Part 1 - Vacation Diary

part 1: Judy and I just returned from a 3 week, 5,984 mile, sojourn across the country. I started out driving to Chicago on Sept 23rd to pick up Judy who was attending a meeting there Sept 26th. We then left mid-day Sept 26th for Jersey City, New Jersey to pick up our Danish friends, Lilli & Effy, who had flown into New York a week earlier. We did not know how far we could drive, so we did not make motel reservations and hoped to find a room around midnight. However, the area we wanted to retire for the night was the location of the Penn State football game and every room was booked. We traveled to the next county in search of lodging, only to find a county fair going on and no rooms available. By then there was not much available until we hit the New Jersey state line. So since I loaded up on coffee, we headed for a final destination for that part of the trip, Jersey City. As we traveled through Pennsylvania, it rained and rained, with no moon light and rush hour traffic from the Penn State game to the New Jersey line, this is @ 2 AM. Unfortunately the bridge on the freeway to the Holland Tunnel was closed for repair. We were detoured to an industrial part of town and the signs directing the detour had vanished. At one point we were on the street in front of a prison. Finally I found an open truck stop and asked directions. It worked and by 5 am we made it to the hotel we were going to meet our friends @ noon, but did not plan on sleeping there. But now that we were there 6 hours early, we hoped to get a few hours of sleep before they arrived at noon. But the room was way too much money, near $300, for 5 hours of sleep, so they offered their couch in the lobby. I offered half the price, but the clerk could not make a deal. We took advantage of their hospitality and crashed there until brunch was served. We awakened to the smell of fresh coffee, so we eat brunch, and by the time we finished, our friends had arrived. We loaded up their bags and headed for Philly. PS: total cost for the sleep on the couch, $20 parking fee. More to come in later posts...