Lake Placid trip summary: day one

I set off for New York state on Friday. My friend Bond was getting married up in Lake Placid, and I planned on visiting my parents in Syracuse the day before. As I mentioned before I set out, there was a forecast for lots and lots of rain, so I took my Mazdaspeed3. Right before I left I was tempted to throw my luggage on Apollo and just gut it out through the rain. I am glad I took the car, for quite a few reasons.

I was kicking myself when I left Virginia. The weather was beautiful, even though it was 87F by 10AM. It would have made for great riding.

By the time I hit Pennsylvania the weather had taken a huge turn for the worse. At times visibility was extremely limited. At one point I passed a semi truck and I couldn’t see much past the nose of my car.

The weather was an omen for my leg in Pennsylvania in general. The roads were shitty, there was a ton of construction, and they had the most idiotic toll booth plaza I’ve ever been through. One of my co-workers suggested that I take a back route through Virginia and up into Pennsylvania. This wound up adding two hours to my trip, and you may never read another Gibberish entry because I intend to punch him in his taint when I see him this morning. I spent 45 minutes in this toll plaza because of him. The state of Pennsylvania decided to build a toll plaza that fed three different major roads within a quarter of a mile; it was total chaos. On top of that there was construction less than a mile ahead that stretched for over ten miles.

On the bright side, I did get to see some crazy shit like this:

Everything changed once I hit the New York state line. The roads because smoother, the traffic more even, and the weather improved.

I got to Syracuse almost twelve hours later. It normally takes me eight and a half to nine hours to drive there by car. I was beat, but glad to see my parents and make the trip to Lake Placid the following morning. Bond was kind enough to invite my parents along, and I after eleven years of friendship I was excited for them to meet.