The Liskey Family Times: Day 4 and 5 - New York to Maine or bust!

Crossing Rainbow Bridge

We spent the next two days driving from Niagara Falls to Maine. While both days had a lot of driving, they were quite a bit different in scenic views and our need to get to our destination on time.

For our first day, we left early - 6:40 am. Now I'm not a morning person, but we needed to be at the Ben & Jerry's Factory by 5 pm and that was all it took to motivate me get up and moving! Since pulling a trailer adds quite a bit of time on the drive, we knew we had to be on the road as soon as possible. We managed to get out a bit earlier than planned, so we were off to a good start. Only a minor hang up at the border, but nothing that would keep us from getting on our way!

The Hans Family in front of us!

Driving through upstate New York was pretty uneventful, mostly highway, traffic was good. I noticed some signs for "text stops" that seemed kind of ingenious. Nice way to help out those drivers who just can't wait!

But even though the traffic was good and the views were nice, the drive was long and the minutes kept ticking away. It seemed like every time I checked the GPS we had 4 hours to reach B&J's, our destination arrival time kept pushing later and later. I was hoping we wouldn't have to have a Clark Griswold moment with the Ben and Jerry's people as it was almost looking like we weren't going to make it. But we managed to get there 15 minutes before the last tour. It was a nice reward for a long day in the car.

The Family enjoying some awesome ice cream!

The tour itself was ok, I knew most of the story and seeing the factory where the ice cream was made was fun, but what I wanted was ice cream. So after the tour, we each picked out a flavor and had them make us a hand packed pint to go. So glad we made room in the freezer! I picked up Gilly's Catastrophic Crunch (an SNL flavor). We also got Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz, Hazed and Confused, Berry Berry Extraordinary, Pfish Food, and Coconut Seven Layer Bar. Anne also bought Lemon Sorbet which was really good for not having any chocolate in it!

After our fun ice cream adventure, we headed to our campsite and set up for the night. It was a great night to sit out by the fire and relax after a somewhat stressful drive.

Somewhere in Vermont

Today was our day to finally get to Maine, and we had to decide whether we wanted highway driving or scenic back roads driving. The highway route took the same amount of time, but was 100 miles longer, so we opted for the scenic route. So glad we did. It took us through towns and countryside that we would have never seen on a highway. Small New England towns established in the 1700s, old cemeteries, beautiful lakes and rivers tucked in between the mountain ranges and watching people living ordinary lives all in the extraordinary setting. Every time we drove through a quaint town or saw kids tubing in a river, I thought, "I want to live here!" These views could never get old to me. I wish I could gave captured more, but my iPhone was all I could use at the moment.

So today's drive was wonderful, lots to see, and way less stressful. We made it to Trenton, Maine and are camping just across from the ocean. It's a bit chilly and breezy but the view is stunning!