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82 miles via I-95, I-287, the Sprain Brook Parkway, the Taconic State Parkway, US 9 and NY 308. Miles since the end of Hop 4: 82. Cumulative route miles: 1,574. Total TN9 miles: 1,607.
This was a short hop in good weather. It was scenic, following the Hudson River north. But the traffic was very heavy with a full stop for an accident near Poughkeepsie. Not a fun short trip.
My host for two nights in Greenwich was an old friend, Marc. He was a congenial host who gave me a brief tour of the Greenwich/Cos Cob area. We had lunch at Fairfield Pizza in Greenwich where I had arguably the best slice of pizza that I have ever had. It had chicken and tomatoes and some kind of creamy topping. Delicious. Marc also treated me to a fine Italian dinner (roasted artichoke hearts and calamari for appetizers, lasagna for entree) at Villa Italia in Stamford. Excellent! I ate well on this hop.
The weather was cloudy and even a bit cool (haven’t said that in months) but I got some decent photos of the harbor in Greenwich. And the beard continues to grow.
The marinaThe harbor9/11 memorialMarc and appetizersThe beard at one week
360 miles via VA 234, I-95, VA 123 to a lunch engagement with Carl, my old friend and travel companion from PCL2, then VA 123, I-66, I-495 (west of DC), I-270, US 15, PA 581, I-83, I-81, I-78 and US 22 to a refueling stop in Easton PA, then US 22, I-78, I-287 and NY 120 to my destination. Miles since the end of Hop 3: 370. Cumulative route miles: 1,492. Total TN9 miles: 1,525. The 10 extra miles during my stay in Montclair were due to a single trip to see family.
The 3 days in Montclair were basically family days, with Jett’s sons and grandchild. Wonderful people and always a pleasure to see them. Thank you, Devin and Mary, for the first-class accommodations. And thank you, Zachary, for letting me win the chess match.
Carl treated me to a sushi lunch before I got back on the road to endure heavy traffic all the way to Connecticut.
We went out to dinner one night but this was mostly “home” time. I did some genealogy research and drove the family to Dulles to catch a flight to Cancun. I also had dinner with Josh, Jett’s other son, and Cristina. A very nice dinner and a relaxing afternoon and evening. Thanks, guys!
360 miles via US 113, I-795 (in Goldsboro), I-95, US 58, some local roads to US 1, VA 40, VA 642, US 460 and VA 24 to the Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park. Then VA 24, US 60, US 15, US 29, VA 28, VA 646 and VA 234, with a refueling stop in Zion Crossroads VA. Miles since the end of Hop 2: 364. Cumulative route miles: 1,132. Total TN9 miles: 1,155. The extra 4 miles on this hop were due to my trip to Chili’s for dinner.
TN9 Hop 3
This is one of the most complex hop routes I have ever experienced. I am pretty sure that I didn’t record it exactly right. This is the result of a whimsical decision to divert to see the Appomattox Courthouse. I made that decision after I stopped for coffee just over the VA border. When I look at where Appomattox is located, I realize that I could have saved about 50 miles if I had made that detour decision before I left my hotel in Goldsboro. I was also intending to stop at the Manassas battlefields, but decided, halfway there, that I had run out of time, so I rerouted to my Montclair destination. All of this whimsy cost me about 90 minutes in wasted travel. But at least it was (mostly) a nice sunny day and I got to see a lot of central VA where I have never been. I did get one heavy shower, but it didn’t last long.
The trip to the Appomattox Courthouse was not worth the effort. Because it was so much further from I-95 than I expected, I felt pressed for time and so spent only about 30 minutes there. I may not have fully appreciated what it had to offer because it was a battlefield as well at the site at which the Civil War officially ended. But at least I got to see it and get a feel for where this historical event occurred.
Appomattox CourthousePainting of the armistice signing event
Can you spare a quarter?
My home for one night in Goldsboro was the Days Inn. This one was a bit nicer than the one in Charleston, but still just mediocre. The keycard they gave me didn’t work initially and I had to return to the front desk – a fairly long walk, carrying my luggage – to get that rectified. Annoying.
I “dined” at the nearby Chili’s where I had, no surprise, chili.
Did I mention that Marlene wants me to grow a beard? I have not shaved since the start of TN9. I am definitely into my “homeless derelict” phase.
242 miles via I-26, US 17, US 701, NC 403 and US 117 with a refueling stop in Whiteville NC. Miles since the end of Hop 1: 261. Cumulative route miles: 772. Total TN9 miles: 791. The extra 19 miles were due to a trip into Charleston.
This hop was entirely on small highways, except for the few miles on I-26 at the start. This was intentional as I find the local roads in the Carolinas to be far more interesting than I-95. My original intent was to travel up the coast through Myrtle Beach, but Google said that the route I took was shorter and faster and I think it was right. The weather was good and the traffic was light. The only delay – for about 5 minutes – was waiting for a train to pass just before arriving at my destination.
Charleston on a sunny break
My home in North Charleston was the Days Inn near the airport. Not a great hotel but not terrible either (unless you don’t like cockroaches – I found 2 dead ones). The bed was comfortable and about 40 cable channels were available. No breakfast, though.
I spent much of my day in Charleston in my room, watching TV and doing genealogical research because it rained almost all day. But the sun broke through in the late afternoon and I took a quick trip into Charleston to snap some photos and have a light dinner (fried green tomatoes and a Smithwick’s Ale) at Tommy Condon’s, my favorite restaurant in Charleston. This is not a cheap restaurant (my light dinner cost me $27) but the food is always terrific and I love the atmosphere. And Charleston is always photogenic even when the sun is not shining brightly.
I plan to return to Charleston, with Marlene, on the trip south at the end of August. She has never been to Charleston. She is going to love it.
Fried green tomatoes and Smithwick’s AleTommy Condon barCharleston
530 miles via FL 80, FL 29, US 27, I-4, I-95, US 17 and I-526 with refueling stops in LaBelle FL and Kingsland GA and lunch in Sanford FL. Cumulative miles: 530.
My previous trips all originated in Ft Myers FL, my home. But this time I closed up the RV on Tuesday and stayed with Marlene until Friday morning, so the trip originated from her home in Lehigh Acres FL.
The trip was uneventful through Florida but it started raining when I reached GA and rained on-and-off the rest of the way. At times the rain was heavy and that slowed me down. And, as usual, traffic through Orlando was very heavy. The worst delay, however, was about 20 miles short of my destination in Charleston when I was stopped by an accident on US 17. The road was closed for about 30 minutes while the fire department doused a burning overturned car.
The Toyota ran well but one side of the front end again came loose – a problem which I will now have to wait until October to correct. And I traveled without two hubcaps. The replacement hubcaps that I had ordered did not fit and I had to return them and the replacements did not arrive in time. I will try to find two used hubcaps, but will travel without them unless I can find good, cheap used ones.
Speaking of replacing hubcaps… I ordered them through Amazon and returned them via Kohls which serves as agent for Amazon returns. I was initially impressed with the efficiency of that operation – I simply handed them the package, showed the clerk the QR code that Amazon had emailed to me authorizing the return and was handed a receipt. But 3 days later the very same package was delivered to my RV. Yes, my “return” was returned to me! For the first time in my life I had to return a package twice. Apparently the Kohls clerk was so efficient that she skipped the step where a return address was afixed to the package.
I leave in 4 days for my 9th trip north (TN9), to Massachusetts to see family and friends. It will be different that most previous trips north in that (1) it will be an auto trip rather than an RV trip and (2) it will be less rigidly planned. The use of the auto is due to it being a relatively short stay in MA (4 weeks), the high cost of diesel fuel and doubts about the condition of my rig (the truck needs major brake work, I am told). The minimal planning is due to me making the trip alone. I won’t even have a dog with me. As a solo traveler I have more freedom to go where I want, when I want.
But I do have some specific plans. I will visit Jett’s family in VA. And I will see some old friends in both Charleston SC and in the New York City area. The planned (sort of) route is as shown here.
The trip will be about 1,600 miles in (probably) 4 hops over a total of 10 days/9 nights. Long days of driving but with breaks in Charleston SC (2 nights), Montclair VA (3 nights) and Greenwich CT (2 nights). I will be making lunch stops in Sanford FL and Rhinebeck NY to see old friends.
I will stay in MA for 4 weeks. My son Tony will join me for 4 days in the third week and Marlene will join me for the final week. She and I will then drive back to FL together, arriving just 4 or 5 days before we embark on our 30-night trans-pacific cruise. I am packing for TN9 in anticipation of the cruise. I will pack a single suitcase weighing no more than 50 pounds (which is the limit for checked baggage on airlines) and pre-packaging all of my medications (because I won’t be able to get any meds on the cruise).
Like any of my other trips, I will provide frequent updates.
Oh… almost forgot. There is one other thing that will be different on this trip: I won’t be shaving. Marlene wants me to grow a beard, so I have promised to not shave until we return from the cruise. I am not wild about this. The last time I grew a beard – back when I was about 30, so 45 years ago – I found it annoying. Worse, it is blond and when I shaved it no one would believe I had ever had a beard. I had to show them my driver’s license to prove that I had had one. Embarrassing. I guess I will have to provide occasional selfies to keep you updated on the progress of my facial growth.
After Jett’s death almost 3 years ago I kept her phone on my T-Mobile account. It was used to communicate with my printer (silly), as a backup hotspot (occasionally useful) and (mainly) because I was on a 55+ discount plan that required 2 lines. But Marlene needed to change her plan and it made sense to swap out Jett’s phone (which I discovered was bulging and was probably on its last legs anyway) and add hers. Simple, right? Well, not so much.
First I went to the T-Mobile store to find out what I would need to do to swap the lines. Marlene was on Metro, which is now a T-Mobile subsidiary, and her phone was already unlocked, so they said all that was needed was to call Metro and get a “Transfer PIN”. Sounded simple. Even simpler when we discovered that the PIN could be obtained online via the Metro website. So, armed with the PIN we went to the T-Mobile store. About 10 minutes there and we walked out with a phone that had been switched over to T-Mobile.
Or so we thought.
The process wasn’t quite complete as the store was unable to drop Jett’s line; I would have to call T-Mobile to make that happen. No problem. I would do that when I got home.
About 10 minutes after leaving the store I received a call, on my line, from T-Mobile “customer service” (the phrase seems wildly inappropriate now). He said he needed to complete the transfer. Huh? I was just told, in the store, that the transfer was complete and the salesperson there had even placed a call from Marlene’s phone to prove it. Her internet access was also working fine. What that salesperson DIDN’T test was the ability of her phone to receive calls and text. They were not working.
So what needed to be done? He said he needed her Metro account number to complete the process. Well, this was contrary to what I had been told initially – that the Transfer PIN was all that was required. I tried to reason, saying that the PIN was from her account and surely they could get the account from that. And why was the account number needed? He said that the account number we had provided was incorrect.
Huh? we had never provided an account number. I finally extracted the fact that the bad account number was “in their system.” Apparently this is the T-Mobile system, not the Metro system which obviously had the right account number as they had been billing Marlene for 10 years.
Annoying. Apparently, it was my responsibility to fix their problem.
Well, we were out doing errands and did not have the account number with us. I tried to access her account online but it tried to send a text message to her phone to verify her identity and, of course, the text message was not received. Catch-22 – need the account number to receive text messages, need the text message to get the account number. He got a Metro person on the line but she, too, had to send a text message to verify her identity. Same problem. OK, just answer some “simple” questions, such as “in which month did you activate your phone?” You must be kiddiing – that was 10 years ago! We took a wild guess and said “July”. Wrong. So the “service” person said she needed to go to a Metro store, show her ID, and they would give her the account number. There was a Metro store just a half mile away so we went there. And learned that they couldn’t access her account “because the system T-Mobile provided us is locked”. That was said with a bit of animosity. Apparently this T-Mobile/Metro merger is not without its problems.
A business that is unable to access its customer accounts? Unbelievable.
Back to the T-Mobile store. We got a supervisor who listened to our horror story and managed to fix it all in about 5 minutes. Without the account number.
Don’t ask me why this couldn’t have been done on the first visit. I guess they wanted us to experience the joy of T-Mobile/Metro customer service.
That gave us a working phone for Marlene. All that remained was dropping Jett’s line, which I was told required another call to T-Mobile. I placed that call about 15 minutes after leaving the store. The line was dropped. But I was informed that my bill for this month would be higher because I had “added a line.” Whoa, I said. I didn’t ADD a line, I SWAPPED a line. But they were adamant that I had to pay more because I had added the line first, with the implication that I had done something wrong. I protested that I had been given no other option and insisted on speaking to a supervisor. After a 5-minute wait on hold she returned and said “I see what you SHOULD have done” (again implying that it was my fault). But I didn’t care whose fault it was so long as the billing problem was fixed. It was. So, to confirm that everything was correct I asked what my bill would be. She said $80. That was a surprise as my monthly bill had been $95 and I had added a $5 option so I was expecting $100. I mentioned this and she looked at my account and said, no, it will be $80.
I wasn’t going to argue about a surprise $20 per month saving. But I have this gnawing feeling that somehow something in my account has been messed up.
After this horrible experience why would I think otherwise?
When I drive the golf cart for my weekly volunteer gig at the regional cancer center, I like to use the knob that attaches to the steering wheel. It makes turning easier. But recently, when starting my shift, I was asked if I wanted the “suicide knob.” Huh? I had no clue why this helpful knob was called a “suicide” knob. The explanation that I received is that a long-distance big rig driver, when trying to make a sharp turn to avoid a collision, turned the wheel only to have the knob snag in his shirt. A collision ensued. The driver survived but blamed the knob for the accident. He called it a “suicide knob” and the name stuck.
I am not deterred. I use the suicide knob when driving my golf cart. Might be bravado. Or maybe I am simply resigned to my fate. If death by golf cart is my destiny I doubt that my use of the suicide knob will be a contributing factor.
The fiber optic upgrade in the resort – a project which has caused nothing but construction annoyances to date – is now beginning to pay off. As one of the few summer residents, I am one of the first to actually experience the new service. I have to say that it was worth the annoyances. Internet speed is vastly better (the vendor claims 10x faster but I think it is more like 3x) and I now get 69 cable channels rather than the 40 that were provided previously. And because the old signal was so poor I only got about half of those reliably. I am having some difficulty with 10 of the new channels, so the net upgrade to date is 10 to 59. Not bad. I am pretty sure I will get all 69 eventually.
Including ESPN! I will now get to watch some sports! Golf Channel too!
Hydraulic jack lifting the corner of the shed
The installation was pretty smooth, but did have a few bumps. The new router was put in the shed, like the old one, but low on the wall rather than high (because the fiber optic line was too short to reach the high shelf). And the shed door started to fall off its hinges while the technician was coming and going. I don’t think he was the cause, just the final straw. I suspect the door had some hidden damage from Hurricane Ian 10 months ago. In any case, I put new screws in two of the hinges to fix the “falling off the hinges” problem. But the door didn’t close smoothly or latch at all. Again, not the technician’s fault. The shed had been settling on the corner where I neglected to put a solid footing and that skewed the door enough to create the problem which probably was masked for months by loose hinges. In any case, I have been meaning to raise that corner and finally did so today. About half an inch. The door closes smoothly now and latches.
The fiber optic cable running through the skirt.
There was one minor installation-related problem. I asked the technician to run the fiber optic line under the shed skirt if possible. That was either not possible or (more likely) fell into the “custom installation” category. In any case, the request was ignored. So I had to cut a hole in the skirt. The blemish is barely noticeable but will be one of those things that will annoy me forever.
Bottom line: I got upgraded WiFi and cable TV with minimal disruption. And I got my shed leveled again after months of procrastination.
I hadn’t thought of this as one of a series, but it is. It is #3 of 5, according to Amazon.com. The series features world-renowned symbologist Robert Langdon. The second in the series was the wildly popular The Da Vinci Code, published in 2003. So 6 years between installments. Brown is not Agatha Christie. But he is a damn fine writer. This book is 640 pages long and it never got boring. Brown knows how to keep the reader on the edge of his seat.
The “lost symbol” is a fabled word or possibly cache of books that contains the ancient Masonic secrets that purportedly would give the person possessing them unfathomable power and wisdom. They are buried, so the story goes, somewhere in Washington DC. Does this treasure exist at all? Landon is skeptical. But many years ago a 33-degree Mason friend entrusted him with a small, sealed package and told him to keep it safe. He did so. But when his friend – the director of the Smithsonian Institution – called him to request that he give a lecture in the rotunda of the US Capitol and requested that he bring the package with him, he did so willingly. But there was no lecture. Instead, he found his friend’s severed right hand, mounted on a spike and pointing to the ceiling. He then got a phone call from a man who said he was holding Langdon’s friend hostage and would kill him unless he was given the small package.
What is a guy to do? Save his friend or be true to his promise and keep the package safe? Before he could decide the CIA gets involved and threatens to arrest him. Soon Langdon is running for his life, his freedom and to find a way to save his friend.
It is a non-stop chase through the streets and buildings of DC. The entire story – all 640 pages – occurs in the span of about 12 hours. A lot happens in a short period of time. Never a dull moment.
The secret is revealed, though it turns out to be somewhat different than what the madman was seeking. The package that Langdon had was the key to unlocking the secret.
Suicide knob
When I drive the golf cart for my weekly volunteer gig at the regional cancer center, I like to use the knob that attaches to the steering wheel. It makes turning easier. But recently, when starting my shift, I was asked if I wanted the “suicide knob.” Huh? I had no clue why this helpful knob was called a “suicide” knob. The explanation that I received is that a long-distance big rig driver, when trying to make a sharp turn to avoid a collision, turned the wheel only to have the knob snag in his shirt. A collision ensued. The driver survived but blamed the knob for the accident. He called it a “suicide knob” and the name stuck.
I am not deterred. I use the suicide knob when driving my golf cart. Might be bravado. Or maybe I am simply resigned to my fate. If death by golf cart is my destiny I doubt that my use of the suicide knob will be a contributing factor.