Irene!!!

Well...it was tough but we're risk averse and Irene is nasty so we made the decision to leave Bar Harbor...in a hurry! As many know a hurricane is very difficult to anticipate. Yes, there are models but a hurricane can fool us all. So we made a decision based upon our best information with some backup contingencies in mind.
Our travel plan before Irene was to leave Maine and head to upstate NY. The original track had Irene going east along the coastline into Maine. We took off a week earlier than we had planned and thought we would shoot for Cooperstown, NY. We stopped at a service plaza after driving 450 miles in one day. That is twice the miles we choose to go in a day but we felt like we were fleeing something that could be very serious. We checked the track updates and learned that the direction of Irene had moved west a bit. That indicated that our new destination could be in the path if the track maintained. It also had us second guessing our decision to move from Maine :) - for a minute. First, we were already on the road. Second, hurricanes are unpredictable so we just had to go with our gut feelings. Ultimately, we decided to head further west in NY. We are now in Henrietta, NY watching Irene's track carefully.

We don't have much touring for the past two days but we'll check out some nearby attractions as we wait for the end of this storm. We will then go back to our original plan to visit the Baseball Hall of fame and one of Frank Lloyd Wright's designed properties as we head slowly south for winter.

We hope everyone in Irene's path will heed warnings and stay safe.

Happy trails!