Trip Day 9

Since Yarmouth is on Cape Cod, we wanted to see what the beach was like up north. So we spent about 20 minutes walking on the beach. It is cold!! We are still in shorts and short sleeve shirts. We definitely were not prepared to come up north, even in the late spring. Now we are headed to New Bedford to pick up one of three dogs on our trip home. Some of the things we noticed on this trip is that Northerners use their car horns way more than we do in Texas. Also, they spend lots of time either just sitting in traffic or speeding past cars when they can. Something else that we don’t have that is common up here are the Roundabouts, and our mile markers are in whole numbers; whereas up here, they can be in tenths or two tenths. Seems like you could save lots of money on signs by them just being by the mile.

Cape Cod Beach

New Bedford seems to be an older city that has lots to do with whaling. There is even a cobblestone road. We pick up the dog, who we nickname Precious. She is a sweet American Bulldog who is absolutely terrified. We pass through Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York again. This time we are further north in New York so the traffic is not quite as bad. We are now driving in the Hudson River Valley and drive through the Taconic Mountains. We see the exit to Poughkeepsie. It brings back memories of my Dad because he used to travel there for his job. Now we are in Clearfield, Pennsylvania and picking up a beautiful Akita puppy. Just past Clearfield we passed the highest point on this road on this side of the Mississippi River – 2250 Ft. We kept driving through the Allegany National Forest and stopped for the night in Clarion, Pa.

New Bedford Cobblestone Road

Trip Day 7

Just to let you know, we got rain every single day of this trip except the day we went to the beach. Once we reached Pennsylvania, the traffic really started to pick up. We crossed into New Jersey and pulled over to get gas. We didn’t know that they are required to pump your gas for you in Jersey. They also have boro and townships. Both of them are forms of municipal government.

Next we crossed into New York. My granddaughter wanted to go to New York City but the closest we could do on this trip was to be about 20 miles from the Statue of Liberty. The traffic in New York was awful. It was almost bumper to bumper the entire way.

A little before 1 pm we, we drove into Connecticut. The traffic was still horrible. We noticed that there were no city limits, but they did have town lines. The terrain is still rocky and hilly.

Mystic, Connecticut

Around 4pm we arrived in Rhode Island. We pulled over at the Welcome Center to use the facilities. I’m not sure if they were doing construction on the sight or not, but they only had port-a-potties.

Just after 5 pm, we got to Attelboro, Massachusetts. We found a Motel 6 in Seekonk, R.I. because we were not able to deliver Lincoln until the next morning. By this time you can tell that we are starting to get tired. We have driven for days seeing only things from a moving car in the rain.

Trip Day 5 and 6

This was a very long day of driving. We were on the road by 7:25 am. We drove through much of Georgia, South Carolina and even crossed into North Carolina where we crossed the Eastern Continental Divide. We were meeting the couple that Bia went to most of the way up Roan Mountain. We didn’t realize that you could go up to the mountain from the North Carolina side or from the Tennessee side. We went up the North Carolina side, which was long and winding, although very beautiful scenery. When we met the couple, we got out of the car in shorts and t-shirts. Surprise!! It was 54 degrees! The couple had on jackets and long pants. We hadn’t planned for weather this cold on this trip. Walmart here we come!

Taken from car through windshield

We went down the mountain on the Tennessee side. It was much shorter, and still had beautiful scenery. A stream ran along side of the road. We pulled over to take pictures and someone was flyfishing. I know so many guys back home that would have loved to have been doing that.

Stream coming down Roan Mountain on the Tennessee Side

We drove through Elizabethton, Tennessee, the home of Jason Whitton, one of our Dallas Cowboys!! We stopped in Chilhowie, Virginia. All of us crashed, and we had no trouble sleeping.

The next day, we drove through W. Virginia for about 32 miles and crossed into Maryland for about eleven miles. Then we drove through Pennsylvania for what seemed like forever. We saw the exit for Hershey, Pa. but we didn’t stop until we reached Shartlesville which is north of Reading, Pa. We slept well.