Road Trips

Lotsa Driving

Brooklyn > Gettysburg PA > New Hope PA > Brooklyn

one night at home.

Brooklyn > Northampton MA> Howe's Caverns NY> Brooklyn

Along the way my car had an event. Please look at the odometer, not the speedometer.  But you cal also look at the little trip odometer.  In five days we covered 1,030 miles.

My E-ZPass paid money to the Triborough Bridge Authority, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York State Thruway, The Pennsylvania Turnpike, the New Jersey Turnpike, the Massachusetts Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway, and the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

I76 from Harrisburg PA to Philadelphia was very nice, as was I 90 from Springfield MASS to Albany NY. I 95 between New York City and New Haven sucks.

One of my favorite thing about road trips is road food.  We don't eat fast food.  I might get a cup of coffee at a gas station, but we don't eat fast food.  We are not in that much of a hurry to have to stand on line and eat off a tray.  We get off the highway and eat real food, cooked by real people, served by real people surrounded by other real people.  I am not saying that the staff and clients at a McDonalds or a Starbucks are not human beings, but I am saying that they are scripted zombies, serving and consuming sameness across the country.

Diversity is not always so good.  Funk's Family Restaurant and Gift Shop in Anneville PA, between Harrisburg and Gettysburg was striving for  blaaa..  But my kids did learn that in most of the rest of the country people like a lot of mayonnaise. (and I just found out they double charged my credit card.)

But The Duanesburg Diner & Restaurant in (of course) Duanesburg NY, between Albany and Howe's Cavers was a gift.  Fresh food served just the way we asked for it.  The walls were covered in photos of happy diners, holding up trophies, diplomas and the ribbons they own for their livestock.  EVERYONE who walked in seamed to know the waitstaff and our servers made us feel very welcome.

The even had a still life above the counter from back in time

and now......