2011 Summer Road Trip - Day 37 & 38

Saturday, July 2, 2011
We didn't do too much on the first day of July.  David had to work, and I needed to get us all packed for our big trip to Maine and beyond.  The kids behaved relatively well for being cooped up in a hotel room all day, so that was a plus!

We were up bright and early to head to Dover, New Hampshire, which would be our stopping point for the night.  The New York City skyline was impressive as we were leaving town!


We also had to cross the George Washington Bridge to get out of the city.  What an impressive sight!  We were on the upper level, and there were eight lanes of traffic!  There is also a lower level that has six lanes of traffic.  The GW Bridge is also a suspension bridge, which makes it doubly cool!  Although traffic can be horrible on the bridge, we got lucky.  It was a Saturday morning, and even though it was a holiday weekend, the traffic on the bridge was relatively light.


Once we got across the bridge, our luck ran out...  The traffic snarled up and we ended up sitting for almost an hour.  I think we made it about six miles during that hour of travel.  Talk about a downer!  I don't know why we didn't listen to Dwight, David's co-worker, who suggested we take CT-15 North.  I think the traffic would have HAD to be better than it was in Interstate 95 North!


By the time we got out of the traffic jam, we were all relieved to see the Connecticut state line!  We still had about an hour to drive, but it was good to be out of New York and off to see something new!  


We saw the coolest orange church.  Yes...  It was really orange!  I wish I was a good enough photographer to make the true color of that church pop out of this picture.  It was so bizarre!


It didn't take us long to start seeing signs for Chip's Family Restaurant, which is apparently "famous" in Connecticut.  Dwight recommended we eat there, so that's where we headed!  We weren't disappointed!  The food was delicious!  It was so good to visit with friends, but we had to get back on the road pretty soon.


We stopped at a couple of rest areas along the way to search out some geocaches and stretch our legs.  At one particularly smelly rest area we saw the sign below.  Ugh!  They rest stop didn't offer bathrooms, so apparently some desperate travelers had been using the side of the building.  From the smell of the place, it was apparent that the sign wasn't doing much good.


It wasn't long and we were crossing the New Hampshire border.  This was the first time any of us had set foot on New Hampshire soil!  Something that tickled us was the sign for the State Liquor Store that popped up right after we crossed the border.  We'd never seen a liquor store operated by the state.  There was one on each side of the interstate.  When looking this up on Google, I found the website for the liquor store on the New Hampshire official government website.  Weird!






We went to our hotel, The Homewood Suites in Dover.  After settling in, we went out to explore a bit more.    


We crossed over the bridge, and we were in another state!


David had seen a restaurant on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives called the Maine Diner, which was located in Wells, Maine.  It wasn't far from the hotel, so we had to go check it out!  We loved the food!  It was everything that Guy Fieri said it would be!  Delicious!  The Lobster Pie was AMAZING.  That's the only word that fits that divine creation!



After supper, it was definitely time to get some rest.  The kids were grumpy, and so were the adults.  A little bedtime was certainly in order!

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