Entry Two: Madison

3rd Highway (81): Pennsylvania. Boring state. At least to drive through. A small town here, some mountains there. Nothing either pretty nor ugly. I drove, they slept. I think the only thing that happend was that it got colder. The radio played. I drove, they slept. Pennsylvania. Boring state.

New York State Line: Justin was waking up about the time we were going to leave PA. We decided that of all the states, we needed to photo New York's sign the most. So we wake Ryan up and jump out of the car on the shoulder of I-81. But a couple of things have changed since we last took these kinds of pictures. For one thing, it was cold. Ryan was still in shorts and birkenstocks from Atlanta. I at least had jeans, if still sandles. But it was cold. Secondly, it was light. It isn't weird to take pictures in front of state lines at 3 AM, because no one is watching to care one way or another. But at 3 PM, you all of a sudden notice that there are other cars on the road. But being tenatious, we decided to take these pictures anyways and to hell with all who may watch. Well, we did. But Ryan took the next step. He decided that he had just awoken from a nap and needed to go. See above on things being weird during daylight. Justin and I told him to wait and that it was lunch time anyways, but no. So there Ryan is, about to urinate on the NY State sign, and for effect, one of us is supposed to photograph it. I shook my head and turned to Justin. "He's going to get himself arrested." Only then did Justin turn around and see the police officer who really was pulling up. We called to Ryan, but by that point it was to late. Ryan turned around, turned many shades of white, and ran for our car. You can only imagine the kind of voice that came from behind telling him to "hold it right there." Needless to say the ticket was written and verbal warning severe.......
And the laughs afterward unstopable.

Backroads: For the first time since we started driving, I can see the sun. The air around me is fresh and whipping past the open windows of the car. R.E.M. is blessing our ears and the sting of the cold is perhaps all that is keeping me awake, that and my total elation. For lunch we stopped at an Arbys at Whitney Point in New York. Now normally when we drive into Canastota, I have Mom there to guide me. We get off I-81 somewhere around Tully, and she either drives or navagates the back roads of her youth until we reach Route-5. But this time Mom isn't here. We could take the interstate up to Syracuse and then hit the Thruway over, but that just isn't tradition. Besides, the Upstate Country is far to stunning to pass up. So I've handed Justin the map and told him our destination. I think we're on State Road 12 now, maybe 12B. But these are the senses that tell me that the trip is almost over. The smell of fresh air, what anyone else would call thick with the scent of manure, I call fresh. The sight of a thousand rolling hills, and when you crest one you can see the fields of corn and wheat sectioned out for acres. The sound of the quiet country roads as an overtone to the sixty mile per hour winds in the windows. Almost there.

Windmills: Saturday night we went up to the Ox-bow. It's a section of the hills near Canastota. There are Windmills there now, which was the purpose for our journey. Up there it is windier than in Chicago, "The Windy City." It was to cold and to windy to come up with much of an impression, but we were there for sunset. I have no real clue how big those things are. At least a hundred feet. It's strange. From a distance, it looks as though they're hardly spinning. While in reality, the tips are traveling at close to 150 miles per hour. Crazy. The sunset was what made it gorgeous, though. The seeming calm of the windmills in front of the reds and oranges of a country sunset on a hill. I hope those pictures come out.

Stars: Yet another Canastota tradition for me, and one my aunts think me crazy for carrying out. We took a walk after dinner up onto the hill. Probobly half a mile up and half a mile back. But it was cold and it was windy and that made it colder. But it was worth it. You don't see stars like this often. We were rewarded by it being a cloundless night and a new moon. And most every star in the winter sky was dancing above us. You could make out the milky way galaxy, it was so clear. Just to sit there and think about how far back into the past you are seeing by glimpsing those tiny dots. Some, perhaps most of them aren't there anymore, they've collapsed or exploded. But 100 million years ago they were there, and we saw that instant on Saturday evening.

Windmills Revisited: Sunday morning we were going out to Niagra Falls. But just after leaving the driveway, Ryan suggested that we go back to the Windmills and see them in the light. So we did. They were bigger and more impressive than we had imagined. We were able to count 20 of them in the light. The one closest to the car we went right up to. It was huge. Looking straight up, it was dizzying to see. The three pronged propeller would whistle around, literelly making that sound as it cut through the air. Then we followed the shadow out to the center of the propellers. This was the best impression that we got of how fast these things were moving. Standing in the center and following one prong, it took about four seconds to turn around 360. I'm not a math major, but those propellers were at the very least 50 feet, perhaps 75. You work it out.