Road Trip, July 6-9

ITHACA,NEW YORK - ANN ARBOR,MICHIGAN

We left early this morning from the farm. We are taking Father to a therapeutic retreat in Ann Arbor at the Rudolf Steiner Health Center. He'll be there for 2 weeks. It was hard for Mother to let him go. She kept thinking of last minute things that Father might like to pack: a book, a recorder... But at 8:15am we were on our way. We had a nice drive, stopping frequently. We had our home-made sandwiches in the park pavilion in the little town of Findleys Lake close to the Pennsylvania border. It wasn't even on the map, but the name sounded promising and there were no more rest areas for many miles. The lake was obviously something of a resort, with gracious villas along it's banks. From the park by the old mill (mill wheel still turning, though not pulling any grindstones) we could watch an excursion boat, a man fishing, and kids swimming. They swung out over the lake on a rope hanging from a tall branch of a willow tree and then dropped into the water with a big splash.
In Ohio, we stopped for ice cream.
The Weber Hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan where we stayed the night, is an independent hotel and very posh, with indoor pool and jacuzzi, garden terrasses, and nice restaurant. We have a big room with two double beds, one for Father, one for Husband and me (Ingvild will be sleeping on the floor), refrigerator, TV and free wireless internet. While Father rested, we checked out the pool and jacuzzi.
States traveled today: New York State (rt 17), a little corner of Pennsylvania, all of Ohio, and a little corner of Michigan.


ANN ARBOR,MICHIGAN - CHARLSTON,WEST VIRGINIA

Breakfast at the hotel restaurant was very good: golden malt waffles with fresh strawberries, bacon, coffee and orange juice. The chatty waiter told us that the guy who first started the restaurant in 1937 (the hotel, pool etc were added on bit by bit) still comes to have sunday breakfast there.
The Rudolf Steiner Health Center is in a big house set a little bit off the road, with a lush garden in back. We were met at the door by a couple of young women coworkers. Inside I saw several small parlors as well as a large common room, complete with fireplace and grand piano. Upstairs the bedrooms were named after plants. Father will be sharing a bright corner bedroom with another guest. Before leaving we even got to say hello to Dr Molly. She said (looking at me)"You must be Willwerths". Isn't family resemblence great. Both Mother and Ilian have been there, and she was pleased to hear that Ilian would be coming to pick Father up.
From Ann Arbor we drove south through Ohio, getting stuck in trafik just north of Columbus. A flat, fairly boring landscape with ugly towns. Why anyone would choose to live in Ohio is beyond me.
After crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky we started heading east. In Kentucky, all along the river we saw mines, iron and coal, refineries and power plants. These continued when we entered West Virginia, though not as frequently because the landscape quickly became very hilly.
Spent the night in Charlston, which is described in the guide books as beautifully situated with a classical capitol building and cultural downtown. All true, but unfortunatly surrounded by mining, refining and power industry, which kind of ruins the effect. We stayed at a "Day's Inn" ($78 for a room for the night for 1-2 people, kids under 18 free), right on the Kanawha river, which contained our 2 main requirements: breakfast and free wireless internet. As an extra bonus (for Ingvild) there was a pool.
We ordered in Pizza. I called 2 pizza places, one which I found in the yellow pages, the other had an advertizement in the room. Both these places said they did not deliver to Kanawha City (which is what this part of Charlston is called). We ended up having to choose Pizza Hut.

CHARLSTON,WEST VIRGINIA - HARRISONBURG,VIRGINIA

It is funny to compare the Day's Inn to the Weber Hotel. They offer all the same things, except that the Day's Inn has the cheap version. When we got to the breakfast room this morning, a largeish woman with a charming southern drawl, was proudly presiding over her breakfast: rice crispies and cornflakes for cereal. Bags of instant oatmeal. Wonder bread, wheat bread and (check this out!) french toast next to the toaster. Various fake maple sirups, fake butter, "fruit spreads", real honey and real cream cheese. Bread bagels (not real ones), and Sara Lee Danish and muffins. And of course orange juice and coffee. I had the french toast with honey, and an apple danish.
We headed east through West Virginia, a beautifull mountainous state. You don't see much agriculture or forestry. I wonder what the people live from, besides mining and mining related industry. Mining, I guess. I wonder if old-timers still cling to the land, deep in the forest, making their living from whiskey and poaching. Anyway, we missed much of the landscape as we drove through a violent deluge which lasted an hour or so.
Luckily it had cleared up when we reached the Blueridge Parkway at Buena Vista, around noon. We spent the afternoon driving north on the parkway. Beautifull landscape, peacefull green forest, flowering milkweed, black cohosh and black-eyed susans, bird song, and deer grazing at the road side. Highlights:
- A 10 minute walk to wigwam falls from the reconstructed bit of logging railroad.
- Ravens Roost, a fantastic overlook over the Shenandoah valley.
- Humpback Rocks, a 20 minute hike to craggy rocks, from which you can watch the birds of prey, circle far below.
- The open air museum, depicting a mountain farm, with one room cabin, weasel proof chicken house, complete with chickens, barn, spring house, bear proof pig pen and vegetable garden. You could easily imagine life around the turn of the 19th century.We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in the shopping center adjoining our motel (Econolodge, $50). The place looked expensive, real cloth napkins, impecable service. They even put on an Andrea Boccelli CD at Ingvild's request. We were only planning to have salads and desert so we figured we'd be able to afford it. The food was exquisite. My shrimp pasta salad was a mix of hot and cold. Penne, shrimp, veggies and melted mozzarella hot on a bed of lettuce, garnished with tomatoes, cucumber and onion. For desert Ingvild and I shared a New york Cheesecake on Fudge with caramel and pecan topping. Husband had tiramisu. The desert plates were tastefully decorated with a leaf pattern in chocolate and strawberry sauce. I thought at first it was the pattern of the china.

HARRISONBURG,VIRGINIA - LANCASTER,PENNSYLVANIA

Econolodge seems to have a simpler standard: i.e. no in room refrigerator, much simpler breakfast, indifferent personell. Breakfast here consisted of various bagels, doughnuts, muffins. No bread or french toast here. The condiments limited to butter (fake), jam and cream cheese. The cold cereals were Corn flakes and honey nut cheerios (my favorite). Juice and coffee of course.
Since we didn't have so far to drive, we got off of the interstate shortly after entering Pennsylvania, and took US 30 to Lancaster through Gettysburg. We stopped there to visit the Civil War memorial drive, and had lunch at a local family restaurant. At the civil War Memorial there was a herd of cows: 2 calves, 2 heifers, 2 cows and a bull complete with nose-ring, all hanging out under an oak tree. Unfortunately just as I was trying to photograph them they turned their backs and wandered off.
While researching motels for the next night I discovered something. The price seems to depend not so much on the chain or the standard as on the location. I looked in vain for motels under $73 in Harrisburg or Allentown Pa. The I started looking in smaller towns. Here the rates were cheaper, but did not include breakfast or internet. Finally I researched Lancaster. It is a fair sized town, but off the beaten track. Lo and behold, I found several motels with both breakfast and free wireless internet for about $50. The Day's Inn seemed most promising but we ended up at Travelodge (our backup plan) because we couldn't find the Day's Inn (It turns out it has changed owners and name and was recently rated nr 8 of the 10 dirtiest hotels in the US. The Travelodge in Lancaster is new, the staff are very friendly, the soft-water pool is in an inner courtyard, it has a fitness room, refrigerator, microwave, etc etc. All for $55. Best standard motel so far and one of the cheapest! The breakfast here was the best ever: 4 kinds of juice, coffee, english muffins, blueberry muffins, danish pastries, 3 kinds of fruit, 2 kinds of cold cereal (cheerios and cornflakes), and waffle dough so that you could make fresh waffles with syrup.


LANCASTER,PENNSYLVANIA - NEWARK, NEW JERSEY
I must have forgotten to write about the last leg of the journey. It was 2 years ago, but really it was just about getting to the airport and flying home.