DRAFT ::: Day 34-38: Jamestown, ND

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DRAFT ::: Day 34: Fargo, ND

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DRAFT ::: Day 33: Chicago, IL to Clearwater, WI

DRAFT ::: Day 33: Chicago, IL to Clearwater, WI

We need to come back and drive through Badlands National Park.

We stopped at Wall Drug Store. :)

Trip Stats:

Today: 479 mi  145 kWh  304 Wh/mi

TOTAL:  6522 mi  2006 kWh  308 Wh/mi

DRAFT ::: Day 31-32: Chicago, IL

DRAFT ::: Day 31-32: Chicago, IL

We spent 4 days / 3 nights in Chicago. What an unexpected pleasure!

Trip Stats:

Today: 0 mi  0 kWh  0 Wh/mi

TOTAL:  6043 mi  1861 kWh  308 Wh/mi

Day 30: Middlebury to Chicago, IL

We arrived in Chicago about 3pm. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and as expected, a nice breeze was blowing in the windy city. Chicago is an absolutely beautiful city and so different from others we have seen.

We drove up to the Talbot Inn, and I knew we were in for a treat. We parked curbside and the valet was front and center making sure I did not step into traffic. Two men helped unpack the car in record time and we were in our room very quickly. The room was spacious, immaculate, and beautiful.

After we unpacked, we realized we were starving. Somehow we skipped lunch and I was getting pretty crabby, or as Michelle would say, "Hangry". A google search of "food nearby" directed us to The Dublin's Bar and Grill. The food was excellent or was I just that hungry?

The Magnificent Mile is a long stretch of Michigan Avenue (How long is it? :) that contains a mixture of high-end retail shops, restaurants, and hotels. It runs from the river on the South to our hotel on the North and we walked it's length several times a day.

After refueling, we took a long walk on the Magnificent Mile and continued on the Lake Front Trail. It was great to be outside and walking after a couple of driving days.

We were wiped out by the time we got back home. A quick stop at the grocery store for wine and cheese made for a perfect end to the day..

Trip Stats:

Today: 135 mi  41 kWh  306 Wh/mi

TOTAL:  6043 mi  1861 kWh  308 Wh/mi

Day 29: Austinburg, OH to Middlebury, IN

We made coffee in our room and skipped the free  breakfast. Blogging in  the morning kept us from checking out until after 11am. We are quite behind and hope to pick up the pace soon. We had pizza and Stromboli for lunch. We thought these were each small personal sizes, but we had enough to feed 6 people.

While we were eating lunch a huge number of motorcyclist drove by the restaurant. Helmets here are only required for riders 18 years old and younger.

 It was a mellow uneventful day. The scenery was beautiful. 

This part of Indiana is the heart of Amish country. It seemed so odd to see horses and buggies ridding on the right shoulder of the highway. It seemed even more unusual to see a hitching post at the grocery store. When we stopped to shop for dinner a buggy trotted up and a solemn looking man with a long beard, hat, long pants and shirt climbed down and entered the store. He did not smile or look around and he made me feel quite out of place in shorts and sandals. 

I had a salad for dinner and Tom had some of the leftover pizza and Stromboli. It was very quiet peaceful and serene here.

Day 28: Nunda, NY to Austinburg, OH

Vince made wonderful coffee for everyone in the morning. We picked up our conversation from the night before and talked and talked. At 2pm we realized we were all pretty hungry so off to Charlie the Butcher’s we went for Beef on Weck sandwiches.

What is a Beef on Weck Sandwich?  It is a roast beef sandwich on a salty kummelweck roll.  In fact, it is this roll that makes the sandwich unique.  Made only in the Buffalo-Rochester area, the kummelweck – often alternatively spelled kimmelweck – is basically a Kaiser roll topped with lots of pretzel salt and caraway seeds.  Kummelweck is simply shortened to “weck.”  The sandwich is usually served with sinus-clearing horseradish, a couple of huge kosher dill pickle slices on the side, and extra beef juice served straight from the roast.  - delicious!

I really didn’t want to leave as we still had more to say. I am not sure when I will see my kind, loving, intelligent, and funny friend again but it cannot be soon enough for me. I loved getting to know Vince better. He reminds me of Tom in many ways. Marie and Vince seem so happy with the life they have created for themselves. My heart is full!

We got on the road much later than I expected. We drove about 3 hours to Austinburg, OH and stayed in a Hampton Inn for the night.

Day 27: Corning, NY to Niagara Falls to Nunda, NY

At the wedding in the beginning of this trip my friend Marie was busy as mother-of-the-bride and the focus was on her daughter Morgan. Today we drove to her house in Nunda about an hours drive north of Corning. After years of just an occasional email, I was so excited to be able to spend time with her to catch up on all the years that we have been apart.

Marie and Vince live on 8 acres covered with dense woods. Their small house has a high ceiling and lots of windows that look out on a pond. It is peaceful, beautiful and serene. They have 3 dogs that are free to disappear into the woods or jump into the pond chasing a frisbee or nothing at all.

Marie, Vince, Tom and I headed to Niagara Falls for the day. They are breathtaking! While riding on the ‘Maid of the Mist” boat tour, we laughed so hard trying to stay dry under a thin rain poncho as water poured on our heads. It was fabulous!

Marie and I spent the entire day catching up on all we had missed over the past years. It was so wonderful to be with my dear friend again. We have missed out on so much of her life but that did not weaken the closeness I always feel when she is near. 

On the way home we charged the car in Buffalo and walked down the street to the Buffalo Brew Pub to eat. Of course the specialty here is Buffalo wings. 

We stayed up very late reminiscing about high school, college, weddings, family and more. I didn’t want the day to end.

Day 26: Bowie, MD to to Corning, NY

We woke up and had coffee with David and Tracy before we left in the morning. It had been such a wonderful stay at their home that it was difficult to say goodbye. They made us feel so welcome during our stay.

The first stop was a Tesla supercharger about 10 miles away. A nearby breakfast place called First Watch reminded us of Santa Cruz. It had a college town vibe and there were lots of healthy options. My favorite was a kale tonic, with kale, apple, cucumber and lemon. It is much better than it sounds.

Today is a travel day and tomorrow we are picking up some friends and driving to Niagara Falls. Unfortunately their house is just north of a huge "supercharger black hole" which is out-of-range of superchargers so if you drive in you can not make it out. To avoid the black hole we would have to drive several hundred miles around the area to get to a supercharger close enough to make it to their house and then up to Niagara Falls. But there is a hotel in the black hole with a charger, so we are going to stay there (in Corning, NY) and charge overnight so we will have enough charge in the morning for our trip.

Our Tesla keeps track of our whereabouts and tries to give us helpful hints along the way. She doesn't know that we have a destination charger already reserved for an all night charge this evening. She was pretty persistent in trying to get us to change our route. When we entered the black hole she warned us with this message: "Plan Your Next Charge. You are almost too far from known charging locations"

Driving went very quickly and we made it to Corning in time to visit the Corning Glass Museum.  It is dedicated to the art, history and science of glass.  It was incredible! The glass blowing demonstration and the history of glass was very interesting. 

There was a special exhibit that provided a glimpse into Tiffany’s workshop.

We had a lovely dinner at the Market Street Brewing Company in downtown Corning. Sampling beer at local breweries is becoming a favorite pastime of ours. Tom is on a quest to taste all things hoppy. I'm not a fan but I can now distinguish between some different types of hops. Tom gets a kick out of my reviews.

DRAFT ::: Days 24-25: NASA & DC (again)

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Day 23: Washington DC & Father’s Day

David kindly shared his Father’s Day with us. He gave us a tour of Washington DC and included us in his Father’s Day family dinner.

It is a one hour drive from Bowie to Washington DC. We went to the National Mall that stretches over 2 miles from the Lincoln Memorial on the west end, past the Washington Monument in the middle, to the U.S. Capitol on the east end. 

It was hot and getting hotter so we decided to walk around some of the memorials before escaping the heat into the Smithsonian Museums.

There are over 58,000 names inscribed in the Vietnam War Memorial wall. There is a difference between reading the number and reading the names. It was heartrending. There were people making pencil rubbings of names. I was 15 when the war ended and many thousands of boys on the wall were just a few years older than me.

Lincoln was a president with very big hands.

Einstein had very big hair.

Using the formula E=mc² and plugging in my mass you can estimate the gallons of sweat I produced walking around the monuments. We escaped the suns infrared waves by going into the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Imagine being in that museum with a NASA scientist as your guide. David worked on the Hubble Space Telescope and is currently working on the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) that will be as sensitive as the Hubble Space Telescope, but have 100 times its field of view; every WFIRST image will be like 100 Hubble images.

We also spent some time in the National Gallery of Art. There was a special exhibit of “Nature’s Best Photography, where art meets science and technology”. Photographers from 51 countries sent more than 20,000 images, and the 82 winners are on display. Here are a few of our favorites.

We drove back to Davids house for dinner with his father, brother, and family. I was grateful to be included, and not have to spend Father's Day in a hotel room 3,000 miles away from my children.

Day 22: NYC to Bowie, MD

We said goodbye to our New York home. We had a full week of the city life, art, culture, Central Park, Broadway, bars, subways, crowds. It was sad to leave Charles, Ellen, Dolly and Derek. There is so much more to see and do that we will have to come back again soon.

Our next destination was to visit with my friend David in Bowie, MD near Washington DC.

David was one of my best friends in 8th and 9th grade. Many people in their early teenage years hear music that becomes their favorite music, or see a movie that becomes their favorite movie, or make friends that become their lifelong friends. David is one of those friends to me. We sat together in Math class, played Diplomacy, and recited Firesign Theatre records. He joined Campfire and we went camping and worked on hiking trails in Big Basin Redwood State Park. But then he suddenly moved back East to the DC area. We have only seen each other a few times since then in DC, London, and Yosemite, but he is a lifelong friend.

It took us longer to get to Bowie, MD than expected. Traffic was heavy leaving the city so we didn’t get to David’s house until 4:30 pm. We took an evening walk and it was magical to see fireflies all along the path as the sun set.

Day 21: NYC: AMNH, the MET, Sweat, and a shooting.

It is our last day in NYC so we intend to make the most of it. 

We went back to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to see two Exhibitions: Dark Universe and Humpback Whales. 

Dark Universe is a space show in the Hayden Planetarium projected on the 67-foot-wide hemispheric dome. Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Dark Universe celebrates the pivotal discoveries that have led us to greater knowledge of the structure and history of the universe and our place in it—and to new frontiers for exploration.  

Humpback Whales is an extraordinary journey into the mysterious world of one of nature’s most awe-inspiring marine mammals. It has extraordinary,  and breathtaking footage of whales in their natural environment. It amazes me how documentaries like these are created. 

Then a walk across Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET) to see ... art ...

We stayed until the Museum closed and it still wasn’t enough. We walked downtown through Central Park again to the theater district. Just had time to grab a quick bite before the play, Sweat, another great show. 

We got back to the apartment late and had to pack up to leave Brooklyn in the morning after spreading out for the week. 

Around 1:00 AM we heard 4 gunshots right outside our window. Within 30 seconds a police car arrived and 2 minutes later there were over 20 marked and unmarked police cars with lights on surrounding the area. Then an ambulance drove up and parked on the left side of the building below us. Looking down from the 21st floor we could see the roof of the 4 story building but we could not see the street on the left side where the ambulance was parked. Eventually the ambulance left and the police cars dispersed into the night.

I am grateful the shooting happened on the last night on of our stay and not the first. All week we felt safe in NYC. We rode the subway and walked around late at night. We had heard news reports of 2 other shootings in our neighborhood but never felt like we were in danger. But after the shooting we were ready to move on to Washington DC.

Day 20: NYC: Yale & The Bronx

Today we hopped back into the Tesla and visited family at Yale and the Bronx.

Our first stop was to visit Emily, Tom’s niece, at Yale in New Haven, CT which is a 2 hour drive north of NYC. This week Emily is in a seminar studying rare manuscripts so we only had an hour at lunch time to visit. We met at the Atticus Bookstore/Cafe adjacent to the university. We have not seen Emily for a few years so it was really nice to give her a hug and see that she is doing fine. Tom and I walked around campus and downtown to the bookstore where the atmosphere screams college town. 

Then we headed to the Bronx to visit my Aunt Dolly and cousin Derek. The four of us went to dinner just a few blocks from where they live. I hadn’t seen Derek and Dolly for over 25 years. Hearing about all the family members that I don’t get to see was priceless. We talked about my mom quite a bit and that was both wonderful and sad for me. I’m glad they got to finally meet Tom, and they made him feel like part of the family.

Trip Stats:

Today: 126 mi  34.9 kWh  277 Wh/mi

TOTAL:  4348 mi  1348.9 kWh  310 Wh/mi