Sunday was a travel day. After three straight nights of poor sleep, I was tired and a little grumpy as we made our preparations to leave. I was hoping for an early start – we were shooting for 9am. It took longer than usual to put away the hoses and power cord because everything was a mess from the rain the night before. I cleaned the pine needles and dirt from everything as I was packing it.

It was 9:45am by the time I had the tanks dumped and flushed, slides in and jacks up. We said our goodbyes to Tommy and Linda and squeezed our way out of our narrow site. Maneuvering a 40′ motorhome through Lake George Escape Campground is challenging, but we made our way slowly out of the park without incident.

Our route took us down the Northway (I-87) toward Albany, New York. We followed Route 20 west for 15 miles and then continued west on the lightly traveled I-88. This road has stretches of smooth pavement broken up by some of the worst, bone-jarring interstate anywhere. We stopped at a rest area and Donna made wraps for lunch with leftover pork kabob meat and veggies.

The route led us to I-81 south where we crossed into Pennsylvania. We stopped at the visitor center after crossing the border and picked up a free state map. We like having up-to-date paper maps as well as all of the electronic conveniences.

This route was hilly as we crossed the Pocono Mountains. Traffic was heavy through the cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Drivers entering the interstate around here tend to brake and look for an opening rather than accelerate and blend in. It makes for some hairy situations at times. I followed a tractor-trailer rig most of the time through the congested areas.

We left the interstate and drove down PA309 – a poor road surface pocked with potholes – through the town of Tamaqua. We continued down PA895, which is a much better road. We rattled over so many bumps, the butcher block knife holder (minus the knives) and Keurig coffeemaker slid several feet across the kitchen counter and to the floor. In 12,000 miles of driving this rig, this has never happened before. In the future, we’ll have to secure these things better.

We arrived at Cabela’s retail store in Hamburg, Pennsylvania around 4:30pm (map). The parking lot has a large area reserved for RVs. There were several rigs here when we arrived. It also has a corral and horse walking area as well as temporary dog kennels for people who want to let their dog out while they shop.

Donna and I shopped around in the store, then walked over to Pizza Hut. We don’t usually get our pizza from Pizza Hut, but it wasn’t bad. After dinner, I downloaded the Moto GP race from the Czech Republic. It was a good race, but the download used up 2.5GB of data. Donna walked back to the store and caught the tail end of weekend-long canine agility competition in which the trainer tosses a ball into a pool and the dog jumps off the dock after it. After the store closed at 7pm, many of the RVs pulled out. Only five of us stayed overnight.

RV lot at Cabela’s

Today will be hot – expected temperatures will be in the 90s. We’ll come up with a plan this morning and continue on our way. Up until now, we’ve just been winging our way toward Washington, D.C.