158 miles via US 202, MA 21, I-90, I-87 and NY 212. Truck miles: 169. Cumulative tow miles: 158. Cumulative truck miles: 169.
After all the truck problems this spring and summer, there is no such thing as an angst-free hop anymore. That said, about the only problem encountered on this hop was a strange oil pressure reading: very high. For 8 years and over 100,000 miles I have never seen the oil pressure venture out of the 40 to 80 psi range. For this hop the range was 60 to 110 psi. I don’t know what to make of that. The truck seemed to not care and performed well. All I can think is that the oil used in the last oil change – which is different than what I have used in the past, at the recommendation of the “expert” at Greg’s Garage – might account for the difference. But it is a big difference. And any gauge running at close to the limit (120 psi for oil pressure) alarms me.
In all of the previous trips to/from Massachusetts I have avoided using US 202 because it has some steep hills. This time I decided to take it, to challenge the truck in the first 20 miles of the hop. No problem.
Anyway, we made it to Saugerties. I have a non-travel today and may try to get some photos of the Hudson River valley.
1 hop down and 8 to go (I changed the refueling stop in NC into an overnight, which added one hop to the itinerary).
I should say a few words about Lamb City Campground, our home for the summer of 2020. But I described it pretty thoroughly after our 2018 stay. And with the pandemic, most of the activities were either canceled or subdued. It continues to be a family weekend campground which is virtually empty during the week – maybe 10% of the sites are occupied then. Largely due to this it is not a great campground for us. On the other hand, it meant that neither of our immediate neighbors were there much, which gave us a lot of privacy and solitude.
The biggest negative of the campground – and not something they can control – is the very poor cell phone reception. We typically had “one bar” for Verizon, which was one of the major reasons why I decided to switch to T-Mobile this year. Well, the T-Mobile service there is just as bad. Arguably a bit worse. But it is a very localized problem: about 50 feet to our south, where the road reaches the pond, the service is three bars. Halfway up the hill the service is twice as good. In the bulk of the campground the service is more than acceptable. It is just our one street, along the pond.
If we return we will ask for a site up the hill. We have no need to be close to the pond. But we do need to be able to make phone calls.