We are doing it again, driving cross country to southern California, only we are 8 months into the pandemic and trying to get away from Rochester winter. In the past we said good by to friends and family, “we’ll see you next summer.” The big difference is we will see many of them as regularly as we have while in Rochester and on the same glassy screen as all our interactions have been. 

Over the years as we would arrive in a town we would call the people we knew there to say hi or plan  a get together. Somehow we seldom called from across the country if it wasn’t family or really close friends.  Today we are checking in with Rochester people even though we will be no further away even if 3,000 miles intervene.  Times are indeed strange, will we ever resume relaxed actual gatherings? Is the Escapee hug a thing of the past? Even family hugs are limited and based on sharing a bubble. I attended a funeral in NJ. Interesting, if not for the live feed I doubt we would have driven to NJ for the father of a friend. Our nephew, the rabbi, is doing funerals and Bar Mitzvahs on zoom and in small group and socially distanced events. Shiva is a zoom gathering and the Bar Mitzvah party is too. 

Our initial plan is to pick up the coach in Niagara Falls on Wednesday and return to Rochester where we will finish loading the food for departure on Thursday. The plan is to arrive in Charlottesville on Friday and depart on Monday for a two day drive to Red Bay Alabama. I hope to have some minor cabinetry work done and leave by Dec 1. That departure will be set by the availability of the woodworker. The work shouldn’t take more than an hour since he has the tools and worked on building these coaches.

This feels like planning a Jazz Fest evening of concerts. We have a plan and will be able to report on what actually takes place, after the fact. Last year our run down the Natchez Trace Parkway got short circuited by what turned out to be minor failure. This year we will try it again.

We have been wandering around our apartment since October 8 with very little non virtual exposure to the outside world beyond trips to the grocery store, pharmacy and doctors. We had one great visit with grandson Josh and Rohma in Highland Park near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was 80 degrees and we had a picnic on the lawn.

After that it was back to routine until October 31 (yesterday). It was crisp and clear and there was still some color to be seen. We couldn’t make up our mind where to go but both of us wanted the wheels to roll even if it was only in the Jeep. As we left the parking lot I decided to go north. Eventually making our way to Lake Avenue (sorry for many of you the route description will be meaningless, use this map if you want to follow along). Eventually we saw a sign for Boxart Street which leads to the Genesee River at Turning Point Park. This is a bluff above a wide spot in the river where small southbound freighters, mostly carrying cement, must turn since the falls prevent further navigation. The parking lot was overflowing so we backed out and continued north on Lake Avenue until the lake got in our way. 

We pulled into the large Charlotte Beach parking lot and pulled up to the river’s edge and found easy parking. Although it was not quite 50 degrees and there was a breeze, we agreed we needed to walk out on the pier, a walk we have done throughout our lives.

This pier, west of the river, has been rebuilt so many times in our lives it is hard to remember, winter often wreaks havoc with ice and storms. There used to be a large lighthouse at the end, now there is an automated light. The east pier is being reconstructed this year.

Having reached the lake, west of the river, it seemed logical to continue west. First we drove Beach Avenue lined with lovely homes facing the lake well above the water. Eventually we found ourselves along Edgemere Drive lined with smaller homes that are threatened with high water every ten years or so. I won’t go into the battle between those homeowners and the international organization that monitors and controls lake levels. This road peters out and we joined the Lake Ontario State Parkway, thank you Robert Moses, still heading west. We stopped briefly at Braddock Bay Park where there is no action at the Hawk Counting Platform – wrong season – and the rest of the park was quite empty. We continued on to Hamlin Beach State Park, also pretty much closed although we were able to enter the park and drive around. The camping area is closed and gated so we couldn’t explore. 

We turned East now. retracing on the Parkway all the way to Lake Avenue where we continued East on to the Colonel Patrick O’Rouke Memorial Bridge over the river (he was a local hero at Little Round Top in Gettysburg also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_O%27Rorke#Civil_War) this brought us into Durand Eastman Park still along the lake. It was time and we turned south on Sea Breese Parkway which feeds into 590 (not an Interstate here). A quick stop at Wegman’s for essentials – ice cream – and we headed home after a satisfying 2 1/2 drive. 

We were reminded how wonderful it is to wander with no destination and no timeframe. We look forward to getting back on the road in GeeWhiz sometime soon.