Albany, NY

The morning didn’t start off well. It rained heavily throughout the night. I pretty much stayed dry throughout the night, but around 6am, the deluge hit and I could feel small sprays of water on my forehead as drops hit the tent mesh above me. Luckily, everything in the tent remained dry.

Packing up became a game of eating, avoiding the rain and getting things into the car without getting wet. The rain and mud mostly won. I used several tows to dry things before putting them in the car. I got all the electronics and mattress into the car between down pours. As I was taking down the tent, the car doors and Thule Box were wide open. This is when the sky decided to suddenly drain all the clouds above me. I decided to close up the car and let the tent take the worst of it.

I discovered I need more protection from the rain. I’m looking at other tent campers to see what they are doing.

Soaked, I left for Albany, not having planned the trip well and not knowing where I would stay.

The trip to Albany took over four hours. I’m traveling back roads to get a different view of America. I passed through a lot of small towns and was struck by how rundown everything looked. The houses needed painting and repairs and roads and bridges needed repair. That is not to say that there weren’t areas that weren’t run down.

I’m trying to hit each state capital along the way. Albany is my first state capital. There’s an art museum, The Egg, on the plaza in front of the capital, but it was closed on Sunday. The architecture is an odd shape that seems to belong in the center of Brasília the capital of Brazil.

There didn’t seem to be much activity near the capital, except for a group of skate boarders intent on playing dare with oncoming cars. I walked the promenade and took photographs.

The capital is very ornate and on the national historic registry.

The Rockefeller Center is below the plaza, and everything else has been built on top of it. It’s a massive use of concrete and steel. I’m not sure if there are tunnels leading from the capital under the plaza. I looked over the edge and it looked to be up at least eight stories.

It was after five and I hadn’t eaten lunch. I stopped someone on the street to ask for directions to a restaurant. Before I could say anything, he was thanking me for the Uber Eats delivery. He had a couple of dollars in hand, presumably for a tip that I hadn’t earned. We both laughed after I explained I need directions for a restaurant. His suggestion was the “Albany Pump Station”. It turned out to be a good restaurant. It’s a brewery / eclectic pub food restaurant. I wanted to order the turkey burger special but it was sold out. So, I went for the spicy black bean burger with a mixed salad (delicious). I spent two hours catching up online.

I still had no plans for where to stay and set off for my next location; Indian Head near Keene, NY. It was getting late and I stopped in Lake George, NY. I decided I was going to try boondocking at a Walmart Supercenter in Queensbury off of Rt 9. This is the largest Walmart store I’ve ever seen. There were about 8 others doing the same thing including a camper, two truck cabs a huge Chevy truck that left its engine run all night and several other cars with cargo racks on top.

I rolled out my Hest mattress and covered the windows. I slept well until about 4am when all the liquids I drank in the car caught up to me. I left around 4:45 and found a Starbucks a mile away that opened at 5. I spent an hour cleaning up files and trying to import photos.

Off to Indian Head and Lake Placid two hours away.