Nelson left Canandaigua, NY around 4 p.m. and I left work at 5 p.m. with the goal of converging at Raystown Lake. Though I had looked for hours online, I hadn't found any promising camping sites. Thinking I just didn't know where to look, Nelson and I decided to just wing it -- we've camped many places many times and never had a problem. And Raystown was highly publicized so we figured we'd find a site....
Well Nelson and I converged near Hungtingdon about 10:30 p.m. and caravanned to the areas suggested by MapQuest and matching what little information we both found about lodging around the lake. At the final Map Quest point, we found we had reached a wonderful spot -- FOR FISHERS LOOKING FOR TOTAL ISOLATION. Nelson did a nice and tidy three-point turn on the narrow dirt path; me, not being sure I could handle the steep grade of the shoulder, did a slopping 5 (6? 7?) point turn and followed him out.
We then circled the lake till 3 a.m., finding full campgrounds, some of them so poorly maintained that the ruts would have swallowed my little car. We then decided to find a motel, but all of those were full as well. At 3 a.m. we settled on this camping spot -- an abandoned Days' Inn where we slept quite soundly until 3 a.m. IN THE JEEP. We moved some of Nelson's things into my car and moved some to the roof, and slept in the pretzel position in the back end of the jeep. When one of us just HAD to move, the other would say, "I have to roll over." And then we'd syncronize the next sleeping position. At 9 a.m., when the traffic started entering the parking lot of the adjacent plaza, we awakened and moved on to a nearby Sheetz gas station to discuss the next move.
There we asked for suggestions? "Camping here? Good luck," was the general response. So Nelson mapped out a loop of state parks and we headed out for points totally unknown. The photo was taken on the morning of July 14, after we had repacked and were ready to hit the road again.
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