The Path Home Gets Shorter

We got up this morning well before the sun and realized we were finally back in the eastern time zone. It has been almost 6 weeks since we left it and, just that one little thing makes us feel closer to home.

Today's travels will take us out of Indiana, all the way across Ohio and then through a little piece  Pennsylvania. We will end the day in Westfield New York, on the shores of Lake Erie. It sounds like a whole lot more driving than it actually is. in fact, it is just under 600 kilometers and should comfortably take us just 7 hours.

Our morning routine on travel days is very well established and we do it almost automatically - get up, have coffee while rechecking the day's weather along our route, then make breakfast, stow everything while Rick disconnects us and hit the road.

Cleveland and it's sharp turns is our big city for today. Interstate 90 runs right through the city but the traffic usually is not crazy. It is Sunday and we hope the roads will be quieter today. We have driven through Cleveland 2 other times so we are familiar with this route. I referred to it as "bendy" in my post going out west so I will try to capture some of this in my pictures.

For the third day in a row we had perfect driving weather and it was the warmest morning we had experienced since leaving Grande Prairie. We had a little more than an hour of driving before crossing the into Ohio and one of the first things I spotted was this building that had a mural painted on it.

We made a quick stop for gas in Howe Indiana and then thirty minutes later crossed the Ohio State border.

The traffic was a little heavier than i had hoped, but really not that bad.

Ohio is beautiful this time of year and Interstate 90 rolls through the countryside near, but not through many smaller towns in the northern part of the state. The drive was very scenic and uncomplicated.

We did notice that it was very, well, green for this time of year. Last year when we were returning, we noticed that the western states were pretty green and the colours changed as we headed east. This year it was the exact opposite.

Just past Toledo we crossed the scenic Maumee River

Ok so on to Cleveland. Below is a map showing how I90 winds through the city. 

There are 5 very sharp curves in the road and it can be tricky in 4 lanes of traffic. On this Sunday the traffic was light in the city so we navigated through it without incident.

While going through Cleveland I spotted the Goodyear Blimp.  It is pretty hard to take a picture of something in the sky while you are going over less than smooth roads. While attempting to get a picture of the blimp I took a perfect picture of the blue sky.

After several attempts I did manage to get the pictures

Part of I 90 in Cleveland travels along the shore of Lake Erie. We saw a number of boats that had been pulled out of the water for the winter. We did see one boat that was taking advantage of the beautiful day and having a lake season sail. 

If we had any thing that we did not like about Ohio, it was the land closures for apparently no reason. There were miles and miles of lane closures with no sign of construction at all. Then the lane would open up again only to be closed a few miles down the road. 

There were also a few interesting signs on their highways. 

From Ohio we cut across a small slice of Pennsylvania.

It was late afternoon when we entered this state and our shadow preceded us down the road.

We saw this strange pile of rocks that just appeared on the side of the road. Rick thought that it may have been old cement pavement removed from the highway. 

But our biggest find of the day.....maybe even the trip happened when we stopped for gas near Erie Pennsylvania:

That's right! We found Bigfoot!

Shortly after going through Erie we crossed into New York State. 

Our destination for tonight was Westfield New York. Up until this point all of the states we have traveled had mile markers that counted up. New York State was the opposite, starting at a higher number and counting down. It cause some confusion since we knew our exit was at New York Mile Marker 60 and that was quite close to Pennsylvania Mile Marker 60. After 8 hours on the road it almost caused a little detour. 

We did get to the proper exit and headed for the camp ground. The road took us along the shore of Lake Erie and we passed the Barcelona Lighthouse.

It was a beautiful evening and there were a lot of people out and about in the park. Several stopped by and chatted with Rick as he got us hooked up. I made dinner, we both had showers and then sat with the door and vents open, enjoying the warm evening air.