Road Trip 2002

Wednesday Aug 22 - Plymouth-Salem-Boston
After breakfast we piled in the van and drove to Plymouth, a 30-minute drive. What a gorgeous day, maybe 72 degrees out. We see Plymouth Rock (it's so much smaller than we expected!) and the mayflower II. The original mayflower apparently was never preserved. This one was built in Europe and sailed across the Atlantic in 1957. It's a faithful replica. Then we took the most boring, uninformative carriage ride ever. He told us every tour and snack stand that was overpriced, where to eat the most for the least amount of money, but ZERO about Plymouth. We'd had enough, and drove along the coast to Salem. Beautiful town. Had lunch at Victoria Station - like the old on in Fort Lauderdale near Pine Crest. Lunch by the bay. Then to the Witches' Dungeon tour, which even scared Logan! Finally, we found something he was afraid of! Then the Salem Witch Museum - not nearly as good. Then a drive back to Boston through some BAD neighborhoods, got a little misplaced, and finally found our way to the bridge over to Boston. Kids ordered take out from a restaurant in Chinatown. Mom & Dad went to the Four Seasons Hotel's restaurant, Aujourd'hui. Pretentious, elegant, and delicious. Harv ordered lobster, Nance ordered a veal chop. Then, our waiter, who'd been with the Four Seasons for 23 years, knocked a water glass, filled to the brim, right into Nancy's lap! Wish I could have seen the look on my own face! You never saw a staff apologize so quickly or profusely! We got free dessert out of the deal, and thankfully, it was only cold water, so no harm done, really.

Thursday Aug 23 - Boston-RI-CT-NY-NJ-MD-DC-VA
Driving Day. We finally leave Boston at 9:45. Car had to be jumped AGAIN, even then it barely turned over. We drive through lush green scenery through Rhode Island and into Connecticut. In Niantic we stop to bathroom, and there's a National Tire Complete Auto Center across the street. We figure it's besherdt and they test the battery - it's deader than the proverbial doornail. The alternator is questionable at best, but they say it can wait til we get home. As they're changing the battery, we're watching the right front tire go flat before our eyes! Seems we ran over a nail along the way. They plug the tire as well, and we're off again after an hour or so. As we approach New York, the traffic begins. Mom plays cat and mouse with a Buick who cuts her off several times. She's had enough and makes sure he doesn't get another chance. We hit the Cross Bronx Expressway and the traffic comes to a near standstill. It takes an hour to go 5 miles. No joke. UGH! Oh, did we mention that this was for no discernable reason whatsoever? We finally get to the George Washington Bridge and New Jersey, and it opens up. At a service plaza we get gas and switch drivers. A guy in a pick up doesn't care for Mom's decision to park by the curb to wait for Dad, and does a pretty good impression of Tony Soprano when he tells her to "Move your f$#*ing car". We continue through not so scenic New Jersey through Delaware, and the view from the Delaware bridge over the Delaware River is spectacular. Then into Maryland. Baltimore looks impressive. But the ride is taking forever. We call the Marrakesh Restaurant in DC and make 8:00 reservations. Easy to get to, but it's such a hole in the wall (almost literally) we miss it the first time and have to make a U-turn in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, which is apparently not terribly uncommon! We leave the car with the valet and go in, but before we even get to the hostess, the valet is back - the car won't start. He's going to arrange ANOTHER jump. We settle in for dinner, and order from the same African woman who waited on us 2 years ago, Sandra! The food is just as good as we remembered, and there's something to be said for eating with your hands. Then the show starts and the belly dancer emerges in her colorful sparkling costume. She is also the same dancer that had been there 2 years before. We remember because she is so American! Long blonde hair and typical all-American looks. Not exactly what you'd expect, but she was very good. Everyone enjoyed her performance, especially Logan! After dinner, the car definitely doesn't want to start. Harvey and Marcus tag team, one holding the connection together and the other turning the ignition! Oy vey! The guy who replaced our battery failed to properly reconnect one of the cables, and the connection doesn't want to stay in place. Every time we're stopped, it wants to stall. We pray a lot. We drive on to Doswell, VA, but not until we get to deal with massive lane closures and roadwork south of DC on I-95 :( We finally get to King's Dominion just before midnight. It's a surprise for the kids, who think we're getting up early and driving to Savannah. We drag everyone to the rooms to pass out.

Friday Aug 23 - Paramount King's Dominion, VA
We're up and headed for breakfast. Elliot is first to figure out where we are. Marcus is next. Ilana and Logan are clueless. Even as we're walking across the King's Dominion Parking Lot, and it's 93 degrees at 10 in the morning. We hit the hypersonic XLC (extreme launch coaster) first. There's hardly any line. The ride launches you 82 mph in 1.8 seconds, up a 90-degree angle, over a slight ridge and down 90 degrees. You go around one hard left turn and it's over in 20 seconds. It was the most intense rush we'd ever had! We rode all the coasters. Logan got to ride a lot of them at this park, including Hurler and Rebel Yell BACKWARDS! He loved them. We rode Anaconda, Ricochet and Volcano, an awesome inverted launch coaster. There was Grizzly and Flight of Fear, a very good inside and in the dark coaster. We went on 2 water rides, a log flume and round river raft, HOPING to get as wet as possible. We didn't get all that wet, unfortunately. It was brutally, mercilessly hot. I'm not sure the Sahara is that hot. We drank gallons of liquid. We see a thing called X-Flight. They strap you into a harness; pull you up on a cable some 100 feet high, and then you drop, and swing. Marcus, Elliot and Ilana went together. They think it's great, but I swear, Marcus looks a little peaked! Then it's the adults' turn. We're petrified as we go up and up and still up! Harvey is supposed to pull the ripcord when we get to the top. It's a good thing Harvey has the control because at this point Nancy is sure that there's no way in hell she'd be pulling that string to let us go. There's this sickening bounce when you reach the top. Then they yell "alpha flight, 3, 2, 1 FLY"! I'm pretty sure I'm not breathing at this point. And then, Harvey pulls the cord. We start to free-fall. And it is the single most frightening experience followed by immediate exhilaration in our lives! Finally, there's tension in the cable and we're flying at 75 mph! It was unbelievably intense. All in all, it was a great time had by all at King's Dominion. By the end of the night, we could barely walk. We stumbled to the shuttle bus to our hotel. We shower and fall into our beds.

Saturday Aug 24 - VA-NC-SC-GA-FL PARKLAND!
We get up early - 6:30 am, and pack up and leave. It's already hot. We make a pit stop at a truck stop for gas and tools and egg mcmuffins. Harvey tightens the loose connection and BINGO! The car is fixed! Through southern VA into NC, and there's a sign for road construction next 22 miles! No thanks - we did that in DC. We divert to 301 and bypass the entire mess, and get to see tobacco and cotton fields up close and personal to boot. Just over the border into SC it's about noon, and we're at South of the Border - the world's tackiest road stop - over Nancy's strenuous objections. Harvey should have listened to her. We go into the "restaurant" - it's tacky, hot and dirty. Hot dogs, tacos and chili are the lunch, and we wait and wait and wait for 30 stinking minutes for this crappy food! We were ready to walk out, and then we were tempted to eat in the car, which would have been cooler. But we gulped down the food and went to the nasty bathroom in a building across the parking lot of this wonderful establishment, right out of National Lampoon's Vacation! Now hear this: The Brodzki Family will never ever set foot at South of the Border!! We drive through SC and into GA, and come upon a van flipped over and cars stopped in both directions - it had just happened. Smoke was misting up from the flipped vehicle. Fortunately there was a service plaza right in front of the accident, and we crossed the grassy divider and avoided the entire accident scene. Looked fatal. Didn't want to get close enough to find out. Finally, we cross the Florida State Line! We cheer! Seeing the Jacksonville skyline actually brought smiles, and they've nearly finished the interminable construction on 95 there, and we made it through downtown unscathed. We stopped at our favorite Wendy's next to the St. Augustine Outlet Center for dinner, and sped homeward. We pulled into our own driveway around 10:30 pm, and you never saw people so glad to see their own home! We drove 4,186 miles, got the license plates of 48 states [missed Hawaii and North Dakota :(] and had a glorious vacation.