ME: 8/6/07 The Miracle Gorp

The morning that we left Little Rock, just 7 days ago, we stopped at the grocery store and bought a jar of dry roasted peanuts, a can of cashew halves and pieces, and a bag of M&Ms. We poured them all into a zip loc bag that we got at Mark's house and that was our bag of gorp. We ate from it frequently. It helped Marty survive many a late lunch. We never thought about how much was left and we never worried about it eating it all up 'cuz we knew we could make some more or eat some other goody (probably a Julie gift). But that one bag lasted the entire trip. It was as great as the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. It was the Energizer Bunny of Gorp because it just kept lasting and lasting and lasting.



And now at last, the tale is told. It took longer to tell it than it took to experience it, I think. We finished the trip in 8 days but today is two weeks after we arrived and I'm finally done posting. [NOTE: I wrote this and thought I uploaded it 2 weeks ago, but it didn't "take" so I'm re-posting it now . . . so you're reading it one month after the trip is done.]

Now it's time for you to check the other blog ( http://mainiactheresa.blogspot.com/ ) because Marty and I had new adventures in Maine before it was time for her to return to Dallas, and the other blog is about life in Maine. But the actual trip from Dallas to Farmington is a fond fond memory of good times and good friends.

ME: 8/5/07 11:00 pm trip odometer: 2,595 miles

Houston, we have landed! We pulled into the driveway of my home for the next 3 years. Before we could even get to the porch, MRM* and RBF** pulled up behind us . . . they had been to the 9:00pm $5 movie. There was great rejoicing and hugs all around. We only unpacked our "hotel gear" and would wait to unpack the rest of the stuff later.

Wow. It was so easy and so fun! Praise God for Marty and all our friends along the way or it wouldn't have been. We're already making plans for "The Return Trip" when Marty comes back in 3 years to pick me up. We're thinking of chartering a bus, inviting lots of friends, and taking a month. Wanna come? ☺

Start making plans to come visit Maine. The guest room is Marty-approved. And start making plans to join us on the bus trip in 3 years, too!

*MRM = My RoomMate
**RBF = Roommate's BoyFriend
These terms started in my other blog, "Life with the Mainiacs." I stopped writing in that blog while I was in Dallas. (Hello! I wasn't hanging out in Maine with Mainers, Mainiacs, Locals, and/or Persons-From-Away.) But now that I'm back, I'll be writing again, so check it out: http://mainiactheresa.blogspot.com/

ME: 8/5/07 The Mecca

We made it to Freeport! We found the L. L. Bean outlet store. They're open 'til 8 and we made it. Marty found some great bargains. Then we went to THE L. L. Bean store. It's retail heaven. They're open 24/7/365 . . . there are no locks on the door. I'd been there before, but it was great to be there again and it was a hoot to watch Marty's reactions. It really is a must-see.



And for Dana (who loves pink) and ML (who loves pink and green), check out the latest fashion colors in L. L. Bean:



We stopped at Friendly's for dinner on our way out of town . . . a classic . . . my mother went to Friendly's when she was a child living in Washington DC. Unfortunately, the service wasn't so hot, but the food was good and the ice cream even better.

ME: 8/5/07 Julie gift #9

Ooops, I didn't write down the time or the odometer. But we made it to the Maine Welcome Center and opened our last Julie gift. It was a word search puzzle book. How fun!

At the welcome center, Marty read the poster about moose crossings. She now knows what to do if a moose crosses the road. There were some pretty scary statistics about car crashes with moose.

Onward!

ME: 8/5/07, 4:05pm Chelmsford, MA odometer: 22134 10.1 gal. @ $2.85/gal

Considering it was $3.05 in Flanders when we drove by, we were very grateful to see $2.85.

ME: 8/5/07, 3:40pm odometer: 22111 Julie gift #8

Ooops. Kinda lost track of the Julie gift in all the excitement of making sure we didn't get lost. So we opened the next to the last Julie gift and it's 2 packages of Bumblebee ready-to-eat tuna salad with the little spoon and the crackers. RATS we really could've used that on days prior to our last day. Marty's first comment was, "She knows me well!" Indeed, Julie does know us well. What a great gift! Whenever we get around to eating it (or more likely, needing it), we'll be thinking of you, Julie.

ME: 8/5/07, 3:05pm odometer: 22077 Welcome to Massachusetts!

Time for a Julie gift and we're looking for a welcome center 'cuz we really like the state maps. Hmmmmm. No welcome center. :-( Good thing we're just driving through Massachusetts, since we're not welcome here. ;-) And I guess we can make do without a state map, though we really are enjoying those.

ME: 8/5/07 Trouble at Exit 84

We got back on I-95 at exit 75, but exit 76 was where the split to 395 was going to be. Sure enough, Marty had to do some pretty fancy maneuvering to get across all those lanes for the left hand side of the split, but she pulled it off. We were cruising now . . . until we passed exit 83 going downhill and could see a big "mess" of traffic just sitting still. We quickly got over to exit 84 and wandered through some beautiful small towns on three different country roads that matched what the state map said we should be able to do. Suddenly we were at Exit 86 and back on the interstate where we needed to be. We're not sure what was going on behind us to have caused traffic to stop like that, but we decided we were glad that we didn't have to find out first hand.

ME: 8/5/07 Thinking About Lunch

About 12:15 we stopped at the rest area/welcome center in Connecticut. Marty asked the lady at the desk for a recommendation for a good seafood restaurant. Since Mystic was out of our way, she said that any restaurant in Old Lyme would be good. We found Old Lyme on the map (Marty picked up a state map in the welcome center, too) and got off at the right exit but it was not apparent where to go. We traveled a little bit down one way, saw some great churches and awesome houses, made a U-turn, went back under the freeway and tried Old Lyme in the other direction. Hmmmm. Nothing apparent here, either. Looks like lunch is going to be late yet again.

So Marty pulled over, put the flashers on, and got out to ask a woman in her yard what she recommended. This woman had a daughter who lived in New Braunfels, TX so they got chummy over that and then she sent us in a different direction to a new place. She shook her head that anyone would recommend a seafood restaurant in Old Lyme. So we headed off to Flanders Fish Market and Restaurant. On the map, we could see that it wasn't going to be too far out of the way for getting back onto 395. The nice lady's directions worked perfectly and soon we were enjoying two lunch specials (cod with lobster bisque sauce and "savory" haddock with bacon, tomatoes, and onion). We actually ate before 3pm for once! And we were back on the road by 1:30.

ME: 8/5/07 Taking the Ferry

Our journey to Port Jefferson to catch the Bridgeport/Port Jefferson Ferry was windy and turny but the directions were really good. The only place we made a mistake was where a street sign was twisted and facing the wrong way. Fortunately, we figured it out immediately and with one quick U-turn, we were back on track.

We arrived safely by 9:50 and found blue signs that directed us to the ferry. The Googlemap said to turn left into the dock but the blue signs directed us in a different direction. Sure enough, when we got to the dock we could see that there was no left turn allowed, so the combination of Googlemaps and local signs was perfect.

We sat in a line of cars for a while, then pulled up, then sat again, but by 10:00 we were on the ferry. About 40 more cars got on behind us and the boat was full. Shwew. Glad we got there when we did.

We enjoyed spending about an hour on the ferry while we crossed the Long Island Sound. We marveled several times how glad we were to NOT be driving through New York City. About half way through, Theresa went to the main cabin but Marty stayed on top enjoying the fresh sea air blowing in her face and looking out on the horizon and not getting motion sickness. Pretty soon, the announcement was made that we were to all return to our cars and the ride was over. At 11:00, we landed. Last cars on were among the first off so it wasn't too long before we were heading through Bridgeport (and 3 more states) to Maine.


In this photo, the captain is in white but the 2 guys in blue are US Coast Guard. This is a private company operation, so we were guessing the Coast Guard was on board for national security reasons:


Goodbye Port Jefferson!:


Hi Marty! Port Jefferson is south of us (to our stern) and Marty is on the port side of the boat, so behind her is whatever is to the east:


We get to go through that little opening between those two pieces of land up ahead (like my geographically correct terminology?):



This ferry passing us in the other direction is the twin of ours:

ME: 8/5/07 breakfast in the Village

By 8am we were all in the van and the SUV and on our way to The Village. We went to Copenhagen Bakery and each got to pick out a breakfast treat (thank you, David). Then we went outside, across from the town park, and sat at the picnic tables and enjoyed our breakfast. Later, the kids all went to the playground (BTW, it's a wheelchair friendly playground . . . how cool is that?) and the grownups chatted until it was time to leave. We all went to the playground and Marty and I said our goodbyes to the kids and David took us back to the house (Goddaughter went, too). By 9:05 we were on the road with Google map directions in hand.

ME: 8/5/07 Apples to Apples game

Sunday night, after the "young 'uns" had gone to bed, David, Virginia, Marty, Goddaughter, Godfriend, Godbuddy, and I played Apples to Apples. What a fun game! It has to do with word association and knowing your fellow players. What a hoot. It's a family game for ages 7 and up.

The next day, the young 'uns heard about it and really were hoping we could play it with them before we left, but we didn't have time. I guess I have to hurry back so I can play with them.

ME: 8/5/07 dinner from the garden

It turns out that before we arrived, the whole family had worked on gathering good things from the garden and making a chicken pasta dish that was delicious. Neither the chicken nor the pasta came from the garden, but family members cooked the chicken sausage and boiled the pasta. Tomatoes and basil from the garden were in there. We also had cherry tomatoes served as a finger food (my favorite way to eat cherry tomatoes). Earlier in the day, Godamigo took me out to the garden to see the peas, squash, spices, cherry tomatoes, watermelon and lots of other goodies. It's quite the family enterprise.

ME: 8/5/07 Robert Moses park and Jones Beach

Soon after we arrived, we loaded up two cars and headed to the beach. Marty had never seen a lighthouse and though we knew it would be closed to tours, it was worth it to get near the beach with a lighthouse on it. We ran into a traffic snafu. There's just a two-lane bridge at one point on the way to the island. For a long time, they closed the lane intended for traffic heading to the island and used both lanes to allow people to get off the island. We had to sit and wait for our turn. But it was worth the wait. We got some great visiting and chatting while watching the boys play in the water and in the sand. Because it was so late, most people had already left, so it wasn't overly crowded. There were still lifeguards on duty, but we had arrived late enough that we didn't have to pay. What a deal!

ME: 8/5/07, 5:00pm arrive at David & Virginia's

We made it! Traffic was nice from Roslyn to the house. That was nice after all that icky traffic earlier. We were more determined than ever to not have to go back through the city. Later, after the beach, after dinner, and after Apples to Apples, David got online and found out about the ferry we had seen on the map. He made reservations and printed out directions to Port Jefferson. How nice to have friends who can act as travel agents as needed. Mike and Alicia did it for us helping us figure out a good alternative route to New Jersey that would avoid Washington DC and all surrounding areas. In fact, we emailed them after our successful arrival to tell them how great the roads were. They go to Philly all the time to visit Alicia's grandparents and hate having to go through the DC area.

Anyway, all the kiddos were there and very happy to see us. The guest room trundle bed was out and the room rearranged to make room for both beds. I'd never seen the guest room (a.k.a. Theresa's Room because I get to come visit so often) arranged like that. It was pretty cool like that!

ME: 8/5/07, 3:30pm lunch at Chicken Kebab in Roslyn

We picked Roslyn as our lunch exit off the Long Island Expressway (L.I.E.) because it was one of the first and because I remembered the name from riding the train out to David and Virginia's. We drove down the main street and saw a few places to eat. We didn't really want to do Quizno's (we can eat there most anywhere in the US) but "Barbara's Bagels" was closed. We'd seen Chicken Keba when driving by, so we decided to give it a try. It turned out to be Greek food, but it was really good! We both got a "pie" appetizer and a side Greek salad. Marty had spinach pie (wrapped in phylo bread) and I had a meat pie (lamb, beef, and onions).

ME: 8/5/07 Julie Gift #7

So we're zipping along through New Jersey and into New York. We missed the entrance to the Garden State Parkway because it was on the same sign as another road that said next right. So we took the next right and ended up on the other road. But our new map that Marty bought yesterday showed that if we kept going, we'd intercept the Garden State Parkway, so we kept going. And we did intercept the Garden State parkway. Shwew.

We only had to make one U-turn on our way to Staten Island and had no troubles getting arcross the Outerbridge Crossing Bridge ($6 toll). Then to I-278 which will take us to the Verazano Narrows Bridge to get us off of Staten Island. It's smooth sailing until about 6 miles out from the bridge and we hit stop and go traffic. Well, considering how much stop and go we've seen on the other side of the highway to this point, if this is our worst traffic, we're doing okay.

What a perfect time to pull out another Julie gift! This one is a multi-pack of Polar Ice gum and 2 fortune cookies. Marty picks a cookie and I get the other one. This is so great, here's what they say:

Mine said, "You shouldn't overspend at the moment. Frugality is important." How did it know? There are so many expenses involved in moving and I'm inbetween paychecks. Oh my, is that so true.

Marty's said, "You will enjoy doing something different this coming weekend." Could they mean traveling through 6 states in a day? Seeing a lighthouse (on the wishlist of things to do)? Can't wait to see!

ME: 8/5/07, 12:30 pm odometer 21821 7.9 gal @ $2.65/gal Balmar, NJ = 29.8 mpg

That includes driving in Philly and through some rural areas (when we couldn't find the NJ turnpike). It's still not bad mileage. We bought this on the way out of town, so 12:30 is also our departure time from Belmar.

ME: 8/5/07, Bye Bye Tom and Rosemary

We had another delicious breakfast and a wonderful visit with Rosemary and Tom on the porch of The Inn this morning. What fun! We reminisced about whom we knew and what they were doing now but also chatted about grandkids and life at The Inn. A cold front came in last night, so there really was a true "cool ocean breeze" blowing across the porch. It was so comfortable and so relaxing. It was hard to leave, but time marches onward and so must we.

ME: 8/4/07 on the boardwalk

After dinner we decided to try to find an ice cream place. We finally did. It was Nick somebody's with a long Italian name. We ordered our ice cream and ate it on their very nice patio outside. The line got very long after we got our ice cream. Good timing.

After that we walked on the boardwalk. We walked all the way down to the end and then turned around and went back towards the car. There was a funny light on the ocean and we turned around to look at it. It was an incredible moon rise. It was only a half moon, but it was half of a harvest moon. It was big and it was orange and it was beautiful.

I took some photos, but they didn't turn out. I hope the ones Marty took, did. She was wishing she had a tripod and in the car, I had a cute portable one that Karen had given me for my birthday after the Christmas when Mother, Daddy, and Karen gave me my digital camera. The tripod was a hit! Marty loved it and I think her photos turned out. Can't wait to see.

That morning we called and canceled our reservations at a hotel in the Philly area. At one point we were kind of hoping to get to see Kathy and Steve Sunday morning but we knew it was a slim chance, so we took the risk and decided to stay in New Jersey a second night. Right about now, we were really glad we made that decision. We'll catch Kathy and Steve another time.

ME: 8/4/07 Leaving Philly

Leaving Philly was pretty easy. We got across the river just fine, but once we were in New Jersey, we couldn't find the Turnpike. Now how hard can that be???!! Well, it was hard for us. Of course, it might've been easier if I'd been doing a good navigator job and helping to watch for signs, but I was writing blog entries and looking stuff up on my iPhone instead. ooops. We got to a town that was on the map and was waaay past the turnpike. We tried one shortcut back to the turnpike but we got on a road that wasn't on our map, so we stopped at a convenience store and bought a New Jersey map (we'd been working off the Southeastern United States Map). Why look! there are lots of numbered roads on here!! But we decided to go back and find the Turnpike instead, which we did.

When we got back to Belmar, Tom had recommended Connolly Station for dinner. He said he would try to meet us there, not to eat but just to chat. The food at Connolly Station was really good. And the kids menu was a hoot. It was the "Little Engineers' Menu" and we later saw some children who had ordered from it and their meal came with a paper cut out of a train and who knows what all. However, it was a little hard to enjoy it because it was so loud in there. We never did see Tom, so we paid our bill and left.

ME: 8/4/07 Philly Phinale

We got in line after getting out of our tour of Congress Hall. It wasn't too long. But it sure got longer behind us.





One group went ahead of us and then it was our turn. We saw where the judicial branch held court.

(the young girl next to Marty was in line with her parents next to us. Turns out they're from Canada. We ran into them in several other places besides here.)


And we saw the room where the Declaration of Independence was written and voted on. :-)

We each had our picture taken with George afterwards.

Then we found Franklin Court which is the location where Ben Franklin lived and had his printing business. Many of the buildings are no longer there, but they've done some good stuff to explain what was where and what it was like. Unlike the Old Stone Fort in Tennessee that didn't explain anything well, these people had less to work with and did a better job of explaining. And the part we went to was out in the open. We didn't get to the museum underground.

Then it was back to the National Park Service Building to hit the gift shop and back to the car. We saw where Franklin's grave was located but the cemetery was already closed, so we just looked in through the gate and we actually saw it from the top of the parking structure.

ME: 8/4/07 Philly Phire Drill

Marty had made reservations for a guided tour of Independence Hall but we decided to pass that up to spend more time with Tom and Rosemary. One of the cool things the ranger explained to Marty was that without a ticket you couldn't get the full guided tour, but that at 5:00, Independence Hall would be open for Open House for an hour and we could at least get to see it and get the quick tour that way. Shwew! So after lunch we headed back to the general vicinity and went ahead and went through security. We had planned on going to the 4:20 tour of Congress Hall, which would get out at 4:40 and give us plenty of time to be in line for the 5:00 Open House.

We arrived around 4:10 and the ranger at Congress Hall encouraged us to go ahead and look at the building next door that didn't have a tour but that had some important documents in it and was air conditioned. Nice idea! So we went and there was a wonderful ranger there, Tia. She was supposed to be just sitting there and watching to make sure nothing happened but she would answer questions, too. Wow. She had such fascinating and explanatory answers that we just kept asking her questions. It was better than a guided tour, it was almost like living history! Then another ranger came in, whispered in her ear, and she told us that we all needed to exit the building that there was a fire drill.

That's interesting. So we did. It was 4:20! We probably would've stayed in there and missed the 4:20 tour if it hadn't been for the fire drill. All the buildings were evacuated and we all stood in the center area for about 5 minutes, then the all-clear was given and everyone went back in. We headed towards Congress Hall and they let us in for the now delayed 4:20. Our tour guide was knowledgeable but had a very unappealing presentation style. It was pop-quiz style. He would talk a little, then pick someone in the crowd and ask them a question. There were 2 children that he was intimidating with his approach but it was obvious they didn't know the answer to his question about the first President of the US. It was very unpleasant. I was hoping they weren't foreigners visiting our country . . .that would've made a horrible impression. We learned a lot anyway and got to see lots of great stuff, including the first Library of Congress.

Congress Hall Tour

ME: 8/4/07 Lunch in Philly . . . phinally

Marty wanted to eat a real Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. Tom had recommended Rotten Ralph's. He said they had really good ones, reasonably priced, and right in the heart of the downtown area. So that's where we were headed. We found it! It was only 1 block away from where he told us and he hadn't been here in a while, so that was impressive. We ordered one sandwich and split it. Good idea! It was humongous! But it was soooo good. Yea!

We liked the place because they had Christmas decorations in the window. ;-)



Storing stuff in the basement and this kind of basement entrance are NOT something we commonly see in Dallas.

ME: 8/4/07 Philly before Lunch

Getting to Philly from New Jersey looked so easy on the map, but the exits on the New Jersey Turnpike are not marked with numbers for roads that match anything on the map, so it was pretty tricky. We finally just took an exit labeled with a city that was waaaaaay south of where we wanted to go, crossed over a bridge ($6 toll) that took us into Pennsylvania, and then drove north and north and north some more to get to where we really wanted to go. Thank goodness for my iPhone to help double check where we were and where we were going. Too bad I didn't pull it out earlier.

We arrived in Philly, phinally, and parked under the new National Park Service Welcome Center. Wowser! What an information center!!! Marty got a map of everything we could possibly want and some nice directions from the ranger and we headed off to see the Liberty Bell.

But wait! On the way was a cool place to see. Archaeologists are digging down underneath what was once the President's house (back when the nation's capital was Philly not DC). It wasn't much to look at (it's was literally a hole in the ground), but it was fascinating to think about what they were finding and learning.





When I was a kid, we came through here and saw the Liberty Bell. It was sitting out in the lobby of Independence Hall (or one of those buildings). Now it has its own building. In the displays telling history and background, they had souveniers from different eras. I need to find the miniature Liberty Bell I got when I was a kid. I think it's nicer than what they had on display. Maybe I'll donate mine to the National Park Service.

ME: 8/4/07 Julie gift #7 NOT

It was time to open Julie gift #7 just as we were leaving Belmar for Philly but then it dawned on us that the magic 267 miles was based on our trip before we took the detour through the Smoky Mountains and on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Nor does it account for all the extra miles driven trying to find the hotel in Chattanooga or the sightseeing in Chattanooga or today. So we decided we'd wait until we're on the road tomorrow to Long Island and open one then and then save the last two for the drive from Long Island to Maine. So stay tuned!

ME: 8/4/07 breakfast at the bed and breakfast

We arrived 11:00pm on 8/3/07. Tom and Rosemary left a letter taped to the door with the key inside. There were other guests still up watching TV in the living room and there were 2 other envelopes on the door, so we weren't too late. We followed the directions in the letter to find our room which was in the tower. On the outside of the house, the tower appears octagonal and looks almost lighthouse-like. We had to go up a very skinny staircase, through a low, creaky door, and up another steep and skinny staircase. It was quite the adventure. In the morning, Marty would tell Tom (both big Harry Potter fans) that the room should be named something to do with Hogwart's instead of being named after a grandchild like all the other rooms. But the beds were comfy, the A/C was working, there was a cozy electric candle in each of the windows (5 of the 8 octagon sides had a window in it), and we slept through the night.

Breakfast was amazing. There was fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, dry cereal WITH milk, plus french toast and sausage. Everything was delicious. And we got to see Tom and Rosemary. How wonderful! They were working so they took turns coming to our table and chatting with us. It was so great to see them and get caught up.














After breakfast, Tom took us to see The Belmar Arts Council building. He's on the Arts Council (imagine that!) and very involved. They've done some neat art exhibits and events. Here you can see they're working on a mural on the outside of their building. They also have blue waves pained down the middle of the road leading to the building so you can follow the path to find them. The building is down near the docks.