It’s January in New England. Cold. Last night the temperatures dropped to fifteen degrees. So, today we headed south. It’s got to be warmer, right?
Well, sort of.
We stopped for the night is northern Delaware – Lums Pond State Park.
And the temperatures tonight will be in the 20s.
But first, let me talk a bit about the travels of the day.
We set out at a reasonable hour – 09:30 am. We knew that it would be a five or six hour trip, just driving time, to get as far as Delaware. We also knew that we would be traveling some of the time on I95. So, traffic. But our GPS mapping app took all of that into account, right?
Yes and no.
The first part of the trip went fairly easily. We drove down 395 to 95 and on toward the NY border. We got off onto 287 and across the Tappan zee bridge.
Then things gotg strange.
We generally map our trip to avoid tolls. So, the GPS took us off of 287, through several unnamed roads, then back onto 287. It was actually kind of enjoyable. Nice scenery, rural, but not difficult roads, easy driving, but the long way around.
The real trouble started when we got finally around near Philadelphia and back onto I95. Suddenly, there were delays – accidents, traffic, general slowdowns – every 5 to 10 miles, for 5 to 20 minutes at a time. An estimated arrival time of 5:30 became 5:45. 6:00, 6:15. And the scenery became long lines of cars in the dark – their taillights glowing and dimming ahead of us.
We finally arrived at a campsite in Lums Pond State Park at about 6:20. Dark. Cold.
Welcome.
One of the advantages of traveling in Gallivan is that we can stop anywhere and don’t have to stay long, however. We had a quick bite of lunch in New Jersey, then right back on the road. We stopped for gas once. We got coffee. And we almost never left Gallivan. Into the cold.
The cold we thought we were escaping.
Eventually, of course, we will reach some warmer days, but tonight we will have the heat on and the blankets drawn close.
Tomorrow, we will head down into Virginia, where daytime temps will be – gad! – in the 40s, and nighttime temps will drop into the 20s. By the beginning of the week, we will be in North Carolina, where temps will struggle into the 50s – better than Rhode Island, but not exactly warm.
It is, I suppose, a characteristic of New England thinking in the winter, that everywhere else, especially south, must be not just warmer, but warm. This is why so many New Englanders head for Florida in the winter. Warm weather. Sunshine. Summer all year.
So, we are disappointed when we get anywhere south of New Jersey and it’s still too cold.
But Gallivan is warm. We have lentil soup for supper. We have blankets and a heater and each other. Not that bad a deal, after all.