[font color=\'#000000\']Thanks for the help to all of you. I've just finished my trip.
Driving away from the airport and onto the 80 (starts as the 280?) was a bit dramatic - I've never seen such rapid cutting in between lanes before - but I managed in the end. I found the toll system a bit confusing at first ('which lane should I go in? What _is_ going on?'), but was ok when I realised I needed to go through a manned booth to get a ticket so that I could then pay the appropriate fee at the end, as opposed to being charged maximum. It's probably obvious, it just wasn't to me at the time when there was a stream of traffic behind me which I was trying not to hold up (probably always a mistake to let myself feel pressured though).
Driving up to Utica was pretty. The barns were all red, and the damp grass in early morning light was very pretty. I've never seen so many dead animals though! - skunk, racoon, porcupine I think, squirrels etc., and, even worse, I hit a deer. I almost managed to come to a stop but I was still going fast enough to break its back legs I think. (There were no skid marks even though I stood on the brakes - either the ABS was superb or the breakes weren't all that good on the hire car, a Cavalier with 6k miles on the clock). I told some locals who'd ring the police and DEP. I won't go into the details but I was told it'd probably end up barbecued. In a way at least I felt better about that - my immediate thought, apart from feeling guilty that I'd not been able to avoid it as in all car adverts, was 'What a senseless waste'.
I had an afternoon in Minnewaska state park (NY) exactly when the remains of Ivan hit, so it was extremely foggy and rainy. Grand pictures were out, but the mist was interesting. I took some which are probably a bit cliched (wooden fences curving off into the mist) but it was fun to try as _I've_ not taken any like that before. If I can get my web space sussed I'll post a link.[/font]