6/26/16,
“From York County to New York”
En route,
I-87 S, New York (New York State Thruway)
Our trip now
draws to a close, and the entirety of today consisted of making our way from
York County in Maine back to New York.
We will end our time together in Scarsdale, New York, but I will be back
home in New York City tonight after I watch the finale of Game of Thrones. As we drove, yesterday, without internet
access, we discussed how the origin of the names of the original thirteen
colonies and their capitals came about.
Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland were all named after
British Monarchs. New York, of course,
was named after York in England, likewise the county of York in Maine.
Our hotel in Ogunquit was also in York
County. I had decided that I wanted to
be able to say “York County Complete” before we made our way back to New
York. The requirements for saying that
phrase was a meal, a cigar, the county government building, and all five
National Historic Landmarks in the county.
After that, all I wanted to do was drive to Albany to see the New York
State Capitol before going back to Scarsdale for Game of Thrones.
It was tight, and we might not even arrive
home in time for the beginning of the episode, in which case I am faced with
the difficult choice of missing the beginning, watching on delay, or watching
the beginning on my phone, none of which are good options. The last seems the best of the bad
options. It has been an adventurous day,
but I just want to be in front of that TV screen.
After I closed last night, I went straight to
sleep, and we woke up a little after 8 AM, getting out the door at 9:30
AM. I had chosen a breakfast place for
us, where I could get dishes consisting of the Maine fixtures of blueberries
and lobster. We had trouble parking, and
there was no table available for us, so we walked to the beach to take some
pictures while we waited.
It was 10 AM
when we sat down, and that meant the timing would now be very tight. We also had trouble figuring out what to
order, but, in the end, I got exactly what I expected to get: coffee, a lobster
omelet, and a single blueberry pancake with fresh blueberry syrup. Every bit of the meal was delicious, and it
was quite filling. After our meal, we
went across the street to a gift shop, and, by the time we were done there, it
was 11 AM.
We had about 8 hours of
driving (if we took the scenic route, as Connor wanted to drive through
Vermont), which meant we had only had 2 hours of “Dutch Time” allocated, to use
a phrase I haven’t used in a while, in reference to my delays the morning I
left Amsterdam three hours ago. Yes, it
was going to be a “Munich Run”, again, in reference to the day I drove to
Munich on that same trip. Our first stop
was the county government building in Alfred.
We took our ceremonial picture there, and I lit up my biggest cigar, an
Aroma de Cuba, with the intention of it lasting until we had visited all five
NHLs, and I was able to say, “York County Complete.”
I will not go into the details of the sites
we saw, instead only briefly recounting the adventure. The first stop was the Sarah Orne Jewett
House, the home of the famed author. Our
second stop was The Hamilton House, which served as the inspiration for one of
her novels. From there, it was McIntire
Garrison House, which had no services and was basically in somebody’s
backyard. Next was the Old York Gaol,
which is self-explanatory. The last site
was the Lady Pepperrell House, which, also, was someone’s home. We parked across the street at the Parish
House, and we walked up to this house, which had a Plaque outside. We took our ceremonial pictures, and I said, “Well,
that’s all of them.” My friend,
preempting me, announced, “York Country Completed.” Confirming his sentiment, I said, “Yup, York
County Complete.”
Since he wanted to
drive the scenic route, I let him drive the rest of the trip. I spent the trip vigorously calculating and
recalculating the driving time. With
stops for gas and maple syrup and a few minutes at the Capitol, it was starting
to look like it’d be a photo finish, and we’d need to drive straight to my
parents’ house in Scarsdale, rather than dropping off the car first. I lit up a Camacho, and we stopped for snacks
after the first cigar. I then lit up a
Cabaiguan, but we were almost immediately over the Vermont border. This was Connor’s first trip to New England,
and we passed through every state but Rhode Island over the course of the
trip. Once we were over the border, we
stopped so he could get some maple syrup to bring home, and I got some local
cheese and coffee to go with the rest of my cigar.
After my cigar, we stopped for gas at a Gulf
station with old-fashioned pumps. I had
to go inside to pay for gas, and I could not resist a small maple cream
chocolate. I then lit up a La Imperiosa,
which brought us the rest of the way to Albany.
Timing was as tight as it could get, and we would only have five minutes
to take pictures at the Capitol Building.
Fortunately, there were parking spots right aside.
Everything about the architecture in Albany
was so beautiful, all the Victorian buildings, especially the Capitol
Building. I had only previously been
here in the dark, so this was my first day-lit picture. It also meant I now had a proper picture in
front of every State Capitol in the northeast.
When I got to North Carolina next year, it will represent the State
Capitols of all of the original thirteen colonies. Adding in my trip to West Virginia in a
month, it will only leave four State Capitols east of the Mississippi: Florida
(Tallahassee), Alabama (Birmingham), Tennessee (Nashville, though I have been
to the city twice without visiting the Capitol Building I don’t think), and
Michigan (Lansing?). We took our
ceremonial pictures in front of the Capitol Building and got back in the car as
I posted them to social media.
That was
that. We would be facing a tight drive back
to Scarsdale, but the timing now looks good.
I sat down in the car and lit up a Ramon Allones. Once we got on I-87, I grabbed my laptop and
proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close and hope that all the
gods, the old gods and the new gods, allows us to arrive in time for Game of
Thrones. With that, I will also close
out this trip, since I am no longer in control of the return journey. It has been a very enjoyable trip to the
beautiful state of Maine, and I look forward very much to repeating this trip
this time next year and in future years.
Next stop: the Canadian Maritime Provinces for Fourth of July weekend.
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