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Road Trip May 2007

A trip from May 18, 2007 to June 06, 2007, travelling to New York City, Lexington, Gloucester …

Our first long road trip, this one is a tuneup for a much … More

Our first long road trip, this one is a tuneup for a much longer one, later this summer

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Trip Plan

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Fri 05/18/07 (day 1)

Getting ready to leave

We are piling stuff on the bed in the guest room for the last couple of days, and of course we are excited about finally gtting close to leaving.
Ethel, (our GPS) is programmed, as well as the route all planned in streets and trips, and of course the computer will be on my lap part of the way to make sure we stay on track.
On Day 1 we are just deadheading as far into North Carolina as we can get, because we have reservations in Staten Island for Saturday nite, and a planned dinner with Judy's Brother.

Fri 05/18/07 (day 1)

Rocky Mount, NC

Well, we are several hundred miles from home, and staying in a Best Western Hotel in Rocky Mount, NC. We drove over six hundred miles today, but not really that tired. Our first adventure occured when we were looking for a motel for the evening, me being the frugal person that I am, called several motels, was offered at good rate at a Best Western ($62), then I forgot to write down the address of the one that I called, only remembering the exit number.. We exited, no Best Western, so I dragged out Ethel (GPS) again and searched for the place, found it, and it was 8-10 miles from where we exited.. Ethel got us there. The room was fine and the wireless internet works well. The TV was a little fuzzy, I called the front desk asking if they were having some problems. They offered to move us, but we had already settled in so I told him it would be fine, then he offered to lower the room rate to $52, hey what a deal.
Well, tomorrow we are off to Staten Island and dinner with Eddie and Carol, and hopefully Uncle Joe. We Have about seven hours of driving to get there..
More tomorrow

Sat 05/19/07 (day 2)

Staten Island

We arrived in Staten Island at the Hilton Garden Inn ( a wonderful hotel) about 2:30 and got right into the room. The trip to here has been very uneventful, but we always have fun when we travel. A word about gas prices, When we left Florida, the price there (home) was 2.99, Georgia and South Carolina averaged about 3.05, North Carolina and Virginia about 3.15. Now the interesting part, the cheapest prices were in New Jersey, where they were about 2.89, and because of the strength of some particular union there, a guy has to pump it for you. ( state law). He doesn't clean the windshield tho.
We had dinner last nite with Judy's Brother Eddie and his family at a very nice restruant along the wharf in Staten Island, Then came back for a drink at our Hotel, and we dragged our selves to the room sometime after midnite.
Tomorrow, Manhatten and Times Square.

Sun 05/20/07 (day 3)

Manhatten

We got to our hotel The Mayfair, a quaint european style hotel on 49th St,a half block of of Broadway in Manhatten with no trouble. Ethel (gps) is a god send. We got to the hotel around ten am, left our luggage for a later checkin, parked the car in a recommended lot. We then walked down to the half price ticket booth which is now located in the Marriot complex while a new one is being built. After about a 45 minute wait in line, we got tickets for Les Miz for a matinee performance. With tickets in hand we headed off to 9th ave(called hells kitchen) where a wonderful street fair was going on, it ran nearly 15 blocks with lots of booths with great ethnic food and shopping stands. We couldn't help but sample some of the food. We wondered around that area for a couple of hours, headed back to our hotel to see if we could get into our room, but still nothing open until after three, the same time that our play started, so we wondered around Broadway for an hour or so until it was time for the play. Even tho we had seen Les Miz a couple of years ago, it was excellent, and were extremely happy to see it again. After a late nite last nite, we were both tired, so after the play we went back to our hotel and crashed.

Mon 05/21/07 (day 4)

Touring NYC

Today was an interesting and long day. We started this morning by going to Rockefeller Center, where the Today Show is broadcast fun. We got pictures of Al Roker & Natalie Morales. After that we grabbed a Starbucks of course, and planned the rest of our day. We started the day by taking a tour boat around the southern tip of Manhatten, where we got great views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty and more views of Manhatten from the water. When we finished with the Water tour, we jumped on a tour bus for a tour of downtown Manhatten, including SOHO, the Village, Chelsea, Little Italy and several others. We got off the bus and had lunch at an Italian restruant in the Village on Bleeker st. We reboarded the bus and finished that part of the tour. We later got on the evening tour bus and did the night tour, including a trip over the Manhatten Bridge that took us over to Brooklyn and then back to a very lit up Times Square. We had a great time in New York, but more good times are facing us, so we will be leaving here in the morning.

Tue 05/22/07 (day 5)

Mark Twains House and Yankee Candle

Well, we left New York early this morning and made our way to Mark Twains home in Hartford, Conneticut. It was an extremely interesting Home, that he Paid $40,000 to have built in 1869, not sure how much that would be in todays money, but a bunch for sure. He then Hired Mr Tiffany( before he was making leaded glass) for $5000 to be the interior decorator for his home. It has 18 rooms, and a carriage house, and even now the view is not bad. One of his famous quotes was probably the one he gave after touring much of Europe. Asked if he was American, his reply was "I am THE American".
After leaving Twains house, we drove the home of Yankee Candle, what a place that is, hundreds of thousands of candles, thousands and thousands of other gifts and food products. We sampled all kind of stuff and finally had dinner at a restruant "The Chandler" that was on the property.
We have arrived in Concord, Mass, and looking forward to lots of exploring in the area, including the place where the first shot of the revolutionary war was fired. heck, we are even going to Walden pond.
Tomorrow night should find us in Gloucester, Ma.

Wed 05/23/07 (day 6)

Lexington/ Concord

This morning we drove the route that was the battlefield for the start of the Revolutionary war. 600 British troops marched from Boston to Concord to search for some stored munitions that the local militia (minutemen) had. On the way they were afronted by about 75 local militia in Lexington. A shot rang out, and after a few minutes, 8 militia were dead, two British wounded. The British marched on to Concord (about 5 miles) where a real confrontation started. The British were guarding the north bridge, while now 400 militia were waiting by the bridge, smoke started showing up from Concord, and the taunting British finally opened fire. The British started retreating to Boston (about 25 miles), during the retreat the militia now totaling nearly 4000 ambushed the British all the way back to Boston. When it was over nearly 300 British soldiers were either killed or wounded, and nearly 100 militia men. This was the start of the revolutionary war. "The Shot that was heard around the world" was fired at Lexington about 6 am on April 19th, 1775.
We visited the visitors centers both at the North Bridge near Concord, and the one near Lexington.
Forgot to mention that to start the day, we visited Waldon Pond, made famous in Thoreau's writing, nice pond, sorry I didn't have my fishing pole.

Wed 05/23/07 (day 6)

Gloucester, Ma

We traveled from Lexington/Concord to one of our favorite places, Gloucester. Gloucester is on the Atlantic ocean, and is a very quaint fishing village. We took pictures of a very famous statue called the "Fishermans Memorial". The whole area is full of fishing boats and trawlers, it is the area that the movie "The Perfect Storm" was filmed at. We were able to stay in the same motel that we had stayed in the last time we were here, It is on the coast line and we have a room overlooking the Atlantic.
Tomorrow, Maine!!

Thu 05/24/07 (day 7)

Gloucester to Bar Harbor

After a wonderful evening at our Motel on the ocean, we were off to Bar Harbor with a few great stops in between. Our first stop was at the White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport. This is a very high end Inn, that dates from the middle 1800's. We went in and walked around and realized that it was pretty high end when we seen carafs of brandy sitting on the tables for the guests to sample. I forgot to pick up a price list.... darn.
We were then on our way to Portland, and the Portland Light House, the most photographed lighthouse on the east coast, we had been there a few years ago, but wanted to see it again, and it sure was nice because it was a different time of the year, and with a slight fog, it was amazing. The last time we were in New England was in the fall for the colors, Obviously this time was different, but surely just as beautiful, because the spring colors and flowers are out, most of the trees are showing thier first signs of leaves, so the varying colors make it outstanding this time of the year as well.
We stopped for lunch at a place called "A taste of Maine" . For 9.95 we got a ceasar salad, iced tea, Judy had shrimp, I had halibut, both came with potato and veggie, and then ice cream for desert. These guys could make it in Florida. The place had an excellent view of a marsh area, with lots of birds, including an osprey nest, that they had a video camera watching the nest. While you ate, they had binoculars at your table to view the landscape.
Here is their website if you want to check them out.
http://www.tasteofmaine.com/
We finally made it to Bar Harbor, got checked into our Motel, and went to the downtown and harbor area, it is beautiful, can't wait to explore it more.
Tomorrow, Acadia park, and maybe some whale watching.

Fri 05/25/07 (day 8)

Bar Harbor & Acadia

Today was a fabulous day. We started at about 8am with a trip up to the top of Cadillac Mountain (1500ft), actually the tallest mountain on the Atlantic Coast. We stopped at the welcome center, and the Ranger told us about a shooner cruise with a naturalist aboard that was leaving at ten am. We rushed down the mountain, and boarded a 151 foot 4 masted schooner for a nature ride around Frenchmans bay. The crew raised the masts and we quietly moved around the bay. We seen eagles in nests, cormorants, lots of different birds, and of course lobster traps all over the bay. This was the first time either of us have been on a schooner, so it was exciting. The naturalist was excellent, and we learned a lot of information about the local area. After the two hour nature ride, we got back in the car and drove back into Acadia National Park, and completed the 27 mile loop around the park. We stopped at several areas including a very nice long sandy beach (yea a sandy beach in Maine and people on it in May). The weather was great today, high close to 80. While on the 27 mile drive, we stopped at Jordans Pond, and there we found this great restaruant, that served fresh, hot popovers with great strawberry jam. We each had two and some nice fresh lemonade, both tasted excellent after the many stops we made about the park.
Tonite we are going out for some lobster of some kind, not sure wether it will be a complete one, tails or a lobster roll.
Judy is complaing that we haven't seen a moose yet, but I forgot to mention that yesterday, she almost ran into a deer that had bolted across the road, and the same thing happened with a ground hog, so hopefully when we do see the moose, she will not hit it.

Sat 05/26/07 (day 9)

Bar Harbor to Quebec

Well, what a day this has been, it was suppose to be a quiet drive of about 300 miles to Quebec, more about that later. From the time we left Bar Harbor, we have wanted to see a moose in the wild, but even tho we seen dozens of of warning signs to be aware of moose crossing, just lots of signs. Now about the interesting part, We get to the Canadian border, pull up to the customs area, hand our passports to the guy in the window, expecting him to glance at them, and send us on our way.. NOT THIS TIME! Judy was driving, he asked her lots of questions, where we were from, where we were going, was this our car or a rental, what we had in the car, after even more questions, they asked us to drive into the search area, we had to get out of the car, stand in front of it while they searched the entire car, opened up some luggage etc. When they were done with the search we had to go inside and wait, finally a customs agent asked to see us individually, I was first, I get up to her desk, and she asked me where I had lived, I mentioned all the states I had lived in, she asked me if I had ever appeared in front of a judge, I told her no, but that I had seved on juries. She then asked me if I had ever been stopped and went before a judge for not having a drivers license, I told her to the best of my recollection, no She said the the paper she had in front of her said that I had appeared before a judge in Minot, ND in 1962, and she asked if I could remember that, and I said that I had no recollection of it ( I have racked my brain, and nothing, heck it was 45 years ago) she laughed, and then it was Judy's turn, asked the same questions, but she didn't have any thing on her that said she had appeared before a judge. Finally she gave our passports back and we were on our way.
When we got to Quebec, checked into our motel, and drove down to the old town, it was extremely crowded but very interesting, so we decided that Sunday was the day we would spend time there, had dinner in a great restruant close to the motel.

Sun 05/27/07 (day 10)

Quebec City

Another interesting and exciting day in Canada. We are saving at a nice Best Western Hotel L'Aristocrate, but it is a ways (10 mi) from old
Quebec. So early this morning we take off to old Quebec and look for a place to park, Judy was driving, I saw a drive in lot and told her to drive in, we get to the solid door and after pushing a button for help, we stuck a credit card into the slot, the door opened and we drove in, the solid door closing behind us. It is a large garage with very few other cars in it. We started looking for an exit, we tried several doors, and they were either locked or deadends, we started to panic a little because all signs were in french, we finally found a sign that said sortie, which we both knew meant exit, we followed it up to the second floor and found a door out that locked behind us, now how were we going to get in again. More later!! Old Quebec city is outstanding, it is all build inside of a 400 year old walled fortress, lots of shops, restaurants, cobbled streets. We had some breakfast in one of the cafes, rode a venicular, walked to a market place and then walked way back up to the walled city.. The place was great, now it was time to try and get in to get our car out. We had stopped at a tourism site and asked about it, and they though there was a door next to where we entered.. We went back, found a door, had to use the same credit card to get in the garage (this place was secure) and it worked, we got out. We drove to an area outside of the walled city that was like a boulevard of restaurants and we found a parking spot there and had lunch, with desert being one of the best crepes we had ever tasted it.
It was a great day in Quebec, and would recommend it to anyone.
Tomorrow, Monteal!!

Mon 05/28/07 (day 11)

Montreal

The trip from Quebec was an easy and pleasureable drive, we got into Montreal about 11, and then the fun started, The hotel we were staying at (Clarion Inn and Suites) had the whole front end of their hotel torn up because of some street work, even tho we knew they had a parking garage, we couldn't find it, and of course with the street torn up, no where to park to find out where it was, so Judy dropped me off, drove around the block several times and then picked me up, finally got into the garage and checked in. The weather in Montreal was cool and windy, and we were tired so we really didn't do much, we knew we were close to really different Mcdonalds, that we had seen on the food channel, so we decided to visit it, It was different, but not nearly as good as it seemed on tv. It was called McCafe and was like a bistro with upscale coffee's and desserts. We dined there anyway.
Tomorrow, Cooperstown and the baseball hall of fame.

Tue 05/29/07 (day 12)

Cooperstown

The drive from Montreal to Cooperstown thru the Adirondacs was outstanding, what a beautiful area it is. We were laughing that during this trip we had seen caution signs for Moose and Deer crossings, Tractor and Cow crossings, snowmobile and elder crossings, but only seen that one deer.
Our first stop was at Saratoga Springs, NY It is in the book "A thousand places to see before you die" It was the summer home of lots of the rick and famous in the early 1900's and one of its claim to fame besides that and its race track, potato chips were invented there in 1853.
When we got to Cooperstown and toured the Hall of Fame, what a thrill it was to see information about baseball players that both Judy and I remembered from our younger days. The information and pictures and artifacts that are there are amazing. I couldn't possible even estimate the value of the things on display there, especially all the cards, now what did happen to all those cards I had.
Tomorrow to Steves to see Him, Patty, Mike, & Matt.

Sun 06/03/07 (day 17)

A few days at Steve & Patti's

We stopped at Steves (Jims Son) for several days, and it was wonderful to to see them and of course Matt and Mike, the grandsons. Christina, Matts Girlfriend was also there, and she was delightful as always.
During our stay there we ate way too Much of Pattie's great cooking, man those desserts were awesome, I am sure I gained five pounds in as many days.

Lots of cribbage was played with Matt and Christina having the hot hands, but lots of fun by all. Christina had a 28 hand, the largest I have ever seen
On Saturday Steve, Mike, Matt and I went fishing of off Cape May, NJ, after a long boat ride we finally got some fishing in, we all caught just one fish, but the one Steve caught ( a sea Bass) was the largest caught on the boat, so he won the pool.
As always, a visit with Steve and Pattie, is always wonderful. Tomorrow, Mt Vernon and a drive to Jamestown.

Mon 06/04/07 (day 18)

Mount Vernon

Today we stopped at Mount Vernon on our way to Jamestown, Va. Mount Vernon of course is the home of our first president, George Washington. We found it very interesting, and are very glad that we stopped. Lots of short movies about his life, but the most interesting thing was the mansion that is restored to its original condition. It sits on the bank of the Potomac River (what a view) and is truely a southern estate and mansion, with beautiful gardens, and all the other buildings of a working farm. Tomorrow, Jamestown, VA

Tue 06/05/07 (day 19)

Jamestown Colony, Va

After a good nights sleep, we went out to tour a recreation of the original
Jamestown Colony.. It was presented as well as any place that we have ever visited. The tour guides were great, the artifacts restored to their original size and created with only tools that were available at the time in 1607 that it was built. We toured ships, settler villages, indian huts and visited with people in native dress of the time. One of the better places we have visited

Tue 06/05/07 (day 19)

Colonial Williamsburg

We had time this afternoon to return to Colonial Williamsburg. We had visited here in November several years ago, and we decided it would be fun to visit again during the summer. It was much more crowded this time, but just an interesting, we walked around, seeing period customes and transportation. We had some lunch and returned to our hotel, tomorrow, Myrtle Beach.

Wed 06/06/07 (day 20)

Myrtle Beach, SC

We drove from Colonial Williamsburg to Myrtle Beach, our first stop was at "Broadway at the Beach" a very Disney Downtown and Universal city walk. Lots of small boutiques, restruants all built around a large lake with lots of bridges and water taxi's. We roamed around there for several hours, had lunch there at Joes Crab Shack, was great. The lake had lots of carp and other fish that you could throw food too, was an interesting place. Myrtle Beach itself is quite interesting, it has almost forty miles of wonderful Beach, of course the beach is all full of condos and hotels, including the one we stayed at. Our room overlooked the beach and the ocean, so it was very enjoyable. We took a walk along the beach and watched the tide start to come in. Each Spring Mytle Beach holds a sun festival, this year a sand castle, billed as the worlds largest, was built. Of course we had to go see that.
Also it seemed that everywhere we looked, we seen a miniture golf course, we checked and Myrtle Beach has 50 of them.
We decided that Myrtle Beach was a place that we would like to make a week long destination, and will do that some time in the future.

Wed 06/06/07 (day 20)

Final thoughts from Home

Its Thursday, and we got home about a couple of hours ago, as we were nearing home Judy and talked about our road trip, and decided as a first attempt at such a long one (21 days), we enjoyed it a lot, there were lots of highlights, but both of us agreed that Bar Harbor, Maine was a place that we should have spent more time in, because it was at the top of both of our lists. We have already started a list of things to do differently on the next one. That one is comming up in about six weeks, and will be twice as long, and go from here to the west coast, into Canada to see Banf and Lake Louise, Visiting family in California, Oregon, Washington and Pennsylvania, and of course the Football hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. And of course we will attempt to do a better job of the travel journal as well. Until the end of July... Later All

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Ramiro (View Ramiro's trips)

Absolutely outstanding, congratulatios. From as far as Chile, we had the privilege of tripping there when our son Emilio was making a student residence in his vet. formation in the last years of former century at Virginia Tech. He is now phisiologist in Cambridge, GB, producing us 'huckelberries' for his absense. And he has carried away our grandson!... probably we´ll see them next year.
In that ocasion, we must acknowledge the gods for enjoying ¡Williamsbourg!, Virginia Beach, Richmond, ¡Jamestown!, the free Smithsonian museums of Washington DC (not yet contaminated with the 'productivity' of this era), Niagara falls, Toronto, Simcoe and Huron lakes, Ottawa, Montreal, New Englad, ¡Boston!, ¡New York!, ¡Baltimore!, Philladelfia, and a lot more. The greatest crisis we had was the politness of the canadian ¡very!polite human-beings, clearly different of our rough people in the rest of America. 'The reason of the good reality is the bad one', and we don´t calibrate our reality if we haven´t see another (better or worse).
I apologise for my inhability in english language, but please understand that my congratulations (and a little envy) are really very real and truly feelingfull.

Posted 2 years ago.

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EHIA INS CORP (View EHIA INS CORP's trips)

WOW LOOKS EXTREMELY FACINATING. WILL START PLANING MY FAMS OWN ROAD TRIP. THANKS FOR SHARING

Posted 2 years ago.

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Kaye (View Kaye's trips)

Great Pictures and good writing. Havent been to that area since I was a child. Brought back memories. Thanks for sharing.

Posted 2 years ago.

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Annis (View Annis's trips)

Wonderful trip and excellent photos. We are planning a road trip to some of these same places in the fall to see the fall foliage. Loved the historical areas! Thanks for sharing. WingWoman

Posted 2 years ago.

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A Yahoo! Contributor

Funny, I took a road trip from Boston to Atlantic City, and we also noticed the lower gas prices, and the strange event that there was no self serve. In Boston Full serve is more expensive hahaha

Posted 2 years ago.

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victoria (View victoria's trips)

great family pictures

Posted 2 years ago.

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Johnny B. Goode (View Johnny B. Goode's trips)

The city of Gloucester is absolutely stunning, this tour doesn't do it justice. It's a beautiful city with the rustic feel of an old fishing village. You should definately work it into a tour of New England cities, it's a nice break from the chaos of other places.

Posted 2 years ago.

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Timbo (View Timbo's trips)

thanks for the info on your road trip!

Posted 1 year ago.

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Brent M (View Brent M's trips)

oohh man, being from maine (florida now), you made me home sick especially with spring coming up, florida is nice and all, but maine will always be home. nice trip you had.

Posted 1 year ago.

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jeremyb (View jeremyb's trips)

in gloucester visit the causeway restaurant, good harbor beach, wingaersheak beach, cranes beach, and if you like thai food you have to go to thai choice right downtown

Posted 6 months ago.

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