2015 Boston to LA: April 2015

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Audience ALERT!!!

After 10 postings it's feedback time. With over 2,500 hits on our blog it's time to hear from you.

Choose a number from the list below to tell us what you think of this blog.

Post your numerical choice and your geographic location and if you care to offer any other comments, please do.

1= Just plain embarrassing

2= My 5 year old could do this

3= Don't waste my time

4= Have you each had a stroke?

5= It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

6= Not quite Oscar worthy

7= Wow I'm surprised you knew how to do this

8= Post more often

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10= You guys should be on The Voice

11+ = pick your own descriptive rating

Day Nine, April 29, 2015

After touring Huntsville, AL we proceeded south to Birmingham, AL to see our F.T. Nicholls High School friend Paula Fulks Jackson and her husband Alan.

Of course in keeping with our music video tradition we could not approach Birmingham without a musical tribute.

Paula, Tom, and I lived on the same street when we all three attended high school in New Orleans. We have all remained friend for over 50 years.

After nine days on the road we have traveled over 2,500 miles and next stop is Pensacola, FL to see Janey & Jim Price and to have some BEACH Time.

Day Eight, April 28, 2015

From Savannah, GA we spent the night in Metter, GA enroute to our overnight destination for April 28 at the home of Ty & Joanie Tyson in Huntsville, AL.

Joanie, TJ, Ty, Sean, Allison, Tom, Hannah,
Becca

Why Huntsville, AL you ask....First of all we had the opportunity to visit with the people in the above photo who also are related to Tom. How could we resist. (the pulled pork and Blackberry Moonshine was very persuasive)

Tom's niece Joanie gave us a quick tour of Huntsville we saw Lowe Mill, historic medical area and a great lunch at Mellow Mushroom.

Redstone Arsenal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redstone_Arsenal was a must visit since Tom's father, Kenneth Frye, was on assignment there in 1965 when he was with Boeing and my father-in-law, Emil Biagini, was on assignment in the early 1960's for his employer, Chrysler Corporation.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Day Seven, April 27, 2015

Many of our followers are wondering how we fill the driving time between all these noteworthy sites. Here is a general recap of what goes on behind the scenes.

We typically arise between 8:00 and 9:00am after showers John has a cup of hotel room brewed black coffee which is generally undrinkable. Tom adds to this potion artificial creamer and Splenda to the point that coffee is barely detectable.

We are usually on the road no later than 10:00am. John usually loads the destination into the google maps and navigates while Tom drives.

To occupy the drive time we sometimes play Name That Tune using only tunes that are in John's iPhone and Tom is really not good identifying tunes with only 15 seconds of music. It has become apparent that Tom has not listened to current music since 1980.

When John is driving, Trivia is the game. So far we have explored Oscar winning movies, geographic fun facts about our destination. Actually we even produce music videos with a tie-in to our location. We felt so good passing through Macon, GA, birthplace of James Brown, we thought this video is an appropriate tribute. This will probably be going viral...

We usually get to our destinations around 7:00pm for the night. If we are in a hotel we work on the blog if we are overnighting with friends and family we drink wine and eat.

Along the east coast navigating is more of a challenge since destinations are closer together and there is more traffic. As we progress through the heart of the south there are long stretches of driving on the same highway.

Here are some stats:

As of April 28, 2015 ....
Miles Driven = 2,358
Average Speed = 50mph
14 States Visited So far = MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, TN, AL

Charleston NC

Fill'er up

Savannah, GA

Johnny Mercer Home Savannah, GA

Monday, April 27, 2015

Day Four, Five, Six April 23-26, 2015

Model of Winterthur

Conservatory

We departed Philadelphia early April 23 enroute to Winterthur in Wilmington, DE. Wintertur is the home of one of the Henry DuPont's of THE DuPont family who made their fortune selling gunpowder. It is the 4th largest home in America at 96,855 sq. ft. eight stories of museum pieces collected by DuPont to house his collection of the decorative arts. Winterthur also has spectacular gardens and daffodils were all in bloom. BUT the temperature was 50 cloudy and windy so we did not tour the gardens.

Winterthur

From Winterthur to Antietam.....

The Civil War battle at Antietam near Sharpsburg MD took place on one day, September 17, 1862. This battle saw 3,650 soldiers killed plus 17,000 wounded. We had the battlefield all to ourselves and once again our National Park Service Senior Pass got us admitted.

Sharpsburg MD is also the site of the graves of my 5th great grandparents Jacob Graf and his wife Catherine Grove. Yes, it was in their generation that the Graf surname morphed into present day Grove.

Grove Graves Sharpsburg MD

From Antietam to Pikesville MD (suburban Baltimore). Tom's former student and Wichita High School Southeast class of 1988 graduate, Dr. Gene Fridman, and his family, wife Lisa and children Hannah (away at college), Lucas, Laya hosted us for the evening. Gene toured us around Johns Hopkins Hospital and Research facility and other Baltimore sites.

Ft. McHenry Site of the Star Spangled Banner

Dr. Fridman, Gene to us

https://youtu.be/FrATCp1urjU Check out Dr. Fridman's video.

From Baltimore to Chesapeake VA.....

On to Garry & Kathy Frye's in Chesapeake VA via Colonial Williamsburg.

Ryan, Lexi, Kathy, Brittany, Amanda, Tom, Garry, John, Hunter

Frye Family Motto

They made me hold this chicken...we are in the South

Chesapeake to Kitty Hawk....

Two hours down the road from Chesapeake VA we cross in to the Outer Banks of NC and Duck, Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hill.

Hot fudge, maple bacon are our favorites.

Some general observations. Since we left Massachusetts we have not seen sunshine and the temperatures have been in the 50's. It seems no matter how far south we go the weather is the same as what we left in Massachusetts.

On to Lumberton, NC.....
Tom's friend and Wichita native, Hal Davis is teaching drama at UNC Pembroke and he lives in Lumberton.

So.... inland we go for a free night's stay. We are deep in the heart of Dixie. With no effort we managed to have catfish, fried shrimp and hush puppies at Pier 41 in Lumberton. I think these people exist on sweet tea and fried food.

Breakfast this morning was at Betty Carol's Diner in Lumberton where all three of us ate full breakfasts and the total check was $9.45.

Biscuits & gravy at Betty Carol's

For the rest of today's adventure check the blog for Day 7.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Day Three April 22, 2015

Day Three began in Plainview, (Long Island)NY at The Hilton Inn Melville, NY, seems this hotel can be in two towns at the same time and the Hilton Customer Service Representatives only give out the address of the hotel if they can verify you have a reservation by confirming your telephone number, your, last digits of the charge card, and your billing zip code. Must be some tight security requirements on giving out hotel addresses on Long Island.

It's only a short drive from there to Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, NY the home of 26th president Theodore Roosevelt.

Tom and I were the only visitors there this morning so we took our time exploring the grounds, the museum, and then had lunch in Oyster Bay.

They might want to decide if drivers should stop here or not?

From Oyster Bay it was about a two hour trip back through Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island into New Jersey down I-95 south into Philadelphia.

Thanks to Tom's friend Fran Prisco a Philly thespian we got tickets to see Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None at the oldest continuously operating theatre in America, Walnut Street Theatre which was only a few blocks from our hotel.

Pretty sure Fran felt compelled to get us these tickets since the last time he and Tom were working together Tom held a gun on him.

Tom as Andrew Carnes and Fran as Ali Hakim in Oklahoma.

Tom's photo of Independence Hall

John's photo of Independence Hall

I may need to require Tom to start wearing his glasses for picture taking.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Day Two April 21, 2015

The Patriots await the Regulars

Minuteman on Guard in Lexington

Day two saw the duo arise at 4:30am EDT to defend America from the outrageous British attack at Lexington and to eat pancakes with the Lexington Boy Scout Troop at St. Brigid's Church.

The Regulars Arrive

Tom saw a unique opportunity to restore and uphold the much maligned dignity of our mutual birthplace.

Lunchtime found us in Needham, MA with Wichita High Southeast Class of 1987 grad and current resident of Wellesley, MA. Linda Dwelly-Derezkinski who despite receiving a questionable education at the hands of drama teacher, Mr. Frye, has gone on to have a successful career.

Linda who has forgiven Tom for his malfeasance.

Final Norwood neighborhood send off tonight hosted by Gary & Cathy Jaspersohn, with John & Cathy Fraone, Pasquale & Giovanna Bartucca who supplies us wine, tasty cheese, soprasetta, salsa,and possum pie etc. We captured the tender moment as the neighbors bid us farewell as we head to California.

The departure was especially hard on Giovanna (lower left) dressed in her best Bloomingdale's frock for the send off.

Special "shout out" to Mr. Haney of Green Acres Car/Truck Rental for the "ride to California. Two stragglers from the Marathon hitched a ride on the top of the truck.

Got a late start from Norwood, 9:30am. Arrived in Hyde Park, NY 1:00pm and straight to the FDR Visitor Center where we got our National Park Service Senior Lifetime Passes for $10 each. This allows us free entry to all National Parks!! Toured FDR's home, and the Roosevelt's gravesite.