Day 6

 We woke up this morning and had a tasty breakfast at the hotel, including waffles. Our plan for the day was to drive up to Maine. 

We drove through the town of Hampton Beach, NH, which I'm pretty sure was where I celebrated my 20th birthday, fifty years ago, in a camper. As far as the town goes, I wasn't all that impressed. I'm finding that typical beach towns are not my favorites. 

We then stopped in Portsmouth, NH, which turned out to be a quaint New England town, which is something I really like. We walked around the downtown area and saw a beautiful church, along with picking up some finishing salt at a fancy kitchen shop. (FYI- it cost $3.00 to park)

From there, we continued to Portland, Maine, where it cost $40.00 to park! We walked around the downtown area enjoying the sights. We indulged in some yummy ice cream, bypassed the $40.00 lobster roll (We’d had one in Cape Cod a few years back and felt indifferent about passing them by), and were able to collect another thimble for my collection. 

When we left, we were hungry and decided to stop somewhere for some more reasonably priced food. We made the mistake of exiting at Old Orchard Beach, ME, where we were stuck in traffic way too long as we attempted to escape from another beach town. Old Orchard Beach just solidified my opinion of beach towns. 

We had a sandwich for dinner back at the hotel. Thank goodness for that loaf of Artisan bread that I packed. 

By this time, my side was really giving me the blues. Before leaving Texas, I had been coughing for about a week. The day we left, I reached over to pick up the cat carrier out of the front seat. I think between the coughing and the weird angle of lifting the cat, I must have pulled a muscle in my side under my arm. 

What is it about me and pre-vacation injuries? Two years ago, when we visited California, I had a broken toe and had to basically wear flip-flops in November wherever we went. 

Day 5

  

The night before, when Chuck and I were getting ready for bed, Rooster jumped onto my suitcase and started kneading it with his claws. It started to rip the material, so I told him to stop and tried to shoo him away. He hissed at me!

The next morning I awoke to the sound of Chuck laughing. He and Janet were having coffee out on the screened-in porch. I joined them and enjoyed an amazing breakfast fixed by Janet. We had sausage and biscuits, scrambled eggs, mixed berries, and sourdough toast with butter. Janet introduced us to something called finishing salt, which we stingily sprinkled over our toast. It was awesome!

After breakfast, I tried to pet Rooster, and he hissed at me again. He ended up hissing at me one more time. Apparently, he was holding a grudge.

We spent the day in New Haven with Janet. She gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of Yale Repertory Theater and several other Yale-associated theaters. It was such an up-close-and-personal look at the place Janet has spent the last thirty years. 

The weather was hovering around a hundred degrees that day, and we especially appreciated the frigid air in the costume room. 

We stopped at a little coffee shop/book shop and enjoyed a cool drink and a sticky bun. Chuck secretly purchased me a birthday present while we were browsing the shelves. 

From there we headed to get some famous New Haven pizza. I was extremely impressed with my sister’s parallel parking skills. I told her the last time I had parallel parked was when I took my driving test at age 16.

We made our way to the pizza joint, but found a line a mile long coming out of the door. With the 100-degree heat, it just didn't make sense to stay. We went next door and picked out cannolis for dessert and decided to head home for leftovers from the night before. 

We visited a little longer and then traveled to Andover, MA, where we stayed at the same La Quinta that we did the last time we were in Massachusetts, visiting Aunt Theresa. 

We had dinner at the Chili’s next door that was literally in the La Quinta parking lot. We learned not to order the queso with the meat because it was basically chili. We discussed where we would be watching fireworks for the 4th and found out the town of Andover was doing their fireworks show that evening at the high school. 

We left just before dark, and when we arrived, there were several cars in front of us trying to turn into the school parking lot. A police officer was waving them in. He walked away right when it would have been our turn, but we entered the parking lot anyway, followed by two more cars. 

We found a parking spot right up at the front and took it. The car behind us took the other available space, but the third car had to turn around when the police officer started banging on their trunk. Right after that, they put up a barricade to prevent other cars from entering. 

What were the chances that we pulled in and got the last two spots? I ended up watching the show from the comfort of the front seat, with air conditioning. Chuck ended up getting out of the car to get a better view. The fireworks show was fabulous and probably one of the best I've ever seen. 

Because we were the last in, we were the first out. There had to be at least a thousand people leaving. We made it back to the hotel in record time. 

We really enjoyed the patriotism we experienced in New England. 

Day 4

 We actually got to sleep in a little this morning. At breakfast, we spoke with a family from Canada who were heading to NY city for the day. The weather looked oppressive, and I was glad we had not decided to visit the city this time of year. 

I tried a new type of tea- Bigelow Rose and Mint. It was quite good, and Chuck snagged three more before we left. We ended up sharing a cup of tea the next day with Janet. 

We drove to Hyde Park, NY, to the FDR Presidential Library. The National Park Service runs it and is quite beautiful. Along with the library is Roosevelt’s family home. We had a little snafu with the different time zones and were an hour late to our tour. After that, I abandoned my Fitbit to prevent the same thing from happening again. 

We were able to reschedule our tour and had a delicious lunch at the cafe on site. We topped lunch off with some tasty Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars. 

Because Chuck is a veteran, we were able to get free admission and a free lifetime National Park pass. We stopped by the gift shop, but sadly they did not have a souvenir thimble. This is becoming a regular occurrence. Chuck got an America 250 t-shirt, and I got a challenge coin and some Eleanor Roosevelt quotes magnets. 

Most importantly, though, we were able to add another stamp to our Presidential Library passport. This made the ninth library we have visited. It did not disappoint, and like always, we learned some fascinating history about our country. The campus, alone, was breathtaking as it was built on the Roosevelt homestead. 

From Hyde Park, we traveled some winding roads with hairpin turns to get to New Haven, Connecticut, to visit Janet. 

I fell in love with Janet’s one hundred-year-old house, and it was decorated to the T.  Everything screamed Janet and Herin. We also got to meet their two cats, Rooster and Truman.  Sadly, Herin was working in the city, so we didn't get to see her. 

We went to dinner at one of Janet’s favorite hangouts in New Haven. The food was yummy, and Chuck and I both brought home leftovers. 

We returned home and stayed up well past midnight talking. 

Day 3

 After breakfast we headed to Lake Erie. I had never seen a Great Lake and specifically made sure that we passed one along our way to New England. Chuck suggested looking for a park as opposed to just stopping by the city of Cleveland. 

On our way in the distance we saw what appeared to be a nuclear power plant. Sure enough it was actually one owned by Vistra and Chuck ended up calling his old boss to let him know where we were. 

We stopped in a small lakeside town, at a place called Waterworks Park. We had more fun walking around and discovered a Little Free Library where Chuck rescued a badly damaged book by Nelson DeMille called The Quest. 

I was able to dip my toe in Lake Erie and we enjoyed taking photos of the lighthouse and speaking with one of the locals about the different Great Lakes. 

We continued on to Pennsylvania and stopped for gas at a Pilot. We ended up eating some pretty good pizza for lunch there. Who knew? I also bought us some chocolate since we hadn't packed any due to it being able to melt. It turns out I've become a real chocolate snob and was relieved to finally find some Ghirardelli chocolate squares. 

We continued on when I saw a sign for Punxsatawney. As you can well imagine, we had no other choice but to exit. How often do you get an opportunity to stop in the town of the famous groundhog, Punxsatawney Phil. We visited the Welcome Center where I purchased a thimble and a little stuffed groundhog. There were large painted groundhogs throughout the town that resembled the famous Buc-ee's statue. I'm so glad we stopped. 

We continued down the road and crossed over the Hudson River, another first, to spend the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Poughkeepsie, NY. You can add two more states to our total. 

We ate dinner in the room. I'm so glad I brought the Artisian bread, because the sandwiches have been quite tasty. 

Day 2

 We got up early and ate breakfast at the hotel. It ended up being one of our better breakfasts. I saw a young man dressed in his army fatigues taking care of his young daughter. A flood of memories came back about Dad, and I found myself in tears. 

We traveled through Missouri and stopped to see the St. Louis Arch. I had never seen it in person. It did not disappoint. We were also impressed with all the beautiful churches we saw in the downtown area and decided we need to return one day. 

We traveled through Illinois and had a “pit stop” at the Indiana Welcome Center, which featured everything Indianapolis 500.  After lunch, I even had an opportunity to slide on a zip line on the kids’ playground. 

Believe it or not, we actually found gas for $2.88 in Indiana. It was the cheapest we found anywhere on our trip. 

I drove the last three hours (the only time I drove the entire trip), and as we got closer to our hotel just outside of Toledo, Ohio, we were wondering if we’d picked the wrong place. It turned out to be just fine, with an Olive Garden being built down the street. You never know. 

It was a little later in the day when we got there, so we decided to eat in the room. So far, we have traveled through six states in two days. 

Day 1

 We started the day by dropping off Ginger and Bluebonnet at the vet. We had dropped Cooper off at Brittany’s the night before. (Little did I know at the time that the act of getting the cat out of the front seat in her carrier would cause me to be in pain for the next eleven days)

We headed for Oklahoma via Hwy 16 and went through Graham and Wichita Falls. It was a beautiful, peaceful drive. I didn't have it in me to travel up I35 for the millionth time. 

We stopped for lunch in Lawton, OK, at the Chick-fil-A. I had lived in Lawton when I was four while my dad was stationed at Ft. Sill. I can't say the town looked familiar. 

We traveled toward Tulsa and made our way into Missouri. We stopped at a Buc-ee's in Springfield. Who knew that Buc-ee's had branched out into other states? We purchased some Beaver nuggets, some mints, and a Mud Pie star pillow for my birthday. 

We made it to St. Robert, Mo, and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, where I fixed some yummy sandwiches (with avocado) for dinner.