Riders Block - Day 1

New York to Ohio

Not having a job provides a person with a lot of time and little money. That's why when the precarious job of driving an RV to Idaho in the hopes of making a few hundred dollars intrigued me greatly. I decided to take the opportunity to get out of New York and be by myself for a while.

I picked up the RV which was 22 years old and kind of a hassle to drive. It has had problems with the transmission since it was purchased by my friends out west, but they seemed confident the car could make it. The cab is the size of an average truck with a heavy overhang that can fit about three sleepers. A quick step up from the cab there's a swivel chair and a long couch as well as a small davenport with a picnic-like table in front of it. Towards the back are all the amenities needed to live in a vehicle (of course, none of them worked) including a sink, stove, oven, fridge and bathroom with shower. I didn't attempt to use any of the fixtures and preferred to urinate at rest stops or in a bottle I kept in the back of the RV.

I let the car go at its own speed during most of the first day, which was usually around 45 or 50 miles an hour. Unfortunately, at this speed, and since I wasn't able to leave until about 1 o'clock, it took me all day to get out of New York. The western half of the state stretches on and on, and is the same mix of rolling green hills and mountains, small towns and broken down farms and long empty stretches of grass. Finally, after becoming more comfortable, I pushed it up to an average of 55 to make up some lost time.

Around Pennsylvania the land flattened out as I picked up I-90 which rides mostly along the coast of Lake Erie. The sights were fairly bleak through eastern Ohio as well and the sun set before I reached Cleveland. I ate at a small bar outside the city, devouring a whole plate of wings which surprised me greatly. It was only one of several unhealthy and wholly unsettling meals I would eat along the way. I took a slight detour and got lost in a pleasant suburb of Cleveland before getting back on the highway and spending the night at a rest area west of the city. The night was cold and my one wool blanket wasn't doing the trick, but I was so tired I ended up sleeping well.