22 June 1992: Burlington, Vermont to Auburn, New York

Before we left Burlington, Vermont, which was a clean and pleasant city, we stopped at a post office so my mother could mail something

While my grandmother and I waited in the car on the street outside the post office, a homeless-appearing man began to smash bottles on the pavement, swore without stopping to take a breath, and threatened bodily harm to anyone in his line of sight. It was more than a little unsettling, considering he was only about ten feet away from us. I've always wondered what became of him. I wish I could have done something to help.

We left Burlington on U.S. Route 7, Vermont Route 22A, and U.S. Route 4, until we entered the state of New York for the second time on the trip. After driving south to this point, we resumed a westerly course.

Then we followed New York State Route 49 and Interstate 87 to Adirondack Park, the largest park in the United States. In fact, it's larger than the state of Vermont, which we had just left. It's also very beautiful, with hills, forests, and lakes in every direction.

 Adirondack Park

 Lake Pleasant in Adirondack Park

 Sign at Lake Pleasant

My mother and grandmother taking a cigarette break in Adirondack Park

However, what it lacked were facilities. No food, no gas, and certainly no public toilets. Well, unless one wanted to use the original public toilet, known in some quarters as the great outdoors, as my poor grandmother was forced to do.

Our route through the park took us partly along New York State Route 8 and New York State Route 30, but mostly along many smaller back-roads, thus the lack of facilities. We were in the park long enough for it to begin to feel like a great prison of green and rock, and we didn't know when our sentences would be commuted.

When we were finally free, after what seemed a period of several hours, we stopped for lunch at the very first place which served food, which turned out to be McDonald's. Even a Big Mac seems fancy when you're hungry.

Then we found ourselves on Interstate 90 for the first time since our first day on the road so many weeks earlier. We followed I-90 130 miles (208 km) west, and New York State Route 34 10 miles (16 km) south to Auburn, New York, in the Finger Lakes region of the state.

Our first stop was to check into our rooms reserved at the Holiday Inn. This was one of the more pleasant accommodations we had on the road. It was five storeys high, with transparent elevators and a large indoor pool in the center of the hotel. The entire center portion of the building was an open space which could be looked down on from any floor, with the pool and a restaurant on the ground floor.

After we had our luggage in the rooms and had a brief rest, we were off to the nearby small town (population of 1,194 in the 1990 census) of Niles to visit the old West Niles Cemetery.

Getting to the cemetery was a bit like being a pioneer. It wasn't on any modern maps, nor was anyone able to direct us to it. I had a copy of a late 19th century map of the area, which I had photocopied at the Seattle Public Library prior to the trip. Little did I know I would actually have to navigate using that map.

Surprisingly, the area had changed little since the map was created. It showed an old wagon trail was the quickest way to the cemetery. The trail was still there, a little trail of dirt and overgrown grass through a stand of trees. We took it slow, the car jostling on the uneven ground and tree branches brushing against the side windows. Several minutes later, we emerged from the trees onto a gravel road, and there was the cemetery. My navigation skills were made of win that day.

My maternal 5th-great-grandparents John B. and Catherine (née Vanderbilt) Van Arsdale lived in the Niles area from the mid-1790s until they died and were buried in West Niles Cemetery in 1841 and 1836 respectively. There were also a few people who shared her maiden name buried there. Catherine was related to the famous Vanderbilt family. She was the third cousin once removed of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, the patriarch of that family.

The oldest section of the cemetery was on a slight rise at the back of the property. It was treacherous ground in places, with holes in the ground created by tree roots and those holes covered by grass. Some headstones had fallen over as the ground had shifted over the years, and others were faded beyond readability. I located Catherine's headstone, and I assumed a faded stone next to hers was John's.

 West Niles Cemetery

Gravestone of my 5th-great-grandmother Catherine Van Arsdale (née Vanderbilt)

I stepped in a hole above their graves, but thankfully it wasn't deep. I was more surprised than anything. I did briefly wonder what I would have done had my ancestors' bony hands reached up from their graves to grab my ankle.

There was a sense of calm in the cemetery. Surrounded by trees and vast fields but absent of any signs of life beyond the sound of birds, it felt far removed from the modern world of hustle and bustle in both time and space. It felt unchanged from the first half of the 19th century when my ancestors were buried there.

We returned to the hotel for a steak dinner in its restaurant. Then it was off to our rooms for slumber. We had driven many miles and hours that day.

Total Travel Distance: 391 miles (629 km)