The Plan
There is no plan. We’re going to wake up, figure out the day which is likely to be not to do much, then pack up & hit the road. Idea is to hit the ramen place we missed on the drive up. Oh and to see the sun rise, I guess.
No Coffee & Dog Walk
Olli had ground the coffee the night before, but I couldn’t find any filters so I wasn’t able to make a pot. I will say my coffee game was totally thrown off this trip, as my usual cornerstone of travel wasn’t there. It’s ok, I’ll survive. So I took the dog for a walk to the square/triangle again. On the way back upstairs, he stopped at every landing to make sure I was following, as pictured below.
Pancake Breakfast
Olli made pancakes for breakfast, as the donut box looked like the fallout from Antietam. They were good but I have to confess I have eaten enough in the first 2 days to cover me for a few more.
Sunsetting the Condo
After a few rounds of video game spectating we decide to pack up and go, after helping clean up the condo some. We had no plans, and without a plan, we were just staring at the TV watching Simon & Olli play games. We packed up and hit the road a hair before noon.
Drive Part 1
A clue that it might be a traffic-heavy day was that the GPS routed us straight south to 95, which never happens. So 84 was already clogging up and we were going a longer way round to start the day. I’m not sure what I would have done differently, even had I known what was in store. There are only so many ways to drive to NJ from here.
Apponaug Brewing Company
Since the normal route was out, so too was our plan for that ramen. Oh well, it’ll be there next time. We did find a decent little place for lunch which was quick & easy and pretty tasty. The sun was still up at this point and the rain hadn’t started yet.
The Hard Drive
The second half of the drive ended up being more like the last 2/3 of the drive, as the traffic built up more and more as we went on. When we had looked in the morning, the ETA was 4 hours and 7 minutes. In the end, we were on the road for about 6.5 hours. I know they say that this weekend is a heavy travel weekend, but damn this was a bit much.
The rain didn’t help, and as we got closer to NY/NJ the drivers got more and more aggressive. While I think that New England always has traffic issues, in all the road in NY are the most poorly maintained in all my travels. Add rain and it’s a shit show.
But we made it.
Summary
In all, a nice quick trip up to see Adri & Olli, no pressure, easy to pull off. The traffic going home is something that’s just part of the NJ-to-Boston routine, and I hit some form of it every time I go. This specific weekend was maybe a bit more, but we had a good trip of just hanging out and seeing somewhere new & different. We’ll be back, and their style of just, “take it or leave it,” hosting is right up our alley. They are cool hanging out, or letting us do our own thing. We have no expectations which I think makes it easy to host us. The dogs got along, which was a big bonus, to be sure.
And that’s a wrap on the start of the holiday season for this year.
Traveling Normandy 