Well here we are on the road again. How this happened is sort of crazy. Monday morning I was reading my new Auto Week and read an article about an interesting "drive" that followed Route 7 up through Connecticut and Vermont. I walked in the dining room and asked Vickie if she wanted to go to Connecticut. She said, when, and I said tomorrow. Well, we were scheduled to go to my doctor that afternoon, (in Winston-Salem an hour away) to get the stitches out of my knee after my surgery last week. (Arthroscopic, to fix problems that developed after my last hip replacement) I said my knee felt good and if the doctor agreed, I was ready for a road trip cause I was tired of sitting on the couch reading Clive Cussler under the influence of strong drugs. She said ok with trepidation, and we set off for the doctor’s office. Got to the doctor (oh and by the way he’s a car guy) and he agreed that a road trip would be just the medicine I needed. So on the way home we started planning. It seeme d like a million things to do, but we took them one at a time and to make a long story short—ended up on the road late Tuesday afternoon. We drove to South Boston and took Rt. 360 North to Rt. 15 to Farmville, VA. Our GPS told us there was a Comfort Inn on the other side of Farmville exactly the way we were going. We rode past several motels when passing through Farmville and on to the other side where the GPS said we should stop but there was no sign of a motel. I’m not one to back track unless it’s necessary---so we pressed forward. I said "I’m sure there will be something down the road", but there was nothing. Looking at the map Rt. 522 (which we were on at this point) crossed I-64 down the road and I was sure there would be some motels there. Wrong again! Bottom line we ended up driving late (after dark, which is way unusual for us). Finally found probably the last room in Culpepper, VA at a Best Western for way too much money and no continental breakfast. (Us being the experts of the "Continental Breakfast") But I was tired, and several motels in the same area were already full. (What gives with this on a Tuesday in September in Culpepper, VA?) We landed, did our usual unloading routine, and checked out the bar, which also served food. Turned out the bar had really great food. We ordered "She Crab Soup" and 2 spoons along with a steak salad for me and a Caesar salad for Vickie. We also partook of some fine Yungling beverages and some great cheese spread with assorted breadsticks and crackers. The "She Crab Soup" arrived, and it was to die for. Creamy with tender crabmeat, a tomatoey cream sauce, with a hint of sherry. We shared that and soon the salads arrived. Mine was huge with beautiful strip steak slices medium rare, tomatoes, onions, hardboiled eggs, and great dressing. Vickie’s Caesar was exactly to her liking as well. Turned out to be a wonderful surprise at the end of a pretty hectic day. We went back to the room and crashed. In the morning we d id our normal up-coffee-shower-pack-load and vamoose routine. (Oh and by the way for those of you keeping track, this Best Western got the curved shower rod right) We were wondering tonight if the guy who invented the curved shower rod patented it. I hope he did cause every motel chain is copying the idea that started at Holiday Inn Express. We elected to pass up the over priced breakfast at the Best Western and headed down the road a little and found the Culpepper Diner. Had a great breakfast with all the attending local color, gassed up the Vette, and were on our way. We followed Rt. 522 up through the dairy country across West VA, MD, and into PA. At the PA Welcome Center we stopped and picked up an assortment of the ubiquitous motel coupon books and a detailed PA map. Along the way we decided to go topless. Temp was 76° and the day was beautiful. Since we were on the back roads rolling along about 55 ish it was like convertible heaven. Turned out to be a beautiful trip with many picturesque small towns and about a million miles of cows and corn. We ended up landing in Frackville, PA (or so we thought). We did our usual cruise around to find a motel with WiFi so we could get on the Internet in their parking lot and check out places to stay. Couldn’t find an accessible network, so we ended up in the McDonalds parking lot and paid a couple of bucks to get on their network for a 2-hr. hunk. (We decided we needed to join the McDonalds network later, cause they are everywhere, and we can get on from their parking lot). We did some research and finally headed to the Country Inn and Suites one exit down I-81 toward Harrisburg. We had a coupon from "the books" that gave us a good rate and they advertised a heated indoor pool, hot tub, and hot breakfast. We got off on exit 119 from I-81 and could see the inn up on the hill. Turned out to be quite a circuitous route to get to the place, but we are quite happy with the accommodations. While waiting in the parking lot for Vickie to register us I noted a great front plate on a Mercedes in the lot. It said "Latitude and Longitude-----To Boldly Relax Where No Man Has Relaxed Before" (a cross between Jimmy Buffet and Star Trek) We moved in, mixed one up, changed into swimsuits, and headed for the pool. We had a nice session soaking my knee in the hot tub and then doing some water aerobics in the pool that we had all to ourselves. After swimming, we found that there was an Italian restaurant (Di Maggio’s) that delivered to this motel, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. We ordered up some Tortellini Alfredo, Veal Parmigiana with angel hair pasta, bread, 2 salads, and 2 stuffed Cannoli for dessert (a first for Vickie). I waded into my writing, and the food arrived fairly soon—piping hot and delicious. We enjoyed our "room service" and now are planning our route for tomorrow. We plan to head from here through the Delaware Water Gap to Port Jervis, NY and on to somewh ere in Connecticut where we will land for the evening. Now full of great Italian food, and a couple of adult beverages, it’s looking like time to read a little and drift off to road trip dreamland. More later.
Wes
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