Travel Expectations

My hotel did not seem to offer coffee.  No mini-brewer in the room with pre-filled pods to make your own.   None in the lobby.  There was a Dunkin Donuts outside the front door, perhaps also owned by the Choice Hotels franchisee, which probably explains this, but I've not been to a hotel that does not offer coffee in the morning to its registered guests in recent memory.  And I needed some ultimately supplied by the Sunoco station across the street.. 

Finding suitable places for lunch and dinner took more effort than expected.  All small places, lunch wonderful, Irish pub for supper not.   And two good breakfasts at independent places, one best classified as a pancake house though neither my wife nor I had pancakes, the other a bakery. 

Time away also requires something to do that you cannot do at home.  We don't have a swimming pool at home.  Theirs was too cold.  We do have wineries but each strives for uniqueness.  The three we visited did not disappoint.  Scenery can be difficult to assess.  Interstates pretty much all look alike, at least region to region.  This time we travelled over the Pocono Mountains which we could tell were substantial elevations and valleys.  Wine country took us through rural areas but also some very prosperous appearing houses suggesting sources of new money.  And the main town still had a vibrant downtown with stores, restaurants, boutiques, parking scarcity, and for some curious reason a whole block devoted to small law firms with the municipal building at its core.  A branch of the state college system stood at the adjacent town, which may explain why everyone in the town seemed of my children's generation.  This enhanced the trip.

Motorists do not like hassles.  The Pennsylvania Turnpike divested themselves of toll collectors.  Instead of taking a ticket and forking up some bills at the exit, now you just drive through the lanes while they photograph your license plate and send a bill.  Much better.  On the other hand my GPS calculated that the best route from winery to hotel would include a small section of New Jersey interstate.  The rule of New Jersey, which is really a peninsula that requires motorists to traverse a bridge or tunnel except at its northern border, has been that you can visit New Jersey for free but it you want to leave, which is the majority sentiment most of the time, you gotta pay.  Our one interstate exit snookered us for a $3 toll.  Gasoline was plentiful but more expensive than at home.  Highway construction did not seem intrusive.  There were fewer NASCAR wannabes than I expected sharing the interstate.  My GPS could use an update, but the Waze app on my cell phone more than compensated for the lapses in GPS.  No big travel problems.

So for the most part, my couple of days away afforded the change of scenery that I desired though with a little fatigue.  It had a mixture of high points that were not very high, annoyances that were not all that annoying, and something of an eagerness to resume where I left off at home.