Wednesday 18 June 2025

 A surprisingly easy one-way car hire pick up from (Arlington) Enterprise Car Rental today and we’re off to New Jersey in a Kia SUV, through Connecticut and New York states on the interstate. On the way, we stop in Harriman, a small town maned after the Harriman family of railway magnates. Arden House, located in Harriman, NY, was established as America's first conference centre in 1950 when the Harriman family donated the property to Columbia University. This is where Flashy attended the Columbia University School of International Marketing in 1993 – except that he wasn’t sure it was the place when we drove past. Anyway, we had an ice cream and kept going.

Our Sonesta Hotel in Morristown, is a suite with a full size fridge, sitting room and desk, a kitchenette with a cook top, microwave, toaster and that great American invention, the dripolator with high quality coffee sacks. After Mackas and Burger King on the road, the left over meat balls and mash for our scratch dinner in the room was delicious.

So, we’re in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey. It is a very wealthy area and home to Sly Stallone, Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, to name drop a few. Morristown is also considered a historic town, primarily due to its crucial role during the American Revolutionary War. It served as a key location for General George Washington's Continental Army's winter encampments, making it a significant site in the struggle for independence. Crucially for us, it’s only 33 miles, or an hour out of New York City. It will be nice to visit NYC outside of the winter, as we were last there in January 2009. It was cold. Very cold.

Thursday 19 June 2025

Unbeknown to us, today is ‘Juneteenth’. Silly name, but it’s a national bank and post office holiday, celebrating the end of slavery in the US. Everything else is open but we couldn’t post the g/kids’ trinkets from the US. We did however, go down to our free breakfast.

Some people just have a mindset against things American, don’t they?.

Not Flashy. The breakfast was all that good American motel breakfasts are. Highly mechanised and not much staff about. Paper plates and plastic cutlery. But, a great pancake maker. You can watch the whole process as they track along the little conveyor belt. There are real eggs used in the scramble and really crispy and smoky bacon. A wide variety of breads, bagels and muffins to toast yourself without setting off the fire alarm. Heaps of filter coffee and machines dispensing juices and bowls of all those little packaged salt, pepper, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, grape jelly, Philly cheese, peanut butter, maple syrup. There’s a station for cereals and fruit (canned I think) and chopped chilies, tomato, onion and cilantro, in case you want something spicy. After a big breakfast, we took a selection of spices for our picnic kit and spreads for later on, along with a couple of hard boiled eggs for lunch. It’s sort of expected really, as there is no bar or restaurant on-site.

The sun is out and it’s 32c. This calls for a visit to the shopping mall, where we manage to get some summer shirts, dress and t-shirt. Home to admin, before we head out to meet the house/pet owners for a briefing. Tomorrow, we return the car and start the house/cat sit in the afternoon.