Little Sister Adventures: April 2024

No, not that kind of friend zone. It’s New England, where lots of friends live! It was a friend fest!

We left Shenandoah NP on Tuesday the 23rd and drove to Pennsauken New Jersey (ok, not New England, but bear with me), where we met Angie, a friend of Trish’s who is another passionate aphasia advocate. We had white New Jersey pizza and beer at our Harvest Host location, the Double Nickel brewery. It was great to get to know Angie, a dynamo!

When I lived in New Jersey I loved white pizza. It was a must-have this time. ❤️

Double Nickel had friendly folks in their lively brewhouse, and good beer too.

We had a restful night there before we headed back over the Delaware River to the Philly/Valley Forge PA area, where we had a lovely visit with Trish’s niece and enjoyed a nice meal by the Schuylkill River.

We walked along the river after lunch.

While in Pennsylvania, Trish found a couple attractions. This statue of the Founding Fathers praying over (presumably) one of our founding documents. 🙄 Those of you who know me know how I feel about it. This was found on the grounds of the Freedoms Foundation, a non-partisan educational organization.

George W. was there, too.

And a lofty Bill of Responsibilities. Read the text here.

Also in Pennsylvania, this marker for a nearby mass grave. The marker just grazes the surface of the whole story.

Old plow next to the marker. It has no relationship to the Duffy's cut deaths.

That evening we stopped at Locust Lane Brewery in Malvern, PA for the night. Super nice people there, too! We enjoyed a flight and a beer before retiring. It was a quiet night in their parking lot.

Wednesday was Trish's birthday! We had to celebrate!

Happy Birthday, Trish!

Soon we were on the road again, another U-turn to go back over the river, through New Jersey, and into New England. I enjoyed driving on the New Jersey Turnpike. It's nice and smooth and the traffic wasn't bad.

BUT! Come Connecticut, it was a different story.

The George Washington Bridge was a nightmare of trucks and cars, and it slowed us down from our meeting time with friends in Connecticut. So, when Siri told us she found a faster route, of course we jumped on it.

I don't know who needs to know this, but if the highway is labeled a "Parkway" in New York or Connecticut, DO NOT DRIVE ON IT. It will say "No Commercial Vehicles" and "Passenger Cars Only." BELIEVE THE SIGNS! Do not be optimistic when it says "Low Bridges" without a height designation. The bridges are low. Too low for you, Ms. Travato!

Needless to say, we made the mistake of following Siri's instructions onto a Parkway. The first few bridges were ok, the lowest was 10'7" (Travatos generally have a safe clearance of 10'). But suddenly there was a sign for one ahead that was 8'. OK, get off NOW!

We safely got off, but Siri took us around in circles and we used many precious minutes trying to find a way back to a safe highway. By the time we found our way back onto an interstate, we were an hour behind for our visit!

Luckily, we didn't miss friends Katie and Bryan Titus. They were kind enough to wait for us at an awesome pizza joint in Middletown, CT. It was great to catch up with these superb human beings.

DANG IT THAT WE DIDN'T GET A SELFIE!!!

After a nice salad and well-deserved rest in Middletown, we were off again, for the rest of our journey up to the Boston area. We stayed at a Boondockers Welcome home in Wrentham, Mass.

Wow! What a great couple who allowed us to stay on their BW property for two nights! We were thrilled to get to know two fellow vagabonds. They invited us for homemade lemon cheesecake on the second night and we had a great chat! Kinder people I have never met. It was great. And, bonus, they were blue-blue-blue all the way through, so we got to kvetch about the current state of affairs.

We slept well on their quiet property, and on the second day (Friday the 26th), we made our way to Rhode Island where we met with more friends! Trish had lunch with another aphasia advocate, Denise, who runs "Just ASK" and is on the board of Trish's non-profit, National Aphasia Synergy.

Meanwhile, my hometown friend June drove up from her home in RI and met us. June and I went to lunch just down the street from Denise's house.

It was wonderful catching up with the beautiful and talented June, who I haven't seen since high school.

In the late afternoon, we made it up to Norton and met a Boston friend, Mary, whom I met online about 20 years ago. We had met in person once before, and it was great to catch up. Unfortunately, we missed our other friend Tammy from the same online group who couldn't make it this time. Love you, Tammy. ❤️

Back to Wrentham and our lemon cheesecake, and we were ready for another good night's sleep at our new friends' place. I can't believe I didn't take a pic of Poppy in this wonderful spot!! Here's a shot of Trish and Punk playing in the yard instead.

Next stop: Boston, Mass. Now, he's not a personal friend, but he feels like one. We visited the JFK Presidential Library on Friday morning.

TV, specifically the debates between JFK and Richard Nixon, was critical in Kennedy's eventual win.

Messages still relevant today, 60+ years later.

Next we headed back to Connecticut for a planned event, but first another nice meal at Lucky Lou's. Trish always finds the best places!

And then on to New Haven. It was a Randy Rainbow Show! Now wouldn't RR be a fun friend to have?!

It was a funny show! We laughed a lot. What a talent!

So that's six old friends, two new friends, two would-be friends, and a niece! All in five days in the U.S. Northeast Friend Zone!

On Sunday, though we had a relatively short drive ahead of us: 4 1/2 - 5 hours from the Cracker Barrel to our campground in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, it took us all. freaking. day.

I'm learning that the "six hour max" drive time I had planned is too much, especially when you want to stop and see things -- or just stop to pee!

After swinging by for coffee, a shower, three attempts at filling the propane tank (hey, it was going to be cold in Shenandoah!), lunch, fuel, and potty breaks, we finally rolled in to the campground at about 6:30 p.m.

On the way in to our campground, courtesy of the ROCKD app:

Right about here on Skyline Drive on the way in.

We were met by whitetail deer.

There wasn’t time do do much but walk around the campground and get our bearings.

We did go to the edge of the campground at sunset and walked along the Appalachian Trail for a bit! Hey! We can say we’ve walked the Appalachian Trial!

Poppy's place in the Big Meadows Campground:

and our Happy Camper

American Robin, my favey bird.

It was pretty cold that night, and we didn't have any wood for a big fire in the fire pit, but Trish had gifted me and Poppy this very cool Solo Stove, so we fired it up the first night.

Here's a slow-mo video of it. Nifty little gadget!

It was really COLD out, though, and the little stove didn’t put out much heat, so we shivered a bit before Trish and Punk went in, and I tended the stove until the fire died down.

The next morning, we set out on an adventure. We walked to the Visitor's Center and then took a challenging hike to Lewis Falls.

"Iron Mike," depicting a Civilian Conservation Corps worker at the Byrd Visitors Center.

Not the falls, just a pretty little stream bed.

We couldn't actually see the falls fall. There was an overlook, but the falls fell away from us. Don't know if there was a way to scramble down, but we weren't up for that! Here is a video of the stream on the way to fall!

The wildflowers are just starting to show their pretty faces.

Here we were on the Lewis Falls trail

The reward: magnificent views!

After a well-deserved beer, and a little dinner, we fired up the Solo Stove again. We didn't wait until it was dark and cold. And this time, we did it right.