On The Road Again!
This time it's for a much shorter trip. I'm winding my way up to Niagara Falls and back.
I made a couple of improvements to my van since my first big trip. Hmmm... I need a name for that trip so that I can refer to it easily. How about Maiden Voyage, or MV for short?
Since my Maiden Voyage, with the help of a friend, I installed the swivel base for my passenger seat. Now it can face forward like normal, or swivel around to face the living compartment of the van. It's really nice! I also made cloth seat covers so that I can drive in comfort during warm weather Vinyl is just too hot and sticky for me. They don't look perfect, but they work!
I made a couple of improvements to my van since my first big trip. Hmmm... I need a name for that trip so that I can refer to it easily. How about Maiden Voyage, or MV for short?
Since my Maiden Voyage, with the help of a friend, I installed the swivel base for my passenger seat. Now it can face forward like normal, or swivel around to face the living compartment of the van. It's really nice! I also made cloth seat covers so that I can drive in comfort during warm weather Vinyl is just too hot and sticky for me. They don't look perfect, but they work!
My first day on the road was perfect weather. Sunny, clear, high right around 80 degrees, and not very humid. I was excited to be headed to Columbus, Indiana and to plan to sleep in my van in a parking lot. I knew better than to drive I-65 if I wanted to enjoy myself -- the traffic is just too intense! So I plotted a route based on curiosity and headed up 37 with the intention of taking unfamiliar roads as soon as it was practical.
The route I wanted to take was not offered as an option by my GPS, but by picking intermediate destinations along the way, I could still use it to help keep me from missing turns on unfamiliar roads and winding up on I-65 anyway. I drove through some beautiful country -- farmland and forests -- which is what I wanted. What I didn't expect was all the stretches of road that were a bit narrow with unforgiving drop-offs right at the edge of the pavement. It's not like I was on the side of a cliff, but one wheel off the pavement could easily have ended my trip on my side in a gully. I considered the possibility that perhaps it wasn't always such a good idea to go on roads that my GPS wasn't offering as an option. Although on other days, I've enjoyed some of my favorite drives that way, and there are other unpleasant ways to come close to getting into accidents on interstate highways, so it's a trade-off, as is everything in life. If I hadn't taken those back roads, I never would have gotten the surprise of seeing Story, Indiana. Imagine driving along through woods and farmland and suddenly coming around a corner and seeing this?
I was past it before I knew what had happened, with no good place to turn around. That's just one building, but the whole tiny town looks like stepping back in time by 100 years or so. Although it is not too far from where I was headed, it's not something I'd have ever stumbled upon without taking my improvised back-road route. (I didn't take that photo -- it came from here: http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/indiana/in-restaurants-with-history/)
I did want to get somewhere that I could stay in my van for the night, and my options in the area were Nashville and Columbus (both towns in Indiana in addition to more famous cities in other nearby states). When I got to the fork in the road where I would choose, the choice was easy. There was road construction and quite a backup on the route to Nashville, and smooth sailing to Columbus. Columbus it was!
Next entry: stealth camping in Columbus
The route I wanted to take was not offered as an option by my GPS, but by picking intermediate destinations along the way, I could still use it to help keep me from missing turns on unfamiliar roads and winding up on I-65 anyway. I drove through some beautiful country -- farmland and forests -- which is what I wanted. What I didn't expect was all the stretches of road that were a bit narrow with unforgiving drop-offs right at the edge of the pavement. It's not like I was on the side of a cliff, but one wheel off the pavement could easily have ended my trip on my side in a gully. I considered the possibility that perhaps it wasn't always such a good idea to go on roads that my GPS wasn't offering as an option. Although on other days, I've enjoyed some of my favorite drives that way, and there are other unpleasant ways to come close to getting into accidents on interstate highways, so it's a trade-off, as is everything in life. If I hadn't taken those back roads, I never would have gotten the surprise of seeing Story, Indiana. Imagine driving along through woods and farmland and suddenly coming around a corner and seeing this?
I was past it before I knew what had happened, with no good place to turn around. That's just one building, but the whole tiny town looks like stepping back in time by 100 years or so. Although it is not too far from where I was headed, it's not something I'd have ever stumbled upon without taking my improvised back-road route. (I didn't take that photo -- it came from here: http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/indiana/in-restaurants-with-history/)
I did want to get somewhere that I could stay in my van for the night, and my options in the area were Nashville and Columbus (both towns in Indiana in addition to more famous cities in other nearby states). When I got to the fork in the road where I would choose, the choice was easy. There was road construction and quite a backup on the route to Nashville, and smooth sailing to Columbus. Columbus it was!
Next entry: stealth camping in Columbus
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