I posted previously about my plans for a 1700 mile road trip in four days (here). I survived the trip and it actually ended up being closer to 1800 miles. I crossed through nine states (OH, PA, NY, VT, NH, MA, CT, NJ, and WV) and used almost 60 gallons of gasoline.
Here are my thoughts on the experience:
Day 1 Friday
Columbus, OH to Chester, Vt ~700 miles 12 hours
Friday was the long day. We had to go about 700 miles in order to make it all the way to Vermont in one day. We made it despite the constant rain and nearly being bled to death by tolls on I-90E. Luckily the rain slowed down as we passed Albany and things cleared for our drive through Vermont. It was absolutely beautiful in Vermont. We tried to snap a few pictures from the car (rule 1 of a road trip, no unnecessary stops) but I’m not sure we captured the full effect.
The important thing was we made it through the worst leg of the trip driving wise.
Day 2 Saturday
Vermont to Farmington, NH to Hartford, CT ~320 miles 5 hours
On Saturday we made the roughly two hour drive from southern Vermont to southern New Hampshire. You might think this is a straightforward drive, but in actuality there are not many highways that run East-West in that part of the country. Instead we traveled up I-91 and then back down I-89.
The day was rainy but fortunately it was more of a mist than anything else. The service was small and informal but everyone in Sandy’s family seemed pleased. I never had the chance to meet her Grandpa but after hearing people talk about him, I wish I had. He was certainly a dapper fellow:
His obituary appeared in the NY Times on August, 28th. (link)
After the service finished up, we got back on the road and made our way down to East Hartford, CT. I’m normally not a fan of satellite radio, but being able to listen to Georgia Tech play Miss State while driving through Mass was certainly nice. We did not get to Hartford until late and we left early the next day, so unfortunately I did not get a chance to look around the city at all.
Day 3 Sunday
CT to Millburn, NJ to Harrisburg, PA 300 miles 5.5 hours
As I said above, we left Hartford early to make it down to Millburn by late morning. I had been advised to avoid NYC at all costs and I thought I had fooled the GPS unit into going around the city, but somehow we still ended up sitting in traffic to cross the Hudson River via the George Washington Bridge.
It was a beautiful day in New Jersey (I can’t believe I just wrote that) and I had a really good time exploring Sandy’s hometown. Luckily one of her good friends from Millburn that lives in NYC was able to come hang out with us and help her remember the way around town. If you think of New Jersey as one giant suburb as I do, then Millburn just reinforces that image. It offers a little more than your typical sprawling suburb though. It has a nice little downtown area and retains a lot of the small town feel while being less than hour (via train) from all the amenities of New York City.
We had two food stops that had been planned ahead of time. The first was the famous Millburn Deli and the other was La Strada for a slice of pizza. I tried the Sloppy Joe which the deli is known for and quite enjoyed it. It was different from the typical deli experience but quite delicious. La Strada is a nice little Italian restaurant that is also in downtown Millburn and basically serves as Sandy’s reference point to judge all other pizza from. She does this with good reason. Maybe I’ve just been eating too much Ohio pizza, but the NY style at La Strada was really satisfying. Sorry Columbus, the East Coast wins when it comes to pizza.
The aforementioned deli.
The old movie theater also in downtown Millburn.
Of course no visit to Millburn would be complete without a visit to the now infamous Millburn High School, home of the slut list. We drove by to take some pictures and noticed one of the doors was open. We peeked our heads in and noticed several large, bold lettered signs reading “No Trespassing, all visitors must sign in.” We decided not to go much further and a janitor quickly appeared to closed the open door after us. I’m not sure if the school was always this way or if the recent press has made them more cautious of visitors.
In typical New Jersey fashion, we also made a trip to the mall. Not just any mall mind you, we went to The Mall at Short Hills. That’s right, not the Short Hills mall, but THE Mall at Short Hills. Short Hills is the town next door that features such attractions as mansions belonging to the Arizona Ice Tea founder and what I was told was “the Six Flags guy.” The Mall at Short Hills is a nice mall, home to many high end stores like one would find at Lennox or Phipps in Atlanta. Going to the mall just seemed like a very Jersey thing to do, so I’m glad I got to see that on my tour of North Jersey.
That evening after pizza at La Strada, we had to say goodbye to New Jersey and continue on to Harrisburg, PA.
Day 4 Monday
Harrisburg, PA to Columbus, OH ~375 miles 6 hours
Harrisburg and the drive back were pretty uneventful. The only purpose of stopping there was to break up the drive back from NJ. It did however renew my hatred for the Penn Turnpike and toll roads in general.
Overall I think the trip was successful. We made it with little problem. It was nice to get away from Ohio for a little while and it was nice to be back on the right side of the country even if we were a little too far north. I would definitely do the trip again or a similar one. I would first invest in an EZ Pass though to make the toll roads less painful. We were worried we would run out of cash paying the tolls at one point in upstate NY. I’m thankful I had a GPS unit and would make sure I had one if I were doing it again. There were times where we had to take detours or wanted to hop off the interstate to get a bite to eat and it really came in handy.
I hope you enjoyed my thoughts. I do recommend checking out Vermont and New Hampshire in the fall if you like the mountains and beautiful scenery. At the very least Sandy and I are planning to head back that way for a little skiing this winter. Jersey wasn’t bad either.
