Rodeway Inn Willington

... left the parking the garage the rain started up again. After getting stuck in traffic 3 different times we arrived at Shenandoah National Park around 5 pm. We spent the evening sleeping in the back of the Volvo in a normal campsite.

After a restless night at the airport I waited with the crowds for the 6:45 a.m. flight out to Dallas, but again had no prayer of getting on. An agent told me I probably would not get out all week, as Boston is almost always short on planes. I called Uncle Bill and he said he could route me through Chicago from Hartford, if I ...

... dropped him off at the hotel to work on CME while Jan and I went to Marshall's and found me a pair of Under Armour tights to also weat in Boston. We gassed up the car for our trip to New London the next morning, then had an ice cream at the Creamery on Main Street in Old Wethersfield--yumm! Said good-bye to Jack, as he will be in art class when we leave tomorrow, and gave Jan her early birthday gifts ...

... bridge originally built in the 1740s to cross the Housatonic River. It's actually a part of the Appalachian Trail.

After a full day of driving we said good-bye to Jack and Jan, then went for a walk, stopping by Whole Foods to pick up a couple of food items to eat for dinner back in the room. We marveled over the perfect weather--68, sunny with a few clouds and a light breeze. We were really fortunate.

... near our hotel and had lunch of thin crust pizza and salad. It reminded me of Olive Garden, only better. Jan & Jack dropped us off at the hotel to get settled and we arranged to meet them later.

After unpacking at our 6th floor room, we walked out the front door to go for a walk and ran into our friends Cookie & Paul Shapiro who drove up from NYC just to see us for a couple of days. Cookie had just had laser ...

Woke to a cloudy, rainy day and went for a seven mile walk. For lunch we ate soup, then Jan and I went downtown to the Mark Twain House Tour. We missed the parking lot and ended up parking on the street, which was fine, although a bit damp. The tour was interesting, but we both agreed it seemed dark and dreary inside, and would have better viewed on a sunny day with light streaming in the beautiful stained glass windows. We went for a coffee ...

... after Boston). After the seaport we drove through Noank looking for the White Swan restaurant that was recommended to us, but we never found it. We then drove to Groton, thinking we would find a lobster restaurant on the water, but we gave up on that, too. Finally, in Preston, we stopped along the road at Golden Pizza and had salad and calamari. The drive home was even more beautiful with so many leaves turning gold, ssemingly right before our eyes.

... who designed both the New London Train Station and Trinity Church in Boston. I didn't recognize the name until later when I did some research and remembered he had also built the Marshall Field Warehouse in Chicago, which was torn down in 1932 but I was familiar with from art classes. It was quite dark by the time we drove home. We had a piece of pie and went to bed soon after.

Full day! Long walk to the cove in Old Wethersfield and back. Took Jack to his art class at the senior center, then drove to the Hartford State Capitol where we were given a private tour with our guide, Alice Hinchcliffe, who was very knowledgeable and entertaining. One of her bits of trivia was the story of how the "charter oak" got its name by the charter of Connecticut being hidden inside an oak tree to escape ...

... needs for a month? Ok-maybe not all my needs-I'm sure Europeans use bathrooms. The pack mainly will consist of items that fall under one of three categories:

1. Deoderant
2. Clothes
3. More deoderant

My third category is crucial because, if I cannot emit a pleasant odor after 7 hours on a crowded Eurostar wedged in between Gunther and Lars whose cultural norms do not require that one even make an attempt at redolence (good ...