Driving to Amenia (or, "The Six-Hour Tour")

Memorial Day weekend. Fenske-Bahat nuptials in Amenia, New York, a picturesque town in the Catskills. According to Google maps, a 2 hour and 10 minute drive from Manhattan. About an hour in to our trip, we were still on the Brooklyn-Queens expressway, and I had the good sense to remark, "the longest it's ever taken me to get out of the city is about 2 hours." Jinx. At the 2 hour and 10 minute mark, we were crossing the Triboro bridge into the Bronx (yes, that's still a part of New York City, the very same City we started from). At 3 hours we passed Yankee stadium and started singing the Gilligan's Island theme song. At 4 hours, Clio threw up her lunch. (Perhaps we should have stopped the car to feed her her lunch in the first place.)


It was a complete mess, but she didn't seem to mind. In fact, she thought the peas and carrots on her shirt looked just fine for a second go-round (I'm pretty sure she's got one in her fist, here):


Hours 4 through 6 are a bit hazy, but they include: a second bout of car sickness for Clio, a stop at a roadside BBQ joint with an outdoor smoker, eating pulled pork in the car, getting hopelessly lost and apparently going in circles within, according to our directions, .2 miles of our destination, pouring rain just as we entered Amenia (the first time, before tumbling out on the other side of Amenia without finding our turnoff), and dubbing our car the Divorce Car.

My friend (and boss) Anne has a boat which Dave remembered is known as the Divorce Boat. I think these names are self explanatory. It should be said that we actually had a perfectly fine time on this adventure and found ourselves laughing by the time we reached Troutbeck; however, we've had similar luck with traffic and poor directions in the year that we've had this Taurus, and they mostly haven't ended with laughter.

At any rate, we did in fact make it- not in time for the cookout, but in time for an outdoor screening of Goonies with Sara, Roy, and many of their friends.

We'll take the rest of the weekend in installments, although I'll say right now that I did not capture many of the best moments- like the tandem bike + baby trailer- on camera. One day I'll learn.