas prices. And since I am headed to the maritimes I figured I might as well embrace it and get used to it...the pipe bombs can come later when I'm on home soil!

Imagine the forces needed to carve out a perfectly smooth hole like this!! Was it the water? Or was it a stone trapped inside a pocket that was rolled around by the water?