Snowy dash through New York State

As we cross the border from Canada into the USA, we are now on a tight schedule to return our rented Jeep to New York City. New York state is quite big and had to be traversed from north-west to south-east, and our plan always was (and we stuck to it) to spend one night about half way, and another an hour or two out of the Big Apple. Sightseeing on the way was always going to be limited, but that constraint was aggravated by storm warnings and the threat of heavy snowfalls on all three days involved.

Our first stay was in Syracuse. Having hurried there (along the very well groomed I90) in fear of the weather, we arrived early, ploughing through thick snow in the carpark of our hotel. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in a nearby, warm, big shopping mall called Destiny USA. It contained all the usual stuff, but one interesting feature was a huge atrium with a gigantic adventure climbing rig. Our grandson would have loved it!

In the morning, scraping snow and ice off the car was required for the umpteenth time this trip. This is made easy by the brush+scraper kindly provided by Avis (although we broke the scraper part back in Truro), and the Jeep's fabulous system which heats up the windows quite quickly, even while the car is just warming up.<,>
Next night was to be spent in Kingston, but nearing there, with the again threatened storm holding off, we diverted to look at the touristy town of Hudson for a peek and a break. It was very cute, with splendid 'town' architecture, and Warren Street was replete with galleries, restaurants and (mostly) antique shops to entrap day trippers from New York City. From there to Kingston, we avoided the freeway and took a delightful drive down Hudson River following Route 9W through some really pretty towns and villages of the Catskills, and past some old large industrial operations which must have exploited the river for shipping.

Warren St in Hudson contains many antique stores and other tourist traps.

From a Hudson park, we saw a cargo ship making its way north up the river. The river seems to be frozen, but the ice is thin enough to be easily broken. The Clipper Magdalena was carefully following the path of previous ships, a common strategey, no doubt.

The Clipper Magdalena ploughing its way up the Hudson River to Albany.

To get to Hudson and back, we had to cross the Rip Van Winkle bridge, one of a zillion steel bridges across American rivers. This one charges $1.50 toll, but the toll collecting lady waved us through with the message that the Ford Pickup driver in front had paid for us as well! The only way we could thank him was to flash our lights. The bridge itself is named after the short story written by prolific author Washington Irving (d1859). We think he was a local.

The Rip Van Winkle bridge crosses the Hudson River between Hudson and Catskill.

The bulk of our traversing of New York state was on freeways, first of all the I90 east to Albany, then south on the I87. These roads are known as the New York Thruway, and a toll is paid based on distance travelled. Most US freeways have rest areas and all identify services available at various exits, but the Thruway with a toll payable at exits, does it slightly differently, with service centres every 20-30 miles or so set up so you don't have to leave the tolled road. Each of these has great facilities, including cafes which shame Australia's equivalents, and always a gas station. The design and ambience of each service centre is the same - they saved big on architects for these rest areas!

Big flakes of wet snow falling onto our hotel carpark in Kingston.

The heaviest snowfall of all occurred on the night we spent in Kingston. We swept a full 180mm of fresh snow off the windscreen in the morning, but at least it was fluffy. Our Jeep was due back at Avis in New York at 11am, but we were never going to make that deadline. It took us 4 hours to drive the 100miles. We deliberately avoided the freeway, although we were confident it would be well ploughed. Instead, we followed US 9W down the west side of the Hudson River at low speeds on snowy roads through interesting but snowbound towns. Speeds were low, and we felt safer that way. Traffic was very light. The road had some scary, slippery, stretches over very quiet hills, and sometimes we were doing less than 20mph to avoid sliding. We were amazed that we were within 20 miles of Manahattan, and still driving through small towns and forests in a very rural setting, on this route.

We crossed into Manhattan on the George Washington bridge. The authorities penalise motorists without ezPasses (e-Toll devices) by making them approach this bridge by a very convoluted route. And then the toll was a stiff $14. The collector laughed when we told him that we didn't want to buy the bridge - he's probably learned to tolerate bad jokes like that.

We gassed up at one of the few remaining service stations in Manhattan (the land is so valuable), drove about 6 miles south almost all on Broadway, dropped off our bags at our hotel, then cross-town to return the Jeep to Avis about 3.5 hours late. Within minutes, they had the filthy vehicle in the basement car wash! Driving in Manhattan is a breeze, nothing to be afraid of. Anyone used to Sydney congestion and driving manners will find New York City traffic is quite calm and orderly. Not disciplined, mind you - pedestrians and vehicles mix quite freely at crossing and elsewhere, but relatively slow moving and very tolerant, so everyone gets through OK.

In total, we drove the Jeep 6358km (3974 miles) through 7 states of the USA and 5 provinces of Canada. The rental cost us $A2880 and we bought $A476 worth of very cheap fuel. We topped up with 2 gallons of anti-freeze windscreen washer fluid, so great was the need for it. The Jeep never missed a beat and proved to be a perfect vehicle for the dodgy conditions. It handled horrendous road conditions with aplomb, but we were also very careful.