Forget Yale!

I did a few calculations and realized that it has taken the same amount of time to get from Maine to New York (about 500 miles) as it did to get from St. Louis to Quebec (about 2000 miles). I was a little stressed out with our pacing until Greg reminded me that back then I was cracking the whip and making him drive 10 hour days sometimes.  Unlike the Midwest, there just aren’t any really long stretches (where the most exciting thing you see all day is Subway).  The East coast is much more dense, both with population and sights.  We are still leaking anti-freeze - remember the post office curb in EDH? well this is a totally different anti-freeze leak.  While the leak is getting progressively worse, Greg assures me that it is still a "manageable amount" - so, I'm not sure what the gallons of anti-freeze stored in the outside compartment are for.  The picture below was one of a series that Greg has taken in his attempts to get a Cummins service center to diagnose the problem and order the part for him, to be shipped to some repair shop down the road.  We'll keep you posted...

We stopped at Wal-Mart this morning, not realizing that New Haven is a total ghetto.  I am no longer surprised that a student was murdered at Yale.  This was one of many stops on our casual “university” tour (to make us appear open-minded while simultaneously brainwashing the kids that should they opt not to go to BYU, this might be an acceptable alternative).  However after visiting New Haven, Yale is off the list.  I know that a school founded in 1701 can’t control what grows up around it but sheesh…gross.  OK one exception was this cool really old hamburger joint Louis' Lunch that claims to have invented the hamburger – today they still grilling them in pewter vertical toasters over that looked 200 years old and serve them on two slices of toast.  I was surprised when the kids gobbled up the burgers, even though the place refused to serve ketchup (or french fries).

We finally made it into NY and actually found a place to park this thing on the subway line for a few nights (Croton-on-Hudson).  And we got settled early enough for the kids to ride bikes and skateboard, leading to a small skateboarding accident.  Drake is fine.  His tooth did not go all the way through his lip and he only loosened a baby tooth, so its all good.  He does have a monstrous fat lip - check future photos.  We also watched the second half of “The Curse of Tutankhamun's Tomb” (I fully expect at least one child to be up screaming in the night), and I actually baked for the first time (my chocolate chip cookies, of course).