My record of our very long road trip has been bugging me with its incompleteness, and I'm old enough to really understand that if I don't write it down, it will soon be a fuzzy memory at best. So even though it's been almost three months (!) since we got back home, here's the final installment.
After visiting friends and family in Louisiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina, we headed up the east coast. We covered a lot of states in one day: through Virginia, through the tiniest corners of West Virginia and Maryland, through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and finally arrived in Massachusetts.
Passing a sign for Chesapeake Bay:
"Lafayette is there waiting, in CHESAPEAKE BAY!"
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Passing a sign for George Washington's office, one of the kids wonders aloud where GW lived:
"Young man, I'm from Virginia, so watch your mouth."
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Passing a sign for New Jersey:
"Everything is legal in New Jersey."
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Passing a sign for Albany:
"Corruption's such an old song that we could sing along in harmony, but nowhere is it stronger than in Albany."
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Crossing the Hudson River:
"They row him back across the Hudson. I get a drink."
You can see that when I say we quoted popular culture references, I mostly mean we quoted Hamilton. We listened to Hamilton a ton on this part of the trip, and it brought me great joy. I couldn't show too much of that joy, however, because I have two teenagers plus a nine year old who sometimes thinks he's a teenager. If they do something you think is cool, and you mention how much you like it, they will roll their eyes and immediately stop doing the thing.
Anyway, mostly Ham references. But a couple other things, too.
Passing a sign for Allentown:
"I'm sorry Mr. Marsh, show business isn't for me. I'm going back to Allentown!"
"What was that word you just said, Allentown? I'm offering you a chance to star in the biggest musical Broadway's seen in twenty years and you say Allentown?"
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Passing a sign for Vermont:
"That sounds very Vermonty."
We waved at Washington DC and New York City from the car, had to let an attendant pump our gas in New Jersey, and paid quite a few dollars to drive on New York tollway. Then we settled in for a week in the Berkshires.
This is the round barn.
Baby goats!
Baby pigs!
Milking a large plastic cow!
Weaving!
Teenagers, following their natural instincts to connect with their virtual herd.
While touring one of the houses, I was about to remark on the beauty of some of the cloaks on display, when my mother-in-law said under her breath, "It's a real Handmaid's Tale feel over there..." indicating these rooms with red cloaks and blinder bonnets.
I mean,...she's not wrong.
Did I mention that we brought a record-breaking heat wave with us to Massachusetts? I got an absolutely massive chocolate soft serve here, and by the time I had taken a couple bites and decided to take a picture of it, the murderous heat had it half melted. Womp womp.
In New England you can play outside on a plush green lawn, rather than crispy yellow Texas grass.
A lodge for people hiking the Appalachian trail, or people who just want to spend some time up on a mountain.
Vermont. Check!
Tomato basil risotto. Not for the cheese-averse.
Oh, the heartbreak! I never got to see what old stuff people give away in New England. It's the oldest region of our country; I'll bet their old stuff is pretty good.
I also may have found the nexus of the universe in Pittsfield, MA?
I'm sad to say that I did not visit any thrift or antique stores in New England; it just wasn't in the cards. One day I did find myself near a goodwill, pulled in where my phone directed me, and found this:
I still managed to collect (in my heart) a lot of excellent mid-century architecture, like this roadside motel.
And a couple dozen houses that I wanted to live in.
Well, not really. Once you see this sign welcoming you across the Texas border, it's still another six hours before you reach Austin.
