2021 Traveling Again

 

I hope I'm not  repeating myself, but 2020, we sold the RV. This is the first time in over 40 years that we do not own an RV. Also, this is the first time that we did not have to purchase a vehicle based on towing capacity or ability to be towed. So, we purchased one that would give us comfort.

 

As Pat tells everyone, we are now officially old farts, driving a Cadillac.

Pat returned from NJ from Sister-in-laws funeral and we started getting ready to head out on our first trip without the RV. Plans are to travel up to NY, visiting with my step brothers, then over to the Boston area to spend time with daughter and step sister, then down to NJ for some time with Pat’s sister and brother Paul then down to Delaware for a visit with her brother Walter. Then back home to Texas. The trip will be leisurely.

Pat was just home and barely unpacked when news of the death of her Uncle John. So, scrap the plans and we head directly to NJ, here’s how it went:

Monday, July 12^th, our first day was over 400 miles and we made all the way to Nacogdoches, TX. Not bad, we are actually going to make it out of Texas in less than 3 days, highly unusual for us. A cute little town where we found a good restaurant for an early dinner. It’s always fun to find someplace local to eat.

Our next day was again over 400 miles bring us to Tuscaloosa, AL. As we were traveling, we looked at the reviews for a SureStay Hotel that were all very high, so, we decided to take a chance and booked a two-room suite for two nights. Well, the reviews were spot on, however, they did not qualify the room, more so the staff. I did get out to the Tall Pines GC for a round of golf, what a disappointing course it turned out to be. We did find a restaurant that seemed to be a great find called Another Broken Egg, where they had the most promising menu we had ever seen, unfortunately their execution left a lot to be desired.

We left Tuscaloosa with a poor taste and traveled another 400+ day to Carlisle, Virginia. We loosened the change purse and stayed at a Hampton Inn, rather nice. We had a rather large brunch in Cleveland, TN on the way in, so dinner was just a snack.

The further we got from home or should I say east of the Mississippi, the more the traffic seemed to be building up. This is our last day to NJ and we will be doing 500+. Our plan is to continue up 81, connect with 78 into NJ the 287 to local road and our destination. We’ve been experimenting between the car GPS and using Google Maps, which connects to the car also. Using Google Maps, we get more up-to-date information, so that’s what we were using with the increase in traffic. We noticed that there was a 20-minute delay on 78 near Allentown. Nothing to worry about, that’s pretty much normal. However, the closer we got to 78 the 20 minutes, became 30, 40, then it was up to an hour. So, at the last minute we shot up to Route 80 and added another 30 miles to the trip but probably saved a half hour. We arrived safe, sound and exhausted.

Govert and Marie welcomed us with open arms. We spent two weeks with them and I’m sure they were glad to see our tail-lights when we pulled out for our next stop. It was nice to see Pat’s brother Paul, we had not spent that much time with him in the past, but did on this stay. The funeral did bring a lot of the family together also, some of whom we’ve not seen in many years.

Pat and Marie were able to get together on their many projects and I’m sure had a wonderful time visiting. Govert and I spent as much time as we could visiting a few of the golf courses in the area. That and Govert kept us fed with his gourmet style of cooking, which was wonderful.

The family joke is that to stay with Govert and Marie is to stay at “Club Meadowbrook,” and our stay was outstanding.

Note: Our plans were to spend two months traveling. The reports on the Delta Variant of Covid-19 have us worried, so, we are going to complete our visits with family as planned, only keeping those visits short, then we are going to turn towards home. We feel safer in our small community.

Saturday July 31, it’s time to move on. We are no longer doing those 400+ days, so our plan is to travel the Northeast without paying any tolls, or as few as possible. We are driving to Danbury, CT via old route 202 which will cross over Hudson River using the Bear Mountain Bridge (yes, we will pay a toll).

 

We did stop after the bridge for a look back to the river. The road is an old highway passing through many villages. We are staying at the Best Western in Bethel, CT for two nights and will be visiting with one of Pat’s cousins Dawn Houle. This is a 2^nd cousin she knew nothing about until she did her DNA through Ancestry. Turns out that the family had been looking for Dawns Grandad only knowing that he had settled in Connecticut. We did a nice little side tour of the railroad Museum in Danbury.

  

And later that night had dinner at the Sycamore Restaurant, where they still make homemade root beer and the parking lot was full of some classic cars. The next night Dawn and her husband Jim took us out to dinner we discussed family trees, what a night.

We are still determined not to take any of those toll roads, so we take US Hwy 20 into Waltham, MA where we stayed at the Best Western. Now we have some points and we thought that the Best Western wasn’t too bad from earlier experience, but I believe this may be the last one, beds are better at the Holiday Inn’s. We’re here to visit with our daughter Kelly and my step sister Susan.

We spent time with both and while I was off playing golf, Pat & Kelly had some time to visit a local museum together. It was a quick visit, but it was great to see everybody and get caught up. Susan is in a new place and we were glad we got a chance to see her new digs. And while we were there we found out that her old place just sold.

We are on our way to Syracuse by way of the old Mohawk Trail. We had watched a documentary last year which had highlighted this route and wanted to drive it. The weather when we started was heavy rain, which got lighter as we headed west. We are keeping our appetites whetted for a restaurant that is at an overview somewhere near North Adams. Our first stop is for some syrup that is supposed to be among the best in New England, the Davenport Farms outside of Shelburne Falls, MA. Yes, we did taste it and it is damn fine. We had to drive down this long road and approached this farm and hoped we had the right place.

 

Then we drove up the drive to find this:

 

After purchasing the Syrup, we asked if we had to go back out the same way and he asked if we didn’t mind a short bit over a well-maintained dirt road, just turn right and bear left at the fork in the road and we’ll come out at the highway in Shelburne Falls. Turns out the road was called Cooper Rd, how cool is that? In Shelburne Falls we found the Bridge of Flowers.

 

 

 We finally got to the restaurant with the fine overlook outside of North Adams and it was closed, I mean “out of business” closed. So, we went down into town for lunch and then did a tour of the MOCA an enormous art museum that Pat had been looking forward to. It was a bit much for me. I’ll let Pat tell you about it;

The Mass MOCA is a series of old mill buildings connected by bridges at the upper stories.  It's huge. We got to see Sol Lewitt's wall paintings retrospective.  He believed that the idea was the art and wrote detailed instructions of what colors to use and exactly how to draw the designs so he did not have to be on site for the paintings to be executed.  Which is all well and good but quilters have been doing the same thing for years.  Yes, I know I filter things through my "fabric lens" but really, how unique is the concept.  Anyway, I loved the exhibit, lots of art quilt ideas. This was just one of the buildings (3 stories), so if you go, plan on spending a lot of time there.

 

 

We finally checked into the Holiday Inn and got settled for the night.

The next morning, we continued along the Mohawk Trail which connected with Hwy 20 in New York State as we traveled through the Troy/Albany area. What a beautiful drive, not the boring big highway drive, but to see all the different towns and farms along the way.

Back to the city, the closer we got to East Syracuse the more traffic, but we persevered and arrived at David and Barbara for a wonderful night of catching up. Peter came up to join us to make it the brothers get together with stories of old, what fun. As I said, it was a quick visit, so the next morning, after a great breakfast, we repacked and headed out.

We’re off the Mohawk Trail and headed for a restaurant in Ithica called Moosewood. Pat has a cookbook for this restaurant that she just loves and wanted to give it a try. I guess she liked it, we came away with another cookbook.

We had hoped to stop and visit the museum at Corning, but with our decision to head home we bypassed Corning and continued on our way with an overnight in Bradford, PA then onto Ohio. A phone call to Tim and Kathy on the way, and we had a restaurant picked out in Columbus for Lunch together. The restaurant was Kathy’s choice and her treat. I have to say she did well on both counts. After lunch we settled about 30 miles away in Springfield for a two-night stay.

 The next day, Tim and I met up at the Elks Golf Course in town to play a round of golf together. What a nice course. That afternoon, Pat and I found a restaurant down the road from the hotel called Teaberries Café that was one of those gems you just happen upon, I know “it’s just another restaurant!”

We are now driving on those big highways and headed for an overnight in Troy, IL. We looked up a BBQ place for a late lunch and found a place called Fire and Smoke which just happened to be in front of our hotel. The kick was after our late lunch, we pulled into the wrong hotel. They were very nice and pointed out that the correct hotel was next door.

Our next stop was going to be 3-night stop in Bentonville, AR. Pat wants to visit Crystal Bridges Museum and of course I plan to play some golf. Then we’ll have an extra day for whatever we want. We were thinking of going over to visit with Chip and Daisy, but Daisy was still recovering from her time in the hospital so we decided to let her heal. Chips advice to a golf course was a bit hard to figure because they had 7 different courses. So, I chose a course over in Pea Ridge called Big Sugar, what a fun choice. Pat had a really great tour of the Museum. I’ll let Pat tell you about that;

Crystal Bridges is another museum I got to visit, and another museum that I did not get to see in its entirety, but I did get to see the Modern wing and one of Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Rooms.  A lovely young man lifts a curtain and you are in a darkened, mirrored room with spotted balls hanging around you that are reflected in the mirrors.  When he knocks you move along the path to let the next person in.  It was definitely disorienting, but interesting, I'm glad I got to experience it.

 

And they had a Sol Lewitt wall there, that referenced the wall in Mass MOCA so that was intriguing.  I did not get to walk the grounds and see the outside art but I would recommend the museum, the architecture is fascinating.

We had a great breakfast at the Buttered Biscuit on our last day, but we kind of got rained out for anything else on the day.

The sun’s back out and we’re headed to gay Paris’. No, not the one on the other side of the Atlantic, the one in Texas. Yes, they have a tower and again it’s not the Eiffel tower, just the Paris tower.

 

 

No, we didn’t find a fine French restaurant, but we did find Jaxx Gourmet Burgers, does that Count?

Well at least we’re off the big Highways. You’ve got to love the back roads here in Texas.

 

Our next and last stop is Bastrop (I keep wanting to call it Barstow), Pat and I had stopped here earlier in the year and had breakfast at a restaurant called Maxine’s, worth a stop. And we found another called Neighbors & Iron Bridge Icehouse which will give you another dinning thrill. We stayed an extra night for, you guessed it a golf day for Tom at a course that was highly recommended to me.

Playing Pine Forest Golf Course in Bastrop along the Colorado River had its issues. The first was that I ran into a traffic jam. I captured the last of it with my phone, there were half a dozen deer crossing the fairway in front of the green that I had to wait for and they weren’t in a big hurry.

 

 

They told me that the course was under new management and would be undergoing improvement. Let’s hope so, it’s a great course, just in need of a lot of help.

 

Tuesday the 17^th of August we arrived home, and once again we realized that we had not taken enough pictures. This was a very different trip for us, many hotels and restaurants. I tried to mention only the restaurants that we found interesting or good. We did decide that we preferred the Holiday Inns. We enjoyed our travels, had a great time visiting with all of our relatives and friends. We were glad that the house was in good shape when we got home, there’s no place like home. oh yes, the rain gauge, had 6 inches of rain in it, an unusual summer.

We are thinking of next years travel. We hope to get a place in Michigan and just go and vegetate for a month. Perhaps we'll get a place big enough for you to come and visit, eh? 

Thanks for following our blog, I know this one wasn't as exciting as our past ones, but after 2020, it was great to get out. See you in the funny papers.