Well here we go setting off on another road trip and this one will be an extended road trip of 16 days which is easily the longest we have done on our travels and will see us reach our goal of having been to all 50 states (we currently sit at 44) Its a sunny day starting out at 14 degrees with a little breeze making it feel quite cool and will reach a top today of only 20 degrees.
We dont have any breakfast included here so we did some googling last night to find a diner nearby that was generally on our route and eventually decided on a place called the Classic Diner. It took a bit of an effort getting here with lots of traffic, driving in school zones with narrow streets and a little bit freaky parking the car in a tight spot underneath the railroad tracks in their tiny car park but we got here and it was indeed a classic experience. The place was full of locals going about their daily business talking to each other. We noticed a sign inside explaining the procedures to follow for emergency care for choking which
was not the best thing to see first up and a bit of a worry but all was good and I had a nice meal with 2 sunny side up eggs with hash browns and Kerry had some french toast. We also had some orange juice which was so fresh and coffee (they pronounced here as Staff had really strong New York accents just like good old Don Lane.
We always set google maps to avoid tolls and most of the time this enables us to get on the roads to enjoy some less travelled places as we enjoy driving through small town America and on this occasion the route wanted to take us onto Manhattan Island and we had shocking traffic getting across Roosevelt Island on the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. One of the problems was that a ramp onto the main highway was closed off by police so google maps could not work out an alternative route very well as it wanted me to go around the block and use the same ramp again (not knowing it was temporarily closed !). We eventually got to Manhattan before heading north on the FDR expressway into the Bronx
passing by Yankee Stadium on our way north and soon the traffic eased as we crossed the border into Connecticut (45th state visited and state # 5 on this trip).
Once we crossed into Connecticut we had a choice of travelling their Gold Coast on i95 but I chose the Merritt Parkway as I guessed it might be more scenic. Turns out this was a good choice as this road which runs parallel with i95 runs for about 60 kilometres and was built in the 1930s and is one of Americas scenic byways well known for its fall foliage. It is also well known for the Art Deco architecture of the 69 overpasses you drive under (yes 69 bridges). I dont think any two were the same design / style and they are generally arched bridges so the clearance heights on the side are quite low and as such the road is only allowed to be used by cars. I think some only had clearance of 10 feet.
The roads merged as we approached New Haven and we headed into downtown to look around but parking was impossible so we just drove around the blocks and got to
see some impressive sights of Yale University but missed out on going to visit Louis Lunch which is said to have been the first place to sell a hamburger and was opened in 1895. They still make them the same using two slices of bread instead of a bun.
We decided to keep on driving as it was only about 40 minutes to get to our destination being Essex. We were about 5 minutes away when we drove past this placed called the Scotch Plains Tavern. So we decided to stop and have a coffee and some clam chowder soup. It was a lovely outdoor setting outside a brewery and saw a squirrel having fun on the lawn.
We arrived in Essex around 3pm and are staying at the Griswold Inn because I found it online and reminded me of Clark W Griswold on his famous movie vacations to Europe and Wally World. However this place has its own history which is far more impressive.
