Day 3: Conquering the empire state

Didn't spend too much time in London, maybe around 8 hours total. Sad because I was mildly interested to check it out. We were about 2 hours behind the original plan though, and thus shoved off after a small, crappy continental breakfast. The highway through southern Ontario was miles better than that between Sault St. Marie. Much closer to that of the U.S. freeways. Drove though Hamilton, although again, not much to see on the freeway going 70. We did catch glimpses of Lake Ontario though, my first I believe! Wish we could do it justice, next trip I suppose (Toronto/Adirondacks 2019???    : ) )

I wasn't super jazzed to see Niagara at first, but figured it was on our way and worth it. It was actually really cool to see! We walked around for an hour or so. Plenty of tourists, but not horribly so.

The I-90 stretch through upstate New York was also not something I was looking forward to, but better than I remembered it (still nothing amazing though). From Albany, we cut through Troy- up the Hudson River Valley (through construction and a stick- no easy task!) and into the Green Mountains.

Got into Bennington and parked at the hotel we will stay at after the trail. It was about a half mile to the bus stop that would take us up to Manchester where we are staying tonight. Quickly into our walk though, a slight drizzle transitioned into full on lightning with hail. And then in 8 minutes it was done again. Hopefully not a preview of our time on the trail- but I guess it could be worse.

For $2 each- we caught the bus up to Manchester Center and had them drop us at the grocery store. An interesting character on the bus nonetheless, but it comes with the territory of riding county transit. Manchester Center seemed ritzier than Bennington; lots of higher end shopping outlets sprinkling the downtown. We grabbed a pizza and ended up talking with a guy that was through hiking it. Very cool to talk to. Fresh out of high school giving it a shot before college. Vermont must feel like he's almost there. It just so happened that he was staying at the hiker's hostel we were also staying at, so we hitched a ride back to our place for the night. It's actually really nice! You never quite known what you'll get with hostels, but the guy runs a welcoming and tight ship.

Looking forward to tomorrow! 40 miles back to Bennington on foot.