• 6:00am Out of bed
• 6:13am Out of the house
• 6:40am Driving off with the camper – we have 7 days of driving, 8 nights in campgrounds and 2,385 miles ahead of us!

Our first stop was for breakfast in Binghamton, NY. Since we bring our kitchen along with us, we just need to find a pleasant spot to take a break. I use Atlas Obscura whenever possible to find unique places for our breaks. We have visited the largest ball of twine, the largest ketchup bottle, and the Grand Kugel on previous trips. Today it was the carousel that inspired Rod Serling to write the Twilight Zone episode “Walking Distance”. There is also a plaque in the gazebo that is dedicated to him. It turns out that this was very fitting, as some towns we will later drive through are definitely in the Twilight Zone.

We’ve been talking about going to Watkins Glen, and it just happened to be a slight detour from our route. Watkins Glen is a 400 foot deep gorge with 19 waterfalls along its 2 mile length. Unfortunately, the main gorge trail was still closed for the winter, but we walked along one of the rim trails. The steep cliffs and rushing water make for a beautiful setting. We’ll definitely go back when all of the trails are open and spend the day there.

Onwards to Pennsylvania! Our destination for our first camping night was Red Bridge Campground in the Allegheny National Forest. Not too far from the campground is the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River, so we stopped there first. We could walk out onto the first part of the dam, and the amount of water being released was pretty impressive. Only 3 of the 6 gates were open.

We arrived at the campground and found our reserved spot waiting for us. Other than the campgound host, there were only 2 other campers there. Campground hosts spend an extended period at a campground and oversee the facilities. We chatted with our host when she was cruising around on her golf cart – cleaning supplies all stowed on the back. This campground is situated on the shore of the Allegheny River, and we saw some of the tent sites were completely under water. Our host told us that they were not flooded the day before – maybe they are expecting storms and had to let more water through the dam.

We settled into our camp spot and finally got to do some of the dewinterizing that we weren’t able to do last week (See Pre-eclipse camping post). We rooted around and found some questionable firewood and I put my pyromaniac skills to work. Everything was pretty soggy, but I managed to get a good fire going in the fire pit. Too bad that the pit was designed to block the view of the fire and most of the radiant heat. ☹️

Another game of cribbage (John won) and we tucked in for the night. Tomorrow on to West Virginia!