The Yearly Pilgrimage

Every year my husband and I take at least one drive up to the Delaware Water Gap and then meander our way home. Sometimes we do it in the spring, but usually we do it in the fall. Sometimes we do it both seasons, now that we have the convertible. 🙂 This past weekend was our pilgrimage. Although it was bright and sunny, it was also in the 40s with wind. We decided to leave the top UP on the car.

My husband loaded the back seat with CDs: Blind Faith, John Mayall, Manassas and more of the same ilk. I confess – *I* thought we’d listen to football. I was wrong. 🙂 I didn’t even get to check scores until after we’d been driving for nearly 3 hours.

Driving with my husband is a lot like driving with Honour. Neither of them will take pictures out the window for me and neither of them wants to stop anywhere. I thought we should not cross the river at the Gap but drive to Belvidere. I’m fairly certain we’ve never been to Belvidere. And there is a free bridge in Belvidere that we could have taken across to Pennsylvania. I’m all about free bridges (other than Rt 80 right through the Gap), which is why I refuse to take the Rt 202 bridge. There are so many cool little towns on both sides of the river with great (old, small, FREE) bridges.

But my husband had our itinerary planned before we ever left the house, so we crossed at the Gap and meandered down along the river on Rt 611 and Rt 32, until we took the bridge to Stockton. Those of you who know me as Ms Leadfoot would undoubtedly have been shocked to see me pulling off the road to let cars that had accumulated behind me go by. We really were meandering. Fiesta was a bit annoyed, but ultimately even she relaxed and enjoyed watching the scenery.

The painting on the overpass is in Easton. I hung out the window while I was stopped at the red light. One of these days I’ll let someone else drive (hah) so I can also get a picture of the donkeys at the narrow end of the abutment.

My husband’s goal was dinner in a lovely restaurant in Ewing, NJ – Erini’s. We’d eaten there a few weeks ago with friends and I had to agree it was a great place for dinner, even if we had NOT been driving for 4.5 hours. Our waiter Matt did an excellent job. A lovely meal. When we came out to go to the car, the moon was gorgeous in the clear night sky. I took a picture, figuring there was no way this would come out as anything but a big blur. I was happy to be wrong. Into the car for another hour of driving. I suppose for some that much driving would be a horrible time, but we do enjoy our pilgrimage.