Postponed Trip

Among my most valuable senior discounts has been regional rail travel.  I have a travel free card from SEPTA, the system that operates near my home.  In my wallet, I carry an MTA card which discounts NYC transit by half.  NJ Transit which connects the two will accept my Medicare card for half off.  That makes home to NYC a no work proposition.  Drive to a SEPTA station, authorize $2 from my credit card to park, and I'm off for a cheap afternoon in Manhattan.  If I really wanted a lot of time in the Big Apple, I would either take Amtrak which will set my credit card back a lot more, both for transit and for local parking.  I could drive the NJ Turnpike to near NYC and finish the trip on the PATH commuter train or NJ Transit.  Driving seems a chore, EZ Pass gets debited each way.  I will need to park in NJ.  A lot of irritation, but more time exploring NYC attractions.

I opted to go cheap and easy, at least one time.  My miserliness comes with a significant downside.  Schedules are limited and inflexible.  SEPTA has a direct connection to NJ Transit at its main transfer point in Philadelphia.  To get there, I would have to leave home at 7AM to get a regional commuter train to Philly, then a half hour layover once in Philly, then transfer to SEPTA Trenton and a short walk from there with minimal layover to NJ Transit Trenton.  Same returning.  Easy to get back to Philadelphia from NYC, but big layover there until I can get onto the commuter train home, the penultimate one for the evening.  And winter standard time puts much of the trip home, and at the end of NYC, in the dark.  I would arrive home around 9:30PM.  So, fourteen hours in transit for about six hours of amusement in the Big Apple, or maybe even a little less.  Hardly worth it as tourism.  It may be worth it as an experience, as a challenge to convince myself that it is possible.

Travel of all types has its unproductive times.  Airports require a lot of preparatory effort.  Getting there by car, either my own with an expensive parking fee or by Uber.  Lugging stuff.  Lines at check-in and TSA screening.  Sitting at the gate.  Retrieving luggage at destination.  Finding ground transportation.  At least the distance traveled justifies a multi-day experience at the final stop.  Road trips are also multi-day, though sometimes that means an overnight stay for each day's drive before even arriving at the desired location.  And at least public conveyances allow the passenger to bring items to occupy or even advance himself during waiting time and transit.  Don't think I want to tool around NYC with a laptop in backpack.  My travel cross-chest carrier would allow a tape recorder, radio, cell phone, pens, and pads.  Books and my magazine subscriptions are now portable.  So if I travel for eight hours to get six hours, the transit time has useful possibilities.

Rain forecast.  If confirmed the day before travel, that would postpone the adventure.  The rails are mostly indoors.  NYC attractions usually require some emergence from underground.  Postponed, but not fully shelved.

Day Trips

Took my first of six intended summer day trips.  An easy one, to a museum near Independence Hall.  The Weitzman Museum of American Jewish History offered an extraordinary display, one more than worthy of subsequent visits, which allow more attention to detail.  The summer travel also should include two trips to the beach, one intended next week, and two to NYC by cheap bus from Philadelphia or NJ Transit from Trenton.

This visit offered a learning curve for some of the future outings.  My age allows me a SEPTA Senior Pass, which enables mostly unlimited public transit in the Philadelphia region.  My home is a ten minute drive from the train station.  I did not know about suspension of parking fees until I had already deposited four quarters in the slot with my parking space number.  I had ridden the train multiple times before, never really accomplishing useful work on it.  Instead, the picture windows lure me to a variety of vistas, mostly shabby towns just north or where I get on, more attractive suburban housing in the middle, followed by parts of Philadelphia that could use major cleanup, and ending with the glory of gleaming high rises as central Philadelphia approaches.  I depart at the last stop.  My destination being a little farther than I wanted to walk, and wanting to check out the bus area where I might catch the transportation to NYC, I entered the subway.

I would need to know how long it took from departing the SEPTA train to arriving at the bus station, including waiting for subway.  Getting a subway train in the direction I wanted to go required me to use an overpass.  It took longer for the car to arrive than I expected.  In addition, the one I boarded did not stop at the Spring Garden Station where the buses congregate, so I really do not know how long it would take to get the train that does.  Nor do I have a sense of the safety around that station.  So really cheap bus to NYC may not be the best option.  I got off near my museum destination, which lies a mere block from the subway stop.

Big mistake, not eating breakfast or seeking lunch before entering the museum.  Despite the display's attractiveness, I felt hungry while touring the exhibit.  Because of this, I left an hour earlier than planned, prompted by a need to find some lunch.  I knew Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market, one of America's grandest food courts, was near the SEPTA station.  I opted to walk in that direction, though really intended to pick up a sandwich a little closer to the museum.  Despite this being the top tourist district of Philadelphia, there were no food trucks like I found parked in a line outside Washington's Smithsonian.  Kosher Deli would be a great treat.  Kosher near me search on my smartphone located it a bit farther than I wanted to go, even by bus, also included with my SEPTA Senior Pass.  I headed back to Center City.  To my surprise, there were very few sandwich places along the six blocks I walked.  Not wanting to go to the Reading Terminal Market, I entered a small bagel place, bought a sandwich that charged more than I expected from the display price, but had a satisfying late lunch followed by a very disappointing donut from one of the city's iconic donut chains.  Then back to SEPTA and home by late afternoon.  Between departure from home and return, I had devoted some six hours, accomplishing little other than visiting my museum destination.

Moreover, once I got home, I felt too exhausted to pursue my Daily Task List.  Treadmill done before I left home.  But household chores, writing, planning, rehearsing an upcoming talk all required more focus than I felt able to provide.  That day trip, two hours in a terrific museum, had basically superseded anything else I might have done that day.  Going to NYC would be more so, though the two hours on the very comfortable motor coach with access to electronics would permit some useful activity en route in each direction.  Still, the reality of the clock is that it will be difficult to arrive in Manhattan before 1PM using my free or discounted public transit, and I would also have to head back.  So maybe four or five hours in NYC and even more time getting there and back.  I may not want to do this a second time if the first trip proves problematic.  To be sure, I will be doing little else of value that day.

I could make the same comment about the beach, though it is offset by other pleasures.  I like driving downstate, even more so when I have my wife with me.  We can leave early, get a hoagie made someplace along the way to eat either at a picnic table or on the sand.  At the end, we can stop somewhere, often for an early dinner.  So it is a real outing.  What I don't get to do are the things that occupy nearly all of my Daily Task Lists.  Still, there is much to support a day dedicated to being with my wife.  The pursuit of my Semi-Annual projects just won't happen that day.

Visit Somewhere

Winter starts officially this week.  It really starts for me when my OLLI Semester concludes, which was last week.  I try to get away periodically during the off sessions, more often a round trip without an overnight stay, though sometimes a short trip to a new place.  I have already visited a most disappointing water park.  I'd like to have a day in NYC, still possible.  And there are places closer to home.  Trains have gotten expensive, as has parking in cities.  And tolls can add up.  

Going to a single attraction makes the outing easy.  Web sites tell when open and closed.  They give not only entrance fees but ability to purchase tickets right from my laptop screen.  Train timetables are reliable.  Connections to the bus less so, and parking options often rather obfuscated or otherwise misrepresented.

Weather determines some outings.  Puttering Mid-town in bitter cold detracts from any of its amusement potential.  And having to catch a return bus after dark does not seem very inviting either.  

Museums make a good default, whether art or history in NYC or a niche collection closer to home.  Zoos are not the best place in winter, though the animals that dislike the cold even more than me have shelters that I can share while I admire them in their enclosures.  Still, zoos have more outdoor walking than I really want to do to navigate between exhibits.

Amusement parks generally close for the season.  There are some historical attractions that I've not yet seen.  Never really toured Staten Island beyond its Ferry.  And there is always the Immigration Museums where I should be able to drive, though perhaps I really don't want to drive to metro NYC as a day trip.

I've checked the weather for my preferred day.  The two selected museums both closed that day.  A drivable attraction within a half hour seems to be open, though entrance tickets limited and much of the attraction is outdoors.  But I think I want to be away from My Space enough to plan a day trip somewhere.

Trips Downstate

Have not yet left my home state of Delaware , one of America's smallest, on this year's day trips.  Its north-south dimension far exceeds its east-west dimension, but it only takes two hours to drive from the northern border where I live to the beach at the southeastern corner, which is what I did yesterday, a trans-state journey done about once a year for decades.  Between spring break from Osher Institute through summer's end, I ventured over much of Route 1 south four other times with four other destinations.  What differed this year are the routes calculated by a different GPS which directed me to places I've not yet seen.

My tenure in my home state predates the GPS and even it s current main thoroughfare by quite a lot of years.  Delaware has had a north-south road that essentially bisects the state since the early days of the automobile.  A parallel north-south road with slightly different route number came later, providing a second path for people headed to a different set of small towns, starting at about the state's midpoint.  Using maps from the gas stations, of blessed memory, when I wanted to go to my state's beaches I could follow our main traversing road, then south of our capital, veer eastward on another road to the resort towns.  If I wanted to continue on farther south on the eastern seaboard, I could take the parallel road through the rest of the state.  Either way, the road connected, maybe even created, small towns along the route.  From the car window there were farms, a few strip malls, some state facilities.

The GPS and the limited access highway each transformed the trip through my state in its own way.  The highway, with two nominal tolls, made the drive to the beach more direct and considerably faster.  The GPS, with algorithms that differ a bit between brands, or now apps, vary the paths once exiting from the main roads to reach the final destination.

This year I installed a new app to get me where I want to go, including downstate.  I've wanted to go fishing, to visit relatives from Florida who had rented a house for part of the summer in a historical though growing town, the State Fair which takes place at approximately my state's geographic center, and two beaches in two State Parks.  Five trips, predominantly highway or numbered state route until the final few miles.  This year my new GPS changed that final part of each route in a most gratifying way.

My intent this spring  had been to fish at the Indian River Inlet.  Usually other anglers cast their hopes in a small cluster.  I could not find them, nor could I see anyone to ask.  Instead, fishing plan B, the pier at Cape Henlopen State Park.  As it routed me back onto the Coastal Highway, I detoured into Rehoboth from the connecting road at Dewey Beach.  Past Silver Lake, surrounded by lovely homes, and apparently another fishing option that I could not access.  Driving along, I came to the town of Rehoboth where I've not been in some twenty years.  Still free parking in March.  Strolled along the sidewalks, sparsely populated but no longer truly seasonal.  Most stores open allowing a few chats with the salespeople about what had changed since my last visit.  Made it past the bandstand to the Boardwalk.  Beach treats available, Thrashers, Grotto, Candy Kitchen, though none on my agenda that morning.   Back to my parking spot, on to the fishing pier, shared with but a few anglers.  No bites for any of us.

Beach time in June.  Cape Henlopen State Park has a lot of different pathways once exiting Route 1.  GPS suggested one unfamiliar to me.  I stayed with the familiar.  However the following month, I had occasion to visit a relative from Florida, not seen in ten years.  She had rented a house within walking distance of Lewes' marina and downtown, across a drawbridge, scenic and interesting destinations in their own right.  It had been years since my last time there.  Exiting the Coastal Highway has several options.  The GPS took me along what I assume is the shortest.  Off at Nassau Road, past a defunct farmer's stand, onto what was once a rural connecting road that seemed less rural.  New housing developments at highway exit gave way to a set of newer communities with McMansions, though none with entry gates visible from the road.  Past a roundabout, and the traditional Lewes emerges.  Clapboard homes from another era, little commercial activity on New Road.  Then the Marina to the left, town to the right, and forced turn in either direction at the bridge.  The GPS took us to the rented house where I parked on the grass across the street, prepared to find a violation notice under my windshield wiper that did not happen despite the town's dependence on parking revenue in the summer for its solvency the rest of the year.  Schmoozed a bit in their living room, then walking tour of the town with its shops, post office, and a hotel of another era.  Lunch places anything but fast food, trendy menu with waitresses.  More walking afterwards along the marina, cut short by drizzle.

Ordinarily, my route to the State Fair in Harrington, which I attend on alternate years, has been entirely main roads.  Exit 97 after Dover AFB to connect to Route 13, then just follow along about a dozen miles of commercial activity, some old to support the farming heritage of the area, more the expected gas stations with minimarts, strip malls with a supermarket, pharmacies and eating places with signage of national recognition.  This year my new GPS had a preferred alternative.  It took me further south on Route 1, exiting me at Frederica instead.  Route 12 would eventually connect with Route 13 near the fairgrounds but bypass much of the commercial eyesores that now line the main road and the traffic that it generates.

This was a far more pleasant drive.  One Italian restaurant, one school, then farms.  Out of the blue, the ILC Dover complex, a center of research with NASA and industrial applications.  They have to pay the scientists and executives handsomely, which explains some of the rather elegant homes that lined the route nearby, but still largely farm.  I could even see the ears of corn emerging.

Last trip, Fenwick Island.  My GPS wanted to take me along Coastal Highway  the full duration.  However the road sign pointed to Route 113 as the preferred option for getting me to the southermost part of my state.  I drove off, expecting the GPS to eventually give up its demands that I make a U-Turn and adapt to its new reality.  I've driven this way before, two different GPS devices which exit me to the local roads in different ways, assuring that I will get lost among the unfamiliar.  Sometimes I will drive through small towns with their churches and volunteer fire departments, not staying on any road very long.  Occasionally, as the coast nears, the commercial area will generate a half mile of stop and go traffic.  This GPS exited me a little north, at Frankford.  Immediately I fell behind a semi negotiating itself into a tight parking lot that served as a Mountaire Poultry facility.  Then once I could move along, I drove the rest of the way behind a Jeep from British Columbia who in all likelihood did exactly what his GPS told him to do.  It was a Delaware scenery I had not encountered previously, or it did not imprint well if I did.  Chickens.  I know this industry brings revenue to our state.  The State Fair exhibits samples of the animals themselves and booths descibing this element of commercial agriculture.  It is not nearly the same as driving past rows of buildings appearing as elongated chalets. rectangular with A shaped roofs, and what appear to be giant shades covering the long sides.  I could see no animals, no entrances, no workers.  Between the coops were fields of corn.  I imagine the harvest will end up in the feed trays, not in my supermarket sales bin.  Amid the corn fields, and on the right side of the road were vast flat fields covered with some type of low vegetation.  No clue as to what grew there.  

I did not get lost this time.  Route 20 took a diagonal path through the appealing vistal of rural Omar, Roxanna, and Williamsville, none labelled by anything other than an occasional directional sign.  No post offices to announce the town.  An occasional place to eat or a stand to buy produce or the name of the farm at the entrance of what appeared to be a long driveway.  To my surprise, for the first time, my GPS bypassed Selbyville, the last major population cluster before intersecting the final road to Fenwick Island.  As I turned left to my destination, a mall with a supermarket appeared.  Then for the rest of the ride, vacation housing clustered far closer together than in the farm areas, and appearing far newer.  Boats piered on the water, restaurants, a few doctors, places to get ice cream, even minature golf as the final traffic light arrived.  Turn left to Fenwick Island, right to Ocean City.  I went left.  The GPS did not direct me to the park's entrance, rather to its street address.  But having been there before, I knew I had to drive a little further for my afternoon on the sand.

Having lived here over forty years, met virtually every statewide elected official at least once, raised a family, and have people remark on the relative rarity of my license plate when I visit distant cities, there are parts of the state that have eluded me.  I make it to the destinations, Wilmington, my workplaces, the synagogues, the medical facillities where I have both worked and lectured, including downstate.  And the beaches, the parks, and the Fair.  Even earned a promotional beer stein from the Delaware Wine and Ale Trail which took me to as far as Delmar.  What I've done poorly may have been paying attention to the journey.  Highways, or even major state routes with lined with stores, eating places, and gas stations can mislead.  I read about poultry, a factory that makes space suits, and irrigation frames that always seem dormant.  Farms grow green pepper and melons which I eat, but only see at the grocery, never in the field.  At the State Fair I admire livestock in pens.  It took the objectivity of my current GPS to divert me from the main roads, to see where the chickens live, where the crops grow, and to realize that not all top tier PhD holders work for the megacorporations or the university.  I'm much indebted to the GPS for forcing this better appreciation of where I live.

Places for Day Trips

While three day trips spread over six months often appears on my semi-annual projects, this cycle I moved the category I assigned the category to Self in lieu of reading three books, which I would do anyway.  Planning where to go often engages me at least as much as going there.

Mostly my car will get me where I want to go, leaving me an hour or two of Me Time en route.  The exceptions are NYC and to a lesser extent DC where parking and traffic mar the trip.  At each place I've been to the major tourist attractions, though I never could have too much of the Metropolitan or the Smithsonian.  Still, each city has places I've not been such as the Tenement Museum or Eldridge Street Museum or Ellis Island.  And friends to meet live there.  So NYC, probably Manhattan, could be one of the three if public intercity transit can get me there and back economically on the same day.

I have a fondness for Water Parks.  A new one opened near me, and I've never been to Great Adventure.  Hersheypark is another place that can never have enough visits, between the amusement rides and the aquatic features.  Not terribly expensive either.  

I like our seashore.  Been to one beachfront state park this season.  Could go to another.

And I like museums, which are everywhere.  Same with historical sites, many in easy driving range.  I've not been to Valley Forge in decades.

Industrial tours are a possibility.  Herr's, Harley, Crayola.  And breweries and wineries, not necessarily a day trip destination but a stop that enhances the destination.

Assemble a list.  Draw a radius of 130 miles from home on a map application.  See what's there.  See what going round trip to Manhattan entails.  Pick three.

New Places

My car has been my freedom ever since I got one to call my own, and deprivation of freedom prior to that or when unavailable to me.  Periodically my father z"l would take us someplace relatively spontaneously, the World's Fair in Flushing Meadows a few times, once the airport, occasionally to Rockaway.  But I like to get into my car and drive to different places a lot more, and mostly by myself.  Sometimes I plan, but rarely more than a week in advance if no overnight stay is required.

I needed some Me Time, shuled out, Jewed out, still inappropriately resentful of a baalebos who mistreated me in his official synagogue capacity.  Skip shabbos, visit someplace other than synagogue.  In my weekly plan, I designated this a New Place, a place I'd not been to before.

And so at midmorning, after some coffee, I asked the Waze App to direct me to the Lancaster Central Market, which I had heard about as an historical site.  Despite frequent outings to Amish Country, I'd never been there, though had been to the Central Market in York.  I had visited Franklin & Marshall College and Wheatland, both in Lancaster, but never been to the central business district.   Amish country is definitely separate from the seemingly robust mainstream economy of the town.

My GPS gave me the fastest route.  I opted instead for the one I knew well, until a turnoff of minor familiarity, then followed the directions for the final half hour through some pretty seedy parts of the town until arriving at a few blocks far more filled with people than most mid-sized towns on a Saturday morning.  Indeed, the leadership of Lancaster had made the area a gathering place, with the Central Market, open only Tues, Fri, Sat, as its centerpiece.  Parking lots all had Full designations but driving two blocks beyond, I encountered the city's parking garage.  For $2/hr I could take my time, walk around.  

They gentrified the place.  People of all ages.  Complexions maybe less diverse, though not really to the exclusion of anyone.  While the market originated as a farmers market where people could gather to obtain provisions, it now functions more as a food court with stands offering all sorts of options, though seating in the market itself was rather limited.  It seemed far cleaner than the two farmer's markets near me that I frequent periodically, though those are more cheap merchandise oriented with food a secondary consideration and eating places relatively few.  

I settled on a falafel from a transplanted Middle Eastern man with a friendly smile who custom-made my sandwich.  A little mushy perhaps but tasty.  Second choice would have been an open-faced gravlax sandwich from the Scandinavian place, much less filling for about the same price as the falafel.  I took my sandwich outside, a dreary slightly chilly and misty afternoon but with a brick planter ledge to sit on.  Then walked a few blocks.  Then returned for dessert, opting for none.

Back to the car, still within the $2 parking ante.  Decided to go to a winery.  Pennsylvania allows its vineyards to set up a limited number of satellite tasting rooms but I really wanted to go to the vineyard itself, so I did.  A little farther out of the way than anticipated but took me through some pleasant agricultural and dairy operations.  The Waltz Winery has been open about twenty years.  Their tasting offered a mixture of wines from estate grapes, blends, and an apple wine.  I chose my five, sipped slowly, and enjoyed.  Chat with the hostess prior to the selections.  Considered wine glass purchase but more than I wanted to spend and I have ample winery stem and goblet glasses, enough for any reception I could ever host, milchig or fleishig.

GPS directed me home, kinda.  Rejected the Turnpike with its tolls.  Took the GPS directions, ultimately rejecting its transfer to the Lincoln Highway, in lieu of Rt 30.  I thought I would take Rt 896 all the way to my state's university, and did until I came to a cross route, one whose name I recognized in its eastern segment but have never been on its full extent.  I went there instead.  Farmland, the New Bolton Center, eventually what looked like manors of the uber rich.  Never made it through the town of West Chester as anticipated, though south of it.  Having been to football games at their state college's stadium, I recognized the road that I take to get there, proceeding on to the pike that gets me home, which it did.

Tired when I got home, though satisfied.

Reward Myself

Today's the day we head to Assateague Island National Seashore.  It's also the final day of my half-year, which included a goal of three trips to Maryland Attractions.   I've admired the art at the Walters Art Museum after shabbos morning at Beth Tfiloh and strolled the boutiques of Chesapeake City.  I almost included a short time at the National Harbor during a trip to DC, but we really only had supper there, with more dedicated site seeing pre-empted by the closeness to dusk and the difficulty of parking.  So we just ate our supper, not itself an easy or entirely pleasurable outing, and moved back to our hotel.  I did not credit myself for a Maryland tourism visit.  Ocean City became the next destination, postponed at least once, but about to be fulfilled.  Always gratifying to complete these initiatives outlined six months in advance.

The trip, and some of the pleasures that go with petty travel, also qualifies as a reward.  I submitted an entry to the NEJM Fiction Contest.  Not a level of writing that has a chance of publication there, but a challenge to myself to see if I can move from journalism or op-ed writing, or from describing elements of my life, to fiction with universal themes.  I could, though with a lot of abandonments and restarts.  That gets a reward.  So does persevering on my exercise program, though at a reduced intensity, despite some right leg problems.  As my BP rose, I increased amlodipine.  BP down last evening and no apparent side effects.   My doctor helped with the decision of what to do, but I selected from the reasonable options.

Our curtains got hung.  Our living room approaches full entertainment capacity.  I'm off my SSRI reasonably successfully.  In the last six months I've read more than my quota of books, submitted articles for publication, have some semblance of herb and vegetable gardens.  Been a good six-month cycle.  Worthy of a reward.

Some Getaways

Been doing a good job at getting outside every day, sometimes to tend to my struggling garden, other times to find a park with a bench to sit on.  Made a key decision to get away from my synagogue by essentially firing the VP who fills the Torah reading schedule.  My presence the rest of the year will be more selective.  There are why's, some lingering for years, but it's not a good experience and my mind's contents seem very unwelcome.  This one's a big getaway, but will be kept discrete.  See if anyone notices.

Most getaways are changes in location, usually recreation driven.  I have one hanging on from my last semi-annual projects, a third trip to Maryland.  And there's a picnic which can easily be assembled from leftovers of my elegant over-prepared Shavuot dinner.  And there's a water park session.  Dorney Park seems the best option, also before the half-year concludes.  

I've been doing OK avoiding ruts, though I must say the synagogue's unresponsiveness to me has forced a decision on my presence.  I can deal with the intersection of Hebrew School and Rabbinic Junior College but I'm less favorable to deaf ears on the relentless quest for mediocrity.  There's a limit to the formalities of goot shabbos, yasher koach, nice tie in the absence of better substance.  That's a getaway that's not really a respite.  The day trips, and later real vacations, those are respites.  And I'm ready to drive off to do them.

Day Trips

Getting away for a while takes some planning not to mention expense.  Getting away for a day takes little forethought and minimal expense, which is why it shows up in some form on all my semi-annual lists, usually as an initiative of three over six months.  I've done one this cycle, need to do two more.  However, I've already been to most of the places within round trip driving range that I really want to visit.  Or maybe not yet.  

Our electronic wizardry allowed me to draw a circle of 150 mile radius from my home address.  It takes in all on NJ, DE,  DC as well as the majority of PA + MD,and portions of CT, NY, WV and VA.  Quite a lot of places I've not been to in the past.  Museums, historical sites, nature, maybe some friends to visit, or some amusements.  I only need two places but I also need two days.  Shouldn't be too hard to complete this semi-annual initiative.

Stellar Vacation Day

Each half year, I allot one of my initiatives to visiting places I've not been before, close enough to complete the round trip in a day.  As I plan the subsequent six months every June and December, this particular initiative invariably has that satisfying completion check mark and renewal of something I want to include among my projects for the following half-year.

Covid-19 made this more of a challenge this cycle, limiting the number of places open.  I settled on my three, starting with the Ladew Topiary Gardens about 60 miles into Maryland.  While not designed as micro-vacations, they usually fulfill that purpose, starting with a 20oz container of WaWa coffee, which happened to be only $1 at their promotional price.  I could have gotten a Hoagie for $5 as their periodic Hoagiefest makes this a best buy, but for the purposes of a day trip to a new place, having lunch at a local option adds to the respite.  Often I travel to Baltimore the first Shabbos in November for services at Beth Tfiloh where I can briefly admire multicolored leaves along the banks of the Susquehanna as I cross the Tydings Bridge.  This time I, though traveling two weeks earlier, I would be on less trafficked road so foliage watching became a secondary item of interest.  Turned out the the leaves were first starting to change colors, far from peak season, but some.

Travel, even to places not far but unfamiliar, changes perspective. These were smaller places, not truly rural as the great expanses of the midwest or Rockies but a lot less densely populated than where I usually hang out.  Churchville, Jarrettsville, Forest Hill, the slightly larger Bel Air.  There were a lot of McMansions in a number of pockets along the non-highway roads suggesting that there were places around that either offered entrepreneurial opportunity or places to generate significant salaries.  Towns had small shops as well as consumer locations for top retail corporations.  This being prime election season, the yard signs were predominantly for different national candidates than we find around my neighborhood, yet the reason why seemed far from obvious.  I didn't meet any deplorables.  Even the two Hells Angels types with their Harleys parked in a lot where I checked out the basement restaurant bar and hastened out, gave me a nod, despite my Proud Democrat baseball cap.  

I assume they have some fear of loss, maybe their farm, maybe the dominance of their faith, maybe resentment of the people in those McMansions that did not have similar campaign yard signs. While the travel shows all say you get to meet new people, and that's probably true of cruising or national parks, on my day trip the sensory input is nearly entirely visual, virtually no auditory.  Curious about the places I drove around or parked at?  For sure.  But a curiosity not really satisfied.

The Ladew Topiary defined my trip.  Well worth the $10 senior admission.  I like gardens, from the showcases like Longwood or Missouri Botanical Gardens to the more random like Bartram's.  This fell in-between, far from professionally manicured but maintained with the owner's legacy.  Even amid Covid, which closed all the buildings, there was a mixture of defined horticulture and fields of wildflowers.  Getting a little older, I took my time, sat down as the benches became available, looked at the site map as I started but just wandered paths or deviated from them as the surroundings become more familiar.  Nice place to visit.

It's wine country as well.  Boordy dominates but there are others.  My cell phone enabled me to figure out which if any were open for tastings, settling on Harford Winery not far from the Topiary and in my return direction.  For a nominal tasting fee, I selected six ounce or so portions from a printed menu, ventured to an isolated round table, where they brought me my choices on a tray with six plastic cups.

Usually I like chatting with the staff about their wines, production, the surrounding area.  Wineries are partly about the final product but also about the people who create the product or live in the area.  Wine was good to sip.  Precovid, wineries would serve in logo stem glasses most of the time.  I bought one when I paid for the tasting.  Replaces one from New Jersey that I recently broke.

I didn't want to return on I-95 with a toll so I asked the GPS if there was a free alternative not too far out of the way.  I also wanted some lunch, after checking a couple of places pre-winery.  Settled for WaWa Hoagiefest and a large Blizzard from DQ across the street.

Rather pleasant drive home, one I've done before, following Route 1 over the Conowingo Dam, then into Pennsylvania.  Rather than take Route 1 all the way home, I exited onto one of the roads that usually intersects my path to and from Lancaster, mainly to see where that road followed south of my customary trajectory.  Not a lot to see.  Pennsylvania foliage slightly farther along than Maryland's but not by much.  Yet there emerged a curiosity about where I had been, satisfied with a few searches of Wikipedia, both for the towns I visited and for the routes that I drove along.

Vacations, even day trips, make a statement about me.  I like to be in control of what I do.  Minimum agenda, with some diversions of route, where to eat, an unsuccessful attempt to see if the Harford Community College Bookstore had a coffee mug to add to my collection.  The opposition candidate signs did not phase me.  Just one of the features of being in a foreign country.  The mostly amorphous but pleasurable nature of the day made me more aware of why I probably won't return to cruising and why I enjoyed the three I've taken so much.  With cruises, the appointments are minimal, other than port visits.  Even at a port visit, I can take the cruise tour or see the site on my own, depending on the nature of the stop.  While on the ship, I go to the activities I want, take what strikes me as most desirable from the buffet, and feel a little put off when a staff member does for me what I could capably do myself.  Once the buffet yields to mandatory sit-down service and a line forms or reservations are needed for things that I would previously just get up and do without a lot of prior planning, the autonomy and independence disappear.  That's what makes a vacation, and what made this brief minitour of central Maryland such a stellar experience.

Day Trips

Some time away from home has been a staple of my semi-annual planning.  There is usually an overnight trip and three day trips.  This cycle a variant again appears, with the overnight trip assigned to a National Park and three day trips.  I have rules.  The day trips need to be to sites, though not necessarily towns, where I have never been before and they have to be in different states.  I can probably handle a range of 150 miles but 100 seems more suitable.  NYC with the Chinatown Bus makes for an easy one as NYC has endless places I've not been before and travel is passive.  I've not done Philadelphia but should.  Running out of places in my home state of Delaware.  Baltimore and nearby Maryland has a lot of places.  New Jersey not so many.  Unfortunately, Covid-19 has closed a lot of museums and historical mansions.  Some factory tours are on hold.  Campuses that I've not been to before are only partially open with restricted access.  I don't know about wineries.  State Parks and natural wonders still offer access.  I could go fishing at one of the downstate parks or visit a nature preserve.  It is very possible to do this semi-annual initiative, though planning has languished.  Some attributable to Covid, some to me.