Just as a result of our desire to meet up with friends along the way, and spend two nights, we needed to cover almost 400 miles today. That’s a lot more than our usual driving day. As always, we had to pass up a lot of really good places along the way, which is exactly why I hate to cover such distances. If we’d had more time I would have picked out a stop in Ithaca, Corning, or Watkins Glen. We would have stopped at the barbecue place Randy recommended, and the Soaring Museum in Corning, or one of the many waterfalls in the central NY region, and paused to take pictures of the odd signs I saw along the roadside.

That’s the downside of a roadtrip where the primary goal is to get somewhere. Sometimes it’s nicer not to have a goal in mind, and just let the bright spots of the road find you.

At the end of the winding roads through the Allegheny State Forest, we found Penn Wood Airstream Park. Our friends Alex and Charon are staying here this year, so we came here specifically to seek them out. Since we are transient visitors, we’re parked in a clearing toward the front of the park (with full hookups and a concrete pad, so we’re not suffering). The rest of the park is basically all occupied by lessees. There are a lot of Airstreams tucked away in shady forest spots all around the clearing we’re occupying.

We’ll stay a couple of nights to recuperate from the drive, get some work done, and catch up with our friends. One thing on my agenda tomorrow is to go through the advance copy of our Fall 2008 issue that arrived here FedEx today. Here’s a peek at the cover, and the beautiful photo by Neil Holman.   The issue will be mailed later this week to all subscribers.