After two days in Canada and crossing the border by bus we we're pretty excited to finally get a car on our own and hit the road. We got up early to have breakfast at EconoLodge, where we had spent the night, looking forward to sit down with a nice cup of coffee, some warm toast and maybe some eggs. We realized, however, that if that's what we wanted, it wouldn't be here... Entering the lobby, which also happened to be where the breakfast was served, we were met with crying children, Indian couples arguing and sleepy, grown men desperately trying to make the toaster work. There was no seating available, almost no food left and WAY too much noise for that early in the morning. We balanced our saggy toasts and lukewarm coffees on our suitcases and got out of there as soon as possible. At least now we were getting our car.
We hopped on the shuttle, going to the airport, cause we knew there were a lot of car rentals there. We'd been online and checked out which one was the most affordable and headed for Avis right away - and that's where the already chaotic morning got more chaotic.. The nice woman at the counter told us that had we been a couple of days earlier or reserved a car online, we would have gotten a much better price, cause from Memorial Day to Labor Day the prices double or triple..... WTF!?!??? We're on a pretty tight budget as it is, so having to pay $4800 for a car for three weeks isn't really an option. Thankfully we'd checked the prices just half an hour earlier and found a much better deal, so we did some research on our own and got a car for $1340. The moral of the story is; always reserve a car BEFORE Memorial Day, and always put in that you're from Europe - for some reason that made it a lot cheaper.
Now we had a car. The road was rushing in under our wheels and the world was just beyond our windshield.
We drove past Rochester and headed north after a short lunch in Seneca Falls. We wanted to stick to the smaller roads in order to see more and to avoid tolls - and we're very happy we did! There are so many small and wonderful towns out there and we pretty much wanted to stop in all of them. Knowing there was a scenic route stretching from Rochester and all the way up to Adorindacks, we followed 89 from Seneca Falls and got onto 104 when we got closer to the lake.
This turned out to be a beautiful stretch of small towns, farmland and forests that got greener for every turn.
And other things...
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| Our first proper stop was at a lovely little coffee shop in Fair Haven, where a coffee and cigarette made life just a little bit better than it already was. |
We continued north on the 104, through Oswego and onto Rt 3 which we would follow for the rest of the day. We'd read about a town called Sackets Harbor and thought we'd make a short stop there before driving into Adorindacks. This too turned out to be a good choice. Apparently this is a historical town of some sort - had we done our homework better we would probably even know why by now - but we mostly focused on the beautiful scenery and the nice weather. We sat down for a quick bite at Sackets Harbor Brewing Co - man, if we didn't have to keep driving... - and just enjoyed the sun in our faces for a moment.
It was starting to get late in the afternoon, so we decided that we weren't gonna rush to get the ferry over to Vermont today, but rather find a place to stay close to the border. We got back on Rt 3 and headed into Adorindacks, still following what's called the scenic route. We have to say, that even though the scenery so far had been lovely, we were starting to get fed up with trees. Cause there's a lot of them.. ALOT! Surely enough there were even more trees along this road, and unfortunately they sort of blocked out what seemed to be some amazing views along the way. I'm sure we could have found some places to stop had we gone off the main road, but it was getting dark and we still had quite a bit to go.
By the time we hit Saranac Lake it was pitch dark, and we started contemplating finding a place to stay for the night. We'd passed a few motels and inns earlier so we figured that if we just kept going something would turn up. We were wrong... The forest just kept going, and the roads got darker by the minute. After a while we finally saw a lit up sign that said something about camping so we crossed our fingers that there would be a small cottage or something we could rent for the night. In retrospect I'm glad there wasn't, cause that place was scary. We were both joking about the new Blair Witch Project movie they would make when they found our iPhones, but deep down I don't think we were joking at all... The poor man in charge of the place probably got as scared as we were when the car horn went off and we started laughing hysterically in the parking lot. Anyways, he turned us down and we kept going.
Which brought us to our final destination, Plattsburgh. It was now getting really late, but being on the budget that we are, we can't just settle for the first place we find. So we started driving from one hotel to another inn and finally got a tip about a cheap motel on the other side of town. We'd never been in Plattsburgh and following vague directions when you're blood sugar is rapidly getting lower isn't that easy. Which is north and which is south? Did she say right or left..? Why is there a college here - we're looking for a McDonald...? You've never seen two guys looking more like two disturbingly confused tourists. At one point we drove into a street with the lights on in the car searching like crazy for any sign we could find, that would tell us where to go. Let me just say, there should have been a sign saying "Don't go down this street." We realized quickly that we really shouldn't be in that part of town and turned the car around, but I honestly think that anyone that could do us harm would find us a way too easy pray.
And then we ran out of gas...
Almost, that is.. We barely got to a gas station and randomly ran into the same girl who had given us directions earlier. She explained it again, this time in more detail, and we found it! It was closed... Ended up going back to one of the first inns we tried, paying $60 for a room with one bed. At that point though, I'm pretty sure we would have payed anything for anything.
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