It was a mixed day, weather-wise, but that's fine. The four of us hadn't been on a road trip together in much too long and had a lot to catch up on: books, politics, movies, the last weekend, the future trip, and all things in between. We decided to eschew the "scenic" (slow) route through Pennsylvania down Route 15 and instead drove though Dryden and picked up Interstate 81 in Marathon and pressed the pedal to the metal for the distant South.
A not-unexpected problem was that our Forester was loaded with three large suitcases, a bulging duffel bag, a leaky drinks cooler, an assortment of packs/rucksacks, random boots and hiking sticks, and miscellaneous bags of stuff. This meant that I couldn't see out the back (well, a little when the suitcases were arrayed correctly), and so had to rely on constant awareness of the side mirrors. No close calls all trip, though several lane changes took some faith.
We hoped to get in an afternoon at Harper's Ferry (intersection of Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia) that day, but we had a later than expected start and it's a *long* way down there. The first of many constructive negotiations about eating places was had, and we stopped for lunch just South of Scranton, off the access road to Montage Mountain, where they have the Peach Festival. This was Harvest Seasonal Grill and Wine Bar in Moosic PA, and though Jim and I got pretty good black bean and rice bowls and SarahE had a fine local grass-fed burger, SarahP got a barely digestible raw vegetable bowl, that wasn't supposed to be raw. Oh well, we were off on our adventure and we knew we could expect worse things (and they didn't charge us for it)! Stopped by the shops for a few minutes so Sally could look for shorts (she had packed for cooler weather), but this mall was too upscale.
Back on the road and the hours passed quickly. We decided early that we should head right to Winchester VA (for our reserved hotel) and leave Harper's Ferry for later. We had left two free days in out planned itinerary and might get that in. We crossed the Susquehanna River in the outskirts of Harrisburg and bombed on South, across the Mason-Dixon Line (past cheap hotels named after it) into Maryland, and then soon into West Virginia and ultimately into a Northwest corner of Virginia.
We had Google Maps giving us advice and before we knew it we were suddenly in the middle of Winchester and passing the George Washington Grand Hotel, where we turned left onto North Cameron Street and then into a full parking lot! Luckily there was a municipal lot right next to it and we got a fine (free) space there and checked into the Grand, which is a handsome old hotel with lots of stone and glass, a classy old lobby with a huge picture of George, and all the fixings. We were suddenly in the middle of Southern Elegance and are old enough not to be fazed by this, in fact we were delighted.
Got rooms up on the 4th floor and they were excellent too. This wasn't an antiseptic business hotel like the one we'd been in in Ithaca. The rooms had thick wooden furniture, large gilt mirrors, real paintings, and large tiled bathrooms with Roman shades. Of course I had to unplug the buzzing refrigerator in the middle of the night so I could get some sleep, and the pillows were inadequate. But this was the kind of hotel where you could imagine prior generations of classy people (like us!) dressing up, putting on their makeup, and heading down to the cocktail lounge or over to the library. There was a glass and copper mail slot where you could drop your correspondence down to a box in the lobby.
OK, where to eat? We ventured out into Winchester and were advised that there was a pedestrian mall downtown (a few blocks away) that might have a few acceptable restaurants, but that we'd probably end up at the sports bar next door.
We found a few large apple sculptures (Winchester's business is based on apples to a large degree), the name "Handley" all over the place (though he never lived there), lots of empty store fronts, and their beautiful, restored library with a children's reading garden. We toured the pedestrian mall and rejected the few restaurants that were open, and then ended up in the sports bar next to the hotel, in a classy old building itself next to the railroad station, where we had some fine beers and some good food (pulled pork for me) while they showed American football highlights from the afternoon on screens and projected the ongoing Steelers - Ravens game on the adjacent lot's wall.
Our waitress was wearing a Patriots jersey and was ready with the score: 38 -7 over the Dolphins! I was pleased by the amount of Patriots and especially Red Sox gear we saw during the trip. The ratio expressed by my informal count was:
- random college hats/jerseys/t-shirts: 35%
- Red Sox/Patriots jerseys/hats/etc.: 30%
- Washington Nationals gear: 15%
- Yankees/Giants/Jets gear: 15%
- Other: 5%
Soon back to the George Washington, where we learned that their colonnaded pool was not open that night! Oh well, soon to bed.
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