I’m a natural early riser, no matter what time zone I find myself in (mind you, I haven’t been west of Hawaii or east of Germany, yet. So have not put that concept to a rigorous test!) and get up before dawn to pack and get going. The above photo is a tad overexposed, but if you look you can tell it is pre-sunrise. I love being in big cities in the time before sunrise, when the skies begin to lighten. The walk to the garage from the hotel is eerily quiet and almost no people or vehicles are around. I hit the road south and east around the southern end of Lake Michigan. These are roads I have not seen since my childhood. My memory of this place is of an extreme industrial zone. That is no longer the case. The smoke stacks and sprawling industrial plants have largely been removed. There are trees again. You can see the lake and the Chicago skyline. A few factories still exist, but it is a dramatically different landscape now.
The car is down to about fifty miles of range, so I stop to fill up the tank. As I peruse the Trump-Slump Prices I note an “error in my favor” and fill the tank with 93 Octane, which due to someone’s fat fingers is .20¢ less per gallon than the regular premium 91 Octane. We don’t ever see high octane gasoline out west because of our altitude, and seeing it cheaper than 91 is something I have no issue taking advantage of!
I roll through the plains and forests of the Midwest, as the topography, and flora becomes more and more “eastern” as I progress. This kind of driving is where cruise control is your friend and this car’s “distronic” adaptative cruise control is a delight. I’m enjoying listening to podcasts or music and letting the car maintain distance from the traffic ahead of me. I am too much of a “driver” to desire a hands-off or worse yet, an eyes-off kind of system but I like this system for Interstate cruising. I just run at or near the speed limit, firmly in the right lane. Watching everything, but letting my feet rest. I have the distance setting as far ahead as it goes to the ever so slight deceleration felt in my “butt dyno” signals my brain that it’s time to change lanes and deploy my right foot to move around a truck or slow car. Execute the pass, get back to the right, and continue.
As I approach the eastern end of Ohio I note the freeway signs don’t name any city in Pennsylvania, but instead call out New York City instead. I guess this road bypasses the larger ones such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but it seems odd to me.
I don’t make many stops to be honest, on this whole trip. Mostly just rest areas for bathroom breaks. I brought along several days worth of “clean” snacks (ones that won’t make a mess on me or in the car. My sister just had it detailed!) and just munched away rather than stopping. Other than the stop in Chicago to see Chris, and my flight home, I don’t have any fixed itinerary. I drive until I feel tired, then book a hotel far enough ahead to round out my day, then stop for the night. So my only stops are hotels, gas stations, and rest areas. Lots of rest areas. At one of them in western Pennsylvania the signs warn not to drink the water. I turn on a tap and find out why. Ugh. Not very appealing looking water! Thankfully I also brought along many bottles of things to drink and have replenished the supply as I drive.
I book a hotel in Clearfield, PA for the night from a late afternoon rest area stop. I check in, and see a branch of my gym nearby so I go there for a workout. As I’m at the gym I’m listening to the second round playoff game between Philly and Carolina. It sounds exciting so I decide to find a sports bar to watch it.
I end up at this place called ‘Legends’ and sit at the bar, talking hockey with a guy two seats down. Neither of us have a team in this game but it goes into overtime, which is always great hockey. Turns out the guy is the owner of the bar and he convinces me to have dinner, so I order a Rueben sandwich. Quite good! Before he leaves he gives me a Pittsburgh Penguins drink koozie!
I get a late start in the morning because I don’t have much distance remaining. Just the eastern half of Pennsylvania, a bit of New Jersey, and then into NYC. In fact I am late enough to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the hotel! As I get closer to NYC traffic and construction get thicker. My last rest area stop is a nice hill overlooking north New Jersey:
After I descend I drop into the snarling traffic of NYC, even on a Sunday morning. Ugh. I miss an exit at one point but recover. Eventually winding my way towards the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. Along the way I spot a place that I swear was featured in the opening credits of ‘The Sopranos’. See if you recognize it too:
Now it is just a matter of traversing a few surface streets to deliver “Babs” to its new owner. Not without some terror because drivers in NYC are nothing like drivers in the Pacific Northwest! I swear I have multiple close calls with cars, people on scooters, and double-parkers blocking before I finally arrive.
(More to come)