Journey for a Journey pt 2
(photo heavy so its behind the cut)
A chance at a free car was a great excuse to drive across the country! We rented the smallest, most fuel efficient car we could find and drove for 2 days straight to make it to the Adirondack mountains in time for the first Internet clue to be released. A Yaris is great for gas mileage but sleeping in one with 2 people and 2 dogs was about like trying to sleep in a mini refrigerator box. And toll charges across 6 states added up to more than a hotel room cost so in my sleep deprived state I could somehow rationalize that using the side of the freeway to sleep on was my way of getting back at the toll road operators.
After sitting in hours of traffic (I wasn't expecting the NY mountains to have a rush hour), we spent another night and headed out first thing the next day to check this road, even though it was in a different state. The first clue released that day showed the location of the Dodge Journey as being within 500 miles of the starting point so we were still banking on that being a way to throw people off track.
My cousin from Texas (who was also searching for the Oklahoma Journey) had decided to fly up and meet us to participate as well. After spending most of the night in Time Square instead of sleeping, he decided he was going to go with his crew to visit relatives rather than try to drive another potential 500 miles. We were sad to see him leave since we don't get to visit our friends much anymore but I figured we could call him for clues since we were attempting the contest without mobile Internet.
The tricky Dodge people had the car hidden in a barn this time rather than out in the open like the previous 2 parts of the contest. Still counting on the Internet clues to include a loop to direct people back to the initial area, we started peeking in through barn windows (close to the road) in the Lake George area. We tried to stick with barns that were also businesses, but I did hear stories about a lot of confused barn owning locals.
There were a lot of interesting looking barns in the area. At one point we got really excited right before discovering a nice, shiny red tractor.
We made a quick stop at Fort Ticonderoga, which was near one of the clues, to check out the scenery.
I'm not sure how many people showed up at this fort because it was late in the day by the time we checked it, but evidently the ranger at Independence mountain was amazed at how many people tried to visit his park. He commented to my cousin that he had never in his life seen that many people at that park. Luckily Dodge had the forethought to post a small sign on a tree at Independence Mountain that read something along the lines of "The Dodge is not here."
One more photo of the fort and we rushed off to search some back mountain roads.
We made plenty of stops at McDonalds for the two most important things at this point: Internet and caffeine. Although every McDonalds within 50 miles of that area was full of other people doing the same thing. Most participants were noticeable as people ganged up around their laptops. Some were a little more obvious (this sign in this window read: "Looking 4 Journey"). Probably a good thing to display for anyone looking in barns.
We slept in the car again to save time, sardine style (because dogs are smart enough to realize people are more comfortable than carpeted floorboards. . . and that they can always relocate to their preferred spot while people are asleep).
Sunrise! (Or maybe sunset. . .I don't quite remember). Time to get moving again and time for everything technology related to plot against us.
First, our 1 year old Garmin navigation device had decided to break. I mean, C'mon, what are the chances of that!?
There are no large department stores anywhere, but after driving randomly awhile, we eventually happen to luck onto a Walmart back towards the mountains.
At this point, if we had driven our own vehicle, it would probably have broken also, but we had thought that one ahead and rented a car, so we beat that one.
And of course, no phone signal as well.
We are following the clues from the day before through New Hampshire at this point (hence the nifty covered bridges). The new clues are out on the Internet so we find another McDonalds, but New Hampshire McDonalds doesn't believe in electrical outlets, so our computer dies before the final clues are released.
It's over an hour after the first clues of the day are released at this point so we start driving the direction the clues were heading anyway in hopes that we can somehow catch up later. We are still in the middle of the technology bad luck phase, so my phone battery dies after trying desperately to call anyone I can think of. My parents were the only ones that I knew were home and who would actually answer, but I didn't have the time to explain to them how to use the Internet.
Dodge had mentioned, "Pics or it didn't happen" so we stopped and documented some of the clues they had posted along the way in case that ended up being part of the contest.
We are still eyeballing the barns, but not as close at this point.
Recognizing them as another clue along the way, I think the comment on seeing these was an enthusiastic, "ohBEARS!!!"
We repeatedly tried calling my cousin for most of this drive, but we found out later he didn't have his phone batter charger with him and couldn't access my number after his phone died as well.
Our initial pre-arranged Internet go-to guy was a "college student" (which we found out later was synonymous with "sleeps all day on the weekends") but we eventually got ahold of our friend, Toby, using what was left of the battery on Frank's phone. He clued us onto a number that had been posted on the live feed online telling people to head North and find what sounded like a "red steep."
We were already way behind at this point but kept on driving anyway, just in case.
A few more clues we recognized shortly before our laptop battery had died.
Toby calls back and mentions that someone posted about a restaurant called Red's Eats on the Dodge website and that a red chair had been set in front of the camera on the live feed. Realizing that was the next clue, we headed straight there, only to find the whole town was one giant traffic jam in all directions.
(To be con't)
A chance at a free car was a great excuse to drive across the country! We rented the smallest, most fuel efficient car we could find and drove for 2 days straight to make it to the Adirondack mountains in time for the first Internet clue to be released. A Yaris is great for gas mileage but sleeping in one with 2 people and 2 dogs was about like trying to sleep in a mini refrigerator box. And toll charges across 6 states added up to more than a hotel room cost so in my sleep deprived state I could somehow rationalize that using the side of the freeway to sleep on was my way of getting back at the toll road operators.
After sitting in hours of traffic (I wasn't expecting the NY mountains to have a rush hour), we spent another night and headed out first thing the next day to check this road, even though it was in a different state. The first clue released that day showed the location of the Dodge Journey as being within 500 miles of the starting point so we were still banking on that being a way to throw people off track.
My cousin from Texas (who was also searching for the Oklahoma Journey) had decided to fly up and meet us to participate as well. After spending most of the night in Time Square instead of sleeping, he decided he was going to go with his crew to visit relatives rather than try to drive another potential 500 miles. We were sad to see him leave since we don't get to visit our friends much anymore but I figured we could call him for clues since we were attempting the contest without mobile Internet.
The tricky Dodge people had the car hidden in a barn this time rather than out in the open like the previous 2 parts of the contest. Still counting on the Internet clues to include a loop to direct people back to the initial area, we started peeking in through barn windows (close to the road) in the Lake George area. We tried to stick with barns that were also businesses, but I did hear stories about a lot of confused barn owning locals.
There were a lot of interesting looking barns in the area. At one point we got really excited right before discovering a nice, shiny red tractor.
We made a quick stop at Fort Ticonderoga, which was near one of the clues, to check out the scenery.
I'm not sure how many people showed up at this fort because it was late in the day by the time we checked it, but evidently the ranger at Independence mountain was amazed at how many people tried to visit his park. He commented to my cousin that he had never in his life seen that many people at that park. Luckily Dodge had the forethought to post a small sign on a tree at Independence Mountain that read something along the lines of "The Dodge is not here."
One more photo of the fort and we rushed off to search some back mountain roads.
We made plenty of stops at McDonalds for the two most important things at this point: Internet and caffeine. Although every McDonalds within 50 miles of that area was full of other people doing the same thing. Most participants were noticeable as people ganged up around their laptops. Some were a little more obvious (this sign in this window read: "Looking 4 Journey"). Probably a good thing to display for anyone looking in barns.
We slept in the car again to save time, sardine style (because dogs are smart enough to realize people are more comfortable than carpeted floorboards. . . and that they can always relocate to their preferred spot while people are asleep).
Sunrise! (Or maybe sunset. . .I don't quite remember). Time to get moving again and time for everything technology related to plot against us.
First, our 1 year old Garmin navigation device had decided to break. I mean, C'mon, what are the chances of that!?
There are no large department stores anywhere, but after driving randomly awhile, we eventually happen to luck onto a Walmart back towards the mountains.
At this point, if we had driven our own vehicle, it would probably have broken also, but we had thought that one ahead and rented a car, so we beat that one.
And of course, no phone signal as well.
We are following the clues from the day before through New Hampshire at this point (hence the nifty covered bridges). The new clues are out on the Internet so we find another McDonalds, but New Hampshire McDonalds doesn't believe in electrical outlets, so our computer dies before the final clues are released.
It's over an hour after the first clues of the day are released at this point so we start driving the direction the clues were heading anyway in hopes that we can somehow catch up later. We are still in the middle of the technology bad luck phase, so my phone battery dies after trying desperately to call anyone I can think of. My parents were the only ones that I knew were home and who would actually answer, but I didn't have the time to explain to them how to use the Internet.
Dodge had mentioned, "Pics or it didn't happen" so we stopped and documented some of the clues they had posted along the way in case that ended up being part of the contest.
We are still eyeballing the barns, but not as close at this point.
Recognizing them as another clue along the way, I think the comment on seeing these was an enthusiastic, "ohBEARS!!!"
We repeatedly tried calling my cousin for most of this drive, but we found out later he didn't have his phone batter charger with him and couldn't access my number after his phone died as well.
Our initial pre-arranged Internet go-to guy was a "college student" (which we found out later was synonymous with "sleeps all day on the weekends") but we eventually got ahold of our friend, Toby, using what was left of the battery on Frank's phone. He clued us onto a number that had been posted on the live feed online telling people to head North and find what sounded like a "red steep."
We were already way behind at this point but kept on driving anyway, just in case.
A few more clues we recognized shortly before our laptop battery had died.
Toby calls back and mentions that someone posted about a restaurant called Red's Eats on the Dodge website and that a red chair had been set in front of the camera on the live feed. Realizing that was the next clue, we headed straight there, only to find the whole town was one giant traffic jam in all directions.
(To be con't)