Daily Didactic
We rose earlyish and prepared for a day of driving. We took some good advice and headed first ten miles in the wrong direction to the peak of Whiteface Mountain. Whiteface is one of the "high peaks" of the Adirondacks and is uniquely the one that you can drive to the top of to see all of the others. The climb to the top is a wonderfully windy and steep toll road that ends at a "castle". The road exists because it was done in 1939 before pesky things like environmental impact studies. From the castle parking lot you counterintuitively head not toward the castle, but rather into a long walking tunnel which ends in a subterranean elevator that takes you to the peak. It was brisk and breezy on the top and the view was beautiful. This is pretty country, upstate New York. We milled around, took some pictures, and found a great path down the ridge back to the castle. The castle is a grandiose building for the spot, but probably would not impress aristocracy. We looked in the spartan gift shop and then headed back down the mountain road.

From this point on our trip forward every mile will be in the direction (more or less) of home. We're close to 9,000 miles into a 13,000 mile road trip, but until the compass points west (no we don't actually have a compass) you don't really feel like you are heading home. We settled in for a long day of driving and did the slow crawl out of Adirondack State Park. In Watertown we hit the interstate and progress increased dramatically. We skirted Syracuse a little over an hour later and headed due west for Buffalo. Theresa found a campground on Lake Ontario for the evening and about three hours later we rolled into Four Mile Creek State Campground, just in time to watch a spectacular sunset from a campsite on the lake.

Another morning in the Lake Placid KOA		The toll gate for the Whiteface Mountain road
A great road with...		...an elevation obsession
The bus coming through the tunnel at the castle		The walking tunnel to the elevator to the peak
Not his hardest summit		Us and part of Lake Placid
The tower on the top		The road up
The very fun walk up or down		Lake Placid
It's done this a bunch, first time we got the sign		A really amazing used book store, which is closing
That street		This much signage is not always helpful
Heated		Hot Rod
There are a lot of buildings losing the battle around here		Cool window in Watertown
Bacon?		Seems unlikely
Another tollbooth, we look forward to these going away in a few days		The power grid leaving Niagara Falls
One of a few bridges over the Niagara River		The evening sun over Lake Ontario
An amazing sunset over dinner in the bus

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