Celebrating 100 years of life. Well, collectively, anyway - September 15, 2014

To start, we had been planning a road trip to celebrate our 50th birthdays, Jeff's in August, 2014, and mine in April, 2015. So why not embark on an adventure of epic nature? We decided to drive across the country to stay in Joshua Tree, CA, for seven days. We gave ourselves seven days to get there and then seven days to return back to Massachusetts, so three weeks! The planning took months and months, and I am forever grateful to Jeff for his amazing trip planning skills! Serious skills! 

Right from the beginning we decided we wouldn't be posting to Facebook or Instagram and would focus on being present and very aware of where we were and what we were seeing, and not be distracted by the constant barrage of social media. This turned out to be a good idea. And so, I embark here, after our return, to relate our travels... mostly for ourselves really, as a record, but maybe to inspire some of our friends to take off!

I'm sorry to report that we didn't take a lot of photos on day one, given that we were traveling through landscape that we were familiar with. Here is a beauty from a rest stop somewhere in Pennsylvania, though. It was a gorgeous day, and we ate the sandwiches we had made at home and had chips and sodas. Nice nice!   

We stayed the night in Waynesboro, VA, arriving at the Iris Inn at around 5 pm, ate dinner at CO in Charlottesville, about 20 minutes down the road from the Inn. We traveled here in order to see Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, which I had always wanted to see. More on that in Day 2 post, coming up. 

I don't think I have ever been so tired in my life! After we had driven the 558 miles from Massachusetts to Virginia, which took us nearly 11 hours, it took only one glass of wine and an exceptional dinner to render me totally incapable of speech and functional walking. I think Jeff literally dragged me to the car and then into the room, where I don't remember anything until the sun rose the next morning. HA!   

Road worth mentioning
Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park, which you can catch in Front Royal, VA, brings you past Mt. Marshall and follows the Appalachian Trail right into Waynesboro. You get to drive by beautiful, mountainous pasturelands and farms tucked throughout. Places called Skyland, Big Meadows, Swift Run Gap, and mountains: Marshall, Loft, and Lewis.

Highlights from day 1

• a giant buck in our driveway as we left home
• getting to see the beautiful pink and yellow sunrise from 91
• a doe and two fawns in CT
• hawk stretching out her legs to land on a tree, beautiful white pantaloons
• homemade lunch in Pennsylvania rest stop, chips!
• Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park
• Iris Inn
• Dinner at CO, Charlottesville
• 558 miles

What We Drove  

We left home early at 6:18 am, and took 91 South into Connecticut and through Hartford onto 84 West into New York, through Lake Carmel, Newburgh, Middletown, Port Jervis, and crossed into New Jersey, only for the briefest time. Then into Pennsylvania, through Scranton, where we changed to 81 South, out through Hazelton, Harrisburg, Scotland, Chambersburg and into Maryland, through Hagerstown staying on 81 into West Virginia, through Martinsburg and then directly into Virginia still on 81, then to 66 in Strasburg to catch the Skyline Drive.





That glass of wine I was talking about.

From the balcony of our room at the Iris Inn... using a fisheye lens on the iPhone.