When we left the USA in 2019 we fully expected to be back a year later to continue our 50 States bucket list…. but then, you know what happened … who could have expected a global pandemic.
We were pretty lucky when the travel restrictions hit with the onset of Covid-19. We had some frequent flyer award seats booked which were eaisly cancelled. Fortunately the accommodation I’d booked had all been cancellable so we were not out of pocket from the end to all our plans.
Between 2020 and 2022, Neil had also decided that he was willing (and really keen) to make our next big trip longer that 4 weeks, so when the planning started in earnest for this trip we had nearly 6 weeks to play with. The main aim of this trip was to visit the remaining “lower 48” States that we had not previously seen, and to also revisit some of those eastern states that we’d barely touched ground on our previous visits. So the big “Eastern States” trip has us hitting the road in New York and travelling through New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticutt. The added bonus for this trip is that Liam is flying in to join us for a week in the middle so he can come along with us to see a game of NFL at Metlife Stadium, with his beloved Dallas Cowboys playing the New York Giants. It should be a blast!
We had originally booked frequent flyer award seats to fly to New York via Tokyo in Business class with JAL. However, as Japan is still closed to all visitors except those on package tours, and with connecting flights being discontinued, we had no choice but to cancel those seats. Instead we flew direct to Los Angeles with Qantas. We were glad to hit the ground at LAX and made our way to the Courtyard hotel for an overnight stay near the airport. It wasn’t flash but we enjoyed our buffalo wings and flatbread pizza while watching American football on the screen. We were just happy to be back!
Woo hoo! We’re on our way.
Bubbly in the Qantas lounge waiting for our flight
Nearly there..
At last!
Easy sinner in the hotel bistro, pretty late by the time we’d negotiated the arrivals rigmarole at LAX and found the shuttle to the hotel.
We both slept well that first night and were ready for an early start the next morning for our flight to New York with Jetblue. Breakfast in terminal five at the Rock & Brew Bar and a smooth flight and we finally hit ground in a steamy New York around 6pm in the evening. Another airport hotel stay and we’d finally finished with the “transit” part of the trip. Phew! I’d forgotten how long it takes to get there!
Airport breakfast
Dinner was at the Hilton next door to our Hampton Inn.
The time differences finally caught up with us last night, we both slept really badly. However, it meant we were up and ready to go bright and early. We’d collected a Chevrolet Malibu from Alamo to be our ride for the trip and this morning we finally hit the road.
We skirted the bottom of Long Island driving past Coney Island and then over the collosal Verazzano bridge onto Staten island. Then we crossed into New Jersey, a state we’d barely seen at all on our 2008 trip. We needed to collect a few essential snacks etc for our long road trip so the traditional first stop was a Walmart of course.
Crossing the bridge to Staten Island
Then we headed down to the famous Jersey Shore. Famous for its many boardwalks with arcades, amusement parks, and water parks with hundreds of rides and attractions, the Jersey Shore is a very popular vacation location for residents of North Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. We stopped at Seaside Heights to walk their boardwalk and eat an icecream.
To be honest it’s a seriously tacky stretch of ice cream and burger stalls, games arcades, tattoo parlours, fun park rides and lots of sweaty people. We were a bit amazed to learn that you had to pay $10 a day to walk down and sit on the beach! I’m not sure if all the Jersey Shore towns were the same but we felt that we’d seen one and we’d seen enough 🙂
We drove back inland and southwest to take us along the New Jersey Turnpike before we finally crossed the Delaware river into the state of Delaware. We stopped at the tiny capital city of Dover which is really more of a large town than a city. The center of the old town is “The Green”, a really lovely green space surrounded by gorgeous old colonial buildings. The Green was laid out in 1717, following a plan created by William Penn in 1683, to serve as a gathering area for the growing town. t has played an imprtant role in the American Revolution, founding of the nation, Women’s Rights, Civil Rights and more. The slogan for Delaware, which is on all it’s number plates is “The First State”, due to the fact that on December 7, 1787, it became the first of the 13 original states to ratify the U.S. Constitution. We pretty much had the Green to ourselves on this quiet Sunday morning. The only pity was that the Old State House museum was closed on Sundays.
Crossing the Delaware River
On “The Green” in Dover
Old State House
On our last couple of trips we got into the habit of eating a very light lunch of coffee, fruite and muffins or chips. This helps compensate for the big breakfasts and dinners every night. We take a thermos and fill it with coffee each morning at breakfast. So we found a nice little park on the outskirts of Dover to enjoy it.
Our destination for the night was Reheboth beach, another beach town, this town on the Delaware shore. As delaware is a sales tax free state it means it’s extremely popular as a shopping destination and there were three outlet centres lining the highway into town. Naturally we stopped in to visit! Dinner tonight was at the Thompson island Brewing Company, a great craft brewery that served a really delicious meal. We enjoyed some wonderful chicken wings and I had Cajun shrimp pasta while Neil tucked into Catfish, Grits and Collard greens – a real southern feast! A great finish to our first day on the road.
