Taking I-84W I was forced to keep a leisurely pace as the "America Recovery and Reinvestment Act" put lots and lots and lots of people to work! There were orange barrels all over the place! ]I was still listening to "The Last Child" so that was keeping my attention.] I hadn't gotten too far into the trip and it was around lunchtime, and then I saw the billboard -- "The Eveready Diner as seen on 'The Food Network'" Well, duh! You knew that I was going to stop for lunch! :-)
Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any pictures as my camera battery was dying. But you can check out their website: theevereadydiner.com. :-) I stopped at the one in Brewster, NY. And yep, it's got the old-fashioned diner feel. [Listen to me, as if I was frequenting diners in the 1940s and 1950s! Okay, it looks like the diners do on TV shows from that time period! :-) ] Red vinyl booths, with the mini jukebox at each table. The waittresses in black dresses with white aprons and the little black and white caps. Counter service with the red vinyl stools. And the pie display. Oh, the pies! I went a little off-program with an Italian panini (yep, sausage and peppers and loads of mozzarella in a panini), with sweet potato fries. From the tables around me, I should have had either a cheeseburger with a pile of onion rings, or a giant omelet with toast and potatoes. I left happy and stuffed, with several diet cokes in me as well. :-)
Shortly after leaving the diner, I took the Taconic State Parkway headed north. This parkway is for passenger vehicles only -- no commercial traffic. I really liked that as I'm still sometimes a little nervous to have semi-trucks surrounding me. One or two don't bother me, but when they are beside me and behind me and we're in the Adirondack Mountains, then yeah, I get a little nervous. [You may or may not know that I was run off the road by a semi several years ago.]
This was really a beautiful drive even though it took me a lot longer than I had expected. I was very close to Woodstock, NY and also drove through Saratoga Springs (on the interstate). I rolled up into Plattsburgh around 5pm, and found Kim and Dennis's house on a peninsula called Cumberland Head, jutting out into Lake Champlain. Just gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous!
Kim and her two daughters were in the yard, playing on the jungle gym as I pulled up. I joined them (and one of their cats) until it got too "buggy" and we had to go inside. [Dennis was away on work so unfortunately I didn't get to visit with him at all. :-( ] We were inside long enough for a quick tour of the house, then we went outside to shuck corn for dinner and to head down to the lake to put our feet in the water. This is the view from their backyard.... You have to walk down a few steps to get to the water. :-)
After playing in the water for a little while, Kim fed the girls and got them ready for bed, and I spent some time on Google maps checking out my next stop -- Burlington, VT.
Kim and I had a wonderful dinner, with a great bottle of wine and caught up on the last 3 years! The Manion family (Dennis's family) has a tradition where they celebrate the traditions of a different country each year at Christmas. This year, it's the Caribbean. And they have a side tradition where Kim gets a cookbook each Feb for her birthday with foods of that country, so they also cook food throughout the year from that country. What a really cool idea! And meant that we had some really yummy jerk chicken and rice with a light dressing and roasted cashew nuts.
We did end up having a really late night! Which was bad because Kim had to be up really early as she was leaving town to meet Dennis in CA for a long weekend, however.... which was GREAT because we hadn't seen each other in over 3 years, since I visited them in Egypt in April of 2007 with my girlfriends Jan and Missy.
And so you are back on the road. Or should I say MY road. Again. Brewster, NY right next to Somers where I lived and guess what....a link to Heather too. Her boyfriend Tony was from Brewster and came over a lot. Then 84W my route to Danbury CT from Somer and Union Carbide corporate HQ. CSW.
ReplyDeleteLet's go North now. Saratoga, track went many times.
But the kicker was Plattsburgh. When my dad was stationed in Newburgh NY I used to drive up to Plattsburgh to see my girl friend whose Dad was on the base up there. She wound up being my first wife and is the mother of .....yep HEATHER.
Now do you believe me that there is some weird psychic connection going on here.
Glad you had good wine again and slept late again. Common theme in your trip.
As I found out too, the best part is seeing old friends and talking about good times.
Keep on Truckin....ooooo nooooo wait that is bad.
Keep on traveling safe as you turn West towards home. Big Hug. Bill