Notes from Day 1 (From Bagel)

Copied from my journal, with some editing.



Tuesday, May 27, 2008

First stop – Bridgewater Commons



1:49 on the road at Somerset and Louis Sts intersection

1:50 waved goodbye to Ale & Wich

1:54 in Franklin – forgot to write down when we left New Brunswick!

Believe it or not, this is not the German writing this log!

2:06 PM First wrong turn! Going to Bridgewater Commons

3:54 PM on the road for real

3:55 PM I told you, Pennsylvania

Mary leans on the horn for the first time. [This was when we got cut off ridiculously by someone from Pennsylvania; one of the first driving-in-America lessons I gave Mary was to watch out for the blue and yellow license plates.)

4:13 – first traffic – on I 78 twds PA still in NJ

4:27 - We’re in Pennsylvania!

Next stop – 5:16 PM – HAMBURG!

6:45 PM – first heavy rain – thunder – lightning

On I-81 near mile marker 41

6:55 PM - saw horse and buggy

7:08 “I hate Pennsylvania drivers!” exclaims Mary.

7:28 Maryland (cross Mason Dixon Line)

[Somewhere, we wrote down the exact times we got into West Virginia and Virginia.]
9:00 AM (Wednesday, May 28) Arrive at Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive



We stopped in Hagerstown, MD to find the Park Circle Tavern from Roadfood. 325 Virginia Ave – well, Hagerstown is cute but the Tavern (which was recommended for Terrapin Chowder, a decadent-sounding meal of turtle meat (!?!?!) and sherry (!?) and other things) (Didn’t sound like Road Food to me, as it sounded like something to unsettle a traveler’s stomach….I guess you have to get in road-mode and get used to heavy food and motion…) Now it’s the Grille at Park Circle and looked from the outside to be tavern-y but it’s full of old people. Lots of regional seafood stuff on menu—it’s seafood Tuesday!

I’m getting seafood pizza!

The menu said something like they pride themselves on good healthy food – “low fat, low cholesterol, and low sodium content.” (Explains all the old people.) Decorated with old sports stuff, a turntable, some Decca record (can’t see the title or artist) next to us. And a random model ship.



Krebs-Crab – in Maryland eating crab potato waffles which are good with cocktail sauce. [OK, the meaning of this cryptic message is that we realized it was a stunning coincidence that we were in MARY-land and Mary's sign is Cancer, the crab (Krebs auf deutsch) and crab is a big thing in Maryland. Uncanny!


I hear Southern accents! Seafood pizza good.

I realized today is the one-year anniversary of the END of my France trip. So last year vacation ended on the same day that this year, it begins.

We’re getting up early tomorrow to drive on Skyline Drive. Then back to 81 to Knoxville and on 75 to Atlanta and on to Tampa!