I realize I owe some catch-up posts but I got to Boston a bit early today so here we go.
I was able to get out of the hostel about 10:30 and hit the road. My gameplan was to make it to Buffalo because there was a hostel there I could stay at for the night before heading on to New Hampshire. Turns out nearly all of the roads to Buffalo were Toll Roads, starting with my escape route from Chicago and continuing all along northern Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. I probably spent about $20 on tolls driving through Chicago to NY. It was pretty spendy but on the other hand the roads were wonderful. I'm used to the freeways in Dallas and Utah and pretty much anywhere west of the Mississippi...once you get to a city there is basically a non-stop on/off situation with billboards all over the place and traffic is usually a nightmare. However, on the toll roads you have none of this. Exits are few and far between, usually every 20-30 miles and instead of getting off the freeway to find something to eat/drink/gas, there are travel plazas all along the road (again, every 20-30 miles) which are setup to accomodate these needs. This is the perfect way to travel cross country...you can really just travel on eating up the road instead of running like a jack rabbit between cities and then crawling like a turtle through them. Another bonus is that you don't really have much in the way to block out the scenery. It really makes the trip both more enjoyable and relaxing.
I don't have much of interest to report along the way. Driving through Cleveland was interesting because I'd never been there and since I'd heard Cleveland had been hit REALLY hard by the housing crisis I was curious to see if the effects were visible. I saw some dilapidated areas but the really bad spots must have been a bit off the beaten path.
I ended up getting off the interstate and onto something called the Seaway Trail when I tried to find a place to get some gas. I think I ended up in the small town of Westfield which I thought was in Pennsylvania but ended up being in NY. There were some neat little houses in there alongside Lake Erie that I took some pictures of. All of the gas stations there were closed so I had to go further inland to the center of the town. One of the stations on the road inland only had old-style pumps and was 'out' of all gas except premium. Seemed like a scam to me so I drove on further and ended up getting gas at a station that was out of all gas except regular! Crazy town. There were some nice older homes in this area as well. I'm assuming that almost any town around there will have similar homes. In fact I've found that the styles are pretty consistent throughout New England.
I ended up pulling into Buffalo around 9 p.m. Now I had this pre-conceived notion about Buffalo that it was going to be a run-down town full of dirty old factories and angry rioters. I know that sounds silly but that's how I pictured it. Right away I was blown away by some of the buildings there. My GPS chose to take me through downtown and right past the beautiful Buffalo City Hall building. There's also an Obelisk in the middle of this roundabout and then this tall building with 2 Statue of Liberty replicas. The houses downtown were all turn of the century and interesting to me as well. How odd that a hundred years ago the homes of the rich were built right alongside the main drag whereas today the rich try to get as far away from the hustle and bustle of city life as possible (at least out west). Funny story, the GPS told me to turn left on Main Street. Turns out the software needs an update because Main Street is closed to vehicular traffic because it is a mass transit line now! Good thing I didn't try to make that turn when it was running! I hurridly backed up and managed to find my own way to the hostel. It was a pretty quiet place with only a few guests. Someone was sharing my room but I didn't see him at the time and I asked the front desk where I could get something to eat and they pointed me to a local pizza place on Chippewa street. I found the place pretty easily and got 3 different slices of pizza to go.
As I was walking down the street in the rain, just checking it out, this guy came up and asked for money. I've gotten used to just telling people I don't carry cash so I gave him that excuse. He then asked for some of my pizza and I explained that I was starving and couldn't spare any. He then started telling me about how the street was normally 'bangin' but since it was raining there wasn't much going on. He then went on to tell me that he helped people get dope. Hilarious...I told him I didn't do that and walked off. I was thinking that he seemed awfully old to be trying to sell dope on the street and maybe he would be better off trying to find a job at one of the hundred clubs on that street. Just another memorable first for me on this trip :)
After all the excitement I just wandered back to the hostel and got ready for bed.
Pics for the day: http://picasaweb.google.com/high.priest.of.good.times/PAAndNY
-D
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