Road Trip! - Page 4

05-14-2002, 03:06 PM

That just reminded me of a question on SNL's spoof of Celebrity Jeopardy...

"Are horsies pretty?"

Nic Name · 05-14-2002, 08:53 PM

Griff · 05-17-2002, 11:07 AM

Hockey cannot exist that far south.

Let the planning begin! We've got the air miles now we need to pick the time and place.

The Great Griff Bicycle Tour. Half the fun of a loaded bike tour is the planning process. Mrs. G and I are thinking Alps maybe Italian. That means getting our legs and lungs back into shape.... I am freaking pumped! Yes.YEs. YES!!!!

elSicomoro · 05-28-2002, 09:39 PM

Rho and I took a short trip up to Easton, Allentown, and Bethlehem, PA Saturday. I didn't want to go to the shore b/c everybody else was there...and Pittsburgh was too far of a drive for a short day trip.

Route 611 between Doylestown and Easton is a fun drive as it winds along the Delaware River. Although, it is rather dangerous in some parts...lots of curves.

Easton is home to the Crayola factory, although we did not visit. It was graduation day at Lafayette College though, so the town was bustling.

Allentown is...dirty. Although parts of it were pleasant, it looks dirty.

Bethlehem looked better, and had a rather quaint downtown area. We also drove past the old Bethlehem Steel Works. What a huge place!

I do NOT like driving the NE Extension at night though.

Griff · 05-29-2002, 06:38 AM

Easton PA- Home of Mario Andretti, as well, if I'm not mistaken...

Griff · 07-08-2002, 08:04 PM

After surveying in the extreme pre 4th heat, a road trip to the Adirondacs was in order. We swung by Saratoga Springs to rack and catch up with an old friend there. Its a nice town but always hyper touristy. They are doing the mandatory animal statue art around town thing. They went with horses which at least has a connection to what Saratoga is about.

From there it was 87 N (the Northway) up to Keene and the high peaks region. We stayed in a large cabin in Wilmington on the Ausable with folks from my wifes family. Her step dad immediately turned me on to mate', even giving me a bambilla to take home. Since I dumped the bean a while back, I've been looking for a new itch to scratch and I think this is the stuff, full of antioxidents, easy on the stomach, and cheap as dirt, all in all right in my wheelhouse. My wife and I got two road rides in doing 25 and 50 miles on consecutive days, then skipping a day and taking a short morning jaunt. The roads are in great shape, did I mention that Pataki is up for re-election? (please ignore the fact that he promised only two terms.) We only had one imbecile scream at us, hoping for a crash, which really isn't bad for three days riding. I only managed one day of fly fishing and couldn't land anything but it was much fun. The Canadians stole our sun about 7pm Saturday and fouled the air from then on.

Wilmington is a quiet little tourist town, the busiest places being the ice cream stand, the tackle shop, and a certain hideous diner which I will not name but which has a fifties motiff. In the immortal words of GB 1 it was "baaaad." Something fuzzy on the cucumbers, drinks dumped by a waitress never wiped off floor leading eventually to a little kid falling down, our drink orders forgotten, regular menu off limits for a weak food bar set up. They were horribly understaffed so I decided to view it as a floor show and leave it at that,.. but I'll never go back. It was a pretty uneventful drive made much better by the 65mph limits on 87. We skipped Albany though since the traffic is pretty hairy there and took the back way from Saratoga to Fultonville. We had about as good a vacation as I've had with the in-laws very relaxing, even read 100 pages of Vinge sci-fi... nice

elSicomoro · 07-13-2003, 12:50 PM

Time to revive this...

I had fully intended on cleaning the house yesterday, but Rho wanted to go for a drive, so I was all for not doing work.

We headed towards the Jersey shore, but I decided to hit places that we had not yet been to, primarily in South Jersey.

The neat thing about the South Jersey shore is that all the towns are primarily on islands separated from the mainland. And many of the towns are separated by inlets.

Our first stop was Sea Isle City. It's very reminiscent of Ocean City, MD. Nice little place. It was a nice day yesterday, so lots of people were out, but not as many as I thought would be.

Then we headed along the Ocean Route south to Avalon. Avalon is more laid back...reminds me of Belmar. But some of the houses were amazing in their size and style.

Next was Stone Harbor, another quaint seaside stop. Then after crossing the sound temporarily onto the mainland, we headed into the Wildwoods, a collection of several towns on another island.

North Wildwood was the hub of activity yesterday--there is a big BBQ cookoff going on there this weekend. Then we headed into Wildwood, which reminded me of Atlantic City, but smaller--nice in some parts, but other parts were rather run-down. The downtown had very narrow streets, and no shops were open--it was virtually a ghost town.

After driving through Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach, we crossed Jarvis Sound and headed towards Cape May for a fuel stop. There are only two roads that lead into Cape May, and given the amount of traffic we saw going in and out of town, we decided not to go into the town proper.

From there, we trekked over to the Cape May-Lewes ferry terminal, then headed north through North Cape May and Villas, before reaching Route 47 and heading back to Philadelphia.

This was the second time I've driven Route 47 from Cape May to the 55 freeway (which connects Philadelphia to Cumberland County via freeway). It's just a nice peaceful drive with scenery that reminds you that not all of New Jersey is suburban hell.

A good trip...hell, almost every road trip is a good one.

ladysycamore · 07-14-2003, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sycamore
This was the second time I've driven Route 47 from Cape May to the 55 freeway (which connects Philadelphia to Cumberland County via freeway). It's just a nice peaceful drive with scenery that reminds you that not all of New Jersey is suburban hell.

I do like taking that way home. I could do without the occasional "Stars and Bars" sightings, which I find strange to even see in New Jersey, of all places. What's up with *that*??? :p

OnyxCougar · 07-14-2003, 11:29 AM

Well, it's official. I'm going to NC, whether I have the job or not. I had to make up my mind to go *somewhere*, and that seemed as good a place as any. The friends in Iowa I was gonna bunk with if I didn't get a job have flaked out on me. :/

SOOO... I've started planning the drive. I'm bringing my roommate, Kelle, with me, then in Late August I'm driving her up to JFK airport for her flight to Croatia. Since I'm bringing her, we've decided to make the following stops:

Day 1: Las Vegas to Cordell, OK (stopping at Kelle's grandma's house) (17 hours)

Day 2: Cordell, OK to Houston, TX (stopping at my sister's house)(9 hours)

Day 3: Houston, TX to Gulfport, MS (stopping at my ex-husband's to see my kids) (7 hours)

Day 4: Gulfport, MS to Memphis, TN (stopping at Kelle's ex-husband's to see her kids)(7 hours)

Day 5: Memphis, TN to Greenville, NC (14 hours)

We plan on leaving July 31st, with my car packed as full as it will go. I've also bought a set of luggage racks for the car and a roof luggage carrier. We plan on getting a teddybear sized rocking chair for my big pooh bear, and making a sign saying "Vegas was bust."

I'll be taking pictures all along the way. I'll prolly post them on my website, where I have all my pics from my trip to Croatia last year.

xoxoxoBruce · 07-14-2003, 10:06 PM

Sounds like a trip down memory lane.

Oh...and welcome to the East Coast.

OnyxCougar · 07-14-2003, 11:25 PM

Hehe. Thanks, Bruce. I am gonna try to show up for the next Cellar GTG. I've been hanging out here waaay too long....you guys are a bad influence on me!!!

OnyxCougar · 07-17-2003, 09:19 PM

OK, so the plan has changed marginally. We're not going to Memphis now. So day 4 is gonna be Gulfport, MS to Greenville, NC (13 hours). Anyone know of some things to do on that leg of the trip? I prefer to not leave the freeway by more than 50 miles.

elSicomoro · 11-01-2003, 10:23 PM

The original plan today was to go to the Punkin Chunkin contest in southern Delaware, about 3 hours south of Philadelphia.

Well, Rho and I DID go down there...got within about a half-mile of the site...

I'm not sure what the deal was. Maybe they got more people than they bargained for this year? Or maybe it was the nice weather? *shrugs* I dunno. We did get a late start, but still got down there around noon. The site is basically in the middle of nowhere, about 10 minutes from the next closest town (Milton). And traffic was a nightmare--it took us almost an hour to drive about a half-mile. By this point, it was almost 1:00, and it only runs until dusk. So, we said "Oh well" and headed south for Ocean City, MD.

I've never driven south into Ocean City, so it was nice seeing all the little beach towns in Delaware on the way down. And we could tell we were near the ocean once we got near Rehoboth Beach...the winds picked up dramatically and it got cooler. But it was a great day to be driving...and Route 1 is a pleasant stretch of road between Rehoboth and the MD state line.

Actually, all of Route 1 is a pretty nice highway, other than some current construction near Dover. $2 gets you from Wilmington to Dover...nice scenery, well-maintained highway, friendly toll collectors. The remainder of the highway from Dover to Ocean City is 4-lane divided, but in good shape and easy to traverse. It used to be marked in kilometers instead of miles, but that has apparently changed in the past 2 years or so (the last time we drove it). It is now marked in miles, but the exit signs are still based on kilometers. Strange.

Saw some big ass Air Force planes flying into Dover AFB...I believe they were C-17's. And they fly oh so close to the highway as they approach the runway...kinda freaky.

Ocean City is so nice. It's like the Jersey shore points, but a tad more classier, runs for about 7 miles on a strip of land maybe a mile or two wide, and has a relatively small boardwalk (about 2 miles). Very cool place...haven't been there in almost 4 years, but it was very familiar.

There were some people out enjoying the nice weather, but for the most part, it was a near ghost town, particularly near downtown and the boardwalk. I could definitely deal with that in the winter...there's still enough activity going on to make it worth staying. And the summer crowds aren't too much of an issue. Now if I could only find a job down there...

One thing that is present in every beach town I've been to is a beach store...you know...you can buy souvenirs, beach towels...shit like that. OC has like 6 of them, all apparently owned by the same people. And at this time of the year, shit is dirt cheap, so I felt compelled to buy a few items. I'll show a couple of them off in the dodads thread.

So, while we didn't quite get to pumpkin nirvana, we made the best of a bad situation...good times.

05-14-2002, 08:53 PM	#47
Nic Name retired Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 1,930	We're goin' to Raleigh on Thursday!

05-17-2002, 11:07 AM	#48
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	Hockey cannot exist that far south. Let the planning begin! We've got the air miles now we need to pick the time and place. The Great Griff Bicycle Tour. Half the fun of a loaded bike tour is the planning process. Mrs. G and I are thinking Alps maybe Italian. That means getting our legs and lungs back into shape.... I am freaking pumped! Yes.YEs. YES!!!! __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis

05-29-2002, 06:38 AM	#50
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	Easton PA- Home of Mario Andretti, as well, if I'm not mistaken... __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis

07-08-2002, 08:04 PM	#51
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	After surveying in the extreme pre 4th heat, a road trip to the Adirondacs was in order. We swung by Saratoga Springs to rack and catch up with an old friend there. Its a nice town but always hyper touristy. They are doing the mandatory animal statue art around town thing. They went with horses which at least has a connection to what Saratoga is about. From there it was 87 N (the Northway) up to Keene and the high peaks region. We stayed in a large cabin in Wilmington on the Ausable with folks from my wifes family. Her step dad immediately turned me on to mate', even giving me a bambilla to take home. Since I dumped the bean a while back, I've been looking for a new itch to scratch and I think this is the stuff, full of antioxidents, easy on the stomach, and cheap as dirt, all in all right in my wheelhouse. My wife and I got two road rides in doing 25 and 50 miles on consecutive days, then skipping a day and taking a short morning jaunt. The roads are in great shape, did I mention that Pataki is up for re-election? (please ignore the fact that he promised only two terms.) We only had one imbecile scream at us, hoping for a crash, which really isn't bad for three days riding. I only managed one day of fly fishing and couldn't land anything but it was much fun. The Canadians stole our sun about 7pm Saturday and fouled the air from then on. Wilmington is a quiet little tourist town, the busiest places being the ice cream stand, the tackle shop, and a certain hideous diner which I will not name but which has a fifties motiff. In the immortal words of GB 1 it was "baaaad." Something fuzzy on the cucumbers, drinks dumped by a waitress never wiped off floor leading eventually to a little kid falling down, our drink orders forgotten, regular menu off limits for a weak food bar set up. They were horribly understaffed so I decided to view it as a floor show and leave it at that,.. but I'll never go back. It was a pretty uneventful drive made much better by the 65mph limits on 87. We skipped Albany though since the traffic is pretty hairy there and took the back way from Saratoga to Fultonville. We had about as good a vacation as I've had with the in-laws very relaxing, even read 100 pages of Vinge sci-fi... nice __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis

07-14-2003, 11:29 AM	#54
OnyxCougar Junior Master Dwellar Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kingdom of Atlantia Posts: 2,979	Well, it's official. I'm going to NC, whether I have the job or not. I had to make up my mind to go somewhere, and that seemed as good a place as any. The friends in Iowa I was gonna bunk with if I didn't get a job have flaked out on me. :/ SOOO... I've started planning the drive. I'm bringing my roommate, Kelle, with me, then in Late August I'm driving her up to JFK airport for her flight to Croatia. Since I'm bringing her, we've decided to make the following stops: Day 1: Las Vegas to Cordell, OK (stopping at Kelle's grandma's house) (17 hours) Day 2: Cordell, OK to Houston, TX (stopping at my sister's house)(9 hours) Day 3: Houston, TX to Gulfport, MS (stopping at my ex-husband's to see my kids) (7 hours) Day 4: Gulfport, MS to Memphis, TN (stopping at Kelle's ex-husband's to see her kids)(7 hours) Day 5: Memphis, TN to Greenville, NC (14 hours) We plan on leaving July 31st, with my car packed as full as it will go. I've also bought a set of luggage racks for the car and a roof luggage carrier. We plan on getting a teddybear sized rocking chair for my big pooh bear, and making a sign saying "Vegas was bust." I'll be taking pictures all along the way. I'll prolly post them on my website, where I have all my pics from my trip to Croatia last year. __________________ Impotentes defendere libertatem non possunt. "Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

05-14-2002, 03:06 PM	#46
dave Guest Posts: n/a	That just reminded me of a question on SNL's spoof of Celebrity Jeopardy... "Are horsies pretty?"

05-28-2002, 09:39 PM	#49
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	Rho and I took a short trip up to Easton, Allentown, and Bethlehem, PA Saturday. I didn't want to go to the shore b/c everybody else was there...and Pittsburgh was too far of a drive for a short day trip. Route 611 between Doylestown and Easton is a fun drive as it winds along the Delaware River. Although, it is rather dangerous in some parts...lots of curves. Easton is home to the Crayola factory, although we did not visit. It was graduation day at Lafayette College though, so the town was bustling. Allentown is...dirty. Although parts of it were pleasant, it looks dirty. Bethlehem looked better, and had a rather quaint downtown area. We also drove past the old Bethlehem Steel Works. What a huge place! I do NOT like driving the NE Extension at night though.

07-13-2003, 12:50 PM	#52
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	Time to revive this... I had fully intended on cleaning the house yesterday, but Rho wanted to go for a drive, so I was all for not doing work. We headed towards the Jersey shore, but I decided to hit places that we had not yet been to, primarily in South Jersey. The neat thing about the South Jersey shore is that all the towns are primarily on islands separated from the mainland. And many of the towns are separated by inlets. Our first stop was Sea Isle City. It's very reminiscent of Ocean City, MD. Nice little place. It was a nice day yesterday, so lots of people were out, but not as many as I thought would be. Then we headed along the Ocean Route south to Avalon. Avalon is more laid back...reminds me of Belmar. But some of the houses were amazing in their size and style. Next was Stone Harbor, another quaint seaside stop. Then after crossing the sound temporarily onto the mainland, we headed into the Wildwoods, a collection of several towns on another island. North Wildwood was the hub of activity yesterday--there is a big BBQ cookoff going on there this weekend. Then we headed into Wildwood, which reminded me of Atlantic City, but smaller--nice in some parts, but other parts were rather run-down. The downtown had very narrow streets, and no shops were open--it was virtually a ghost town. After driving through Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach, we crossed Jarvis Sound and headed towards Cape May for a fuel stop. There are only two roads that lead into Cape May, and given the amount of traffic we saw going in and out of town, we decided not to go into the town proper. From there, we trekked over to the Cape May-Lewes ferry terminal, then headed north through North Cape May and Villas, before reaching Route 47 and heading back to Philadelphia. This was the second time I've driven Route 47 from Cape May to the 55 freeway (which connects Philadelphia to Cumberland County via freeway). It's just a nice peaceful drive with scenery that reminds you that not all of New Jersey is suburban hell. A good trip...hell, almost every road trip is a good one.

07-14-2003, 10:06 PM	#55
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Sounds like a trip down memory lane. Oh...and welcome to the East Coast. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

07-14-2003, 11:25 PM	#56
OnyxCougar Junior Master Dwellar Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kingdom of Atlantia Posts: 2,979	Hehe. Thanks, Bruce. I am gonna try to show up for the next Cellar GTG. I've been hanging out here waaay too long....you guys are a bad influence on me!!! __________________ Impotentes defendere libertatem non possunt. "Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

07-17-2003, 09:19 PM	#57
OnyxCougar Junior Master Dwellar Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kingdom of Atlantia Posts: 2,979	OK, so the plan has changed marginally. We're not going to Memphis now. So day 4 is gonna be Gulfport, MS to Greenville, NC (13 hours). Anyone know of some things to do on that leg of the trip? I prefer to not leave the freeway by more than 50 miles. __________________ Impotentes defendere libertatem non possunt. "Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

11-01-2003, 10:23 PM	#58
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	The original plan today was to go to the Punkin Chunkin contest in southern Delaware, about 3 hours south of Philadelphia. Well, Rho and I DID go down there...got within about a half-mile of the site... I'm not sure what the deal was. Maybe they got more people than they bargained for this year? Or maybe it was the nice weather? shrugs I dunno. We did get a late start, but still got down there around noon. The site is basically in the middle of nowhere, about 10 minutes from the next closest town (Milton). And traffic was a nightmare--it took us almost an hour to drive about a half-mile. By this point, it was almost 1:00, and it only runs until dusk. So, we said "Oh well" and headed south for Ocean City, MD. I've never driven south into Ocean City, so it was nice seeing all the little beach towns in Delaware on the way down. And we could tell we were near the ocean once we got near Rehoboth Beach...the winds picked up dramatically and it got cooler. But it was a great day to be driving...and Route 1 is a pleasant stretch of road between Rehoboth and the MD state line. Actually, all of Route 1 is a pretty nice highway, other than some current construction near Dover. $2 gets you from Wilmington to Dover...nice scenery, well-maintained highway, friendly toll collectors. The remainder of the highway from Dover to Ocean City is 4-lane divided, but in good shape and easy to traverse. It used to be marked in kilometers instead of miles, but that has apparently changed in the past 2 years or so (the last time we drove it). It is now marked in miles, but the exit signs are still based on kilometers. Strange. Saw some big ass Air Force planes flying into Dover AFB...I believe they were C-17's. And they fly oh so close to the highway as they approach the runway...kinda freaky. Ocean City is so nice. It's like the Jersey shore points, but a tad more classier, runs for about 7 miles on a strip of land maybe a mile or two wide, and has a relatively small boardwalk (about 2 miles). Very cool place...haven't been there in almost 4 years, but it was very familiar. There were some people out enjoying the nice weather, but for the most part, it was a near ghost town, particularly near downtown and the boardwalk. I could definitely deal with that in the winter...there's still enough activity going on to make it worth staying. And the summer crowds aren't too much of an issue. Now if I could only find a job down there... One thing that is present in every beach town I've been to is a beach store...you know...you can buy souvenirs, beach towels...shit like that. OC has like 6 of them, all apparently owned by the same people. And at this time of the year, shit is dirt cheap, so I felt compelled to buy a few items. I'll show a couple of them off in the dodads thread. So, while we didn't quite get to pumpkin nirvana, we made the best of a bad situation...good times.

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