Albany, NY (USA)

[woke up at 0500 and took care of some last minute packing - wanted to beat the rain, so left the house around 0600 - drove out of town via I-495 and I-270 - continued on I-70 until I reached I-81 and then turned back to the northeast - made good time into Pennsylvania before I had to stop to fill up my tank (Shippensburg - 0745) - continued with very little traffic - some construction, but otherwise good speed - as I approached the I-84 intersection, I gave Clarence a call to see if he could meet up - he said he was available, so I took I-84 into New York and switched to I-87 near Newburgh - worst traffic of the day - met him at the New Paltz exit and we had lunch at the nearby College Diner - followed him via a back way to his house near Esopus - visited with him and Wilma for about an hour before heading back on the road - took NY-32 north into Kingston and took some gambles to locate NY-9W (was successful) - driving north through pretty towns at the base of the Catskills for a while - near Saugerties, tried to get out of a line of traffic and used NY-32 again until I intersected NY-23 - back on NY-9W again all the way into Albany (with a stop for gas just south of town) - as I intersected with US-9, I encountered a city street fair and had to solve a puzzle of one-way streets to get back on track - eventually (1600) located the Comedy Works near I-90 in downtown Albany - everyone was already there (Dad, Beth, Katie & family, Carolyn & friends) - we had snacks and drinks for a few hours, celebrating the launch of Carolyn's new magazine - the Guilderland Chamber of Commerce cut a ribbon for her - we cleaned up around 1800 and then went into the lounge for dinner and a comedy show - the food was good and we met some of Carolyn's friends - the comedians were funny at first but as each new one made it to the stage, the content got progressively raunchy - thank goodness the event ended at 2100, because I imagine that someone far worse would have stepped up to the mic if it went later... - despite the short time we were able to spend together, I took my leave of Carolyn so I could get sleep for the ride home - drove Katie to the hotel on the east side of the Hudson River (East Greenbush) - said goodnight to her and her family before getting to bed (very tired!)]