Vermont to New York

Continuing our final RV roadtrip westward, we journeyed from Vermont into New York state, specifically Albany and Schenectady.

Along the way, we took the time to hike a nature trail every day, including one where the trail went between two boulders very close together, a thruway so narrow that it looked as if it had been hacked out in the middle of one big boulder.

They put you in mind of the Symplegades, which in Greek mythology were a pair of giant boulders in the sea at the Bosporus Strait. Whenever a ship would move between them, they would clash together like cymbals and smash the vessel to bits. It’s not hard to see how bored and fatigued sailors in ancient times might have let their imaginations run wild to concoct this legend.

But we’re happy to report that these particular rocks did not imitate them, and we made the passage unscathed.

Schenectady has been called “The City that Lights the World”, because it’s home to General Electric (GE). Thomas Edison moved his lab here in 1886, branching out from headquarters in Manhattan. Then in 1894, he joined forces with a competitor to found General Electric. With a genius like him running the show, it’s not surprising that GE became a major innovator in its field. When the first home refrigerators in the country were rolled out for sale, they had been manufactured here in Schenectady.

We found another little trail to hike on by the river that didn’t have a great deal of nature to display for viewing. But it did go past the Rivers Casino, which we thought about entering to look around just out of curiosity. But visitors were required to check in with I.D. and so on and so forth, so we easily decided to pass.

The Great Outdoors doesn’t care who you are. And neither does the road that we were soon ready to hit again.

5/31-6/1/2024