The Adventure Begins! June 18, 2019

One of my favorite quotes is from an old James Garner movie, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF.    

Jason, the main character, agrees to be a temporary sheriff with the understanding that ‘I’ve never made any secret of the fact that basically I’m on my way to Australia.’  Well, for years, I’ve never made any secret of the fact that basically I wanted to go to BOSTON!  And thanks to my favorite (albeit only) sister, on the evening of my 69^th birthday – one week before my planned retirement from Smail Auto – we headed east in a comfy Honda CRV (Thanks for your help with that, Mark Smail!) and began the big adventure.

As is our custom, we over-packed and had everything but the kitchen sink.  But if you count two coolers full of food and drinks and snacks, maybe we actually had that, as well.  We headed up Route 22, traveling on familiar roads for the first several hours. The views from scenic Route 22 both before and after Altoona were breathtaking.

The vistas were beautiful with just enough little towns and villages to keep the drive interesting.  As is always the case, we don’t run out of things to say, and the conversation and excitement were palpable!

We also had packed a snack/dinner so we didn’t have to spend either time or money eating out.  Kath had her phone’s GPS (fondly nicknamed Cordelia) set for the proper route, and Cordelia did not disappoint.  Kathy’s job was to interpret and translate Cordelia’s instructions; mine was to watch the road and the gas gage.  We work well together.  About 9pm we began searching for a motel within close distance that was reasonably priced.  We are very strict with both our schedules and our budgets! I didn’t mind driving as long as we had plenty of gas, and we were running below half a tank.  Finally about 9:30pm we took an exit to get gas, and secured a very nice, comfortable, safe, clean room at a Super 8 in Budd Lake New Jersey. 

We lugged our luggage into the room and after a dive into the snack bag, we were more than happy to just fall into bed. So travel and the evening and morning were the first day! And the sisters saw that it was good…