After saying goodbye to Alvin the Squirrel and his chipmunk friends at Old Forge, we took of for Lake Placid. First we had to stop for 180 liters of unleaded though. Waiting in line to pay for those, all preoccupations about the American people seemed to get confirmed. A man was drinking orange juice from a one liter carton, and while his wife was buying a slice of four cheese pizza at 9AM….
Then road to Lake Placid was a other great trip through forests, lakes and marshes, with a occasional village or lookout point. The nicest place was a dam between two small lakes which we had to cross. I missed the entry to the viewpoint half way, loosing the opportunity for some great pictures. Pity.
In Lake Placid itself, we checked out Main Street and started a quest for a New York Yankees base ball cap. This turned out to be a bit foolish in an ice hockey minded town. We’ll try again later in another place.
As I write this, we are parked for the night at Wilmington Notch, a state campground next to White Face Mountain – the former Olympic skiing sites. We wanted to create a camp fire, and but the reception was closed so we couldn’t buy fire wood. I sent Yannick out to find some branches, and and instead he came back with a packet of fire wood. An American camper, and who had bought to much wood gave it to him when he saw him searching. So, and we ended up with a barbecue as well as a fire for the marshmallows.
On the ninth, we left Lake Placid, taking a scenic route toward Lake Champlain, which serves as a water reserve for New York City, and separates New York state from Vermont. En route we saw quite a few houses in the category ‘I-live-in-the-woods-and-in-winter-I’m-isolated’, places where you’d be happy to live and enjoy nature. The ferry port at Port Kent fit in perfectly: a booth, a small shop and a ferry pier, and no houses to be seen.
There I had a nice chat with a Canadian, and who was visiting Lake Placid, taking and taking a day trip to Burlinngton. We talked about Toronto, Canada Canada and The Netherlands – to find out that once again I found a North American who didn’t know there is something beyond Amsterdam. A nice person nevertheless.
The ferry to Burlington was small and old (but not bad at all) , and gave us the opportunity to take a few pictures of the coast, before entering Vermont.
After getting a spot at the Burlington camp ground, at the lake shore, we went for a walk to the city center. Unlike what we expected in an American city, we found a pedestrian only shopping area. There, I all kinds of colored bear statues lined the street, which resulted in a photo series that will not be published here.
Also, the we saw a student playing guitar and singing barely recognisable 60s songs. Our two judges below were unanimous: finish school and get a job, this is not your thing.
Finally, I went for a late evening run, and partially in the dark. It turned into an involuntary interval, due to dark paths and low hanging branches. I now understand why we saw a lot of people running in early evening – the nice running paths are not very well lit at night. Details of the run are available here.
