NOTE: Yes, there's some reference to rail here. Just be patient, please.
In the Age of Corona, it looks like no long-distance train trips for a while, but the family was getting so hot sitting under the Heat Dome in Baltimore that we decided to drive up to Maine to my Dad's cabin on the lake. OK, so Maine is also sitting under the Heat Dome, too, but daytime highs of 80 sure beat daytime highs of 95-100, especially when there's a lake in the front yard that you can run into whenever you want.
The cabin is about 650 miles from Baltimore in the Rangeley Lakes region of northwestern Maine. You can drive it in a day if you want to spend 14 hours (at least) on the road. I did that a few times when I was in my 30s and 40s, but no way anymore. Besides, I'd face a family mutiny if I even suggested such a thing, the last time we did it was such an unpleasant grind. Thus, we were going to have to spend a night on the road traveling through states that have some sort of visitor quarantines in effect. As it turns out, these were not at all onerous, and a lot of it was based on the honor system.
The shortest route to the cabin involves I-95 straight through to New haven, then I-91 to St. Johnsbury Vermont, then a mix of US 2, US 3, New Hampshire routes 110, 110A, and 16 right into Maine. We haven't taken I-95 past New York in decades. The traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway is horrible, and the Connecticut Turnpike isn't much better. In fact, a lot of times, we take I-81/84 past Scranton to avoid New York City altogether, though it does add an hour to the drive. The last few years, we have been driving across the George Washington Bridge to visit the last great kosher deli in the Bronx in order to enjoy a great pastrami sandwich and stock up on pastrami, corned beef, Jewish Rye bread, etc. for our time in the remote North Woods. Then we head up the Henry Hudson Parkway and Saw Mill Parkway to the Taconic Parkway, which we ride to the end, right before the toll road, and then follow various state highways to Bennington Vermont, cross the Green Mountains, and connect to I-91 in Brattleboro. It takes a little longer, but it's a much more scenic ride.
This year, however, with the Coronavirus, we weren't sure about the dining situation, and there's really no place outside to eat takeout in Riverdale, the Bronx, and it's hot as hell anyway, so we decided to just drive the NY Thruway up the west side of the Hudson, cross over in Troy, and drive directly to Bennington and thence to Brattleboro, where we were to spend the night. On the return trip, we reserved a room right off the Thruway in suburban Albany.
As far as the quarantine rules, things were a little fuzzy as to how they worked. Maryland was not on the list of exempted states for either Maine or Vermont. While we were in Maine, New York also decided that perhaps quarantine was necessary for us diseased riffraff from the Old Line State. We all got swabbed for the COVID test and came up negative.
We packed up the cooler with a pile of kosher meat and headed out on a Saturday morning that wasn't hot until the sun came up over the horizon. We had packed up out trusty 2017 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid (shown below at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway), and hit the road.
First stop was breakfast. Due to minor brain malfunction, I decided we'd just eat at the on-highway service plaza, despite lots of better alternatives just off the exits. And no, we couldn't stop at Maryland House, where they at least have a Dunkin Donuts that everybody likes and outside tables in the shade, we had to stop at Chesapeake House, which had a Peets that was out of breakfast food and a large well-known fast food chain that will remain nameless that had breakfast sandwiches but also has the most disorganized help I've ever seen. Plus the coffee was weak and not really very hot. At least they had some outside tables in the shade. Mask compliance inside was excellent, at more or less 100%
We motored our way up 95, across Delaware, across the Memorial Bridge to the New Jersey Turnpike, and up the Turnpike with one restroom break. Good mask compliance at the service plaza. Then up the Garden State Parkway into New York, passing the crossing of the NJT Morristown line at East Orange. If you look carefully, you can see the end of the platform canopies of the East Orange Station as you drive by. (Of course, if you're driving, you really should be looking at the road, right?
) Then, on to the NY Thruway at the end of the Parkway, and a stop at the Sloatsburg service plaza, as it was getting to be time for lunch (plus needed to use the restroom.) This one has a nice 2-decker parking garage, so we were able to park in the shade on a brutally hot sunny day. Good mask compliance inside, but only one fast food outlet was open, and the lines were a bit too long for out taste. So off we went.
Up to this point, we had experience no traffic slowdowns, however, some intermittent construction of this stretch of the Thruway cause a couple of backups between Sloatsburg and I-84. It is a scenic stretch of the highway, passing through the Ramapo Mountains. We also got to chase a NJT/Metro North Hoboken to Port Jervis train for a while. While a commute into New York from Port Jervis might be too much of a grind for even a former extreme commuter like me, it would sure be a scenic ride!
Finally, I got sick of the intermittent traffic jams and suggested to my party that we bail off the Thruway at I-84 and drive over to the Taconic Parkway. They agreed, and we decided to pull off in Newburgh to get some takeout lunch. Some of the party will only eat fish sandwiches from takeaway places, so we made the choice of one of the two fast food chains that provides them. We even passed a great diner we have stopped in, as we are really not ready for indoor dining yet. We picked up our orders and headed out, as the parking lot of the fast food joint wasn't my idea of a great picnic spot. Over the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge (toll was only $1.50, and boy do I love EZPass, never had to deal with traffic backups to pay tolls on the whole trip.)
A little way up the Taconic Parkway, we decided to stop at James Baird State Park to find a picnic ground. That we did, and though the day was hot, we found a table under a shade tree that was tolerable. However, even though the park was open, and we weren't the only picnickers, the restrooms were closed. I can't quite understand the logic of opening the park and closing the restrooms. We have the same problem at some of the local parks in the Baltimore area, too. We were able to deal with that by driving back south on the Parkway 2 miles to the "Taste of New York" rest stop that sells fancy local products and had restrooms we could use. Good mask compliance there, but if the state of New York could keep this place and the restrooms open, why did they need to close them in the park?
We returned to the car and headed north. Soon I was regretting my choice of fast food entree, as the fries and burger started sitting heavy in my stomach. Then it seemed like it was more than I had too much to eat, but never got so bad that I needed to stop the car and get sick by the side of the highway. Nevertheless, it will be a while before I patronize that particular fast food outlet again. What was worse was that this stretch of road, the northern end of the Taconic Parkway and a series of state highways in the New York rump of the Berkshires, did not have a lot of places with public restrooms. Fortunately on NY 22 near Stephentown, NY, we found a newly built Cumberland Farms convenience store that had restrooms. (I know in some parts of the country almost all convenience stores have restrooms. That's not always true in the Northeast, so you have to know the brands that have them.)
We crossed the very scenic Vermont Highway 9 with my tummy churning all the way, and finally ended up in Brattleboro. I know the secret back route using the steep hill on Union St. to avoid the downtown traffic lights, and we soon found ourselves parking at the Latchis Hotel. This is a nice historic downtown hotel withing walking distance from the Amtrak Station. If you want to take a Vermont trip using Amtrak, you can ride here, and walk to the hotel, spend the night and pick up a rental car in the morning. (This can also be done at White River Junction, using the Hotel Coolidge.)
more to come
more to come ..
In the Age of Corona, it looks like no long-distance train trips for a while, but the family was getting so hot sitting under the Heat Dome in Baltimore that we decided to drive up to Maine to my Dad's cabin on the lake. OK, so Maine is also sitting under the Heat Dome, too, but daytime highs of 80 sure beat daytime highs of 95-100, especially when there's a lake in the front yard that you can run into whenever you want.
The cabin is about 650 miles from Baltimore in the Rangeley Lakes region of northwestern Maine. You can drive it in a day if you want to spend 14 hours (at least) on the road. I did that a few times when I was in my 30s and 40s, but no way anymore. Besides, I'd face a family mutiny if I even suggested such a thing, the last time we did it was such an unpleasant grind. Thus, we were going to have to spend a night on the road traveling through states that have some sort of visitor quarantines in effect. As it turns out, these were not at all onerous, and a lot of it was based on the honor system.
The shortest route to the cabin involves I-95 straight through to New haven, then I-91 to St. Johnsbury Vermont, then a mix of US 2, US 3, New Hampshire routes 110, 110A, and 16 right into Maine. We haven't taken I-95 past New York in decades. The traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway is horrible, and the Connecticut Turnpike isn't much better. In fact, a lot of times, we take I-81/84 past Scranton to avoid New York City altogether, though it does add an hour to the drive. The last few years, we have been driving across the George Washington Bridge to visit the last great kosher deli in the Bronx in order to enjoy a great pastrami sandwich and stock up on pastrami, corned beef, Jewish Rye bread, etc. for our time in the remote North Woods. Then we head up the Henry Hudson Parkway and Saw Mill Parkway to the Taconic Parkway, which we ride to the end, right before the toll road, and then follow various state highways to Bennington Vermont, cross the Green Mountains, and connect to I-91 in Brattleboro. It takes a little longer, but it's a much more scenic ride.
This year, however, with the Coronavirus, we weren't sure about the dining situation, and there's really no place outside to eat takeout in Riverdale, the Bronx, and it's hot as hell anyway, so we decided to just drive the NY Thruway up the west side of the Hudson, cross over in Troy, and drive directly to Bennington and thence to Brattleboro, where we were to spend the night. On the return trip, we reserved a room right off the Thruway in suburban Albany.
As far as the quarantine rules, things were a little fuzzy as to how they worked. Maryland was not on the list of exempted states for either Maine or Vermont. While we were in Maine, New York also decided that perhaps quarantine was necessary for us diseased riffraff from the Old Line State. We all got swabbed for the COVID test and came up negative.
We packed up the cooler with a pile of kosher meat and headed out on a Saturday morning that wasn't hot until the sun came up over the horizon. We had packed up out trusty 2017 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid (shown below at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway), and hit the road.
First stop was breakfast. Due to minor brain malfunction, I decided we'd just eat at the on-highway service plaza, despite lots of better alternatives just off the exits. And no, we couldn't stop at Maryland House, where they at least have a Dunkin Donuts that everybody likes and outside tables in the shade, we had to stop at Chesapeake House, which had a Peets that was out of breakfast food and a large well-known fast food chain that will remain nameless that had breakfast sandwiches but also has the most disorganized help I've ever seen. Plus the coffee was weak and not really very hot. At least they had some outside tables in the shade. Mask compliance inside was excellent, at more or less 100%
We motored our way up 95, across Delaware, across the Memorial Bridge to the New Jersey Turnpike, and up the Turnpike with one restroom break. Good mask compliance at the service plaza. Then up the Garden State Parkway into New York, passing the crossing of the NJT Morristown line at East Orange. If you look carefully, you can see the end of the platform canopies of the East Orange Station as you drive by. (Of course, if you're driving, you really should be looking at the road, right?
) Then, on to the NY Thruway at the end of the Parkway, and a stop at the Sloatsburg service plaza, as it was getting to be time for lunch (plus needed to use the restroom.) This one has a nice 2-decker parking garage, so we were able to park in the shade on a brutally hot sunny day. Good mask compliance inside, but only one fast food outlet was open, and the lines were a bit too long for out taste. So off we went.Up to this point, we had experience no traffic slowdowns, however, some intermittent construction of this stretch of the Thruway cause a couple of backups between Sloatsburg and I-84. It is a scenic stretch of the highway, passing through the Ramapo Mountains. We also got to chase a NJT/Metro North Hoboken to Port Jervis train for a while. While a commute into New York from Port Jervis might be too much of a grind for even a former extreme commuter like me, it would sure be a scenic ride!
Finally, I got sick of the intermittent traffic jams and suggested to my party that we bail off the Thruway at I-84 and drive over to the Taconic Parkway. They agreed, and we decided to pull off in Newburgh to get some takeout lunch. Some of the party will only eat fish sandwiches from takeaway places, so we made the choice of one of the two fast food chains that provides them. We even passed a great diner we have stopped in, as we are really not ready for indoor dining yet. We picked up our orders and headed out, as the parking lot of the fast food joint wasn't my idea of a great picnic spot. Over the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge (toll was only $1.50, and boy do I love EZPass, never had to deal with traffic backups to pay tolls on the whole trip.)
A little way up the Taconic Parkway, we decided to stop at James Baird State Park to find a picnic ground. That we did, and though the day was hot, we found a table under a shade tree that was tolerable. However, even though the park was open, and we weren't the only picnickers, the restrooms were closed. I can't quite understand the logic of opening the park and closing the restrooms. We have the same problem at some of the local parks in the Baltimore area, too. We were able to deal with that by driving back south on the Parkway 2 miles to the "Taste of New York" rest stop that sells fancy local products and had restrooms we could use. Good mask compliance there, but if the state of New York could keep this place and the restrooms open, why did they need to close them in the park?
We returned to the car and headed north. Soon I was regretting my choice of fast food entree, as the fries and burger started sitting heavy in my stomach. Then it seemed like it was more than I had too much to eat, but never got so bad that I needed to stop the car and get sick by the side of the highway. Nevertheless, it will be a while before I patronize that particular fast food outlet again. What was worse was that this stretch of road, the northern end of the Taconic Parkway and a series of state highways in the New York rump of the Berkshires, did not have a lot of places with public restrooms. Fortunately on NY 22 near Stephentown, NY, we found a newly built Cumberland Farms convenience store that had restrooms. (I know in some parts of the country almost all convenience stores have restrooms. That's not always true in the Northeast, so you have to know the brands that have them.)
We crossed the very scenic Vermont Highway 9 with my tummy churning all the way, and finally ended up in Brattleboro. I know the secret back route using the steep hill on Union St. to avoid the downtown traffic lights, and we soon found ourselves parking at the Latchis Hotel. This is a nice historic downtown hotel withing walking distance from the Amtrak Station. If you want to take a Vermont trip using Amtrak, you can ride here, and walk to the hotel, spend the night and pick up a rental car in the morning. (This can also be done at White River Junction, using the Hotel Coolidge.)
more to come
more to come ..
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