I woke Mollie up at 0615 and we got ready for our trip to New Hampshire. We stopped for checkout and breakfast at the BOQ main building and then got on the road for home (0650). We used I-495, I-270, US-15 and PA-581 to reach Harrisburg. When we got to I-83, we found it had closed (bridge maintenance) and we’d have to detour through the city. Mollie liked the old homes we passed as we drove north along the Susquehanna River. Once we were on I-81, we made good time all the way to the rest area north of I-80 (we stopped briefly). We saw some cars on the highway that we thought Brenna would like and Mollie texted some links to her. Meanwhile, we continued north on I-81 and eventually took a shortcut (suggested by Google Maps) through the mountains near the NY/PA border. The route initially had us get on I-86 but then took us on back roads (Foley, Harvey Smith, Markle, Riley, NY-217, Colesville Road and NY-79) and helped us to reach I-88. We passed some signs with cartoon dinosaurs on them (Broome County State Park) on the way (we later learned that Johnny Hart, the creator of the "B.C." cartoon strip, was a local hero). On the interstate again, we listened to lots of music for the next hour, before stopping in Rotterdam, NY for gas (1330). Mollie bought lunch for herself at Dunkin Donuts. With Google's help again, we then took NY-7 and NY-337 to reach I-890 (south) and headed to Schenectady. We wsed NY-7 again and then a bit of I-87 (north) to get to NY-7 and took the Hudson River crossing for Troy. We then followed NY-7 all the way into Vermont (made great time) and then took US-7 north until we reached Manchester. From there, we used VT-30 and VT-11 to get to I-91 - Mollie really enjoyed the scenery as we drove. Eventually, we reached I-91 and took it to White River Junction. We finished our trip on I-89 and arrived home at 1640. As I often do, I sent the Twins a picture of Smurfey (telling them we were home safe) and then elped Mollie unpack. All in all, the short visit to Northern Virginia was a success - now looking forward to enjoying some winter weather sports in New Hampshire...
