April 20, 2006

April 20, 2006

Cortland, New York to Kingston, Ontario

YEAR 2 DAY 307

 

Today was sunny and very warm, a perfect "June 18" day.

This morning we prepared for departure, drove over to the dump station, dumped the waste holding tanks, and left Cortland's Country Music Park. We continued driving north on Interstate 81. Just before Syracuse we took Interstate 481, the bypass around Syracuse, then back onto I-81. We stopped for lunch at the last rest area before Canada.

While Joanne prepared lunch, I chatted with the owner of a Dodge 1 ton diesel dually towing a large fifth wheel trailer. He's very satisfied with his truck, the second Dodge 1 ton diesel dually he has owned. We had lunch, then continued north on I-81 through the Thousand Islands region to the Canadian border. The border agent was somewhat surly, but we crossed without incident after answering a few questions. We turned west on Hwy. 401, past Ganonoque, to Kingston. At Kingston, we turned onto Hwy. 15 to Rideau Acres, the campground we're staying at here. We filled up with diesel just before we got to the campground. We registered, then set up in our campsite. We unhitched, took Bo for a brief obedience walk, then left for truck and grocery shopping.

It was our intent to visit one Dodge dealer, one Ford dealer, then a large grocery store. We drove downtown to the Visitor's Information Centre, but it was closed. I got phone numbers and addresses of car dealers and grocery stores from the Yellow Pages at a phone booth. We drove through Kingston's complicated downtown, during rush hour, and found our way back out to suburbia, to the first Dodge dealer.

We shopped for awhile at the first Dodge dealer. We drove to the first Ford dealer and shopped for awhile. We decided to go to the second Ford dealer in town. We shopped there for awhile. We decided to go the second Dodge dealer. By the time we were finished there, we were too tired and hungry to go grocery shopping. We bought some fast food and headed back to Rideau Acres. I walked Bo, Joanne fed Teddy and Bo, then we ate supper. We watched the second half of tonight's episode of Survivor. I did today's accounting.

We are returning to the second Dodge dealer tomorrow morning for further discussions, so I prepared a list of options and improvements on Dee-Dee, to assist them in evaluating that piece of crap for a trade-in. I did today's journal entry. Joanne went to bed before I finished. We're both pretty tired after a long day of driving, and truck shopping.

Our first impression is that we prefer the Dodge trucks over the Ford trucks.

DSK