The Thin Blue Ride - Part 3 Day 5 - Gettysburg, PA to Middletown, NY

Friday, September 13th, 2019

Drive Report:  234 Miles, 3:45 Drive Time

Other than I-81 & I-84 being in pretty bad condition, the trip to Middletown, NY was uneventful.  Dreary, at least for the first half or better, but uneventful.  It was misting when we got up this morning and this continued off and on after we left Gettysburg.  It never rained hard, but got just wet enough that everything on the trailer will, no doubt, be dirty and in need of washing once we get to Portsmouth, RI tomorrow.  Traffic was relatively light for most of the trip, only picking up when we went past two or three larger towns.  We had a nice stop for lunch and to change drivers at a truck stop (where else?), hit the road again, made one more driver change later and like magic we arrived at our destination.  The Wal-Mart in Middletown, NY.  But we shan't be spending the evening here, for reasons that will be made clear later.  Which is what the day did - got clear later.  Here it is...

See?  Dreary, like I told ya.  We were on Interstate highways for most of the day today.  Makes for easier travel, but it seems less interesting than the small roads.  That said, it also makes for quicker travel.  I don't know that I'd want to do half of 234 miles on the roads we were on when I was riding.  I'm sure Susan would object were she here.  But alas, she has abandoned me.  Now, before those of you directly related to her say something like, "I knew she'd come to her senses eventually." or "About time!", calm down and stow your glee.  I'm in The Rig working on this post and she's visiting the local Kohl's.

There are a series of ridges generally running North and South in this part of the country.  Since we have to move East, we eventually have to cross over some of them.  It's really interesting to consider how these might have developed.  Pull the area up on Google Maps and check it out.

Still lotsa trees.  This is pretty much what our highway looked like.  If you're from more open areas of the country, forget being able to see the opposing lanes of the Interstate Highway upon which you're traveling.

When we came down one of the ridges we entered the valley in this pic.  At this point I-81 ran next to Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, PA.  However, at the North end of Scranton, we hooked up with I-84 which runs mostly East.  We eventually ended up in Middletown, NY which is North and little West of New York City.  Hard to believe we're this far North.  We've noticed that it is considerably cooler here already.

In this pic, we're passing between two of the previously mentioned ridges and are in Pennsylvania.  The state was kind enough to put up one of those signs warning trucks of the steep grade ahead - 4%.  Ha!  4% runs off Susan's back like water off a duck at this point.  She didn't even turn the cruise control off.  She was all honkin the horn and shouting at some lady in  Kia Sportage, "Outta my way lady.  Get your foot off the brake."

This is the lunch truck stop.  Lest anyone reading my posts think I am anything less than truthful, I snapped a shot of The Rig with the other rigs.  It's kinda like taking your dog to doggie day care to "socialize" the dog.

And as I said earlier, it didn't remain dreary all day.  The rolling hills seem to go on and on in this shot.  (Used by permission of Susan Schoen Photography, LLC)

This is the Delaware River.  The same Delaware River, I believe, that George Washington crossed to beat up on the British and their Hessian buddies.  We're further North and it's considerably warmer than when George crossed it.

This is a screen shot taken as we crossed the bridge over the Delaware River.  The text in the river to the left says, "Pennsylvania New Jersey" while to the right it says, "Pennsylvania New York".  If I understand this correctly, since I was driving at the time I passed thru Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  Susan, in the passenger seat would have passed thru Pennsylvania and New York.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Quite the geographic quirk, eh? 

And right after crossing the river and entering New York, we chanced upon this.  Seems a bit presumptuous to me, but then this is New York.

As evidenced by the official "Welcome to" sign.

Upon reaching Middletown, we left the Interstate and headed for Wally World.  But on the way we ran across this guy at an intersection.  I did a double take.  For those technologically deficient readers as well as those too lazy to enlarge the pic for their own examination, the tailgate says, "ENCON POLICE".  I wondered to myself, "What the heck are Encon Police?"  I was just about to call the handy 1-844 number on the side of the truck to inquire, when I chanced to read the door of the truck.  Oh - well that explains it all.  It's the Environmental Conservation Police.  That's a mouthful.  Imagine shouting that at someone who placed their recyclables into the "real" trash... "Halt!  Environmental Conservation Police.  Stop or I'll write you a citation on recycled paper!"

This brings me to my point.  After having worked in the profession for 36 years, we have given police powers to too many agencies and have criminalized too may actions best handled thru administrative, rather than criminal, courts.  Unless I miss my guess, the Econ Police have Law Enforcement authority, which comes with the authority to detain, arrest, and use deadly force when appropriate.  This is just a bad idea.  Google "Eric Garner death".  He died after a struggle with NYPD because he was selling untaxed cigarettes.  We've criminalized too many things.  Sorry - I'll get off my high horse now. 

This is The Rig at the world's most unfriendly Wal-Mart.  We went in and bought the groceries we couldn't find at Wally World yesterday and were in The Rig putting them away when their parking lot monitor stopped by.  Seriously.  She was there to tell us we couldn't stay since they didn't permit overnight camping in their lot.  We already knew this since we'd called ahead and were told it was OK for us to go to the Kentucky Fried Chicken lot because it was across the "street" that divided the parking lot.  So, after putting things away, off to the KFC about a hundred yards away we went.  When Susan went inside to verify that it would be OK to be in their lot, the manager told her he couldn't give us permission since the lot was managed by Wal-Mart.  Classic.  So we figure since the lady at Wal-Mart sent us here when we called, we're OK.  This is a first - spending the night with The Colonel.  I hope he doesn't snore as much as somebody else I know...

Till next time.