Peanutfiend's trip East
Trip log, days one and two
Day one was mostly occupied by church stuff—Bible class (we read the texts and engage in a lot of culture talk and fundamentalism-bashing), church itself, and a long-but-productive Pastor-Parish Relations Committee meeting, which I chair. The main point of this committee is to give Larry (our minister) cover for things he thinks need doing, and that’s actually a valuable function. As in most organizations, few people are actually very organized, so my job is to move things along and make sure the meeting actually produces a result rather than just a lot of talk.
So I got home at 2 and was on the road at 2:45. My plan was to get through Indiana and spend the night at our favorite Econolodge in Bryan, Ohio, the first exit off of U.S. 80/90 in the state. Beautiful day. Northern Indiana is pretty ugly, industrial, until after South Bend. East of there it gets lovely and Midwestern-looking, farms and cows and newly planted fields, and this continues through most of Ohio. I got to Bryan around 7:00 (now in Eastern time) and ate fried chicken at Country Fare, the restaurant next to the Econolodge. Great place, full of farmers, lots of families and elderly people, and everyone there seems to know everyone else.
Yesterday was the long driving day. I was on the road at 5:45, did Ohio, really very pretty along that road. I did my usual avoid-Cleveland maneuver, by taking 80 south of the city instead of 90 that goes right through it, only somehow when I made the turn back to 90 I miscalculated and ended up in downtown Cleveland anyway. Next time I’ll stick with 80 longer; hate Cleveland, too many turns and mergers. Whipped through Pennsylvania and on into New York. Took the Southern Tier expressway, which we usually do instead of the Thruway because (1) it’s gorgeous, and (2) it has no traffic whatsoever. And you can gas up on the Seneca reservation and figure you’ve saved a little money. So here I am at Oneonta, about an hour and a half short of Albany, in the mountains and actually not far from Cooperstown, where we often stay. New York is a beautiful state—people don’t know that, but it is. Little towns with nice names, like West Almond and Cobbleskill. Right now I’m killing time, because I don’t want to hit Albany in rush hour and if I get to Hanover too early Ray will be thrown off schedule, so I won’t leave here until about 8:00. I would call someone, but T-Mobile hasn’t discovered Oneonta.
Stella is a mellow travel companion. Doesn’t seem to object to the car, doesn’t get restless. Every time I make a stop, which is often, she gets a little something like half a donut or the buns from my Whopper. Unlike when I’m traveling with John, I don’t look for interesting local joints, just eat at service areas or whatever is closest to the highway, which is invariably fast food. But at night it’s a different story, and last night I had dinner at the Neptune Dinner, very popular place with the locals and just down the street from my hotel, which is otherwise surrounded with Denny’s and Appleby’s and that sort of thing.
Day 3
Since I’m constructing this on Day 5, sitting in Gail and Ken’s living room in Boothbay Harbor, the details will be sketchy. Drove from Oneonta to Albany, another beautiful day and going through beautiful country. Until you hit Albany, which is a rat’s nest of highways. I finally get on Route 7 going to Rutland—great, I’m home free—and suddenly 7 dumps you into the downtown of Troy, complete with traffic lights and urban congestion. But this ends, and then a wonderful trip via Bennington (beautiful town), up to Rutland, then straight across the Green Mountains to White River Junction and Hanover. The mountains in Vermont are less well-padded than those in New York, and by the time you get to New Hampshire a lot of granite is showing through.
Had lunch with Ray at the Dirt Cowboy. He was in the throws of finishing his final paper, on Myspace.com, so he went back to the library and I settled in at the Chieftan, our funky-and-friendly-but-not-particularly-cheap motel out of town a bit. Had some time to sit on the Green and enjoy the Dartmouth vibes. Met Ray and several of his friends—Josh, John, Jess—for supper at Murphey’s, but I left the part early because I was falling asleep at the table.
Day 4
Ray finished his paper at something like 5 AM. I was a the dorm at 8:30, drove Jess over to the Dartmouth Coach stop in front of the Hanover Inn—the scene there was chaotic, hundreds of students with way too much luggage, all in a light drizzle—and returned to help Ray pack. The less said about the morning, the better, only NEXT YEAR he had better start packing a little earlier. Stella was tied outside under a tree, stoic as ever, as the drizzle increased to a light rain. By the time we were finished and hit the road, around 1:30, it was pouring. And it teamed the entire trip. Ray was asleep for most of it, aside from a dreary-but-much-appreciated stop at a McDonalds outside of Concord. Pretty hard to drive when it’s raining that hard, but there wasn’t actually much traffic. Somewhere along the way it occurred to me that Gail’s idea of us spending the night with them before going to the house, an idea I had dismissed at the time, was actually a pretty good one. So that’s what we did: met Gail and Ken (he was on his way out to a bridge game), ate at a seafood place down the street, and relaxed with Gail while the rain came down. So now it’s about 8:00 in the morning. Before too long I’ll wake up Ray and we’ll head over to the house. Supposed to keep raining all weekend, so my gardening plans may have to be put on hold.
Overall, it was a good trip.
Day one was mostly occupied by church stuff—Bible class (we read the texts and engage in a lot of culture talk and fundamentalism-bashing), church itself, and a long-but-productive Pastor-Parish Relations Committee meeting, which I chair. The main point of this committee is to give Larry (our minister) cover for things he thinks need doing, and that’s actually a valuable function. As in most organizations, few people are actually very organized, so my job is to move things along and make sure the meeting actually produces a result rather than just a lot of talk.
So I got home at 2 and was on the road at 2:45. My plan was to get through Indiana and spend the night at our favorite Econolodge in Bryan, Ohio, the first exit off of U.S. 80/90 in the state. Beautiful day. Northern Indiana is pretty ugly, industrial, until after South Bend. East of there it gets lovely and Midwestern-looking, farms and cows and newly planted fields, and this continues through most of Ohio. I got to Bryan around 7:00 (now in Eastern time) and ate fried chicken at Country Fare, the restaurant next to the Econolodge. Great place, full of farmers, lots of families and elderly people, and everyone there seems to know everyone else.
Yesterday was the long driving day. I was on the road at 5:45, did Ohio, really very pretty along that road. I did my usual avoid-Cleveland maneuver, by taking 80 south of the city instead of 90 that goes right through it, only somehow when I made the turn back to 90 I miscalculated and ended up in downtown Cleveland anyway. Next time I’ll stick with 80 longer; hate Cleveland, too many turns and mergers. Whipped through Pennsylvania and on into New York. Took the Southern Tier expressway, which we usually do instead of the Thruway because (1) it’s gorgeous, and (2) it has no traffic whatsoever. And you can gas up on the Seneca reservation and figure you’ve saved a little money. So here I am at Oneonta, about an hour and a half short of Albany, in the mountains and actually not far from Cooperstown, where we often stay. New York is a beautiful state—people don’t know that, but it is. Little towns with nice names, like West Almond and Cobbleskill. Right now I’m killing time, because I don’t want to hit Albany in rush hour and if I get to Hanover too early Ray will be thrown off schedule, so I won’t leave here until about 8:00. I would call someone, but T-Mobile hasn’t discovered Oneonta.
Stella is a mellow travel companion. Doesn’t seem to object to the car, doesn’t get restless. Every time I make a stop, which is often, she gets a little something like half a donut or the buns from my Whopper. Unlike when I’m traveling with John, I don’t look for interesting local joints, just eat at service areas or whatever is closest to the highway, which is invariably fast food. But at night it’s a different story, and last night I had dinner at the Neptune Dinner, very popular place with the locals and just down the street from my hotel, which is otherwise surrounded with Denny’s and Appleby’s and that sort of thing.
Day 3
Since I’m constructing this on Day 5, sitting in Gail and Ken’s living room in Boothbay Harbor, the details will be sketchy. Drove from Oneonta to Albany, another beautiful day and going through beautiful country. Until you hit Albany, which is a rat’s nest of highways. I finally get on Route 7 going to Rutland—great, I’m home free—and suddenly 7 dumps you into the downtown of Troy, complete with traffic lights and urban congestion. But this ends, and then a wonderful trip via Bennington (beautiful town), up to Rutland, then straight across the Green Mountains to White River Junction and Hanover. The mountains in Vermont are less well-padded than those in New York, and by the time you get to New Hampshire a lot of granite is showing through.
Had lunch with Ray at the Dirt Cowboy. He was in the throws of finishing his final paper, on Myspace.com, so he went back to the library and I settled in at the Chieftan, our funky-and-friendly-but-not-particularly-cheap motel out of town a bit. Had some time to sit on the Green and enjoy the Dartmouth vibes. Met Ray and several of his friends—Josh, John, Jess—for supper at Murphey’s, but I left the part early because I was falling asleep at the table.
Day 4
Ray finished his paper at something like 5 AM. I was a the dorm at 8:30, drove Jess over to the Dartmouth Coach stop in front of the Hanover Inn—the scene there was chaotic, hundreds of students with way too much luggage, all in a light drizzle—and returned to help Ray pack. The less said about the morning, the better, only NEXT YEAR he had better start packing a little earlier. Stella was tied outside under a tree, stoic as ever, as the drizzle increased to a light rain. By the time we were finished and hit the road, around 1:30, it was pouring. And it teamed the entire trip. Ray was asleep for most of it, aside from a dreary-but-much-appreciated stop at a McDonalds outside of Concord. Pretty hard to drive when it’s raining that hard, but there wasn’t actually much traffic. Somewhere along the way it occurred to me that Gail’s idea of us spending the night with them before going to the house, an idea I had dismissed at the time, was actually a pretty good one. So that’s what we did: met Gail and Ken (he was on his way out to a bridge game), ate at a seafood place down the street, and relaxed with Gail while the rain came down. So now it’s about 8:00 in the morning. Before too long I’ll wake up Ray and we’ll head over to the house. Supposed to keep raining all weekend, so my gardening plans may have to be put on hold.
Overall, it was a good trip.
posted by peanutfiend | 8:59 AM
1 Comments:
Whew! I thank my lucky stars that Peanutfiend is back on her blog!
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