Spoffords Travel

September 25, 2022 Day 2 Philadelphia Pennsylvania to Princeton New Jersey 75 miles

Today is mostly cloudy with a high in the lower 70s. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then got an Uber from the hotel to the storage place. We arrived about 9:15 but they don’t open until 9:30 so we had to wait a few minutes. We opened up the unit and loaded the bags in the car. Hallelujah the car started on the first try. All Rob’s worrying for the last few days were not necessary. We decided to head directly to the lunch location for the Glidden Tour rather than going to the hotel. The GPS said about 2 hours without freeways. So off we went. Now no freeways means you go right through downtown Philadelphia. We went through housing, theater, Chinese, church and Jewish districts. We stopped at too many stop lights to count. A couple of sections had banners on the street lights with large letter T’s. We eventually learned this was Temple University. Not the prettiest campus we have seen. The roads have some nasty pot holes and man hole covers. In the housing areas people park their cars on the side of the road and all down the turning lane. If nothing is parked along the side, drivers use the parking lane as a passing lane. It took us an hour to go about 10 miles. In that distance we never got out of city surroundings. We went through several small towns but they all blended together. When that finally ended, the houses became much larger with lush large lawns. Some ranch land was scattered here and there. In the distance were small hills by western standards. They are covered in trees. Most of those have not started to turn colors yet. Just before arriving at the lunch stop we saw two small fawns. The roads have gotten very narrow and the lines are nonexistent. We arrived at Woods Edge Farm a little after 12:00. Lunch isn’t until 1:30 so we had time to look around. They raise llamas and alpacas. They also sell products made from their hair. They also had a few yaks. We parked near the main road and rode up to the top on a golf cart. The grounds are beautifully maintained and the big barn had plenty of room for us to eat. Lunch was a catered BBQ with hot dogs, hamburgers, pulled pork and chicken. The sides included baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, mac and cheese, and pasta salad. Dessert was cookies. Then it was off to Strober’s Car Collection. They have a beautiful place about 10 miles from the lunch spot. Their cars are real show cars. They provided cookies, coffee, tea, water and ice cream bars. The ice cream bars came from the Good Humor Truck. (A classic aged pickup with an ice cream body.) It rained for a little bit on the way over. After enjoying this location we went to the hotel and checked in. It’s and early start tomorrow so its early to bed.

September 24, 2022 Day 1 Boise to Philadelphia

We did not drive the Woodie on this leg of the journey. We flew here with a departure from the Boise airport at 5:45 am. Thus a short night followed by a long day. Both of our checked bags have spare car parts for the drive home. While waiting to board the plane Rob realized he forgot the Garmin Tracker. Therefore this week we won’t have any Internet record of where we went. The car is still in storage because we got in later in the evening and chose to stay close to the airport and storage unit. We will get the car in the morning and drive to Princeton New Jersey. That is the home base for the Glidden Tour. For those that don’t know this is a tour for cars built before 1940. It goes for a week on day trips around the base city. This will be our fourth Glidden tour. Hopefully the car will start without a tow. Some really beautiful cars come and some more plain. No judging takes place just driving. AAA helps sponsor the event and sends an escort tow truck wherever we go.

Chester Pennsylvania 31.7 miles

This is the last posting for this part of the trip. Tomorrow we fly back to Boise for a couple of weeks. This was our first day off on the trip. It seemed strange to not be loading the car and enduring a 250 mile drive. Today was dedicated to finding a storage space for the woodie while we are gone. Finding the spot was the easy part. Getting there was a whole other story. We forgot to say no highways on the GPS so the route took us on freeway 95. That road was terrible. Hopefully they are prepping it to resurface soon. It had patches all over and then it was grooved. The woodie goes all over with that type of road. The locals are going at least 80 miles per hour in a marked 55 limit and they don’t let you change lanes. This caused us to miss two exits. One of those misses required a two mile drive across a very big bridge then a u-turn and back over the bridge. However, it was a nice view from the top of the bridge and we got to see it twice. We were almost to the storage place when it told us to turn just past the light. Well that was a CVS pharmacy. We turned sooner which was also wrong and required another u-turn. Lots of u-turn practice today. That would have been fine except a wreck occurred at that intersection so traffic was all mixed up. We turned into the CVS to see if an alternate route was there. No such luck. A fire truck was in the parking lot so we got directions from them. Seems the GPS systems have problems with the Public Storage address. Well we rented the unit and will take the car there tomorrow. Next stop is a grocery store. The closest one is a meat market that also sells some groceries. We found what we were looking for and returned to the hotel. This time no freeways. The roads were much better and not much slower. After lunch Rob did maintenance on the car and Connie worked on laundry. The woodie got greased and the brakes adjusted. The front desk of the hotel does not have change. She suggested the bank just down the street. Well they closed 30 minutes before Connie got there. The Best Western next to it had no one in the lobby. The university shop next to that is closed on Saturday. Ended up at a restaurant that had some change. We learned a new trick for getting quarters. You put a dollar bill in a vending machine and then ask for your change back. It comes out in quarters. Later in the afternoon we drove to a do it yourself car wash. The hose on the water sprung a leak on top so everything gets wet. Rob had two showers today. The place was very busy. Vehicles were lined up at all the bays. The “white walls” may never be white again. One of the roads today was as if a vehicle with traction tread had driven on it when the asphalt was hot. It had lots of evenly spaced grooves that made the drive extremely rough. After supper it’s time to pack.

Kingston New York to Chester Pennsylvania 184 miles

We stayed in a Super 8 last night. They have a continental breakfast and that is what it was. Frozen orange juice, fruit cups, blueberry muffins, granola bars, tea and coffee. It’s another sunny that is predicted to be in the 80s. Very little humidity so after a rubber hammer hit on the carburetor the car started right up. The state of New York is very different from the city of New York. We wound our way through forest, farms and small towns. They all have the typical New England look and feel. Even the back roads have a lot of traffic. We crossed over the Appalachian Trail in one spot and in another we passed the location where it first began. Another part of the road took us past Angry Orchard Farms which produces Angry Orchard hard cider. More evidence of horses. We saw some in the fields and some going down a trail with riders attached. One corral had jumps for horses and another farm advertised 25 years of polo. We followed along a river on a very narrow road. There was no shoulder and Connie could have touched the mountain out the window. Somewhere we crossed the state line into Pennsylvania. No sign marked the spot. Lots of small farm stands are all along the way. They also sell lots of camp wood. We have not seen many campers today. We ate lunch in a parking lot because we couldn’t find a picnic area. Several of the small communities are advertising some kind of fall festival. Schools have started here as well. Some towns have celebrations for Labor Day. Many have American flags on poles lining Main Street. The hanging baskets and potted flowers are gorgeous. Nurseries are adverting fall mums.The roads are getting wider and the traffic is increasing. They drive fast and cut in quickly. Repair shops must love doing all the brake work. When we get within 30 miles of Chester (a suburb of Philadelphia) the route puts us on a freeway. Then the pace really picks up. Then again it comes to a stop. We got off the freeway for part of the distance but that had lots of traffic lights. Most of those we had to stop. Construction was on part of it and the road was really rough. The manholes in particular were terrible. Those 30 miles took us over an hour to drive. We are staying in a Comfort Inn for the next couple of days while we find a storage space for the car and get to the airport. No rain and no wind so all is good. Rob put off car maintenance until tomorrow.

Concord New Hampshire to Kingston New York 208 miles

The skies today are mostly blue which is sure nice from all the grey skies. The humidity here is much less too. In fact the state is in severe drought conditions and has implemented water saving measures. That explains the low water pressure in the shower. One of the streams we drove along today really didn’t have much water. Rob loaded the car and it started without a pull. It likes the weather better also. We traveled through parts of New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. We went through forest, farmland and small towns. We did come into a cloudy area and the wind really picked up. The temperature dropped and we fully expected rain. Luckily it never came. These are mostly back roads again so very few turnouts. We found one to pull over for lunch but no table. While in New Hampshire we drove past Camp Spofford and Spofford Lake. We had visited there a few years ago. When we got to Vermont we traveled some of the same roads we had traveled last year on the Glidden Tour. Lots of signs now for maple syrup and candy. The restaurant tonight was in a house built around 1711. Rob is thinking of changing our plans slightly. We will now most likely go to Philadelphia and leave the car there. Connecting flights to Boise are much better from there rather than New Jersey.

Ellsworth Maine to Concord New Hampshire 234 miles

It rained some overnight and is still very cloudy. This was a B & B so we had breakfast. An Indian couple were there. They live close to Princeton New Jersey and were on their way home after taking their son to college. Rob loaded the car and began drying the engine off. Another small rain storm went through. The owner of the B & B said it won’t last long – ten minutes at the most. She was correct. Rob then began drying the car engine again while Connie talked with the owner. She has dual US and Canadian citizenship. As usual the car won’t start. Rob worked with it for awhile and then Chip just stopped by. He owns several Model A’s and Model T’s. The two guys worked together for probably 30 minutes but still no luck. Back to the pull. That did work so we are off again. The route will take us along the coast of Maine and then into New Hampshire. We drove through some very thick fog again which means you can’t see much. The majority of the way is through small villages and forest with a little agriculture. At least that is what we thought it was. Bigger towns existed wherever there was a nice harbor. By the time we got to Camden Maine most of the fog had lifted and there was actually some blue sky. This is another popular tourist town. The downtown is very active with shops and restaurants. We stopped here and had lunch. Rob had clam chowder and Connie had a lobster quesadilla. Both were good. There are lots of beautiful old houses made into tourist lodging. We got on the freeway to go through Portland Maine. That is a much bigger city at a population of 500,000 in the metropolitan area. We took a short break at McDonalds for bathrooms and ice cream cones. The time was about 7:30 when we got to the hotel making this a long driving day. The majority of the route had places to purchase lobster. Lobster rolls are very popular. That is chunks of lobster in a hoagie bun and the cost about $25 not including fries or a drink. We never had to add water to the radiator today so Rob thinks that problem has been fixed. The hard start in the morning is still an unsolved mystery.

Machias Maine to Ellsworth Maine 146 miles

Outside is very foggy this morning. The temperature however seems warm. Everything feels damp. Rob tried drying off the car and starting it. Another pull was required. We made a few loops around the parking lot and out onto the street. After a cool down period the car started with a short pull. It had flooded again. He got another tip on a product that might be useful. We took off later than planned but we should be good. The fog did eventually clear. So glad for that because we plan to see Acadia National Park today. We drove in and out of forested regions and small villages. The housing is varied. Everything from small run down shacks to big beautiful mansions. The roads are narrow and winding but overall in good condition. In many places the limbs form a canopy. We drove past the Acadia National Cemetary. Several veterans were on each side of the highway with various flags. Lining the road on each were American flags. Then about every fourth flag was a word or two from the Pledge of Allegiance until the entire pledge was printed. Wonderful sight. When we pulled over to let cars pass and fill the radiator with water, a deer walked across the road 100 feet or so in front of us. Rob missed this because he was getting the water. A lady stopped to see if we were having trouble. Rob said no and she asked if we were going to the car museum. Evidently it is just up the road. We were headed that way and did find it. Naturally we went in. They had some beautiful old cars of many different makes.They also had several ladies dresses from the same time frame. Nicely done. We have passed lots of signs about lobsters either living or cooked. We stopped at a roadside food truck that had so many customers they had to have a parking attendant. You would think that right here where they catch all this seafood that it would be cheaper but I don’t think so. Then they have an 8% sales tax. Connie had a crab roll and Rob had a bowl of chowder. No drinks and the bill was about $35. We kept seeing lots of signs about Acadia National Park but we never came to an entrance. Lots of trail heads. The parking lots for those are overflowing with cars. We later figured out that the park is in several pieces but the state highways run along the edge. If you are parked at one of these you need a park pass. Connie spotted another deer in the woods. When we arrived at Bar Harbor we were amazed at the number of people, restaurants and bars. This is quite the tourist town. Lots of accommodations too. Name brand hotels, B & Bs, cottages, and independent hotels. Not far out of Bar Harbor is the start of the park loop road. The map we got at the food truck showed the road going to the left. We tried three times and couldn’t find the road. We finally went to the right where it said park entrance. Well the road curves back around and goes under the road we had been on. This road is one way with two lanes. Signs indicate you can park in the right lane. A couple of miles in we came to the park entrance. Every parking lot and pull out was full of cars. The road was lined with more. This being the end of August and school here at least started today, sure seemed like a lot of visitors. This part of the road follows the coastline. The forest comes down to the rocks at the edge of the water. The road turns north and inland. Two park security vehicles passed us with sirens and lights. In a few miles we came upon an accident. An ambulance was there also. Looked like two scooters were involved in an accident. A man was getting up but the woman was still on the road. The road then goes past a couple of lakes before reaching the Visitors Center. We didn’t go in because the parking lot was full. If you get the opportunity the park is worth a visit. There is no lodging of any kind in the park. Now its off to our lodging for tonight. We made a quick stop at NAPA to get more stop leak because we seem to have another radiator leak. We are in a B & B that used to be a small care facility. Next was go do laundry. Not one of the cleaner facilities. We ate leftovers for dinner. Rob worked on the car and Connie did the blog.