The first leg of our trip began on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. as we headed toward North Billerica, Massachusetts where Brad's aunt and uncle live. We made it there close to midnight but stayed up for a while longer talking and catching up with Sally and Joe. At 1:00 I had to hit the sheets.
In the morning when I woke up, I was filled in on the day's agenda: Lunch at one of our favorite eateries, Transformers 3 in 3D, mini-golf, and then dinner at our favorite Chinese place. Almost every time we visit Sally and Joe, we eat at Kastore's in North Chelmsford. It has been a favorite of Brad's since he started visiting his aunt and uncle when he was just a little boy. After the movie, we went to Max's Country Golf in Tyngsboro. The competition was tough in our group of five and I tied for second place with Derek. What I loved most about Max's was the animals they have there including rabbits and goats.
Our last stop of the day was a restaurant called China Blossom. Famous for its buffet, it can be a dangerous place if you don't limit yourself to just a few trips. Not only do they have the traditional foods you would expect to see, they also have a prime rib station and a place to make-your-own-soup. I usually gorge on the chicken fingers, pork fried rice, and delicious green beans. For desert, they have eight different types of ice cream and at least three different cakes or pies. My absolute favorite is their red velvet cake. Like I said, dangerous.
One thing you will never be when visiting with Sally and Joe is hungry. The next morning, they cooked the biggest steak I had ever seen on the grill and eggs and bacon in the fry pan. Strawberries, blueberries, English muffins, and a variety of pastries were all offered as sides. We ate outside on the deck and watched the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks have their breakfasts. And although we had just stuffed our stomachs full once again, Sally and Joe presented me with a birthday cake to top things off. They are some of the most generous and thoughtful people you will ever have the privilege of meeting.
Although we would have loved to stay and visit for another day, we knew we had a seven hour drive ahead of us. So we packed the car, said good-bye, and got back on the road heading west toward New York. I didn't expect to see such green landscape in our travels through New York. The rolling hills and farm lands really surprised me. I almost think the farm population of New York is bigger than that of Aroostook County here in Maine. We pulled into the Econo Lodge in Elmira around dinner time. There seemed to be a lot of businesses condensed into the little area surrounding the ramps leading to and from the interstate. We ate dinner at T.G.I. Friday's after exploring some of the malls in town. My favorite store was Holly's Hounds, a pet store. They had ducklings in their display window which sucked me right in.
Shortly after getting back to our room, I got tucked under the covers and tried to fall asleep. I don't know how much sleep I actually got because my mind was racing with the thoughts of what GeoWoodstock was going to be like. At 5:00 a.m. the next morning when my alarm went off, we got up and showered and then drove for another few hours until we came to Warren, Pennsylvania and the home of GeoWoodstock IX.
No comments:
Post a Comment