Embrace Your Destiny: Enjoy Road Tripping - Part 1

First stop, Annapolis, MD

“Go! Right now you can make it. Hurry. Stomp on the gas, now! Yeah! We made it. Missing this exit is not an option. You handled crossing three lanes nicely.”

We had been in heavy, stop and go traffic for hours. The sign announcing our final route appeared for just a moment. No notice, but I saw it. After we exited the freeway and crossed the bridge into Annapolis the landscape instantly changed from chaotic to calm. Our fiftieth anniversary trip was about to begin.

This was our first serious road trip in years. When we finally cleared our path to take the trip, I said, “Donnie, can we stop in Annapolis that first weekend going up? I’ve been wanting to go there a long time. I just read a story in  Southern Living about where to eat, what to do and all the history. Seems like it should be about halfway to Medfield.” Donnie surprised me when he was all in.

Main Street, downtown Anapolisis is the place to stay. Could we find a place? Son-in-law Philippe handled that for us. From the street, the address looked to be a restaurant. Indeed it was a restaurant with rooms over the restaurant. The narrow entry front door served both dining customers and Inn residents.

Note the front door right of table

We checked in at the peak of dinnertime for Chick and Ruth’s Delly (Note correct spelling!). It was a very popular place for both pick up and dine in. Two servers doubled as a check-in team. A full breakfast was included in the daily rate. Our room was on the third floor. One of the check-in team took us up to the room. She grabbed a bag, held the heavy landing door to the landing and said, "This way up". 

The small landing was tight with three people and two bags. She unlocked the door going to rooms then scurried up the steep stairs.  I was grateful to have handrail on both sides. The whole thing was awkward but I learned to manage the doors and steps. 

Our room was small and sparsely furnished but it's location on Main Street trumped everything (We got ice every night in two large plastic cups and the light over the vanity only worked in spells). Within an hour after we checked in, we went looking for dinner  on foot. 

Cobblestone and old brick walkways were everywhere. My training at the gym and walking at home served me well. We logged 6.5 miles Saturday and 4.7 miles Sunday. Other than normal fatigue from the heat, I did fine. There were steps, but not bad. I mainly had to be alert on the uneven walking surfaces. There were showers off and on all weekend. When it wasn’t raining, it was hot as blazes. We got out early to explore the town and “The Yard” aka Annapolis Naval Academy. The campus was easy to navigate, but large. There was nothing special about the dormitories, classrooms and gymnasiums. They were brick, big and spread out.  The Chapel was the flagship building with its gold dome. It was visible from everywhere.

We sat on the top deck of the big boat 

We beat the heat and humidity doing excursions on the water. We did both a big boat and small boat. The small boat that could navigate up the shallow waterways was our favorite. Plus, Captain Dave was a local and gave us lots of back stories. 

We ate outside every meal. All the restaurants had awnings or tents for outdoor eating. We had to wait only a few times. The stores stayed open so I window shopped. The shops were interesting, not the usual chain variety. I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to go. Shopping was a nice diversion during the many showers.

Our diet was mostly fresh fish! It was fresh, elegantly prepared and very tasty. After dinner, Donnie always said, “Which ice cream shop do you want to go to tonight?

The first leg of our anniversary trip was a huge success. We waved “bye” to Annapolis at 2:30 am Monday morning. We were determined to beat the morning rush traffic through New York City. On the drive to Medfield, I said, “I’m proud of my walking. I even did good in the heat, don’t you think? I believe the strength training is helping.” Silently, I was noticing a disturbing issue on a toe of my left foot. I thought, “Hmmmmm. Hope that goes away.” I’ll share more about that later.