Day 1 - 7/16/2004 - Blastoff!

We should have known that there was an omen when we got out of town at 12:00 PM, vice the original scheduled time of 7 am.  Our GPS software suggested a route up I-95 to our first highpoint (Ebright Azimuth in DE).  We gassed up, loaded up the MP3's, downed our Red Bulls, and cruised off toward Richmond.  Everything went fine and we made great time until...Quantico!  I-95 slowed to a crawl from multiple wrecks.  That's OK - we have "SUPER-GPS" that can get us through anything.  A quick detour onto US-1, and we were moving again...and soon crawling again.  We finally worked our way to the beltway and headed toward Baltimore.  By this time it was 5pm and we were in the height of rush hour.  Traffic was slow but steady with stop and go, with Baltimore dealing more frustration to us.  Finally (now it was 6:15 PM) we were moving well and making great time and then...the 45 stoppage of traffic at Havre de Grace (and of course Hunter has to pee).  Apparently there was a pretty bad accident near the bridge (saw the Medivac flying off).  Once traffic started moving, we made great time through Wilmington DE, and on to the highpoint at Ebright Azimuth.  The highpoint leaves one somewhat non-plused.  It is in the middle of a  residential area (actually in someone's front yard).   Of course our SUPER-GPS was telling us it was in the middle of the trailer park across the street - but we later found the high point actually had been in the trailer park before it was leveled.  We hit the highpoint about 8:05pm, and left at 8:25.

Hoping to catch up some of the lost time we trekked on toward the next highpoint at (of course) "Highpoint State Park" in New Jersey.  We wound our way through eastern PA, and made up a lot of time.  We drove through the Delaware Water Gap late in the evening, and reached Milford PA about 11:15 PM.  Our original plan had been to camp 6 nights a week, but we decided to spend our first night in a motel so we could get an early start the next morning.  Finally, we settled into a Comfort Inn in Port Jervis NY about midnight.  Drag to the room and crash - thank you Red Bull and Starbucks!!!!