Wednesday, July 20, 2016: Pine Grove, Pa., to Brookfield, Conn.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016: Pine Grove, Pa., to Brookfield, Conn.

Wednesday was a hot and sunny day. I headed up U.S. 209 across northeastern Pennsylvania. At one small town in Carbon County  I noticed the two most prominent displays in the front of a convenience store were for Anthracite coal pellets and Hershey’s chocolate—both local products.

I enjoyed riding back up the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and then stopping at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center just before crossing the Delaware River and heading into New York state. New York wins the prize for the worst paving job of the trip. When a parching job leaves a long narrow groove down the middle of a road it does not bother automobile drivers, but it is a deathtrap for motorcyclists. Trying to avoid that groove—in addition to all the other hazards—made that a stressful stretch.

After crossing into Connecticut, I decided to avoid my previous experience getting lost in Danbury by taking to the Interstate highway. It was stressful, but I cruised through Danbury and on up Route 202 to the small town of Brookfield, Conn. I stayed in a funky little motel with an even funkier little Chinese restaurant next door. Any unpleasantness from the motel paled by comparison with the unpleasantness I witnessed watching the Republican National Convention on the motel room television. That made me want to go back to the mountaintop.