Science Monkey

Emma and I woke up early Wednesday morning, because we had a long drive ahead of us. We said our good-byes to Dave and Lorrie and were on the road by about 6:30. The road out of Raleigh was not great, but at least it was four lanes and traffic was moving along well. As would become our usual routine, Emma drove for the first couple hours while I tried to sleep, then I took over driving when Emma decided that she was going to fall asleep at the wheel. Seemed like a good plan to us.

Most of the navigation for this leg was pretty easy. Go to I-95, head north to New York City. I can do that. We met up with 95 at the Virginia border and sped on towards Washington, DC. I don’t remember when I took over driving, but I do remember it was after we were on 95 but before we approached DC. We hit the DC area around 10:30 or 11, so we were careful not to actually go into town. We just skirted around on the Beltway and pushed north towards Baltimore.

By the time we passed Baltimore, we were starting to run out of gas. Since the car was so new, we didn’t have a good feel for how much gas was left when the “empty” light came on (we now know that we have about 45 miles of highway driving available). Guess what we couldn’t find. Gas stations. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I didn’t see any for about 15 minutes. Plus, the only exits that we passed were junctions with other highways heading hither and yon.

By the time we found gas we had pulled off on a random exit and driven through a small college campus followed by a small college town. Somehow we didn’t get back on the interstate at the same place we left, either, so we completely bypassed Philadelpha. Oh well. Next trip.

There was nothing remakable about the drive through Delaware (other than it was hella-short) or New Jersey, which brings us to…New York City.

We didn’t want to actually go into the City, for fear that we poor, dumb Floridians would get befuddled by all the tall buildings and never find our way out. We drove over the George Washington bridge and apparently lucked out…the traffic wasn’t bad at all and we zipped right on over. We were on the upper deck which made for a lovely view of the river and the city as we crossed.

Following the GW, we tried our best to get lost in the one area we didn’t have a good map for (note to self: nice planning, doofus). A few twists and turns (and quick zips off of the exit back onto the road) later, we were on our way to Connecticut. At 5 PM. With all the rich snobs who live in Connecticut but work in Manhattan. Fun. It wasn’t horrid…we took about an hour to do twenty or thirty miles, but the parkway was beautiful. We rolled down the windows and Emma said that Connecticut smelled just like she remembered from her childhood summer camps.

We had dinner that night with Billy, Eli, and Ellen. Billy and Eli are Emma’s mom’s cousins who have lived in Meriden their entire lives, I think. Ellen is Emma’s mom’s first husband’s sister who also grew up in the area and now lives in New Haven, about 20 minutes away. We visited for a while, then went out to what they called a Greek restaurant. It was…odd. While the restaurant did advertise itself as Greek and did serve a few Greek dishes, Emma and I both would have called it Italian. The Greek dishes that I remember seeing were Greek salad, moussaka, and pastichio. Moussaka and pastichio are essentially Greek lasagnas, especially the pastichio. Oh, and there were stuffed grape leaves at the salad bar. Beyond that, it was spaghetti, baked spaghetti, or many different types of pastas and lasagnas. Good food, but not quite what we expected.

After dinner we visited a little more, then found a decent, reasonably inexpensive hotel to stay in for the next few nights.

Tomorrow: Gillette Castle!