Ok so today we woke up early. Not because we wanted to but because of a truly miserable night in the hotel room of Sprinhill Suites. Like I said yesterday I think a review of the hotels and staff along the way may be coming. Suffice it to say that we have not met a single person that was not friendly, kind, and caring. Thank God for the people. The rooms are another matter.
Anyway, the rain has stopped. It’s cloudy and still a little windy and the temperature is a balmy 42 degrees while at home it is in the seventies. Thus, for me, one of the reasons for making this move.
We are up and got on the road and headed out on the next leg of our journey. We are feeling pretty sporty so we decided since we are more inland to try and make Allentown, PA for tonight.
Again, finishing our ride through North Carolina we saw some pretty country, but I am sad to say from this point forward we have no good billboards to report on. Still the occasional repent or religious signs but they are thinning out pretty much the farther away we get from South Carolina.
Around 10 this morning the sun is shining, and our spirits are really lifting. I am enjoying the new scenery and yes, I am still in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. I don’t like wearing shoes but while I’m driving, I put on my Kiziks (for safety). Oh, and by the way my southern folks might want to look these slip-on type of shoes out on the net. A huge thumbs up!
Again, whenever we stop, I get the hairy eyeball that I am that guy wearing shorts and unless I’m pumping gas I don’t even have on a jacket. I am not saying it’s not cold. I am saying my comfort is important. It generally takes less than 30 seconds to get from my car to whatever bathroom we are stopping at or whatever store we are going into. Forest, our Subaru, is warm and cozy with a new thing my wife brought into my life preparing me for this trip, heated seats, and steering wheel. Oh, heck yeah! You just don’t see those in Florida too much lol. Instead, you are trying to recover from swamp rot in the nether regions. Okay I’ll quit before this gets any weirder, but I think you get the point here.
As we move into higher country I am constantly amazed at the beauty of the countryside and the sights. I am also amazed at some of the larger cities and seeing old and new blending together. Sometimes blending very well and sometimes not so much. The barns and farmland with sheep. Sheep are not something you see in Florida. That was a new one for me.
We spent a lot of time getting through Pennsylvania. There is some wonderful county there and I am awestruck that the shadows of the clouds on the mountains make you feel a part of something so majestic. We wind our way through the Poconos because we find we are feeling good and ready to continue so we decided to reach Fishkill, New York. This found us on some pretty curvy and steep backroads with the sun setting. I would love to see this again during the daylight but doing this at night is not that thrilling particularly when there is runoff from the storms in the roadway.
We crossed over the Hudson at the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and shortly found ourselves at the Courtyard by Mariott in Fishkill, NY. I keep forgetting that up here it gets darker much earlier. I mean the sun starts setting around 4:30 in what I still call the afternoon. That is weird for me but, I am a creature of the night and prefer sunsets to sunrises anyways. This means we were in complete darkness by 6 pm.
I am happy to report that today’s journey was thankfully uneventful and we are happy that tomorrow Portsmouth is only 4 hours away. We are going to have some supper and get some work done. Oh, and yes, now I’m wearing my flip-flops 😊
