Sunday and Monday

Monday, April 17, 2017

Cannon’s ski school closed at 10 AM on Sunday, so we departed from home earlier than expected and stopped for a late breakfast/early lunch at Polly’s.  Surprisingly there were no crowds so we were in and out quickly and on the road by 12:15 PM.  The drive to Nick & Chetty's in Glastonbury, 226 miles, was an easy one with minimal traffic and dry roads, so we arrived just after 4 pm. 

Spring has definitely come to Glastonbury; the lawns are green and many flowers are out:  tulips, daffodils, forsythia, lilacs, etc…not to mention it was 90 degrees.

For dinner we went into downtown Hartford, and had a meal at Trumbull’s, who is catering Nick & Chetty’s wedding reception.   After dinner we successfully booked two tickets for the Grand Ole Opry.  Ricky Skaggs is the headliner for that night…it should be fun.  Unfortunately, we were unable to print the tix since N&C’s printer isn’t working, so we’ll have to stop at a Staples somewhere and get that done. 

We were up early today; Nick and Chetty had to work, but they still had time to make us delicious & healthy breakfast of mango juice & a cold cereal that included lots of fruits and quinoa.  Our visit was a brief one, but we’ll see them in June for their wedding.

We were all on the road by 8:00 AM, our destination was Gettysburg, where we spent four nights last July.  That drive was also relatively easy other than usual traffic for that area and I amazingly was able to drive across the bridge on the Hudson near Newburgh, NY…and I did it with really no anxiety.  Yippee; hopefully I’ve licked that demon!

We arrived in Gettysburg around 4 pm, stopped in the visitor’s center at the National Park and picked up a map and so we could do the auto tour one more time.  The weather was gorgeous and many plants were flowering so it couldn’t have been more enjoyable.  The crowds that we encountered in July were non-existent, it was very peaceful eventhough we were on the fields were 50,000+ died in 1863.  We could have spent another full day reading all the markers throughout the battlefields…it’s just riveting.

Finishing the auto tour around 6 PM, we headed to “Food 101” which is Trip Advisor’s #1 rated restaurant in Gettysburg.  Joni had a bistro steak and I had lamb chops.  Both dishes were delicious and switched plates at half time.  The place is BYOB, so we really had an incredible meal for $32 plus tip.

We then headed north, about 30 miles to our campground in the Pine Grove Furnace State Park.  We stayed in the same campsite as we did last July.  Again there were no crowds compared to July.  We arrived at the campsite with enough daylight to get settled.  This is our first night in our new van!