go hike a mountain

This weekend we had been making plans to travel to Western Mass to hike Mt. Greylock, the highest point in MA. I had even switched days so I could get Saturday off of work to get an early start. As the weekend grew closer, the weather forecast was saying there would be heavy rains from Maine to Texas, so we went to the movies and saw The Simpsons (which was awesome) Friday night instead of driving west. The next morning we started our usual walk on the Fairhaven Bike Path and about halfway into it, decided we’d just drive all the way to Delaware to get another high point. And because New Jersey’s was not too far from that, we were going to try and fit New Jersey in as well.

We began our trip by stopping for gas and chippis in Dartmouth and heading for 195W. In Providence, we took the exit for 95S which began a 170-mile ride to New York. The drive was pleasant, especially because the highway kept us fairly close to the water and went through some neat harbor towns through Connecticut. We saw someone transporting a rock climbing wall!

Oh, and here’s Treeson at his usual spot hanging from the rear-view:

Some shoes hanging from a line in the Bronx:

Traffic over the George Washington Bridge was slow, so we started up the song New York City by They Might Be Giants, in a sort of celebratory fashion.

The car gave us some trouble on the way. It has a problem of stalling every time the clutch is pushed in with no gas. So, although we were both a little grumpy and almost running out of gas, we made it to the high point in Delaware with no major problems. We parked the car at the entrance to a neighborhood when we found the blue sign that marked the area of the high point. While Jesse was calling his father, and I was taking some photographs, a woman that live at the house on the corner with the blue sign came out to say hello. Her name is Doreen, and she appears to be the official keeper of the register for DE’s high point. She shared a few stories with us and gave us some photocopies of articles written on DE’s high point. She photographed us at the sign and pointed us in the direction of the nearest gas station. We decided to just hit the road and head for the NJ high point, stopping for sleep when necessary.

For the record, although Delaware has a relatively low high point and there wasn’t much effort in finding it (it’s called Ebright Azimuth, by the way) Doreen is what made this trip worth it and I’m glad we pulled up when she was home. So, if you happen to be reading this, Doreen, thank you for your efforts as keeper of the high point in Delaware!