Goodbye New England! (Day 4)
I got up this morning around 7AM, finished strapping the blue motorcycle onto the trailer, and hooked the trailer up to the car. I wanted to be on the road around 8AM so that we would have plenty of time to make it to Wilkes-Barre, PA in time to see my sisters soccer game at 5PM. Mrs. Keay again made us an excellent breakfast. One final inspection of the Wicked Tiny House revealed one of the tires was low, so I borrowed Mr. Keay's portable air compressor, brought it down to the house, and topped off all the tires. I'll have to keep an eye on that one.
We were on the road by about 8:30AM. Just a few miles down the road, we stopped to get gas, and of course had a few people who wanted to see and talk about that house. I think that our gas stops have been averaging about 15 minutes with all the talking we've been doing.
From the gas stop, it was only about a 15 minute drive to the Massachusetts border. Luckily, it was the weekend and traffic was relatively light. We hit about 10 minutes of traffic at the I-495/I-290 interchange. Driving through Worcester on I-290 was challenging. Lots of traffic, lots of trucks, curves, and narrow lanes. I slowed down to about 40mph from my normal 55mph, and we chugged along. We hit another small bit of traffic right before the I-84 exit.
We crossed into Connecticut, cruised through Hartford, and stopped for fuel just before entering New York. Getting fuel has been one of the more challenging aspects of the drive so far. First, you've got to find a gas station with diesel. Then you have to find the diesel pump. Then you've got to somehow maneuver the truck and trailer to the diesel pump, and make sure that there is room to get out. Never a dull moment!
New York was trouble free, and so was Pennsylvania until we got to the Scranton area, where we found quite a bit of construction. There are two issues with construction and towing the tiny house. One is the lanes are usually narrower, sometimes without a shoulder, which means there is NO room for error. Two is that there is sometimes poorly done temporary pavement, which can cause the trailer to wander. The trailer tires tend to follow any imperfections in the pavement, so if there is a seam between new and old pavement, the trailer will tend to follow it. Couple that with narrow lanes, no shoulder, and a tractor trailer in the other lane, and you have the recipe for some tense moments!
We arrived in Wilkes-Barre at 4:30, and made quite an entrance into the soccer field parking lot. Lots of pointing and cameras, and a couple of people came over to chat. We enjoyed watching my sister play, even though the team lost 3-2 in overtime. After the game, we move the tiny house to a nearby Sam's Club, parked it between a couple of tractor trailers, dropped the motorcycle trailer, and went out to get some dinner.
That night, it was very hot, humid, and sticky, without a hint of breeze. Shenee and I both had trouble falling asleep, and Shenee made a 1am run to the nearby gas station to get some ice and cold drinks. At that point, I decided we needed the fan, so we turned the car on, plugged my 300w power inverted into the car, plugged in the extension cord to the house, and turned on the fan. I hated having to run the car all night, but it only burns about 1/3 gallon per hour, so the $6 in gas we burned to run the fan was well worth it.
Daily Stats:
Mileage: 345 miles
Travel Time: 8 hours
Fuel Cost: $117
Toll Cost: $3.35
