Travelogue

Boyd Lake campingBoyd Lake was a park that Lolo selected that would put me close to Boulder for the next day’s car transfer with Tommy, and the subsequent pickup of Lorry and Andrew from the Denver airport. This was my last night as a solo traveler! The 1,900 miles that I had come made it seem like a lot more than 4 nights from NJ, and I was looking forward to a complete reunion with my family.

The park was somewhat crowded, and lake access was limited, but for one night I could tough it out. I downloaded the coordinates of the nearest geocaches into the Droid and took off on the mountain bike to get a sense of the park.

The park has miles of nice paved and unpaved biking/jogging paths. Using the bike gave me the ability to easily cover lots of ground, and also find a few geocaches on route.

The next morning, in anticipation of additional family members, I cleaned up the RV, topped off the water tanks, dumped the holding tanks, and plotted a course to the Broomfield Walmart, where I would meet Tommy for the first time in 7 weeks (our longest separation ever). Using his Subaru, I would then pick up Lolo and Andrew from Denver International Airport.

Description

Boyd Lake State Park, located just one mile east of downtown Loveland in northern Colorado, is home to one of the largest lakes in the northern Front Range. It lies at the western-most edge of the plains at the foot of the snow-capped Rockies.

The 1,700 acre (at full capacity) lake is popular for boating, water skiing, fishing, windsurfing, swimming hiking, and biking. Facilities include a sandy beach and pavilion for swimming, a 148-site campground with paved pull-through sites, a marina with boat ramps, and a paved walking/biking trail that connects to Loveland’s path system.

Travelogue

Lake McConaughy camping on bluffI had been looking forward to a few days of rest at Lake McConaughy, even before the tribulations of the previous two days. For me, the “real west” begins when the rules and regulations of the east, meant to protect its citizens from themselves, are replaced with a minimum of regulations, mostly disregarded, that give its citizens the right to have fun, or kill themselves trying, without the threat of litigation.

While Lake Anita in Iowa has only one small swimming beach that is closed when lifeguards are off duty, Lake McConaughy is one massively large swimming/boating/fishing/water skiing lake without any adult supervision that I could find. Its location, smack in the middle of the very dry flatlands of Nebraska and Colorado, is a natural draw to anyone looking for some water to help beat the heat and play in. It attracts a wide assortment of water craft for fishing, towing insanely oversized inflatable objects, and going fast to impress members of the opposite sex.

There are several campgrounds that offer electric hookups, and the prime sites with lake front views and access are usually reserved close to a year in advance, as part of a multi-family ritual vacation (similar to what we have done boat camping on the islands at Lake George, NY). Not to worry however, since the rest of the lake's perimeter is fair game for camping as well, for the bargain rate of $15 a night. However, this year the water levels were probably the highest I had ever seen, and many of the beaches and beach-front camping areas were now submerged in 10’ of water.

I approached the Lone Eagle Campground with trepidation since the visitor center said that while there might still be an electric site available, I would have to drive the 10 miles to the campground and check the posts to be certain. I took 2 laps around the perimeter where the electric sites were, and was surprised to see someone leaving a site directly overlooking the lake at 4:00 in the afternoon. Just to be sure, I pulled in and checked the post. No Reservation? “You got Lucky,” said the women in the next site overlooking the lake. She said the previous campers had used the site for most of the day, and then just decided to leave the premier site available to the next taker, ME!

Mother & daughter tent pitching teamHer next question took me off guard. “What Exit?” I wasn’t really sure what this meant, but when she said she had lived in NJ, I remembered the Exit # bumper stickers that some people in NJ had to advertise their exit on the Garden State Parkway. I was embarrassed to say that I didn’t even really know what exit I was, so I said exit 163 hoping that there was such an exit, or if not, that she wouldn’t call me on it. She also told me that she and family friends had reserved the 3 sites on either side of me on the bluff over 6 months ago for this vacation that they take every year.

The next day was my first non-driving day and was supposed to be a “rest day”. While I started the morning with a light swim and a little beach-front reading, the back of my mind was still asking the unfortunate question, “What would Lolo do?” Traveling with Lorry is rarely just sitting around, so I left in the near mid-day sun for a 5-mile jog. Judging from the looks I got, I’m sure there are not a lot of joggers who go out in the mid-day Nebraska sun (I’m not sure I should have either).

After rehydrating and a shower, I decided to add another “activity” to the narrative of this website. Actually I could add 2 activities if I took the mountain bike down some of the trails in pursuit of a few geocaches that were supposed to be hidden around the lake.

I was about to give up on the first geocache when both the Garmin and Droid gps’s were pointing me into a forest flooded with 18” of water. I didn’t think it would be worth traipsing barefoot in the muck until I saw a plastic container floating around the theoretical position of my targeted geocache. Hmmm, plastic trash or geocache container? It turned out to be the geocache, which I signed and then relocated to higher ground to spare the next treasure seeker wet feet.

The day ended with a great sunset, and the visual of new neighbors setting up a campsite next to mine. Every member of the family, including the dreadlocked boyfriend, set up the camp with the competency that repeated practice brings. The precision mother/daughter tent pitching team was my favorite.

Description

Lake McConaughy, nicknamed "Big Mac," is the largest reservoir in Nebraska. It is located just a few miles off Interstate 80 near the Colorado border. The reservoir, which is over 20 miles long and 4 miles wide when at full capacity, was formed on the Platte River by the Kingsley Dam. The lake has over 100 mile of white-sand beaches along its shore line.

To Nebraskans, the main attraction of Lake McConaughy is water activities--swimming, boating, windsurfing, skiing, and world-class fishing. Trophy size catfish, walleye, stripers, bass, and trout have been caught in "Big Mac."

The park has 200 tent and RV sites. However, most people choose to primitive camp right on the beach at the water's edge. Camping is on a first-come first-serve basis.

Travelogue

Maybe I’m getting older, or maybe Lorry helped with the driving, but the 621 miles to Lake Anita from the Flying J felt a lot longer than they did in 2005. In fact, I wasn’t even planning on going this distance. Rather, my co-pilot at home had selected a campground at Walnut Woods State Park near Des Moines, which would have me parked by 6:00. Alas, it was not to be, since it was a Friday night, and the 21 sites at the campground were completely booked for the weekend. No matter how many times I circled the little campground loop, no sites would open up, and the campground hosts were nowhere to be found. I was getting really tired with the extra 20 miles in city rush hour traffic to get here and was hoping to crash in the daily overflow, but with the hosts missing I didn’t want to chance a late night ejection, so I headed out to drive the extra 68 miles to Lake Anita.

Lake Anita camping on lawnNow I had a GPS to get me back the highway so it shouldn’t have been an issue. In fact I had two/three GPS’s. One was the trusty, but somewhat outdated Garmin 2610 on the dash, and the second was the Motorola Droid cell phone using Google Maps for navigation. A smaller battery powered Garmin 60CSx used for Geocaching was resting comfortably in the bureau drawer.

Still, with all this satellite firepower and the fatigue of the miles, I was having a bit of difficulty finding the best way back. And the cell phone GPS was taking me down a dirt road that the Garmin 2610 didn’t even have in its database.

That’s when the final bit of untested technology proved its worth. The boys and I have recently enabled Google Latitude on our cell phones. What this does is allow Lolo (or any other trusted friend) to look at a Google Map and instantly see where in the world you are. It has a few glitches, like when it told Lolo that I was in mainland China, or Andrew in a maternity hospital in NYC, but when it works, Lolo can instantly see where all of her “men” are at any point in time across the country.

While I was driving down the dirt road, frantically in pursuit of some pavement that would get me back to Route 80, the cell phone rang. It was Lolo, asking why I was going down that little road to get to the highway. She could actually see my little smiling face avatar move down the Google Map on her computer. I was amused, impressed, and then grateful when she informed me that the next left turn should get me back to some semblance of civilization.

In another 1.5 hours and around 7:45 I arrived at Lake Anita State Park. Even at this hour it was over 90 degrees with a comparable humidity level. And of course, since it was still Friday night, every electric site was taken, so the promise of a good night’s sleep with continuous air conditioning would remain an unfulfilled fantasy.

However, there were plenty of spaces on the “no hookup” section (I wonder why?), and I quickly found a reasonably level spot to park and ponder my situation. Since there was still an hour before the “quiet time” began, I ran the generator to get some air conditioning and poured myself a tall G&T to help loosen the pains in my neck and back. The micro-wave produced some edible fare, and after a quick shower in the RV I was primed for bed.

At around 2:00 AM the sirens went off, but I had already been up for over an hour. Now I think I know why the people of the Mid-west are as God-fearing as they seem to be. The continuous lightning and thunder storm that I could see from my bedroom window was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Heron Lake in 2002 was the closest comparable in lightning, but this included torrential rain and wind gusts that rocked the RV. Through the near continuous lightening flashes I could see my unfortunate follow campers with tents, fleeing to their cars while trying to secure the tents in the drenching rain.

At this point, I had only the sirens to contend with. I’m still not sure what the appropriate response to a siren is. As an easterner, I tried to call up Radar Now, or Weatherbug on my cell phone to get a radar visualization of the storm and any warnings, but I had no coverage. Hence, I just watched what my brethren did, and was ready to leave at a moment’s notice if someone suggested that we might be in the path of a tornado.

Finally, the storm seemed to fade away, and I was left to try and get a bit of rest before the next day’s drive to Lake McConaughy.

Description

Lake Anita State Park is located in southwest Iowa about 5 miles south of Interstate 80. The park, which contains a beautiful 171-acre artificial lake, is very popular for swimming, fishing and boating.

There is a campground with 144 sites, all within easy access of the lake.

Travelogue

Lazy Daze camping in Flying JWhile this might be the first time that my name appears on the byline of a trip stop, this is not the first time that I have traveled solo in the RV. That dubious milestone was set this last February, when in an effort to cure a sinus infection, I migrated south for a 3-week stay in Florida. The good news was that it worked!! In a few weeks my infection was cured. The bad news was that I was traveling solo, since Lorry couldn’t leave her 90-year-old mother for such an extended duration.

Despite 10 years of motor home travel across the country, I was still a little anxious about solo travel, and the extended absence from Lolo. I couldn’t do anything about the spousal separation, but before the February solo trip, I did make a few modifications to the RV which included:

• RV Cams 56-CHNV video backup camera and 5.6” monitor
• Six new Michelin LTX M/S tires and a TireTraker tire pressure monitoring system
• Viewsonic 24” HDTV and ASUS 1000he netbook PC
• Android phone for Google Maps navigation and internet connection.

Since everything had performed flawlessly on the 3000-mile solo Florida trip, I was a lot less apprehensive about this trip. I would visit some of our favorite stops on the way out west (same as our 2005 trip), and in less than 5 days be reunited with my family in Boulder, Co. It sounded like a great plan, and spirits were high as I left the driveway and pointed the Lazy Daze west once again.

Morning coffee water with HydroplaneThe Toledo Flying J has been a regular stop for us because it’s the perfect distance from our home for a first nights stay. The 560 miles over 11 hours are not too tough on the first day of a trip when trip fatigue has not yet set in, and the excitement of starting a new adventure is high.

Arriving in time for cocktails I took a spot with a sunset view of the trucks leaving the fuel pumps. My only neighbor was another RV that was trailering a hydroplane boat. I think he was traveling solo too, and I felt somewhat inadequate as I have never trailered anything behind the Lazy Daze. Our 20’ Grady White boat weighs 4000# and sits on a 26’ trailer which would be a bit too much to tow. Perhaps a small car or a motorcycle trailer to carry my Honda ST1100 will be on the hitch on the next trip.

Description

Flying J's are Travel Plazas that cater to truckers and RV's. Their numerous services include gas, a dump stations, propane, fast food restaurant, limited groceries, and even showers and a barber shop. However, the best feature of all is the RV section that allows overnight parking.

They are conveniently located on most of the interstates (except for the East Coast)

Travelogue

Too bad the weather had put a damper on our last two days and caused us to cut our vacation a day short, because otherwise it had been a really great trip—not as dramatic and exciting as some our trips in the past, but really fun nonetheless.

Now it was time to get back to reality. Andrew had the GREs in 3 days and Tommy had to head back up to school the following weekend to lead a freshman orientation backpacking trip. After spending so much time together over the last week, I wasn’t sure whether I was looking forward to or dreading how quiet the house would be when they left. In either case, it is what it is and we would adjust once more.

Description

Our home in Upper Saddle River, a suburb of New York City.

Travelogue

We just couldn’t leave Canada without having a donut and coffee at a Tim Hortons, so right before reaching the border, we made this obligatory stop. Also, I figured it would give me a chance to get rid of the Canadian money I had left in my wallet.

The border crossing was a breeze once again, and we soon found ourselves on the familiar Adirondack Highway, pretty much a straight line home for us. However, since it was already dinner time and the rainy driving conditions weren’t great, we decided to find a place to stay for the night and then just finish up the drive in the morning.

I consulted the Woodall’s guide for a campground that wouldn’t take us too far off route. Somewhat subconsciously, I think I was also looking for something that might be fun if the weather cleared the next morning. The Ausable River Campground, just a short distance off Exit 35 seemed about right, and very near to a place I remember visiting when I was a child, Ausable Chasms.

We followed the signs for the campground and eventually pulled down a dark road past a dark deserted campground office. We weren’t sure what to do, but we certainly didn’t want to continue driving any further, so we continued driving along the road past the office into the campground itself. We noticed several empty sites in the woods along the way before coming to a more open area full of happy, partying campers. What a contrast with the deserted and quiet wooded sites we had just passed through. This was the area down by the Ausable River, and I guess it was where all the action was, rather than back in the woods. Eventually, we found the owners’ campsite and asked if we could have a site for the night. She looked in the RV, saw the boys, and suggested that we might want a site down here so the boys could socialize with the other young campers. Herb and I had to laugh, because we knew that was not even remotely on their agenda for the night. We politely declined and took a site back up in the woods towards the entrance.

Unfortunately, the next morning we woke up to more rain, and I knew that my hope of squeezing a little more vacation out of this trip was over. Oh well, it was time to head home.

Description

The Ausable River Campground is located on Route 9, just off I87 between Exits 34 and 35. It is 12 miles south of Plattsburgh, NY.

The 120-site campground is located on 130 acres along the Ausable River within the Adirondack Park. Activities include fishing, boating, and swimming on the Ausable River as well as bicycling or walking along its wilderness trails.

The most popular nearby attraction is Ausable Chasms, a 2-mile-long sandstone gorge through which the Ausable River flows. It is fed by the Rainbow Falls at its southern extreme, and eventually empties into Lake Champlain. There is a 2-mile “Rim Walk” along the edge of the rim looking down into the chasm, as well as low-key raft rides through the gorge.

The following is the website for Ausable Chasms: http://www.ausablechasm.com/assets/pdf/Welcome_map.pdf

Travelogue

Boys running from Parc du Mont-Sainte-Anne CampgroundAfter a very satisfying lunch in Baie St. Paul we continued on to our planned destination for the night: the Parc du Mont-Sainte-Anne. We had decided to add this park to our itinerary after a father and son that we met on the Isle-aux-Coudres, who came from Mont-Sainte-Anne, told us that it had miles and miles of trails for mountain biking and running. Plus it wasn’t too far off our route to the Parc National du Mont-Tremblant where we had camping reservations for the weekend.

I had mentioned in the previous stop that there is a different sort of feeling that one gets when the half way, or now heading towards home, point of a trip is reached, but I think none of us felt it as hard as Andrew, who was scheduled to take the GREs a few days after our return home. It was time to really kick into gear on the studying, and I must say he really did. However, being confined together in such close quarters, we had to find a way for him to do this without driving the rest of us crazy. Going through his little box of the 500 most commonly used words on the GRE and using them on us whenever appropriate, and oftentimes when not even remotely appropriate, definitely improved our vocabulary, but began to get on our nerves. Then there were the timed practice tests where we all had to be quiet so he could concentrate. This was not going to work. Tommy was ready to choke him.

Lolo Swinging AroundWhen we got to the campground in Mont-Sainte-Anne, he was banished to a picnic table on a nearby vacant campsite, where he could take his practice tests undisturbed, and we could speak above a whisper. I was quite proud of him; this was vacation after all, and he was working awfully hard. Hopefully his efforts would pay off.

Herb and I decided to take our bikes to explore the campground and try to figure out the mountain biking trails. It was really a very nice campground with spacious, wooded, sites. A short distance from our site there was a small lake for swimming and a bit further on we came across a feature that I had never seen in a campground before—an animal farm, complete with goats and sheep. The mountain biking trails that led from the campground were a little more confusing than we had anticipated, and we weren’t sure exactly where we were going. At one point we came out of the woods onto a big playground that I could not picture being allowed to exist in the U.S. It was actually very cool. Besides trampolines, old fashioned see-saws, and a device you could hang on and swing madly around a pole, there was an entire obstacle course with fences to climb, tunnels to go through, rope bridges to cross, etc. Rather than injuring myself right way, I decided to come back later with the boys—they hate missing an opportunity to see me do something foolish.

Parc du Mont-Sainte-Anne Llama?Part of our objective for this bike ride was to find a good trail for the boys to go on a long run, but the ones we went on were confusing and not particularly great for running. Having nothing better to report back to them, I suggested they run along the road back out to Route 360, where the map showed a trail that ran alongside the highway. While they did that, Herb and I went out for a run too and headed in the same direction that they went. However, shortly after leaving the campground, we noticed a sign for the Le circuit Jean-Larose trail that led off to the right into the woods. It traced a lovely stream through a peaceful forest for most of its 7.5 km before ending at the parking lot at the base of Mont-Sainte-Anne. I only wish I had known about this trail before the boys went out on their run. It would have been so much nicer running along this wooded stream than along a boring road. They did, however, get to run this trail early the next morning before we left for Mont-Tremblant.

After the boys got back to the campground, and confirmed that my suggested run was indeed boring, I asked them to come with me to the “extreme” playground that I found. We went through the obstacle course together, swung around on the crazy swing, and generally had a lot of laughs, most of them at my expense.

Description

Extreme Lolo on Obstacle CourseThe Parc du Mont-Sainte-Anne is a very popular, year-round wilderness resort centered around the 2,625 foot mountain of the same name.

Winter activities in the park include downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, dog-sledding, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling. It was named by Ski Canada as the best spring skiing destination in the east.

In summer and fall, the mountain and its surrounding area turns into a mountain biker’s paradise, and even served as the host of the 2010 Mountain Bike and Trail World Championships. Besides the hard core trails down the mountain itself, there are miles and miles of much milder trails for all levels of expertise.

Parc du Mont-Sainte-Anne is located just 40 minutes northeast of Quebec City. To get to the park, exit off of Route 138 onto Route 360 east near the town of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré.

There is a 166-site campground within the park, just 7 km east of the alpine ski area. The campground has a large lake for swimming, mountain bike trails, a playground, and even an animal farm.

Travelogue

Fairmont Le Manoir RichelieuWe had a full-day planned—a stop in La Malbaie to do a little gambling—Tommy’s idea, as he is 19 and too young to gamble in the U.S.—and then onto the town of Tadoussac, to hopefully spot some whales in Saguenay Bay.

We didn’t even stop for breakfast or to fully wake up the boys, but just headed out to catch the 7:00 ferry to Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive. I think Herb was in a hurry to just get that 18% grade hill behind us, which by the way he was now referring to as the “Drive of Death,” or more romantically in French, the “Trajet de Mort.” I don’t think it was as bad as we expected. We just threw it in low gear and chugged along slowly up the hill. We stopped at a scenic pullout to have breakfast and rest the transmission. The views of the river and Isle-aux-Coudres in the distance were quite lovely; equally lovely to Herb was the fact that most of the hill was now below us.

French speaking BumblebeeOur route took us along the scenic Route du Fleuve, up and down hills with frequent views of the river to our right. We skipped stopping at the village of St-Irenee and continued on directly to La Malbaie where we found a large, very RV friendly parking lot near the famous hotel, the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu. At the parking lot’s edge, there was an interesting trail that ran along the bluff above the river. To the right the trail went off into the woods, but to the left it led to the hotel and casino. We went left, and in a very short time arrived at a terraced patio outside the very impressive Norman-style chateau, where guests were delightfully dining al fresco. The boys and I went in to the hotel to have a peak, while Herb remained outside to take some photos. We later found him relaxing in one of the Adirondack chairs looking out over the water. What a beautiful place. No wonder the rich and famous Americans of the late 19th and early 20th century came here to vacation.

Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu water viewA little bit further along the path we came to the casino, which wasn’t even open yet. While waiting outside, we discussed our strategy. Herb’s strategy for success was to not even enter the casino—he hates gambling. I think it all goes back to some childhood trauma where he bet and lost the entire contents of his piggy bank to his father, who was teaching him a lesson about the risks of gambling. Apparently, it worked and he hasn’t gambled since. The boys and I saw things differently and thought that everything, or almost everything, should be tried once. As long as we could maintain some control and stick to our plan of only betting up to $20, we thought that we couldn’t lose. After all, we would pay that much for the experience of a movie or bowling, so even if we lost it all, we were still the better for our experience, or some logic like that.

So when the doors of the casino opened, we and our $20 were the first ones in. Tommy was immediately IDed, but proudly displayed his license and was waved through. We spent quite some time wandering around, assessing which machine would offer us the biggest jackpot. We wanted to stay away from the tables, because we really didn’t know what we were doing, and the bets required at the tables would cause us to blow through our $20 far too quickly. I was hoping to find a $1 blackjack machine. I had fond memories of spending hours on one of these machines in Atlantic City when I was the boys’ age. I was convinced at the time that I had an unbeatable system. Every time I lost, I doubled my bet. By the end of the day, I had exactly broken even and left Atlantic City proudly with my $20 in tact. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a blackjack machine, so we dabbled on a few slots instead. After mostly losing with a few sporadic wins, we eventually fought our way back up to $17. We considered ourselves winners and called it quits.

Having accomplished what we had come to do, we decided to move on towards Tadoussac.

Description

Parents at Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu - AJGThe town of Malbaie is located in the Charlevoix region of Quebec, 87 miles northeast of Quebec City. It can be reached via Route 138, which is the major highway through the region, or by the much more scenic Route du Fleuve (“River Route”) or Route 362, which winds its way for 30 miles from the villages of Baie-St-Paul to La Malbaie along the cliffs overlooking the river. The views along the River Route are spectacular.

La Malbaie is situated at the mouth of the Malbaie River, where it flows into the St. Lawrence. It was formerly known as Murray Bay by the wealthy Americans who have been vacationing here since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. President William-Howard Taft was a frequent visitor.

La Malbaie is home to the Charlevoix region’s grandest resort: the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu, often referred to as “the castle on the hill.” This Norman-style chateau, complete with towers and turrets, was built in 1899 to accommodate the aristocratic tourists that came to enjoy its luxurious décor and the spectacular views of the St. Lawrence River.
Another major draw to the town is the Charlevoix Casino with its 950 slot machines and 24 tables, including Texas hold-em, blackjack, roulette, and minibaccarat. Visitors must be 18 years or older.

Travelogue

Lolo of the RVWe often like leaving late afternoon or early evening of the day prior to our planned departure. It always gives us the impression of getting a jump on things. That way the first “real” day of vacation is not just driving, but can contain some actual fun.

So we headed out of the driveway around 8:00 pm – we didn’t want to get to our less than exciting destination too early, as there is not too much to entertain yourself with at a Rest Area or a Walmart parking lot. You want to be nice and sleepy by the time you arrive, so that you can just pull down the shades and pretend you are somewhere else.

I had thoroughly researched our possibilities of a free overnight camping spot along the Northway. Although several travel blogs indicated that it was fine to spend the night in a Rest Area, just to be safe I wrote an email to the Adirondack Northway authorities to ask—probably not the best idea, as I think the policy is an unstated and unofficial one. I was told that the state frowns on camping in rest areas, but that a few hours would be okay, as long as we didn’t idle the motor. However, he did give me two other good ideas: a truckstop at Exit 36 and a Walmart at Plattsburgh Exit 37.

Despite the official advice, we did spend the night at the Schroon Lake Rest Area. It was just so much more convenient to stay on the highway than trying to find the Walmart. We figured we couldn’t get in too much trouble, as, after all, we were officially told we could sleep a few hours. How were they to know that we weren’t just there for just a few hours, and few is a rather subjective term. I even brought along the email, just in case.

We slept fine and rose early to head towards the border. The boys always look forward to a good border search. For some reason, me acting all nervous like I am trying to hide something seems to entertain them. We actually experienced a quite thorough one when we went to Campobello Island in 2004. I told them that it was not our goal to repeat this experience.

Description

Interstate I87 runs 334 miles along the eastern edge of New York State from the Bronx all the way to the Canadian border, where it continues towards Montreal as Autoroute 15. The portion of I87 south of Albany is called the New York State Thruway, and it has several full-service rest areas. Once you get north of Albany, the name of I87 changes to the Adirondack Northway. While there are still several rest stops on the Adirondack Northway, they do not have restaurants or gas stations. However, they do have picnic areas, vending machines, and restrooms.

There are nine rest stops along the Adirondack Northway between Albany and the Canadian border. The following is a link describing their locations and facilities: http://www.adirondacknorthway.net/exits/nbreststops.php

Although the state does not sanction camping overnight in these rest stops, you are officially allowed to spend a few hours resting there, as long as you are not idling your motor.