Monday, July 16, 2012

First day on the road

Having  lost already Saturday and Sunday fiddling with luggage that didn't want to stay in place and be secure enough,  Monday I finally manage to break loose from the inertia, gear up and leave but not before I forget several essential items that made me unload unpack and reload bags for the  hundredth time that day. The feeling of leaving was overwhelming and everything seemed to have conjured to make me as paranoid as possible that something will eventually go wrong and that I actually need more time to prepare! I guess experienced and often travelers get over this much faster/easier or maybe they never have these worries. But for myself being conditioned to spending most of the time in a predictable  “safe and comfortable” environment yet really crave the travel adventure, it it’s a paradox that it takes a conscious effort to really break free. So now with the early start missed I of course had to deal with the the best of what NYC area traffic had to offer. Once out of the city area and onto the interstate, after entering Pennsylvania  I made the first stop for fuel and a snack. I discovered some weak spots in my luggage arrangement, remedied them using few of the multiple  tie straps I had brought. It’s interesting how one’s imagination is quickly stimulated once they realize must solve issues ad hoc using limited resources.

Not having planned any of my days I was interested to see how I was going to find campgrounds and decide places to stay for the night. This proved to be of no concern as campground sites abound along the US interstates and soon I was able to pick my first place to stop in a beautiful Pennsylvania campground called Gaslight. The place is privately owned by a nice couple of elderly folks who were very accommodating, and it had all the amenities to make one’s stay enjoyable. I took few pictures and video clip below.

That night I begun my experience camping in my tent under rain. The various sounds rain makes on the tent’s rain fly kept me awake for most of the time. Since I was right under a large tree, the branches retained water and splashed it onto my tent with every breeze of wind. I had ear plugs but they were safely packed in my bike’s trunk which was covered with the motorcycle cover. I couldn’t drag myself out in the rain to retrieve them and resigned to listening to the cacophony of sounds while rain was doing it’s thing.

No comments:

Post a Comment