Rochester, NY
9:37 PM
I am back in NY. It is grey, misting, and 55 degrees. I am psyched to be back. This cram as much as you can into as few days as possible has taught me it would be hard to be a musician, traveling from city to city. I just did 3,500 miles in 14 days. I slept in 8 cities. I saw a lot of people. I was on a radio show. I gave a talk to a business. But man, I didn’t get to enjoy it. I was always repacking and driving. Next time I hope to be able to space it out. Next time needs to be once this book gets done. Then I can gather research for #2.
So, I was up at 7 AM, hit the shower and my baby time friend came over at about 7:30. She was as tired as I was, so the conversation was not too deep. I was on the road from Cinci at 8:15, heading up I-71. My directions today were pretty simple 71N to 90E. That was it for 8 hours. It was grey the entire way and gradually got cooler. I got reacquainted with Van Morrison and a few other CD’s I hadn’t listened to in a while.
For food, I usually have a premade sandwich. Today I had nothing and normally in these cases I hit something fast or grab a sub. I needed a break and saw a blue sign in Ohio that read JC’s Nifty 50′s Diner. It caught my eye and I stopped for lunch. This was around 12:30.
It was .6 miles off of the highway, past another diner, but I decided JC’s was the spot. I parked on main street of a city called Madison, OH. It looked pretty quaint. Parking was ample. I walked in at 12:30 and there was no one at any of the tables. I noticed as I headed downstairs to the bathroom a few people at the counter. I didn’t see much then because my bladder was about to burst.
I came back upstairs and took a table. All around me were old 50′s style model cars. There were probably 100 of them lining both walls. There was an old fashioned jukebox that was silent and a life size Elvis cardboard cutout. There was some memorabilia from Madison, OH. I ordered the Roast Beef. It came with soup (Italian Wedding), salad (Italian), roll, mashed potatoes, and corn, all for $6.50.
While I was eating my soup some people came in. I overheard them talking about being from out of town, so I struck up a brief conversation with one of the guys. There were two couples and I will guess in their 60′s. It turned out they were from San Antonio and were in Buffalo area driving around seeing Mormon sites and looking at the leaves. They saw the same blue sign I did and that is why they were at JC’s. They started the jukebox. Our conversation was only a few go’s back and forth, but I didn’t feel as alone. I ate, paid, and got back on the road.
Mom had spaghetti waiting for tonight. I pounded that down, have hit some emails (I got one from the trucker that honked at me yesterday – cool stuff), and am ready to veg out. No more driving for a while.
It was a great trip. I saw a lot of friends. I learned I like NY’s law of no smoking in restaurants. I went out for Monday Night Football in Little Rock and had to throw my jeans and shirt that were worn for 3 hours in the laundry bag. They reeked.
I learned I am really enjoying the speaking. And I already knew this, but I love the travel (just not so much in a short time).
Time for a book and a new day.