So, this weekend was the Plan B version of the “get out of town” weekend to Connecticut that had gotten torpedoed. I decided to do an overnight in New Hope, PA – hadn’t been in many years, had never been to Lambertville even though it’s a five-minute walk across a bridge (honestly, last times I was in New Hope, I didn’t know Lambertville was there at all – hadn’t done my research, I guess). And instead of the Yale campus tour I was going to do on the way back from Essex, I’d do a Princeton tour instead.
Well, last week was all about the high heat and the smoke, of course, and it did look like it would be rainy, but rather than cancel out because of rain, I decided it was worth it just to get out of the house. So like the weekend before, did all my laundry and stuff on Friday, packed up and this time made it out the door to go to the Avis lot, just as it started to rain a bit. The car they gave me was a Toyota 4Runner (i.e., a tank) and was way more car than I needed, but I decided to roll with it (heh). It actually drove really nicely, but was so huge you needed to stand on the running board to get in the car, it was actually really awkward. And… this was weird, the ports to plug in your phone were USB-C on the car end – not a standard USB plug – which meant none of the cables I had with me worked. I could connect the phone to the car via Bluetooth (and that worked, which it doesn’t always) but had to keep an eye on my phone’s charge since it wasn’t actually plugged into the car.
Got some McDonalds for the road and headed out. The only weird thing on the trip out of the city is that for some reason, Google Maps routed me over the Manhattan bridge from Brooklyn into lower Manhattan and then took me to the Holland Tunnel. I’m assuming it was routing me away from something worse, but it was a lot of sit-in-city-traffic until I got through. Then once I hit Jersey is when the rain really hit – huge thunderstorms. It never quite got to the point where people needed to pull off the road (although I did see some people pulled off under a bridge for a bit), but people were putting their hazards on (smart, you could not see much of anything). I was pretty sure my car’s lights were on, but realized that one of the perpetual issues with rental cars is often you’re trying to figure out the car controls while you’re driving, not ideal. But the car really drove nicely and I was never in a lot of stress about the (really awful) storm. I listened to podcasts and the audiobook of Project Hail Mary, which is excellent. (I’d read the book already, and seen the movie.)
I’d chosen to stay at the reasonably-priced New Hope Inn and Suites, and this was a good choice. It was still pissing rain by the time I got there, about 12:30 or so. Luckily, although checkin time was like 4:00, they had a room ready so I just brought my small bags in, leaving the suitcase for a break in the rain, then got a cup of coffee and sat outside on a 2nd floor balcony on a nice set of ‘people gathering’ chairs and watched the rain and looked at the beautiful scenery (Pennsylvania is invariably beautiful once you get out of the city) and tried to figure out what to do. Basically, it looked like the rain might clear up for a while, and if it didn’t, I could go see the Minions movie or something.
Well, it did lighten up enough that I headed into New Hope proper.
Parking is dear and expensive there, ended up valet-parking at the Logan Inn, centrally located. Grabbed my manpurse and umbrella and did the walk of Main Street. I bought two little pieces of chocolate-covered bacon, that was fun, and ate them immediately. Went in various stores, had a great conversation with the lady at the “adult” store, although I didn’t buy anything. Was open to getting more little snackies but turned down some opportunities. Went into some interesting art galleries, was given a glass of wine by the gallery owner in one, had a great conversation with her as well. (and saw enough art that I possibly might want that I took their card, and took other cards for other galleries too. It will be a nice project to go look at their websites over the next week or so.)
Looked at the weather app and I probably just had another hour before the rain hit in earnest again, so went over the river to Lamberville and just walked the main street. Got some ice cream. Looked at more galleries and antique stories. Very nice. And headed back just in time to get my car before the skies opened up again.
Back to the room for a nap and to wait the storm out again.
If it had continued seriously storming, I would have just taken myself to the Italian restaurant next door for dinner, but it lighted up enough that I decided to check out The Cub Room, which was right down the street. Back in the day, New Hope had had several gay bars, and I think the one I remembered was “The Raven”, but they’re all gone now except this one. The Cub Room is behind a series of little holiday cabins (which are, at the moment, closed, as the complex just got sold to a new owner, who wants to renovate them). I wasn’t sure what I’d find – it was early on a Saturday night, and raining. But it had quite a few people already drinking and (much to my surprise) they were all my age (or older). I got a cosmo, quite good. A trans lady came in, sat beside me and after saying hi, turned her back and got super chatty with the guys at the end of the bar. I got another drink, ordered food, then chatted with her for quite a while. She had lots to say on her history with New Hope, and she’d actually written a book (which I just bought). She was fun to talk to, but a little overwhelming. I eventually wrapped it up and headed back to the hotel, where I slept like the dead.
Woke up to a beautiful day, not at all like Saturday. All I had to do was get cleaned up, get breakfast and head out, which I did. My goal was Princeton, to walk around the campus and maybe the shopping district. Found my way to Palmer Square, parked in a lot, got a cappucino and headed to campus. I’d read that there was an app that would give you a tour, and there was, but I found it confusing and frustrating. I should have just found a local student to take me around. But the campus is beautiful and a great walk.
I walked around for a couple of hours, and my phone was running out of power. I looked at one of the big maps they had various spots, realized I was really only about halfway through. OK, if I’d been anal about it, I could have absolutely done the other half, but wasn’t in the mood. (perhaps I’ll come back, I had a great time)
Side note: one thing I’ve always wanted was something that would track your walking in a certain area so that you could target and walk every single street or pathway. And it would remember what you had already done so you could stop and start again later where you left off. And it turns out that you can use Runkeeper (which tracks your walks or runs or bike rides) in conjunction with something called CityStrides to do just that. So I’m going to start doing that around my neighborhood or the other places I’d like to explore. To me, that seems more fun than following someone else’s defined tour.
Marisa had told me to check out the chapel (I did. THAT’S a chapel? It’s enormous. Took me back to the days of traveling with Mr. C, who wanted to go in every church) and find the wall with the cannonballs (I didn’t) and to get ice cream. I didn’t go to the more famous ice cream places, but did go to Reunion, which was really nice. I got a “Sunday Morning” flavor that was Mexican coffee and what seemed like graham crackers and a vanilla bourbon. Yum!
Then I drove home, a much nicer experience in this weather, listening to more Project Hail Mary. (Amaze amaze amaze!) It routed me over Staten Island, which (I now realize) got me to avoid Meadowlands traffic for the World Cup final. This was fun until I was coming off the Verrazano into Brooklyn, and there was a lot of stalled traffic and ambulances and cop cars were trying to get through and I ended up taking an exit just to get out of the way. So there I was in deepest darkest Brooklyn and I set the GPS to ‘avoid highways’ and let it take me all the way to Flatbush Avenue, where I figured any clogs would be cleared and went back on the BQE and home. Tanked up on Northern before hitting my own corner, and luckily found a spot on my block, which is pretty amazing on a Sunday with the farmer’s market on the next block.
(and on Monday morning, I headed out early, drove the car to the cemetery for a bit of a visit, and then to the Avis lot)
THE END, pretty much. It was a nice chance to get out of town, I managed to fill my brain with new and pleasant experiences, and (apart from the rain) it was really easy.
The Toast Point Page 