Sunday Aug 28 2016
1st leg of the trip
After much bustle, we finally pulled out of OM a few minutes after 10:00 AM.
We drove up to Hunt Valley and caught 83 north.  All the way up to the Harrisburg area, then onto to 81 north.  Ride was uneventful.  About 1:00 PM we decided to stop for lunch.  Scranton - a little local internet cafe type of place across from a church, called Zummo's

 

Nice place.  A bunch of locals, mostly younger, mostly on laptops or other devices.
The food was pretty good.  We both got chicken salad on whole wheat pita.  the chicken salad had cranberries in it.  Fresh and good.  I also got a cup of the daily special soup - zucchini and corn.  Cream based.  Very good, but I got it cold.  They zapped it for me.  Much better.

We were there about 30-40 minutes then took off again looking for a return to RT 81 north.  It got a little complicated, but after a turnaround, we got back on track.
This turned out not to be such an uneventful segment of the trip.  We were quickly into NY when we ran into some roadwork delay.  Seemed like we hit at least 2-3 stretches of roadwork - on a Sunday. There wasn't any work actually being done, but parts of the road were closed.
It was just before one of these stretches in NY that I was driving along side an 18 wheeler.  I was in the left lane, he was in the right lane - just two lanes.  I was moving a bit faster than him and maybe a car length or two ahead of him, when all of a sudden he sped up. That didn't bother me until I saw the sign that said left lane closed ahead.  We were heading to a single lane and another sign said roadwork next 12 miles.  I didn't feel like being behind the truck, so I decided to pass him before we got to the road narrowing.  I sped up along side him, intending to pass him (I was on his left).  Just as I was getting to the cab end of the truck, he sort of lurched in our direction.  Janice screamed and veered off a little toward the left shoulder.  It was a narrow miss, but I hit the accelerator and pulled ahead of him just seconds before the road narrowed.  Then the asshole tailgated me for close to a mile before backing off - actually I think we hit a hill and he just lost the battle of gravity,  The road widened to two lanes again and stayed away from him moving to right lane.  He, of course, passed me.  Then he sort of did a jig in the road - turning onto the left shoulder and back again - almost seemed intentional.  Or maybe he was drunk.  Anyway, after a few miles we had to exit.  Thank goodness he kept on straight.
One other mild adventure of note.  There was a guy keeping pretty close behind me.  I considered moving over, but there was slower traffic in the right lane.  He kept tailgating me. I happened to notice a NY State Trooper in a nook to the left side ahead of us.  I immediately slowed down to let traffic right of me move ahead of me, so I could slow down and move over.  I dropped my speed to 65 from 75.  The guy behind me apparently didn't see the cop until too late.  In my rear view mirror, I watched the cop enter the highway, start to tail us - me in front, the other guy behind me, the cop behind him.  A few seconds later the cop's lights went on and I drove off as I watched the cop pull him over.
Tough luck my friend.  But better you than me.
An hour and a half later we pulled into our place in Cooperstown - The Lake Front Motel.

Nice view from outside our room, but in general we aren't thrilled with the place.  Very small, maybe a bit musty or maybe it's from being close to the water.  But the good part... very close to the main drag in town.

Eddie

Cal

Earl

Frank

Jim

Brooks

We walked to the Baseball Hall of Fame, about 5-10 minutes away. We spent about 2-2 1/2 hours there.  Very cool stuff for a baseball fan.  Even an armchair fan like I've become these past years. But still...

Nothing like being taken back to a time when you believed in heros!







Dinner at Mel's on 22 - 2 block walk from the BBHF.  Burgers were good.uninviting as it is.
Back to the room - more to come tomorrow!