From Massachusetts to Virginia, Florida, and Tennessee: And That Was Only the Beginning!

It had been almost a year since I’d taken any significant trips, so the combination of my itchy feet and the prospect of taking my new car on its first road trip, caused me to decide that it was time to hit the road again. Unlike the days when I was living in California and made a couple of cross- country trips each year to visit friends and family back east, these days my time is pretty much my own, so I can just meander and go where I want without being on any type of schedule. When I learned that my friend Joanne had planned to take her 93-year old mother, Norma on a road trip to Florida to visit relatives, I suggested we coordinate our plans to rendezvous first in Virginia Beach, then in Florida where we’d celebrate Norma’s 94^th birthday together.

My first stop on the trip was to visit friends in Albany, New York for the weekend. Despite a disappointingly (for me, at least) mild winter with virtually no snow, I left Massachusetts on April 5th and encountered significant snow as I drove the Mohawk Trail, Route 2 through western Massachusetts. Alas, there was no snow in Albany, but it was rather gray and gloomy. However, by Sunday afternoon, as I headed south through the Hudson River Valley and into Pennsylvania’s Amish Country, it was beautiful and springlike; everything seemed to be blooming all at once, and there were blue skies and puffy white clouds. Spring had sprung.

As I arrived in Pennsylvania I enjoyed watching “traffic jams” involving cars, buses, and tanker trucks trying to get around the slow-moving Amish horse and buggies that travel the roads of Lancaster County. The area around Lancaster is truly two worlds. Along the major roads, like State Route 30, motels, buffet restaurants, and touristy attractions clutter the roads and traffic is horrendous. But turn off onto the backroads and the countryside is breathtakingly beautiful, with rolling hills, pristine farms, produce stands, and the clopping sound of horses’ hooves as the Amish go about their lives.

The Amish fascinate me, and I sometimes feel drawn to their simple way of life. But I’m sure that if I ever converted, I’d hate having to grow a long beard and refraining from wearing the bright colors that I love. And after a while, I’d likely be shunned by the community once they caught me trying to sneak off and watch TV!

On April 8^th I was to meet Joanne and Norma at our hotel on Virginia Beach, but this was also the date of the total solar eclipse that was gripping the attention of large swathes of the nation. I was driving down the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia that afternoon, and though there was supposed to have been 75 or 80% coverage of the sun by the moon in this area, all I witnessed was the day becoming strangely gloomy for an hour or so… not unlike a cloudy day, though there were no clouds in sight. It was pretty anti-climactic.

Joanne and Norma had arrived in Virginia Beach earlier that day and had settled in at the hotel already. Norma was my mom’s best friend, and so she and Joanne have been part of my life since I was born. I have a dear cousin, Marsha, who lives in Virginia Beach and though she knows Norma and Joanne, they hadn’t seen one another in years, so it was a happy reunion. In addition, my friend Kathy lives in Virginia Beach and she’d offered to arrange for all of us to take a tram tour of Norfolk’s Botanical Gardens the following day.

That first night, I was restless and lay awake in bed feeling nervous about how the trip to the gardens might go the following day. Kathy had planned to pick us all up at 10AM at the hotel so we could make an 11AM tram tour she’d reserved for us. I worried that Norma, who is a real trouper, but who takes an eternity to moving in the morning might not be ready in time, and after google-searching for information about our tram tour, I wondered whether it was going to even be possible for Norma to climb aboard. I also learned that the hotel we were staying at was refusing to let Marsha just park in the hotel lot for a couple hours while we went on the tour. My mind raced, planning how I’d need to run out and flag Marsha down when she arrived so we could find some long-term metered parking for her.

Like most worrying, it was mostly a useless waste of energy. When Kathy arrived, Joanne and Norma were already out in the parking lot waiting, and I found Marsha a place to park for three hours across the road from the hotel. Kathy’s professional training in gerontology was also a great gift; she was wonderful with Norma and with little effort, helped her get aboard the tram. As we toured the gardens, the star of which were the beautiful azalea blossoms, Norma kept whispering to me, “I love this!” I leaned over to Kathy and thanked her repeatedly for making this all happen.

Kathy and Marsha both had things to do that afternoon, so I brought Norma and Joanne to lunch at Mason’s, a little place that flies fresh lobsters in from Maine every couple days. Miraculously, their lobster rolls were about $10 less than anything I can find in New England and both the lobster rolls and the clam chowder were amazing! Unfortunately. the tables at the restaurant were too high for Norma to eat on, so she had her chowder and lobster roll on her lap, head down the whole time, so I couldn’t see how she was doing or whether she was really enjoying it. But when she eventually brought her dishes back up to the table, she’d eaten every last morsel and raved about how good it was. I then brought them to Gelati Celesti, which serves some of the best ice cream I’ve had outside Italy, and that went over well too. That evening I went out to Marsha’s for dinner, we had a game of Scrabble and got caught up, as it’d been a year since I’d seen her.

For our last day in town, the three of us spent the afternoon at Marsha’s and went out to lunch along with Marsha’s friend Gail. Marsha had gotten a cake and candles for an early celebration of Norma’s birthday, so it was a very nice day and Norma felt like a queen. At this point in the trip, Joanne and Norma headed off toward Florida and after a decadent brunch with Kathy at Virginia Beach’s swanky Cavalier Hotel, I too headed south to see friends in South Carolina for a couple of nights on my way to Florida.

Saturday the 13^th was Norma’s 94^th birthday and I met her and Joanne at the condo we’d reserved through Air BnB in Ormond Beach, Florida. When they pulled up, Norma looked like a zombie. They’d done a very hectic and strenuous tram tour of St. Augustine earlier in the day and it had worn them both out. Norma muttered that it was nothing like the nice tram tour we took in Norfolk! But they both loved the condo unit I’d reserved for us, located on the 9th floor of a building where I’ve stayed before.

We got Norma freshened up and out the door again, met a friend of Joanne’s who lives in the area, and the four of us had dinner together at a restaurant called Alfie’s to celebrate Norma’s birthday. One of the highlights of dinner, other than the great seafood, was when Norma leaned over to me and discretely asked whether I’d noticed a woman at the next table who looked a lot like Joanne. I looked around at the tables near us and had no idea what she was talking about. No one even vaguely resembled Joanne. And then I looked to my right and realized that she thought that Joanne’s reflection in the mirrored wall beside us was another person at an adjacent table! 

“Norma, that’s a mirror!” I managed through my uncontrollable laughter. She laughed too, and was relieved because she’d thought we’d been seated awfully close to those other people. Even Joanne, who is often exasperated by her mother’s confusion, had a good laugh over that.

On Sunday Joanne planned to spend the day with her friend in Daytona and I wanted to take Norma to Washington Oaks Gardens State Park. I’d asked Joanne to bring Norma’s wheelchair along with them so that I could push Norma around and tour some sites. Unfortunately, Joanne had removed the footrests on the transport wheelchair they had, so for me to be able to effectively push Norma, she had to lift and hold her legs up off the ground, which of course, she could only do for a few seconds before her feet dropped and scraped across the ground!  Meanwhile, the gardens had no paved trails and while I could maneuver pretty well over the harder dirt, I frequently got the chair stuck in areas of soft sand. At one point we encountered a “stairway” of about 10 wooden beams placed at intervals about a foot apart and two inches high. I had to pull the wheelchair up each stair from behind and now Norma’s feet dragged in the dirt in the opposite direction so that both of her shoes came off, requiring me to sit on the ground and try to wedge the shoes back onto her swollen feet a number of times. My God, what a disaster! I kept apologizing to her for such a brutal trip, she kept apologizing to me for being so much trouble, but we muddled through. In all, we actually traveled about 1.25 miles like this! Afterward, I took her to a barbecue place for an early dinner and we feasted on smoked turkey, pulled pork, and beef brisket, with yams, baked beans, beet salad, potato salad, and cornbread. It was a positive way to end the hectic day and thankfully, we’re always able to have a good laugh over things.

The next day I wanted Joanne and Norma to see Blue Spring State Park, a lovely natural spring I’d visited before. I had no idea how we’d really see much, as even with a walker, Norma simply cannot walk very far. But then the ranger at the entrance told us the park loans out complimentary wheelchairs… with footrests! I was able to easily wheel Norma over two miles along the shaded wooden boardwalks and it was a very pleasant day. We didn’t see any manatees – they’ve gone out to sea by this time of year, but there were lots of lizards, turtles, birds and fish to see.

Afterward, I introduced them to their first experience with Chick Fil-A, and they were pretty impressed. Then we picked up one of the famous key lime pies made by Kermit’s in DeLand, Florida before returning to the condo. I was able to get in a swim in the ocean, which was still only 67 degrees, but it still felt warmer than the pool. The weather this whole time had been very cool and breezy, and as soon as I’d get out of the water, I have to run for cover from the wind!

And so, after what I think was a memorable 94^th for Norma, we parted ways again; they headed toward Tampa to visit other relatives and I was off to Fort Lauderdale for a few days. I stayed at a charming old-fashioned motel-type place called Green Island Inn, just a couple blocks from the beach. South Florida is not one of my favorite destinations, mainly because the driving is absolutely terrifying on the strip between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, but the area near my hotel was relatively calm.

While I was in town, I pretty much lived on take-out food from Stork Deli & Bakery in Wilton Manors, which serves up amazing and creative salads, sandwiches and desserts. I also got together with a few friends in the area. My friends Brian and Eddie took me on a day trip out to Everglades City where we had lunch at a waterfront restaurant called Triad. I got to sample rock crab, a new delicacy for me, and I got a kick out of cracking open the shells and tossing them into the water, as directed by our waitress. I shudder to think how many tons of crab shells are below the window to the restaurant… perhaps someday it will be enough to create a new island – maybe they can dub it Crab Shell Key.

After lunch Brian drove us along the 25-mile long, unpaved Loop Road Scenic Drive. I’d done it once before and it was rather uneventful, but this time I felt like we were on an alligator safari. They were everywhere; we could easily spot them lurking in the swampy waters beside the road, but many times they were actually just resting on the road itself, allowing us to pull close and take photos from the safety of the car as they hissed and threateningly opened their jaws for us in an impressive display of fierceness. We also saw turkey vultures, cranes, and even a cottonmouth snake. It was an exciting detour.

I left Lauderdale, my cooler packed with chicken salad and pie from Stork’s, and drove inland and north to the town of Inverness where I spent two nights at an Air BnB that featured my own private pool. It was just stunning, though the pool was a bit too cold even for me. I met my friend Farley, who lives in that area, for a hearty breakfast and a four-mile hike through Rainbow Springs, yet another of Florida’s sparkling fresh water parks. Thankfully, the weather remained cool and overcast, so it was perfect for a lengthy hike.

To finish up my time in Florida, I finally headed to the Panhandle and spent three nights at Pensacola Beach, soaking up the white sands and aqua waters that I have grown to love so much over the last few years. One evening I dined on a pound of freshly steamed, royal red Gulf shrimp from a local fish market for about the same price as a pound of bacon at the grocery store! Another day I had a remarkable sushi meal at the Slippery Mermaid in Navarre. For late April, it still felt rather chilly, with high temperatures of only 72 degrees and a cool breeze each afternoon as sunset approached.

Reluctantly, I left Florida and headed up through Alabama and Mississippi to the eastern suburbs of Memphis to visit my friend Daniel and his family. Along the way, I discovered a wonderful breakfast spot in Mobile, Alabama: Bob’s Downtown Restaurant where I sat at an outdoor table and dined on delicious pancakes, eggs and alligator sausage, which seemed safe to order now that I was safely out of Florida! I met Daniel and his folks about twelve years ago when we were sitting at adjacent tables at a local Memphis restaurant, and they have been dear friends ever since. Daniel and his mother, Diane, run a charity called “Forever Young” that takes veterans of World War II on trips to Normandy, Anzio, Pearl Harbor, and Washington, DC. As usual, they were warm and generous hosts, and some of the highlights of the visit included festive family dinners, visits to some of my favorite restaurants in town, and some down time relaxing in the pool and enjoying the 85-degree weather, which was warmer than just about anywhere I’d been in Florida.

I’d originally intended to end my trip in Tennessee and then head back home. However, given my rather unique way of looking at things, I began to think, “Well, I’m already at the Mississippi River. From there it’s only a couple days’ further to get to Utah…” Utah is one of my favorite places in the entire United States, so that was not a hard sell. And then I thought, “Yellowstone is only a day’s drive from Utah; I’ve only been there once and that was almost thirty-five years ago, so maybe I should go there too.”

And so, after saying goodbye to Daniel and his family, I left Memphis, but I wasn’t heading northeast; I was westbound on I-40 and ready for the next leg of what ultimately became a 10,000-mile road trip! After basking on the beaches of Florida, I soon encountered mountain passes covered in snow and after exploring a road teeming with alligators I would soon be dodging dozens of bison and the occasional grizzly bear at Yellowstone. Stay tuned for more details about that part of the trip in the next chapter!