The Taurus Diaries

Another Short day, New Britain, CT back to Rutherford, NJ. We took the scenic route, stayed on I-84 until we crossed the Hudson River and traveled down 9W and then drove the Palisades Parkway until we hit I-80. We found a neat “Miata” road, NY 318, north of West Point. It hugs the side of Storm King Mountain with nothing but a low rock wall preventing the plunge into the Hudson River hundreds of feet below. We stopped at West Point and did a quick tour of the museum and gift shop at the visitor center. They wanted an hour and a half of our time and $7 a piece for the real tour, so we declined.

Crappy Tires

I can’t wait to get back in the Miata. The tires on this Taurus slip and slide when cornering in the wet, which it was for the first 3 days of our time together. Now that it has dried out they squeal like stuck pigs on the dry pavement. They do alright in a straight line though, wet or dry. This car would handle a lot better with some sticker rubber (or maybe I should stop treating it like a sports car, hee-hee.)

The Taurus Diaries

Spent most of the morning driving around visiting stores looking for stuff for Donna & I, my mom and Diane. At lunchtime Donna & I cried “Uncle” and went back to the hotel for a nap. Dinner tonight was stuffed shrimp and was consumed on the porch again. Afterwards Donna & I followed Diane & Allen to get ice cream in Berlin. Allen’s Integra needs a new muffler; he sounds just like those rice-boys with their chrome coffee can mufflers. Glad we only had to follow for a short distance or weren’t riding in the car.

The Taurus Diaries

Rutherford, NJ to New Britain, CT. Easy drive of about 150 miles and one we used to do often when we lived in New Jersey. New Britain is home for my family and we used to try and get back there every couple of months. Surprise, it rained the whole trip. Hertz is going to have to replace the windshield wipers on the car if this keeps up. My brother Paul played chef and grilled up some delicious ribs for dinner. Mom whipped up a big ol’ bowl of pasta salad and Donna “tossed” together a Caesars salad to go with the corn on the cob. Sister Diane, her husband Allen and I did our part by staying out of the way and then eating it all up with smiles on our faces. Fitting Labor Day Feast for the traditional last-day-of-summer.

Helicopter Traffic Reports

In NYC’s competitive news market you just have to have a helicopter to cover breaking news (or just in case a low speed chase breaks out.) And while you have one you can use it for traffic reports in the morning and evening. WB11 the New York affiliate of the Warner Brothers fledgling TV network was giving a helicopter traffic report from a hanger somewhere. The reporter was reading while just sitting on the ground. Maybe they can’t afford to own a chopper, but the budget does allow for renting the cockpit out. Maybe I’m being harsh. It was raining that morning so they probably couldn’t fly because of the weather. They still had a traffic report, so it begs the question, why have the helicopter in the first place…oh yeah, low speed chases.

Holiday Inn II

We stayed at a Holiday Inn in Rock Hill, SC. We got 2 adjoining rooms, one for Donna & I and one for Donna’s mom. While Mom was sitting reading she noticed a parade of ants on the nightstand. We checked on the bed and fortunately there weren’t any. Donna & her mom killed a bunch of them, so when she called the front desk to complain and they offered to move us, we just said no. In the morning the ants were back in full force. It was either a search party looking for their missing companions or a funeral procession. After breakfast Donna’s mom stopped to remind them of their ant problem in room 104. (When we checked out they were nice enough not to charge us for the room even though we didn’t bitch and moan about their crappy motel.)