10/10/00 - Upstate New York
Going I-90 all the way. Passed through Syracuse and Rochester and then when I got to Auburn, NY, I remembered that a woman named Suzanne who I had met online - an aspiring writer - lived there, and so I spontaneously pulled off at the Auburn exit and pulled into a Days Inn parking lot. I gave her a call from my cell phone and asked if she wanted to meet me somewhere to say hello.
She was working at home with her two kids and didn't have a babysitter. I suggested we meet at McDonalds, a little tip I had learned from my dear friend Toni in Richmond, Virginia who used to take her kids to McDonalds for momentary respite. Suzanne agreed to meet me and gave me directions to the nearest McDonalds that had a play area.
Before I left the Days Inn lot, I ran around to the front door to see if they had USA Today, and sure enough they did. I bought a copy from the dispenser and opened the paper. Tuesday, October 10, 2000, Life Section - there was a photo of me and the Berts and a wonderful article about RVgirl.com and my cross-country trip written by Janet Kornblum. I was so psyched!
Went to McDonalds and had a chocolate milkshake and fries and talked to Suzanne about writing and becoming a full-time freelancer as her kids played in the huge plastic, brightly colored maze of a fortress. I wish I was a kid sometimes so I could climb through the tunnels and jump into the little room filled with colorful plastic balls.
Got back on the road and made it as far as Batavia, NY (pronounced Bah-TAY-via) which was about two hours from Buffalo. Pulled into Lei-Tei campground (short for LEIsure TIme) and got a pull-thru site. Usually when you have a mini-motorhome like me, they give you a back-in site - pull-thrus are always preferable because they are so easy to get into and get out of. It was on gravel, though, with no grass or trees right at the site, but a big grassy field with bushes and trees across the way.
The sun was setting as I was hooking up water and electric, and I took a photo to capture the colors behind the Apache. On one side of me, very closely parked, was a long Class A motorhome (the kind that looks like a bus) and on the other side of me was a 5th wheel (the kind that is towed behind a big truck, bigger than a regular trailer).
As I was starting to set up camp, a woman stepped out of the big motorhome and said hello. She looked perfectly dressed, perfectly coifed, trim and stylish. As I was finishing, she walked back holding some white shirts on hangers. "Catching up on laundry." she laughed and went inside. The first thing that came to mind is how diverse RVers can be. Here was a woman who looked like she would be more at home at a country club than at an RV campground, but here she was, perfectly content and looking great.
