Having got Josin safely on land and cradled, and with almost all of the perishables and freezeables transported home for the winter, there will be no more aquatic activity until next spring. So, now someting else, travel!
Brother Peter has been kindly and repeatedly inviting me to come and stay, so a trip across the atlantic by plane, (it would have been too slow by boat), has happened, very comfortably in SAS’ Economy Plus class, new Airbus plane too. More space for legs and a wider, more comfortable seat, good food and service, to Newark, NJ. Avis hire car, a small Honda, which has performed adequately frugally, but with rather inflexible springs.
First a stay with cousin Miranda and husband Ken in Syracuse, NY state. NY city and NY state are two different things, with larger distances than overview maps indicate. Five hours, including a coffee stop, on multi-lane motorways was an interesting refresher course in American traffic, navigated by Garmin. Last hour was after sunset, and therefore extra interesting.
Miranda gathered her tribe for a family dinner, son-in- law’s birthday too, which was wonderful, as I hadn’t met any of them, children, spouses and grandchildren, (two more due innthe immediate future), before. Lasting impression!
Did some exporing of the local area, amongst other things to try and photograph the autumn colours, which were just beginning. A week or two later would have been better it was said. The Green Lake, with its large sandy, family-friendly beach bay, turned out to be unswimmable, bother. It had ‘shut’ for the winter.
Difficult to believe the notice as the temperature was over 70 degrees F. (You work it out in C!).
Today has been a long drive from Syacuse to Staunton, (at the north end of the Blue Ridge Drive, which will be tomorrow). I had planned to use as many other roads than motorways, to be able to admire the scenery, but with rain in the morning and some fail-navigation in the afternoon which had a magnetism for motorways, no opportunity arose to take pauses and pictures, except at the inevitable junctions, all peppered with McDonalds and the like. Better luck tomorrow.
From a weary-traveller John.
ZZZZZ
Josin's 2025 cruise 