Month: July 2007

Or Not Since We Went To The New Menu.

Farmington, CT to Hagerstown, MD. We got an early start and used the usual route out of Connecticut (I-84, I-684, Saw Mill Parkway, I-87/I-287), but instead of getting on the Garden State Parkway we stayed on I-287. Didn’t stay on the Interstate for long though, Donna broke out the NJ map and we hit the back roads. One, because we would rather stay off the Interstates and two, we were headed to western NJ to visit another far flung relation of Donna’s in Blairstown, Betty. She is the daughter of the sister of Donna’s grandmother. Is that a cousin, second cousin or first cousin once removed?

After lunch at Betty’s we stayed on the back roads and entered in to our least favorite state of the union, road-wise, Pennsylvania. As long as we can stay rural through the Keystone State we are fine, but the major routes really suck, rough and chock full of 18 wheelers (plus add today’s rain…) When we finally hit I-81 we were going to grab a bite to eat and stop for the night.

At the intersection of PA 443 and I-81 we ate at a place called Gooseberry’s Family Restaurant (or something similar) and we almost didn’t stay because we had to walk through the smoking section to get to the no smoking area (an omen we should have headed.) When Donna tried asked if she could get the chili instead of the offered soup de jour with her entree, the waitress said that you couldn’t have any substitutions since they went to the new menu. So Donna just ordered the chili in a bread bowl. While we waited on our meal, the man of the couple at the table behind us asked if they had any specials, to which the waitress replied, “There are no specials since we went to the new menu.” When I got my Blue Cheese Burger that is pretty much what is was, a bun, a burger patty and some blue cheese. I didn’t bother to ask if I could get some lettuce and a tomato slice because I knew what the answer would be… “Nope, not since we went to the new menu.”

After that dining experience and our prejudicial feelings towards traveling in PA, we got back on I-81 and drove an additional 100 miles just so we could start our day tomorrow in a different state, Maryland.

I didn’t even take the camera out of it’s case today, so the POTD attached to this post is one from last weekend in DC, a shaky shot of a Metro train arriving in the station. I chose this picture because as we entered into Maryland there were two big rigs with wide load signs on them parked just outside the Welcome Center, the load, shiny new Metro cars. After a couple of miles we found out why those two were there, they must have been waiting for their police escort, because up ahead we could see a state trooper car following yet another wide load Metro car.

Or Do You Know Where You Are?

Or even All Ashore That Is Going Ashore.

When we got up this morning our intention was to head south to Jersey to visit a cousin of Donna’s. That was if it was OK with her because we had already scheduled the visit for Thursday. By the time we bid “fare thee well” to the family and it was time to leave, the cousin couldn’t be reached. Being as we had the room here at the Farmington Inn for another night, we opted to tour a little of central CT. Used the web to look up where some waterfalls could be found and headed out.

Leaving town we passed a sign for the National Iwo Jima Memorial in New Britain/Newington. I have a photo of the monument in Arlington and every time we pass this one, it can be seen from Route 9, I think to myself, “I should stop and get a photo.” This morning I did.

We had directions to a couple of waterfalls in the south central part of the state with the first one being in East Hampton. Called The Cascades with a 20′ drop, the pictures made it look worth the trip. Reading the print directions, it seemed easy enough to find, but in real life proved elusive. We didn’t find Cox road where we expected it, so we turned on a different road to find our way back to a main road. What should we pass along the way but Cox Road. We turned onto it and seemed to be headed in the right direction, we crossed a listed road and Cox turned to dirt as advertised. About the time we got tired of bouncing on the dirt road and thought of turning around we came to the advertised fork in the road. There in the middle of the road were two fellows on off-road motorcycles. We stopped to ask where we were, but they beat us to the punch by asking first. They wanted to know if they went the way we came would take them to Portland. I answered yes, but wouldn’t dare try and direct them because of our round-a-bout way of getting here. They pointed to the fork of the road where we might find the waterfall, but had never seen it so couldn’t tell us how much further it might be. It was then that the 4 of us decided to return to where we did come from on the way we knew, the way we had come.

Our next destination was Chapman Falls in Millington, CT on the grounds of the Devil’s Hopyard State Park. Because the state park was on our Connecticut state map we had a high confidence level we cold find this one. As a bonus, our route would take us right by a covered bridge, Comstock Covered Bridge, one of five in the state and one we didn’t get a picture of in April. The bridge is not so historically picturesque because they have it supported by giant steel beams running longitudinally awaiting restoration. It looks like they have been waiting a long while because those steel beams are quite rusty. Chapman Falls turned out to be easy to find and easy to photograph. The roads surrounding the park are awesome. Lonely, narrow, tree lined and twisty they are perfect Miata roads. Hard to believe there is that much area of Connecticut that is still pristine and sparely populated.

When we left Devil’s Hopyard State Park and headed back we decided to take the Chester – Hadlyme Ferry across the Connecticut River. This small ferry, holding maybe 10 cars, and costing a whopping $3 is the second oldest continuously operating ferry in the state. As we approached the other side of the river Donna and I got back in the car and opened the CT map to decide how to get back to Farmington on the best 2 lane roads available. We both had our heads buried in the map when all of a sudden we heard, “All ashore that Is going ashore!” We had docked and the other three cars had long since departed. With a sheepish smile and a wave I started the car and drove off.