A great visit to PA/NJ

June 16, 2007
Broad Brook, CT

Wow, am I behind, or what? It’s been several days since the last post, and I know what’s happened. I started to break out of a routine time for blogging. Morning or evening work best, so I’ll have to work on that.

It’s been a busy week. On the Alabama front, Mom went home on Wednesday, and should have in-home care lined up by next week. She’s up and about using a walker, so that’s a good thing.

Last week was a good time in the Philly/South Jersey area. We had a chance to meet up with quite a few people and catch up. Since we lived and worked in the area for 8 years, we had the advantage of knowing our way around and even a few shortcuts. On the other hand, since we left NJ just about 2 years ago (the movers left on June 9, 2005 and we hit the road to Texas that evening), it was also fun to see how things had changed.

A quick rundown of the week:

On Monday, we kicked back and did a few things around the coach, which helped us get rested for the remainder of the stay.

Tuesday we had dinner with Peter and Paola Baxter. Given that Peter is the “food guy”, we had a great dinner. I was able to help out a little (stirring the risotto), and we had a couple of very nice wines before and with dinner. He still has some of the green walnut liqueur we brought back from Hungary! We had a good visit and will try to catch up in Phoenix or someplace else.

Wednesday was a long day. We left the coach at 9:30 because I’d made arrangement to deliver the old inverter to NJ at 11:00. We hadn’t gotten 100 yards down the road when we ran into a traffic jam. Well, the closest thing they have to a traffic jam in Embreeville, PA, which is just a wide spot in the road. Actually, it’s a narrow spot. On a narrow bridge. Where two trucks were stuck because they couldn’t pass each other. So, we had to find an alternate route, which meant we were way late getting to NJ. We were able to reschedule, though, and everything turned out fine. We had lunch at Nardi’s Deli (changed hands and no longer good), ran into a former neighbor, Rick Taylor, who has started a chain of eat-in/take-out restaurants, got Geri’s nails done, stopped to visit Barbara and Jim Sanford (and their poodle, Satin Doll) who live across the street from our old place, had a visit from Dawn who used to clean our house, and had dinner with Vera and Lena (mother/daughter) who used to live next door to us. Fortunately, we were able to bring Merlin and Maya Lynn with us; we didn’t get “home” until 10:00.

Thursday was a much slower-paced day. I picked up and put away most of the outside stuff. I had lunch in Frazer with Matthew O’Mara. Matt and I used to work together at TP and EDS. He’s now back at Bearing Point and doing quite well. Later in the afternoon, we stopped in for a visit with Wayne and Doris Guymon in Chadds Ford. We poured a glass of Paringa Shiraz and walked through the garden, Wayne’s pride and joy (or obsession, as he calls it). We haven’t visited for a couple of years, so it was a real treat to see how the property is maturing and learn more about all the things he’s been doing. We had dinner at a local restaurant, and (since the corkage charge was a reasonable $10), Wayne brought along a wonderful 1990 Beringer Napa Cabernet, which (fragile cork aside) was drinking wonderfully. Since we were relatively close to “home”, we were able to adjourn back to their place for some Port before calling it a day.

Friday was a travel day. We hit the road right on schedule around 8:40 and did a little cross-country driving (south to US-1, east to US-202, north to King of Prussia) before getting on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Extension to the New Jersey Turnpike. We’d planned to take I-287 to bypass New York, but the traffic reports showed clear sailing so we took a chance. We cleared the George Washington Bridge just at noon and, after some slow traffic at points in the Bronx and in Connecticut, we arrived in East Windsor at Pat and Al’s house by mid-afternoon.

Friday night turned into a party, with Mike and Susan arriving shortly after we did (they drove in from Illinois), followed by Melisa and Jesse, Mike and Lynn Bower, Pete with Josh and Belle, Sal from across the street, and maybe one or two other folks. We motored through a few bottle of wine with dinner, and finished off with a choice of Irish Whisky and/or Grappa. As they say, “a good time was had by all”.