6 States   /   3 Days   /   1000 Miles

        This was a trip we had been planning for well over a month.  At first we were going to go straight into Saratoga Springs but Ed. & Leigh were not going to be there till Saturday.  Vanessa thought we should still take Friday off like we had planned and check out a bit of the Northeast.  So that is what we did.  We didn't really know where we were going or what we were going to do just that we were getting out of the City.

          Now just to show you how difficult and expensive things are in the city I will go through the whole transportation issue.  Last time we went to Saratoga Springs we rented a car which we would have to do again.  A couple months before the road trip I started surfing the web for car rental specials.  The best price I could find was around $70 - $80 a day.  I was about ready to pay that when for the fun of it I checked out what the exact same car rented for in San Antonio - $18 / day.  I couldn't believe it.  At that point I knew there must be a town close by that we could rent a car that would be cheaper.  After numerous phone calls, web searches, emails to V saying I found something then retracting, I finally found the town - Whiteplains, NY.  The only problem is we could only rent the car between 8 - 5 so we would have to leave Friday morning.  Now in a normal town if you need to rent a car you call a friend to pick you up and drop you off at the car rental place.  For us we had to walk several blocks to catch the B61 bus which dropped us off at the 7 train which took us to Grand Central where we caught the Metro North (Harlem Line) train to White Plains at which point we caught a cab to the Westchester County Airport.  The little adventure cost about 2 hours but saved us about a $150.

First Stop- Connecticut

            I’ve never had much interest in visiting the constitution state mostly because living in New York has giving me the feeling that Connecticut is the twin sister of poor New Jersey, (New York’s red-headed step child).  So this makes Connecticut seem like some sad little match girl hidden in the shadows of glossy NY.  Now anyone living in New Jersey would beg to differ with me about the state of their state.  But, come on, people in New Jersey can’t even pump their own gas, there is something wrong with that place.  Well, I’m here to say that Connecticut isn’t half as bad as Jersey and in fact, New Haven is quite the charming little overpriced “college” town and everyone should see the ancient stones of Yale’s old campus at least once.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to check out the infamous beaches, but we had miles to go before we’d sleep.

            I don’t know what beaches she is talking about but Connecticut was pretty nice.  It was also the first signs of country side after leaving the city so I think even West Texas would have looked like a desert paradise.  

           The only place we stopped was New Haven.  The main problem I had with this town was the fact that it had two one-way streets in a row.  This made it very frustrating in trying to find a parking spot.  If it wasn’t for Vanessa’s stomach that must be fed every 3 hours, I might have not stopped.  The bits of Yale that we saw looked cool and the town park laid over a cemetery or something so that was kind of creepy.  Connecticut was alright.

Rhode Island

        Well, it is small.

       It was small.  The thing I really wanted a picture of was a harbor full of sail boats and such.  I wanted to see a cove with little cottages over looking the ocean.  I wanted to see a lighthouse.  What I saw were factories and an industrial waste land.  I am sure this little state has its charming spots but in the 10 minutes we drove through I didn’t see them.

Massachusetts

        Soon after we crossed the state line, the two-lane highway transformed into a small town road, which we followed to Plymouth.  It was great.  We visited the old stones in the cemetery, sampled cranberry wine at the local winery (yuck- Valerie would have loved it) and ate a seafood feast in a nearby cove.  Then we decided to make our way to Salem in hopes of finding some scary, haunted gathering.  The only thing scary in Salem is how easy it is to get lost- it took us all night just to find a hotel. And in the morning we went to all the tourist attractions which did spook me because they were frighteningly cheesy and lame.  I’m never going back.  Which is good, because I could probably never find my way back, these roads are confusing!

          Massachusetts was very nice.  Pretty much as soon as we crossed the state line I started driving down the wrong highway and we pulled over at a tourist information place for directions.  The guys working there were quite friendly and gave us specific directions to Plymouth.  When we turned on to the country road leading to Plymouth it was absolutely great.  Driving down the winding road, covered in trees, past all these nice little houses was quite refreshing.  It seemed like a quiet lazy town until we hit the coast line and the tourist were everywhere.  It wasn't to bad though.  All the locals were very nice.  The guy at the tourist info station talked to us for like 20 minutes about where we could eat and if we needed a room he could find us one and so on.  The town was a "Tourist Trap" but one you don't mind being in.  Very well organized.  Probably not only the first settlement but also the first tourist town.  After our Seafood feast, which included the "Best Clam Chowder" three years in a row and two large plates loaded with every critter found in the sea, we headed to the "Witches Triangle".  

        Around 9:30 PM or so we turned off the main highway to go to Salem.  After driving down roads that made no sense at all - not just winding but stopping in one spot and starting in another - we found Salem.  V thought there would be some late night witching tour but we didn't see such a thing.  Nor did we find a hotel.  For the next hour or so  we drove around searching for a hotel or the highway.  We kept driving around in circles in a crazy delirium until we finally came across a group of hotels.  The next morning we ventured back into Salem and like V said it was quite Lame.   

New Hampshire

        I have never given much thought to the place that holds the first presidential primary, but it is a gorgeous place.  We didn’t stay long and I definitely want to go back.

        This was the first bit of truly beautiful land that we saw. The rest area not only had the cleanest rest area bathrooms I had ever seen but just clean bathrooms period. It was a great state to drive through although we had to a rush through it to get to Ben & Jerry’s.  

Vermont

The Land of Milk and Maple Syrup 

        I have decided we are moving to Vermont.  Jason and I will milk cows or tap the sap of maple trees or become ski-lift attendants… whatever it takes to have a scoop of that fresh mountain air- greener than green, bigger than big blue sky- little hidden valley cold, clear-stream paradise.  Did I mention this is where Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is made?  We’ll build a wooden shack somewhere off the mountain road and spend our days and nights just being in awe of the immense beauty, the purity.  So, we may have to live on welfare, it would be worth the cool serenity of the lush, rolling landscape.  I have seen the American dream and I don’t want to wake up. 

        I think Vanessa said it all.

Saratoga Springs

         We arrived in Saratoga much later than planned, but luckily Ed., Leigh and Mrs. Simone had dinner waiting for us- we were famished after so much mountain-seeing.  So after we gobbled down some lightly breaded chicken and a couple of glasses of wine, we headed for the heart of down town.  Apparently there was some kind of music festival going as well as the fact that it was also racing season, so this little berg was PACKED!  It was a completely different feeling from the sleepy little Saratoga we saw in February.  The next day we went to the races compliments of Ed.’s mom.  It was to quote the corny phrase “just like in the movies”.  The track is an anachronism- so turn of the century-other worldly.  We mostly hung by the tree-shaded area where they saddle the horses before the race and then we’d quickly place our bets and make our way to the track just in time to see the ponies run. We had a blast, even though every horse I bet on was sure to lose.  Our time in Saratoga went to quickly and it wasn’t long before we were forced to head back home. 

When I went to the Belmont a few months ago I got a taste of what a real horse track is like.  When I went to Saratoga I got a meal.  It isn’t about the gambling or much to do with the horses.  It is a social event for friends and family to spend the day together and there happens to be horses racing.  When we arrived about an hour before Post, the place was packed.  I asked Ed. if there was any special races going on and he said it was just an ordinary day at the Track.  This place pulls in on one weekend what Retama might get in a whole season.  Besides the bleachers and the club house there is also a huge field where people set up chairs, coolers and blankets.  Women sitting in circles talking while children played around them, men drinking beer and talking about the then next race and all around were TV’s under umbrellas showing the latest odds.  We went up into the clubhouse and there were men still following the old dress code of a Blazer and slacks and women showing off their nice summery dresses.  The place had history just seeping out of it and made me wonder what it was like some hundred years before.  It was cool to be at a track that had high purses all the time and jockeys like Pat Day and Jerry Bailey that rode there on a regular basis.  If you ever wonder where champion horses race – this is place.

Friday, July 27, 2001