Ken and Sheila's Great Adventure II

Well, we've started another one of Ken and Sheila's Great Adventures. This trip will take us from Salem, NH, to Lorton, VA, and from Lorton on the Amtrak Auto Train to Florida. We plan to spend a month in Florida and will then head for New Orleans, LA, and on to San Antonio, TX, to see our nephew Matt's graduation from F16 pilot training. From San Antonio, we will head back to the East coast and then back to Salem. We plan on being back in Salem on or about May 22nd.

This trip will be a little different from last time, as we won't be driving the Corvette this time. A couple of weeks ago, I went over to make an appointment to get the air conditioning fixed in the Vette before we left, and wound up getting rid of our Chrysler 300M and bringing home a Mercedes Benz E350 with all-wheel-drive. Beautiful car and so much safer than the Chrysler, especially with the winters we have in New Hampshire. Since we weren't sure if we would hit snow or not on the way to Lorton, we decided not to take a chance getting caught in bad weather in the Vette and decided, instead, to take the Mercedes.

An interesting note - As jam-packed as the Vette was last year with our luggage and "stuff", I thought it would be so much easier to pack the Mercedes with the same luggage and "stuff" as we had carried last year. Believe it or not, we actually had been able to get more in the Vette than in the trunk of the Mercedes. Thank God for the rear seat in the Mercedes this trip.

Day 1 - 27 March, 2010:

Left Salem about 10:00 AM, after Nora and Rhyan came to pick up our cat, Sammy. Had the trip laid out by AAA and had also picked up the latest software for the Mercedes GPS, so we figured we were in great shape for this trip. Well, needless to say, Mercedes and AAA hadn't discussed our route with each other, and needless to say, their routes were different. The GPS was taking us through New York City and AAA was routing us differently. Finally decided to follow AAA for the most part and use the GPS moving map for information. We finally stopped for the day in Newark, DE, after driving about 350 miles.

The day's drive was nice, no snow, and we managed to get 25.7 mpg with the Mercedes. Gas mileage wasn't as good as the Vette last year, but a nice ride, all the same. Lots of construction in every state we were in. K

Well here we our a new adventure volume 2!! Ken once again feels I packed everything in my closet/armoire, but frankly did leave about 8 things at home, the rest are going south. I have to keep up my image of a woman who can change clothes and be ready for any occasion on a heart beat, that and Ken said I can't shop and ship clothes home this time, yes dear! S

Day 2 - 28 March:

Made it to Lorton, VA about noon time and found a Comfort Inn just around the corner from the Amtrak station where we will board tomorrow morning. K

Went for lunch at a restaurant next to the motel. It was combo Afghan/Iran, and the food was terrific. I had the chicken kabob, Ken had the shwarma kabob. Delicious yogurt, very sweet, and the bread was very different and delicious. Our waitress was from Ecuador, so talk about the league of nations, she was very pleasant. Told us the baclava had just come out of the oven would we like to try it, we decided to split one. Ken said he wished he had ordered dessert for dinner, very good. Weather cold, temp about 45, have worn jeans, sweater, and corduroy jacket since leaving home. Pools are outside so haven't been able to swim yet.

Spoke with Nora, our cat Sammy is adjusting well, her cats on the other hand are not glad their little cousin came to stay. Oh well another challenge for animal planet. Nora put the phone to Sam's ear and I told him to behave well, Nora said he kept sniffing the phone, " where is that voice coming from?" S