Ten years ago Jim agreed to help me fulfill a long-time goal. On the last day of Christmas vacation 2015, four months after our son David died of leukemia, we drove our daughter Annie to Logan Airport in Boston and headed south on US Route 1. Normally it takes three and a half hours to drive to the Bronx. On Route 1 it took eleven hours. That was Day One. (See my blog archive for other details.)
Now this blessed man is helping me with my next travel goal: to drive all of US Route 9 this week.
The timing is perfect. Jim was released from his calling as a counselor in the Cambridge Stake Presidency two days ago. For over nine years he has dedicated most of his Sundays and several hours each Tuesday and Wednesday evening, helping keep the Cambridge Stake (a collection of eleven congregations) running smoothly. Multiple times a week Jim would receive a text, email, or phone call and afterwards say to me, “The Cambridge Stake never sleeps.” So he was concerned that he would feel a great loss Sunday night after his honorable release. Perfect time to hit the road.
The design is simple. Monday morning we packed our carry-ons, computers, and my CPAP, got in the car, and drove nearly to Burlington, Vermont. We spent a few hours with my niece and her husband, exploring his extensive woodshop and just chatting. Then we visited her mother twenty minutes away. En route we passed a Chilis Restaurant. We don’t go out to eat often, but I mourn the loss of Chilis in Burlington, Massachusetts, so after our visit we stopped in for an early supper. It was delicious.
As the sun was setting over the Adirondack Mountains across Lake Champlain, we drove to the ferry that connects Grand Isle, Vermont with Plattsburgh, New York. Crossings occur all day and night. We arrived at the dock just as the ferry was unloading and preparing for a western sail. Near Plattsburgh a huge flock of seabirds swirled up in the darkness, disturbed from their ice floe.
I had found The Golden Gate Lodging with private beach near the ferry landing. Our second floor room faces the lake which is blindingly white this morning: ice as far are we can see on the Cumberland Bay.
US Route 9 is 522.73 miles long. Its northern terminus is an interchange with I-87 in Champlain, NY, near the Canadian border. It travels along Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains in New York State and spawns several NY state roads, including 9N, 9W, and 9A. It is signed north-south through New York and New Jersey and signed east-west in Delaware. It is one of only two US routes with a designated ferry connection: Cape May, NJ, to Lewes, DE. The other highway with a ferry connection is US 10 which has been served by the USS Badger across Lake Michigan between Wisconsin and Michigan since 1953. My kids and I went across on the Badger during our epic Cross Country Trip in 1995 (15,900 miles, 48 states, Mexico, and Canada. Our kids were ages 4-14. I towed a pop-up tent trailer and was the sole driver for seven weeks).
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