Well I had been thinking about my birthday this year a lot. It was one of many birthdays lately that don’t come with any fun benefits beyond being alive still which of course is a great benefit lol. 68 and younger ages seem to be ages attached to more and more obits lately. It has made both of us ponder mortality lately but frankly in an appreciative way that we still are healthy and able to travel and even drive a truck pulling an Airstream which brings me to our recent trip.
Jo is from NYC and her family have lived and some continue to live on Long Island and have visited LI many times. I’ve always thought driving in NYC was easy compared to my training in Boston but still a challenge at times. And that challenge wasn’t with 47 feet of combined length truck and trailer. There isn’t really any easy way to drive through NYC or time of day it seems that coincide with campground check ins at 3. Sooooo I had been thinking about my birthday (oh and my niece’s wedding) as an event tied to some driving and trailer pulling anxiety. That said, on our cross country trip this year I stupidly drove through Chicago during rush hour with Jersey barriers, lane changes and construction everywhere do NYC no biggy. Bring it on!
A good friend of Jo’s growing up, and now my friend Jim, generously suggested we drive from Maine to CT Thursday and leave 10ish Friday to miss some of the traffic headed out to the Hamptons Friday. The, shall we refer to now as “the celebration”, was on Saturday so we planned to camp on the island Friday and leave Sunday. Some of you are probably thinking if you are coming down from Maine why not take the Ferry from CT to LI? Skip the traffic around NYC. The thought of getting to ferry through the crazy streets to the Bridgeport dock and then pulling on to a ferry was nerve racking in itself but hey sounds like a good idea. Wellll the price was $274 each way so I decided let’s drive and take the Throgs Neck bridge. Did I say I successfully drove through Chicago lol!?!?
Plans were made with final destination reservations at the Nassau County Battle Row campground and off we went to our first stop at our friend Jim’s house. There are several ways to get to Jim’s but when we are not pulling a trailer we always use parkways. Parkways with a trailer are illegal and impassable with low overpasses (trailer 10 ft high) so now to find an RV safe route. We use RV life which knows our vehicle and RV height and weight and should keep us out of air conditioner damaging, backing up the trailer dead ends etc. Well it works fairly well but every so often does some whacked directions suddenly sending us back home or with random four rights and lefts when straight would work but is better than standard GPS which we also have running as backup just in case. The weather looked great and off we went.
Part of our usual, and now this trip , involved I90 in Massachusetts. I assumed the rest stops were RV friendly as I had seen the signs in the past when pulling in. I wanted to fill up one last time to have enough gas to get to our campsite without having to gas up at one of the cute old gas stations in CT that have zero room to maneuver my truck and trailer. On pulling off we saw signs to the right for trucks that led around the back of the rest area and bypassed the gas pumps (not helpful). Signs said RVs and cars to the left which would have been a straight shot to the pumps but I wanted to use the restroom and get breakfast to last til CT so turned off the entrance ramp into the parking area indicated for me. Don’t ever do that at the Cantom MA rest area westbound. The parking area lanes are not two cars wide let alone Airstream and tow mirrors wide. After a hurried prayer and some polite drivers I luckily was able to find several spots open to swing wide and pull through. I thinks we ended up taking five spots with an almost jackknifed trailer lol. And then to get out what would have been a mildly narrow scary row finished with what was two lanes wide entrance/exit road now partially blocked by tractor trailers who decided they were too good for the truck section. (In retrospect should have parked in the curb area as you enter with those trucks). No where near enough room to pull way out and swing wide with the trucks there and not drag my trailer up over the curbs. I prayed all the way in, and out off the rest area building armed with coffee and breakfast burritos, that the trucks would be gone and miraculously they were. Jo suggested I wait and eat my burritos before driving but I grabbed the truck-less opportunity and made it out and on to the pumps no problem! Phew. Thank you prayers answered again.
The drive to Jim’s was uneventful other than RV life trying to take us back to Maine at one point but rebooted and with Jim’s written directions confirmed by GPS we made it. Jim actually drove the route near his home a few days before our trip with our trailer in mind to make sure we had clearance as his roads are beautiful but stone wall lined and narrow even for cars. Thanks Jim.
We backed in to Jim’s without any injuries or damage to his home. Then Jim took us out to a great Italian restaurant. Day one a success.
Nice breakfast at Jim’s with NY area “real bread” rolls and off we went leaving out 10:30 for what should be around a 2 hour or less drive. We would be missing some of the Friday afternoon traffic, note I didn’t say missing all traffic as there was still plenty but better. That did mean arriving 1ish at the campground when check in wasn’t til 3. I called before leaving Jim’s and the gentleman at the campground volunteered to see if our site was empty and ready for us. He actually drove to our site, called back and said we were a go to arrive at 1. Nice guy. Several people on an AS forum suggested I should pay the ferry fee rather than brave NYC roads but off we went hoping they weren’t going to say “I told you so”. People including truckers let me in to go from the left lane merge onto the LIE to go across four stop and go lanes to the right lane exit and in general I was amazed and happy with how manageable the traffic was and nice drivers were. In two hours we arrived at what turned out to be a little oasis on Long Island, the Battle Row campground. Trees, grass, space between sites. Very nice. Oh and the reason we camped vs a hotel was our two old and needy dogs. Mobile kennel syndrome lol.
The “celebration” was fantastic as was our stay at Battle Row. My niece Laura, who is a very amazing and accomplished person (would take a separate blog to list all she has done very successfully so far), married someone accomplished in his own right, a mayor of a LI city. It was great to meet him after hearing great things. He and Laura looked incredibly happy and the bride was beautiful. As always Jo-Ann’s family was fun to be around and took full advantage of the beautiful venue. Lots of dancing to the music from an incredible live band.
As to camping the Battle Row campsites have power and water but no septic hookups. For any of you not used to trailer camping having your own shower and bathroom on board is a huge plus but that means using water and if no septic hookup storing “grey” shower and sink water and “black” toilet water. And while we have approximately 70 gallons total storage that is a limited amount that we monitor. Much easier when you have a pipe from those tanks into a septic pipe allowing draining as needed at your site. So having been careful with water use we succeeded in staying clean lol and left for home Sunday AM, first stop the infamous “dump station”. Great name lol. Dump stations have a tank you hook to and empty the onboard holding tanks. Also a water hook up to connect to an internal tank wash system if you have one. Battle Row only has 45 sites but has two dump station lanes! Many campgrounds with more sites but only have one lane resulting in waiting lines oh and performance anxiety as sometimes impatient exiting campers wait for you to finish up. Very nice designed dump station and campground and no waiting to dump finish to our stay.
The trip home, having done the trip successfully one way already, was much less stressful with minimal early Sunday AM traffic.
I did forget to mention one driving moment on the way to our LI campground. We got off the LIE at the campground exit, merged across three lanes of traffic in 100 yards to turn right. We then drove a 1/4 mile to a traffic light on a curve and left turn across oncoming traffic lanes. As I was well into the turn, with no cars visible at the start of the turn, a twenty something in a souped up Hyundai came into view in the oncoming lanes doing 50-60 mph on a road and traffic light designed for 25 mph traffic. Committed I gunned it to a cacophony of angry horn blowing from the oncoming one car. Had he been driving close to speed limit no issue but it would have been his word against mine if an accident and my on board traffic camera I got for this situation might or might not have recorded it. Disaster avoided and fortunately our only near miss in over thousands of miles travel with the AS so far at least.
It was a great trip, great wedding and great celebration of my birthday lol! Now for the next trip planning!
Bill and Jo’s Road Trip 
When Chip and I drove north from Florida, in our truck pulling a 5th wheel, with the destination of Long Island for a wedding, we drove around NYC and took the ferry from Connecticut…It was a wonderful experience, but I think the rates a few years ago were much less…I would love to spend more time camping on the island some summer–near the Vineyards and lavender farms and quaint towns, oh and my brother! You two kids are more daring than us!
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