Day 7: 8/14/02:

• Depart 6:23
• The Watkins Glen KOA was very nice. Except for the train that drove thru our campsite at bedtime, 3am, and 7am. It is loud. [It was a funny thing, that train. We pulled into what had to be the most "real camping"-esque KOA yet only to be awoken by unending trains and jake-braking semis all night. Aside from the fire pit being full of beer bottles and other things that can only be described as "gnar" the place seemed quite remote. In the middle of the night, the truckers like to play a game called "let those people who think they're camping know that they aren't shit" where they start using their exhaust brakes like there's no tomorrow. I swear to god I thought it was 5:45 and my alarm was going off, telling me that I was late for 4th grade when I heard them going by the first time. The train was just as funny. I mean, what're you going to do but sit there and marvel at how NOT out-of-the-way your campground is. Gawbless America.]
• 8:00 done with Cornell University in Ithica NY. I currently feel 8 beads of sweat pouring down my forehead. Legend says that if you bathe in the waters here, you have to return. Nate did, and now he returned. [woo hoo! the prophecy is fulfilled! I am free of my demons!] I bathed today, so we will see if I make it back. Saw the bridge that all the students jump off during finals. Man, Ithica is gorgeous. [Brian had been dieing to use that phrase for years.]
• Nate can eat a dick, my garbage bag was fine. I'm going to pat his towel if he doesn't shut up.[Clarification: Brian's method for finding anything in the pile of junk in my back seat was to turn around, pat my towel, and look confused. Heaven forbid he should look under the towel, or maybe push it to one side...]
• 9:10 Pennsylvania! I messed up on the navigation, and we are in the wrong state now. And the ramp is closed. What can jew do. [I was not amused]
• 9:15 Back in NY
• 9:49 After two passes thru Bingamton, including out adventure into Pennsylvania, we stopped and asked for directions to the chair. [we were looking for the world's biggest "ladder back" chair] Turns out take the exit we needed to take in the first place. Then Nate flipped me off. A lot.
• One more pass thru Bingamton and still no chair. i think Nate is going to kill somebody. There is a good chance it might be me.
• more directions to the same place we have driven by like 14 billion times, and still no chair. This is getting ridiculous.
• 10:25 more directions, and it turns out, and I quote, "Yah, they took it down." This after being told, "you'll see it, you'll see it," from the other direction people. Now, "well, you would have have seen it." By the over pass, Fuck You! I hope the city of bingamton gets taken out in a nuclear strike.
• 10:53 Nate flips off a family of travelers [I'm sure they had it coming]
• 11:22 Just waved to Beaver Kill, NY [When I grow up, I'm going to live in a town called "seal club" of "stray dog kick".]
• 11:24 Rain drops on windshield. Why didn't we think to get wiper blades?
• 11:25 Lightning!
• 11:29 Really coming down. Hope we don't have to camp in this shit. I have no idea how to put on the rain fly. All this lightning is pretty sick though.
• 11:31 Once again the fact that I didn't bring a jacket is beginning to worry me.[Isn't this a mother's worst nightmare? Her son thousands of miles from home, in the rain with no jacket. I bet he wasn't even wearing clean underwear. Not that I was...]
• 11:45 Liberty NY. Population: Criminally insane.
• 1:46 New Jersey! No picture.
• 3:16 Atlantic Ocean
• 3:36 I saw the statue of liberty [note that we don't actually do jack for another 12 minutes here... that's because we were driving around in circles in "Joisey" trying to figure out how the hell to get to the ferry landing without crossing yet another toll bridge.]
• 3:48 Wow, we actually found where the ferry leaves to the statue, but the last one left at 4:30 eastern. Fuck. [missed it by a mere 2 hours]
• 4:29 skated around liberty park, took pictures with the lady herself. Had turkey sandwiches and pepsi. They were a lot soggy from the cooler, but wow they were delicious. [Yeah. and I think Brian even got the worst of it. I could barely choke down half of my sandwich, but brian scarfed his soggy monster down without a single dry heave. He's such a trooper.]
• Holy shit, New Jersey what the Fuck. Freeways, honking, traffic, pregnant crack whores, pizzerias, no signs telling us where to go, dykes on roller blades falling in front of semis. Jersey City we love you. Especially at rush hour.
• 4:43 The new jersey sign got the double deuce. 4:43.
• 6:30 KOA Delaware water gap. 470 miles [Ever wonder why they call it a "water gap"? read on..]
• Special thanks to Nate Lieby for driving thru New Jersey. It was pretty sketch, but he showed mad skills and kept us alive. [I don't know how it usually is in New Jersey, but I think we showed up during their roadworkfest... I think they allocated about three quarters of a lane for each lane that used to exist so that they could toss cement dividers everywhere and watch the carnage...]

  onward to day 8!