PaulGraz's Daily Blog for The Great Ice Cream Run!
Day 9, Sunday June 17th: Gorham, NH
to Howell, NJ:
All the activities are over, nothing left but the drive back to NJ. We got
up at a reasonable hour, hit that great breakfast buffet again, and started to
pack up the cars. We decided that we would just drive back on our own,
rather than try to keep up with the rest of the group from NEMINI. Plus I
wanted to take a slightly different route, crossing over into VT and then going
down I-91.
My car was already parked over by the rooms at the hotel - Nancy's car was
parked out in the middle of the lot. The guy parked in front of Nancy's
car hopped into his MINI, started it up then WHAM - backed right into Nancy's
car! CRAP! My first thought was "Great, we're 450 miles from home
and this happens!". I saw the whole thing happen, he just put his car into
the wrong gear. Nancy's car has an alarm, and it was going off - and I
could hear Nancy up in the hotel room freaking out. I immediately walked
over and tried to remain calm. The poor guy was a wreck, he was
apologizing up and down. There seemed to be no damage. His rear
bumper was a little scratched, and Nancy's front license plate holder looked a
little off kilter - but other than that - it looked like we got off easy.
Nancy came running down, but by the time she got there, the alarm already timed
out. We popped the hood, started the car - still appears to be no real
damage. So the other driver gave us his info and agreed to pay for any
damage if we found any. Overall, it appears we dodged a bullet...
After that we just got packed up, stopped for gas, and headed out. it was
almost 11am now, the little "event" in the parking lot put us a little behind
schedule. Craig from PhilyMINI followed us out to I-91, but he headed
north when we turned south. Driving through Vermont was nice, and we
certainly saw our share of wildlife near the highway. The strangest was
when a large black dog(?) crossed the highway in front of us. Or was that
a wolf? I didn't think wolves were solid black like that, but it sure
looked like a wolf.
It was around 2:30pm when we were starting to get hungry, so we stopped for a
mexican lunch in Springfield MA. After that, it was back on the road to
NJ.
It was after we crossed into NJ and onto the Garden State Parkway that I could
really see the difference between a Cooper and a Cooper S. My car needed
gas - Nancy had enough to make it home...
The other thing I noticed as soon as we started down the GSP was that we were
back in the land of stupid drivers. After spending a whole week on the
road, driving through 14 different states, nowhere did I see the stupidity on
the road that I saw in that last hour of driving through NJ. People
weaving through traffic, cutting off other drivers, basically acting like
idiots. Yep, we were back in Jersey alright. Someone please remind
me that I need to live somewhere else someday...
We got home before 8pm. Final odometer reading: 102,257. That
means I put 3,045 miles on my car from the time I left the driveway until the
time I pulled back into the driveway.
Here's a few random thoughts about the trip:
-If I had to sum up my overall impression of the trip in one word, it would be
"hospitality". The ice cream itself was secondary.
-I packed all sorts of tools and emergency gear, trying to be prepared for a
roadside breakdown. Never needed any of it.
-In fact, as far as I know, no one in the group had any mechanical issues - not
even a flat.
-I failed to pack any rain gear. Oops. Didn't really need that
either. That was pure luck...
-I still haven't added up how much this trip cost, and I probably wont. It
was worth it!
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