Route 66 & Beyond

Day 24: 567 Miles Final Total: 9,092 We made it! 9,092 miles and 28 states in 24 days. The entire length of Route 66 end to end; me traveling it for the third time and Sharon for the first. We also went the entire length of the longest road in the United States, U.S. 20, running a whopping 3,365 miles from the Pacific Ocean in Newport, Oregon to the Atlantic Ocean in Boston, Massachusetts. Plus several other significant legs along the way like north along the Pacific Ocean for over 1,000 miles and south along the Atlantic Ocean as well. Someone asked me about halfway through the trip to tell them what three things I liked the best so far. It was an impossible task; I'd name three, then remember seven more I liked even better...then another seven. The task just became more difficult the more ground we covered. The trip started out primarily to make the cross-country trek on Route 66 again, this time with Sharon who was as eager to go as I was. She made the trip so much better...

Day 23: 404 Miles Total: 8,525 Miles Today was another long day that resulted in crossing six state lines. The day began with a typical 9:30ish departure from Norwood, MA. On the first part of the trip our intention was to stay with I-95, at least until we got past New York City. We had toyed with the idea of taking U.S. 1 from Boston to New York, but we felt that even though it would be a great trip it would probably add an extra day to our planned return so we opted for the quicker route. U.S. 1 runs from Key West, Florida to the northern tip of Maine...hmmm....something to think about in the near future. I-95 took us from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and finally New Jersey. Though there were occasional slowdowns the trip went surprisingly smoothly. Traffic was backed up for miles in the opposite direction in and around New York City, so we considered ourselves very lucky. In New Jersey we picked up U.S. 9 and took it virtually the entire length of the s...

Day 22: 512 Miles Total: 8,121 Miles Well, the next leg of our journey came to an end, anti-climactic as it was. We finished traveling The Longest Road - the 3,665 mile journey along Route 20 from Newport, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts. Now it's time to begin our journey home. Yesterday began with breakfast at the Hunter Dinerant in Auburn,NY. We checked out of our modest but very clean and pleasant motel, Sleepy Hollow, and began our drive across the hills and valleys of New York as we headed east. We had a long way to go so we didn't spend much time taking pictures, but couldn't resist this diner. After a very nice and scenic drive we got to Massachusetts, where the traffic increased dramatically for the rest of the trip, making our progress slow and plodding. We did find a couple of highlights though. There are a couple of Shaker villages along our route, one of which sits right on Route 20 so we snapped a few photos. We found another real gem by acciden...

Day 21: 56 Miles Total: 7,609 Miles Today was another local day in and around Auburn. Mostly around Seneca lake and the wineries. We ate lunch at the first winery, Ventosa. We bought a couple more bottles of wine there (making 17 in total), then we moved on. We visited several interesting wineries and saw lots of great scenery but we didn't buy any more. After getting back we hung around the motel for a while then went to dinner at Cascades, a nice restaurant on the south end of Owasco Lake. We sat outside on the deck next to the water and had a pleasant dinner. After finishing we had our now-ritualistic ice cream, this time at Dee Dee's in Moravia. By the time we got back it was dark. I took one last drive through town since we will be getting up early, eating breakfast at the Hunter Dinerant, then leaving for Boston. It has been a pleasant and restful couple of days. Ciao!

Day 20: 185 Miles Total: 7,553 Miles Today we drove 185 miles but never left the area. We had a busy day though. After a great dinner at the Springside Inn last night we came back to the motel and got a good night's sleep. We then went to breakfast at the Auburn Diner. I love diners, and this is a great one. It is one of only 10 remaining Bixler diners of this type said to still be in existence. After breakfast we went to the Willard Chapel in Auburn. Taken straight from their web site, "The Willard Memorial Chapel is an extremely rare example of the work of Louis C. Tiffany and Tiffany Glass and Decoration Co. in that it is the only complete and unaltered Tiffany chapel known to exist." We ate lunch at the Green Shutter restaurant next to Emerson Park. Then we took a walk along South Street, shooting some interesting architecture. The first house belonged to NY Governor and Lincoln's Secretary of State William Henry Seward. Next we went a little ...