First Few Days...

Our first few days in the van were a hop-scotch down the east coast visiting dear friends/family, offering up plenty of reasons not to sleep in the van on those 80-degree evenings. Nothing could beat the 2020 send-off at the Hutter/Roos's, but this one came close. We started at Lake Naomi (PA), sharing a homemade supper and late night campfire with Jeff, Julie, Mira & Sydney. A perfect launch.

Then a visit with Sam, Liana, and Stella in DC, where in spite of the rain we enjoyed an awesome Indian meal w plenty of veg options. Here we are giving Liana and Stella a tour of the van. Sam's okay watching.

NEXT STOP: Sol & Leena's in Chapel Hill. Our first time ever visiting them without an army of Aronson's in tow, and it was such a treat to be JUST US GROWN-UPS. Their house still looks amazing (and is entirely air conditioned). We ate the best food, watched vintage home movies (Papa playing Charades), and joined Sol for a Rotary luncheon ("Fellow Raccoons...").

Enough stalling...it's time to take to the highways and get our history lessons going. We'll be covering a large swath of the Civil Rights Trail on this trip. Our first classroom: The lunch counter at F.W. Woolworth in Greensboro, NC.

EWR to LAX - "Party in the USA" Tour!!

Whaaa? Mark and Judy are BACK IN THE VAN!!! Meet LAX...

Yeah, we were hoping for an even more outrageous hippie van than 2020, but this odd looking vehicle was the only one in the lot, so she's ours for the next 3 weeks. The van company affectionately calls this model "LAX" (did we tell them we're moving to Cali??), so with some easy inspiration from Miley Cyrus, we have our theme song for this trip https://youtu.be/VocyOtlNpqY (stop at :20 if you can't take it anymore). Jaffe, you know I can't pass up a theme.

She's not quite as flamboyant as our last van, "Surreal," but hey, this is a different trip. How different? Let's set the mood here: https://youtu.be/fMFSXUPwS2w (you can stop this one at :20 too). One hubcap waved goodbye on the trip from the Jersey City parking lot to Piermont, and the other is still looking for us on the NJ Turnpike.

AND YET SOME THINGS HAVE STAYED THE SAME...

For those of you who remember our 7-week trip back in 2020, we were rattled by a pop-up thundershower as soon as we hit the highway and within minutes blessed with an unexpected rainbow. Well, here we are about 20 minutes from our apartment, and the heavens have opened up. Our captain kept his steady hand on the wheel, and then [cue the angel choir] it was THERE.

Wine chillin' in the mini fridge, jumbo bag of Snyders in the front seat, California Dreamin' on my Pandora, feels like we're writing a country song. And tell those stinkin' hubcaps, this is how WE roll...

Mark's Final Post

I knew the trip was coming to an end this week when I placed my grocery order with Fresh Direct and ordered my Weight Watchers snacks - all to be delivered Friday afternoon. And, of course, also arranged for our Covid 19 tests on Friday.

As we reached the end of our summer journey, we made our way through Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. We also knew our adventure was ending when the highlight of the week was when we almost broke down on Route 80 in Indiana. Yikes! Turns out our car was completely out of antifreeze and it was overheating. Not good. So, we drove over 20 miles with the warning light "Engine Overheating. Slow down slowly and stop." Like I said, not good. But, all worked out fine as we both learned about the different types and colors of antifreeze and where to put it in the engine. Little did we know at the time that we would go through this overheating exercise two more times before we returned home. Judy has become somewhat of an expert in opening the hood and knowing where to add the antifreeze and the right amount just to get us through the next couple hundred miles before overheating again.

Chill week for us. We spent the first two days of the week in central Pennsylvania. Actually we spent two nights in one place so we didn't have a driving day. One of the days we hung out at a cool lake spot (Bald Eagle State Park). Although I ended up working a bit in the van while Judy was laying on the beach, I did get to join her for the afternoon portion. We really like the place and we're already talking about coming back to visit in the fall to watch the leaves change.

We spent our last official night at Camp Weequahic! Really fitting place for Judy to be since this would have been her 22nd year at her summer home. Saw Jerry, Scrappy and Chef, and got a "wheel" (pizza) from the Villa. Yum, yum! This was after we got stuck in the mud and Jerry had to pull us out with the tractor.

So...now this adventure is ending. What have I learned and what are the highlights and lowlights and key takeaways:

Key takeaways:

* I DID IT!!! This was a huge accomplishment on my part. I surprised myself. And, to be honest, it wasn't as bad or hard as I thought it would be. In fact, I would do it again.

* As expected before the trip started, the three biggest challenges were indeed finding good WIFI, finding good coffee, and finding good clean bathrooms.

* Our country is as beautiful as everyone has told me through the years and there are some amazing places to see. I cannot wait to do this trip again and cover places that we were not able to visit on this trip; especially Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

* There are A LOT of people in this country who support and love Trump.

* There are A LOT of historical markers in this country.

* It has been 40 years since I found my soulmate and we still laugh, smile and enjoy our time together. In other words, we didn't get sick of each other!

(not counting two hours on the way to Lake Itasca, MN)

Highlights:

******* JACOB & RACHEL'S WEDDING!!! ********

Lowlights:

* Way too many mosquitoes and they all seemed to find me.

*  Nevada

*  Having a few near car challenges; a nail in the tire a few weeks ago, the engine overheating this week, and having to get towed out of the mud just yesterday. 

By the way, my calendar still has that this week I was to be in Scotland with Jeremy on a walking trip. Maybe next year.

Our Itinerary for week 7:

DAY 45 / 46 - KOA - Bellefonte/State College, PA

DAY 47 - CAMP WEEQUAHIC - Lakewood, PA

DAY 48 - Driveway at 220 Buckingham Road, Tenafly, NJ

DAY 49 - Return the van to Jersey City; 14-day quarantine begins!

By the way, when we returned the van today, our mileage for the trip was 10,660 miles! They also said that they have discontinued offering the unlimited milage options on all rentals now.