from the road

An overnight in Walterboro, South Carolina, was just about the perfect stopping point, slightly more than halfway to Florida, with all the horrible traffic just south of Washington behind us. We never saw an accident, did see a little bit of construction, but again and again it was bumper to bumper traffic with the same semis and trailers passing us, and then falling behind, and passing us again.

Highly recommended for travel listening: A collection of John Cheever short stories. I had never read enough of him to know how funny he could be when he took on zoning boards and neighborhood associations, to say nothing of middle-aged men figuring out they were not immortal.

The pace so far in Sarasota has matched the heat and humidity, in an inverse proportion. The higher the humidity, the slower I move. We have been to the beach, had a fish fry at a place on the water where we could watch the sun set, done some Goodwill hunting, and figured out that the natives have a lot more stamina than I do. Pat actually mowed her lawn yesterday! after a tennis lesson!

road trips, we love road trips

We made it to NYC yesterday by 1:00 pm, found Bridget's apartment (hooray for mapquest!), and unloaded the rug. I had worried about finding a parking space, but NYC seems to have kind of a benign policy on double parking and fire hydrants. As long as you are in and out quickly, it is possible to unload a 300-pound rug, which, after about an hour of rearranging furniture, looks great in her apartment.

Location, location, location. This shot was taken from Bridget's window, which gives her a view of the East River.

We did a lot of walking, and even managed to get inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw an impressive Modern American Craft exhibit, even though it was a little disconcerting to see that probably 80 percent of the artists who were in the show were born after 1945.

We were in NYC less than 24 hours, and a run in Central Park wasn't on the schedule, but the NYC road runner's club had a 4-mile race this morning, so the three of us were in the park at 7:00 am this morning so Tom could sign up. There were at least 4,000 runners and walkers in the race, and, as usual, Tom was one of the happiest.

I have not mentioned three great meals, the first one at Josie's, a restaurant that just happened to have healthy food. We had an ice cream break late in the afternoon and pasta at a neighborhood Italian restaurant.

We ended the trip as it began, parking by a fire hydrant to load a desk on the truck to bring back to Maryland.

All the work wrapping the table in a tarp paid off. We had rain for about 5 hours on the way back, and the desk stayed dry.

General trivial impressions: sundresses are everywhere, and the skimpier the better. Driving in the city itself is actually no harder than driving around Bethesda. Getting in and out of the city would be impossible without a set of instructions. Thousands of runners must live within walking distance of Central Park. Cab drivers are aggressive, but they treated us well. Every block is its own city. A good dose of Starbuck's coffee at Exit 85 off of I95 woke Tom up.