I said I'd do it if I could, even in the middle of a pandemic.
Yes, I would take a road trip to Waffle House, and Father's Day weekend, combined with Sean's graduation week, made for the perfect reason to go.
Most people think I'm nuts but, to me, it's a small thing that is mostly harmless and good for me.
Oh, and yes. I'm nuts.
It gets us out of the house. It gets us a favorite meal. It gives us a road trip.
My trusty road trip partners (Mom and Sean) were up for a an early Saturday drive.
I'm often asked where the nearest Waffle House is. The answer is there are four:
- Bethlehem, PA (134 miles/2 hours, 7 minutes)
- Allentown, PA (141 miles/2 hours, 15 minutes)
- Clarks Summit, PA (130 miles/2 hours,4 minutes)
- Scranton, PA (128 miles, 2 hours, 1 minute)
(distances and times via Google Maps)
But, Clarks Summit and Scranton are both closed at the moment.
So, I opted for Allentown. It has the largest dining room (if open) and there are decent parking lots nearby if we chose to eat in the car. Lastly, I could still go to Bethlehem from there if Allentown didn't work out.
It worked just fine. I heard the dining rooms will open next week, but no matter. We ordered and enjoyed the food in the car. Socially distancing worked great with our waiter and we stayed in the parking lot.
We used our masks, following all of the guidelines (though the Wawa in Easton later on was pretty crowded). Still, we did as told, observing the rules.
I even shopped, stopping into the VF Outlet near Reading. Again, social distancing was the rule with a greeter sending a dollop of anti-bacterial lotion into my hands as I walked in. Sean was given the same treatment and we were told that fitting rooms were open and cleaned upon completion and that restrooms were closed (a bone of contention, given theirs might have been nicer than the nearby Wawa).
It had the feeling of a reentry into the world, even if it wasn't entirely. I've still driven a lot during the pandemic, but not this much. In some ways, I felt my mind and my driving skills readjusting to what it was like to be on the road again.
I drove across a fairly empty outbound George Washington Bridge just before 8 a.m. and scurried out I-80 towards Pennsylvania.
We in the road world always laugh at "Delaware Water Gap" as a control city (that is, cities and locations that you see on the big green signs). Stroudsburg or something else might make more sense but I like it as is.
Funny thing about I-80. It allows you to be reminded that there is to be beauty to be found in Jersey. The westbound view is quite pleasant heading towards Pennsylvania and, sure, there's something to be said for the farmland of South Jersey. Of course, I've always had kind words for the High Point area as well as Cape May.
(This is for all the people who think that I hate Jersey)
All of that being said, there's simply a relief when I've reached the end of my time in the Garden State because, in all likelihood, happier times lie down the road.
In this case, that road was I-80 to PA 209 to PA 33 to I-78 to Airport Road to a large yellow sign saying W-A-F-F-L-E...
To you, the day sounds silly. Frivolous. Maybe even dangerous or irresponsible.
But, it was us. The kind of thing that we've always liked.
And, it ended on a sweet note, allowing my mom to show Sean the first house she lived in. I made a surprise detour into Butler, NJ to let her see the place that my grandparents had before moving to Peekskill in the early 1940s.
"You mean, this is where they invented the wheel," Sean added.
All part of the rhetoric of a couple hundreds of miles and three happy appetites.
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