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.

Getting Away

As the pandemic restrictions ease and I find myself too solitary, I thought it would be a good time to seek different scenery for a few days.  My wife agrees.  When gets determined by our obligations to be a specific place, for me none, for my wife Monday and Thursday evenings.  That leaves a block of time in between, two nights in hotel speak.

With the need to make reservations later today, that what to do where remains unsettled.  While I drive a short route most days, to a park or along the main public thoroughfare, just to leave the house, driving to more distant places that I used to just turn on the car and go seem more of a chore.  The New Castle Farmers Market last Sunday seemed farther than I remember it.  Walmart has become a minor schlep.  I used to drive to OLLI's campus a few days a week.  Just a few days ago I opted to visit the public golf course nearby and found the drive an imposition.  A destination three to four hours distant, while a welcome respite, has acquired its elements of imposition.

We tentatively chose our destination to center around local wineries which I thought would take us anywhere in a 200 mile radius until I looked at the winery maps and individual web sites.  In Pennsylvania and Maryland, they don't cluster quite as I had hoped, except within 100 miles of my home.  Moreover, many of the more rural places do not open during midweek so it looks like wineries alone will need an activity supplement of some type. I probably could arrange visits with people on Long Island or metro NY but the expense is prohibitive relative to what  I can do in Pennsylvania and Maryland.  

Hotels make for interesting choices.  As much as I might like splashing in an indoor pool, it adds about $20 premium above places that don't have one.  Really not worth it for this.  I will allot two days at my state's beaches later this summer.

Or we could go to the Jersey Shore where they have wineries and other things.  It's a lot closer than Central Pennsylvania or Maryland, ample motel options right before their season with other shore attractions.  Could be a reasonable alternative.  Or maybe a day trip later this summer when more of the attractions are open.

For today, just reserve to be someplace else during the coming week.

Some Time Away

I've been off about a week now, primarily to attend the Endocrine Society Annual Meeting in San Francisco followed by a respite in wine country and an intended viewing of Yosemite which did not happen for having underestimated the distance in my planning.  There were a lot of side projects to be attended from my estate planning to semi-annual project planning to computer upgrades for work to some writing that also did not happen, underestimating my stamina during the conference and my tolerance for wine afterward.  The synagogue annual meeting came and went in my absence, passing by my intent to transform from participant to observer.  But I'm rested and ready to return, though perhaps in a different form from when I left.

Travel probably reveals more about me to me than I learn about the place I visit.  I find myself generally more tolerant of glitches than I am at home.  Perhaps if I were a geek, San Francisco would be a permanent destination, easy to absorb into the technical world.  While there I passed by stores know for their exclusivity.  I am not a person who seeks exclusivity or indulgence, much the opposite.  New things intrigue me.  I never get tired of Chinatown and as I diverted my path toward the Golden Gate Bridge, I got to see if not experience some of the neighborhoods.  And across the bridge I encountered extraordinary scenery and eventually viticulture on a scale not imaginable in the East set amid the usual collection of fast food places and chain motels only a short car stop away.

At the convention I encountered research on how medicine is practiced and how things that I experience randomly can be quantitated.  My pet peeve of inadequate resident supervision has an outcome measurement that somebody did and discussed with me.  My interest in core science was a lot less than that, though a necessary component of understanding what I do professionally.  And it was reassuring to know that the grand professors had the same prescription plan impediments that I do.  Moreover I have the same skepticism of the role of leadership of the Endocrine Society that carries over to my Jewish world and my medical world.

So in a few days I return to usual activities and some catchup.  While will again have a $10 bottle price limit even though I can now tell the difference from the premium stuff I got to taste at the vineyards.  My interest in acquiring stuff has been blunted by the rejection of overabundant premium stuff which infused San Francisco.  I am a little more committed now to carving out some time each week to set the patients aside in order to focus on the more creative observations of medicine.

And there will be the next half years projects outlined.