The Windmill Posts

Welcome back to the trip! After a nice long rest, I am recharged and ready to go! slowly on the mend and getting back into the swing of things. My excitement is tempered by my remaining cough and the impending weather. Had a great time with family, and I have some cool stops coming up, but I have to say I’m slowly getting ready to be home, no matter how good or bad that will be. Today took me through six(!) states, and I finished my collection state license plates with Rhode Island, parked right next to me at a rest area. I managed to turn a 4 hour drive into a 6 1/2 hour drive – I think I’m surprised it wasn’t longer. For being a straight shot from Maryland to Connecticut, I found a few things to keep me busy. First of all..

The Lowest Highest Point! (not really)

There’s a band called Moxy Fruvous. They’ were a witty Canadian band, and everyone in my little family love them. Their album “Live Noise” includes a track called “Lowest highest point.” Check it out:

The bit being an improv in which that quiz the audience on which state has the lowest “highest point” — and in the end reveal that it is Delaware. This is wrong, of course, as it’s Florida. But it’s a funny bit. I was trying to find a way to add Pennsylvania to my list of states, and I didn’t like the idea of crossing a bridge, turning around, and declaring myself a native of that state. I wanted a reason to be there. So lo and behold I find that Delaware’s highest point it a literal stones throw from Pennsylvania, and I would have to go to there to get to the landmark. And so it was.

I did get to go on some cool back roads to get there, which is where I got the covered bridge merit badge. I also got to covered some ground on some proper twisties. The wrinkle being the elevation changes. It’s fun to go side by side, or do it on a grade uphill or down, like the coast. But these had pure stomach dropping upsdy daisy twisties! Although then you go over the top you rise up a bit and lose some amount of traction. Frightful. Photo at the bottom and the top.

The next exciting portion of the drive was..

Manhattan

I have always thought it would be. a cool urban exploration to go from Battery Park on Manhattan to the northernmost point. One. Stoplight. At. A. Time. Of course I know this is silly, and it would get mind numbing chewing your way through traffic. But I still want to do it.

Today I did a reasonable variant. I think enough to satisfy the itch. I mean, when am I going to be back with free time and a MINI? So here was the journey: Holland Tunnel into SOHO, did a Washington Square drive-by, then over to the West Village to wave to the Stonewall Inn, then took a right turn but the wrong way onto a one way followed by the fastest MINI u-turn ever. Spun up through Chelsea, passed through Hudson Yards and ended up on Henry Hudson Parkway off the north end of the island.

So much fun! No accidents. I got honked at cutting someone off (on purpose) and I honked at someone sleeping at a green light. I saw what I believe might have been a legal parking space, watched very large vehicles just go busting into intersections like they knew just how much mass they had.

It wasn’t end to end but it was a good taste, without any of the insanity of the busier parts of the city. Sure was nice having a little MINI in those tight streets!

Losses

I haven’t had many losses on the trip, but I have had three important ones. The first are my favorite pajama pants. I forgot them on the bed in the Hotel Del Sol in San Francisco, mostly because it was a suite and I didn’t hit the bedroom comprehensively in the final sweet. I did get replacements at a Target some time after that but they’re not the same. Sung to the tune of “I left my pj’s in San Francisco”

The next is exfoliant. I feel it’s a luxury, and I use it at home when I shower. But I didn’t bring any along as I figured I could live without for a month. As it turns out it’s a much bigger part of my acne prevention system than I realized. One of my meds has the side effect of excruciatingly painful cystic acne, as well as good old fashioned teenager facial acne. And the exfoliant (along with Benzoyl Peroxide and/or Retin-A and cleansing pads all combine to make things as stable as possible. Yeah, it’s more than you wanted to know. And yet here you are, reading away.

So I stopped at a CVS or something and got some of my favorite kind. Awesome. Remember how I use it in the shower? Yeah, that’s where I left it. Can’t remember where. Rinse and Repeat in Monterey. Got some, left some. Got some more and left it in New Orleans. Got some more and still have it. Pray til the end of the trip. Yes, it’s expensive, but it makes things less worse.

And now to the rings. I have a VNS (look it up I’m not explaining it here) and in order to turn it off when I need, I have a “medical magnet” that I hold up to my chest. It pulls a reed switch which deactivates it for that five minute period. Well, smarty pants me figured out you could use a magicians ring. It’s a ring magicians use to palm coins and other metal things. So I wear it, wave it past my chest, and boom no more electrical infusion. I wore one and packed two more. The problem is that they’re hematite or something similar, which makes them brittle. Drop them on the ground and they’re done for. The first went some time after Florida. the second in Maryland minutes after telling my sister about how it was great I had spares. So I’m down to one now, but ordered some more for when I get home.

Thankful that’s all I’ve lost. Except tomorrow when I realize I forgot my boots at my sisters on her radiator. I hope that doesn’t happen.

Up Next

I knew this portion of the trip (the last leg of five) was going to be the most volatile. Winter weather can be so varied and unpredictable. I have a hard deadline of the 9th of December, as I have appointments on the 10th that I must be at. As it stands I’m set up to arrive home on the afternoon of the 9th. I only have one zero day in there, and it’s at my sisters so I can’t sacrifice it. There’s a storm coming, but predictions are still haphazard at best. The clincher looks like it’s Wednesday night. Albany has multiple inches predicted, and it’s right about the time I’d be getting there. There’s also a cut through Canada, though the border is usually not that bad, what if we add weather? The closer I get to home the fewer manipulations I can do to make up for unforeseen issues. Though I do have one last stop at the edge of Wisconsin that I could skip. It would make for a nightmare drive, but I’ve done it before. Some spoilers there but not too many!

Deets

• License Plates: KY, NH, RI, VT collection complete! Also Alberta, Ontario, Quebec
• States: MD, PA, DE, PA, NJ, NY, CT
• Departed: 8:57 am EST, 34 degrees
• Original ETA 1:08 pm EST
• Arrival: 3:43 pm EST
• Warmest/Coldest: Death Valley 90°, Wallace ID 22°
• Weather: Cold, gray
• Music:
  • The The – Soul Mining
  • Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes
  • U2 – The Joshua Tree
  • Sinead O’Connor – The lion and the cobra
  • Random 80’s singles I wanted to hear (KonKan, Fixx, Motels, Saga, Boy’s Don’t Cry)
  • Mix based on above

Observations

• Maryland has a license plate variant that made looking for Kentucky plates a challenge
• They still sell Hummers?
• I have a cold
• Sometimes avoiding tolls means surface streets.
• Sometimes surface streets have a lot of stop lights
• I drove on Waverly Place in NYC. Did not see any wizards.
• Went over a legitimate covered bridge

Pictures

Not a ton of pictures today as it was mostly highways and places I couldn’t get to / use my phone.