Our Grand Adventure Begins!

We were finally able to check out of the Quality Inn in Groton, CT after I took care of some medical issues over the last few days.  Departed at 10am and our destination today is the Days Inn in Bordentown, NJ.  We are facing some chilly nights so we will be moteling it for a bit.  The prices will be jacked up because of the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, but our Packrat can't be delivered to Hendersonville until the Mon. or Tues. after Thanksgiving so we are traveling south to try to hit some warmer weather in the meantime.

Our route today: I-95S to the Tappan Zee Bridge in NY, 287W to the Garden State Parkway to NJ, then onto the NJ Tpke, then back onto I-95S.

For any readers not familiar with this area of the country, this is the Tappen Zee Bridge which crosses the Hudson River just over the border from CT into NY.  (I apologize for the bird poop on the window!)

We arrived at our motel at 3pm after traveling 202 miles.  We learned an important lesson today!  Last night we decided on a destination town approx. 200 miles away, which is how we settled on Bordentown, NJ.  I did a Google search for motels, and the Days Inn seemed to fit our needs so I wrote down what I thought was their direct line.  When I called them from the road today, it seemed as though I was talking to a more generalized booking agent. Turns out I was talking to Expedia!  The room rate was quite a bit higher than I anticipated and there were no cancellations since I was booking the day of.  I took the room, but now will be much more vigilant about making reservations, perhaps calling the night before from the hotel room where I can hear better and make a more informed choice. Normally we wouldn't worry about reservations, but being Thanksgiving week, it seems prudent.

This motel has an exercise room so we are off so I can use their recumbent bike!