Departure.

Poor Zoe, playing the role of the dog on this trip, had to stay the night in the car, but the next morning Lily appeared, and let her into the basement of the inn. Thanks to both Lily and Elizabeth, a fine breakfast was provided. We went back to Edwards Street, cleaned the apartment, got our deposit back, and settled up with Matt. We packed the XTerra with our bags; clothes and toiletries we would need while traveling, a vacuum cleaner and some tools, so we could clean and set up our new home on arrival, a few small items that hadn't been packed, like the pimp cup and my sword. With the sculling oars tied to the roof rack, in an aerodynamic sort of way, and our three bikes hanging on for dear life by the bike rack on the back, we were configured for the next two weeks of travel, and by evening we were on our way.

We stopped for our final New Haven area dinner at the Hamden Taco Bell, and used their WiFi and our MacBook to make a reservation at the dumpiest motel we could find in Syracuse, New York. As we rolled through western Mass., it started to drizzle. We got to the motel shortly before midnight, and were easily able to sneak Zoe into the room.