Road Trip: New England
Day 1: Sunday, April 24, 2022 - Yorktown Heights, NY
Day's statistics:
Weather: mid-70's, mostly sunny
Steps: Steve 5,199; Linda 5,332
Drove: 348 miles
Our target departure time was 9:00 AM.
We awoke, had breakfast, packed the car, and were underway by 9:03 - so we were pretty close to our goal.
This day was going to be, mostly, just a travel day. However, we were planning on a stop
in Yorktown Heights to visit Linda's friend, Kerry, our Matron of Honor for our wedding.
It should be about three hours between our house and Yorktown Heights.
We started off on Route 9 in Delaware. We got gas right before 295, hopped on 295, crossed the Delaware Memorial
Bridge, and headed up 295. We paused in Bordentown for a bio break.
Not much later we were back on 295 going North aruound Trenton.
The Google mapped route image shows the route as directly as possible, but we didn't quite go that wway...
After essentially circling Trenton, we took 206 heading north / northeast. While we weren't in any sort of rush,
206 was a little more of a rural road than we expected. We also passed Princeton (yes, the college).
This route, in all, was merely - according to Google maps, at least - 15 minutes longer than taking the Garden State
Parkway.
Anyway, we eventually hit 287 with the intent of taking it over the Tappan Zee bridge. (OK, yes, know it is called the
Governor Mario Cuomo Memorial Bridge, but, much like the Sears Tower, it will be many, MANY years before people stop
calling it the Tappan Zee.
Things were going well. Until we started to see the brakelights. Then it was stop and go for about five miles. Looking
at the GPS, we saw that the red line for the traffic ended... right... there. Sure enough, I could eventually see a police
car in the left shoulder with its lights on. I said to Linda "Right after that, we'll go from 20 [our current speed] to 65
like that <finger snap>."
Sure enough, right after what turned out to be what looked like a broken down car, "Thirty. Forty. Fifty. Sixty. Sixty-five."
We lost about a half-hour in all. We think.
We eventually made it to the Tappan - I mean Mario Cuomo somehting or other bridge. This bridge was built anew, with a new name,
and the prior one was demolished. We had yet to travel on the new bridge.
After traversing the bridge, only a couple more miles further and we were on the Saw
Mill River Parkway. Then we hopped on the Taconic State Parkway. And in no time we were in Yorktown.
We wound up being 40 minutes late. It would have only been about ten if not for that traffic issue.
We met Kerry at the Yorktown Coach Diner.
We had lunch and chatted for a total of a little more than three hours.
Due to our visit with our friend, we forgot to get pictures of our lunch, though Linda had the Spinach Pie,
and I had the Gyro with fries.
How it started - look who had a lot of hair...
How it's going - we knew twenty-whatever years ago that we would be posing in the same order. Seriously though, this was
a pure coincidence.
We got back on the road by 4:15, and continued our way to Albany, spening most of the time on the TSP. The
TSP was actually an enjoyable two-lane drive through mostly forrests / trees.
We came across an overlook, and stopped for a couple pictures, including a selfie.
It was only about two [more] hours from Yorktown Heights to Albany.
We had a reservation to stay at Ramada Plaza by Wyndham.
We had stayed there a decade ago, but based on current TripAdvisor reviews, at the relatively last minute we decided to change
the hotel. But that was after I printed the plan... and I never reprinted it. So when we entered the address in the car,
while IN Albany, we went to a hotel we were no longer staying at... GAH!
Even with the misdirection, we eventually arrived at the address of where we needed to go,
EconoLodge,
at 6:26.
We checked in, and found out there was a "large mall" a couple miles down the road. We headed there for a light snack since
we had lunch a little late, and it was a large lunch. We got some bread, cheese, and wine. We headed back to the motel,
and ate our snack at the table in the room.
It didn't take long to find that the room did not have much insulation. Not from a temperature perspective,
but from a noise perspective. It sounded like there was a child running around in the room above ours.
This begs the question: since the motel wasn't packed, why wouldn't they put people in rooms that were NOT
adjacent to others, be it left-right or up-down adjacent. We washed up, watched a little TV, and went to sleep.