day 1: east brunswick, nj to albany, ny to bennington, vt

day 1: east brunswick, nj to albany, ny to bennington, vt

My Civic:

…getting all organized for my transfer to the loaner Civic. Ahhh…the shiny and beautiful hybrid:

It was a bonus to meet the STI crew I’ve been talking to for a while now, and find out they were even nicer and more accommodating in person! They all helped me get the vinyl on the car and looking perfect:

They all cheered and got excited with me?! How cool is that?

Meet Vern, Paul, Daniel, Badri, and Gary:

No surprise I wanted to geek out about the car a little bit, so Paul was up for being my videographer too:

Thanks guys! You really made start to this trip fantastic. I appreciate all your help!

I was off to the races in this gorgeous car. Traffic wasn’t bad at all even though I made my way through the NYC area close to rush hour time. I decided to still have my traffic-jam dance party anyway. Spoiled with a gazillion XM Radio stations- are you kidding me? I’ll take some hip-hop and 90’s jams every day of the week please. I couldn’t resist making a video of my solo dance party too, when my total fav, Young MC; Bust a Move came on. I’ll save that video for someone else to find someday and blackmail me with. One can only geek out and post videos showing it all so many times in one day!

I made it to Albany, NY in perfect time for dinner at the highly-recommended Van’s Vietnamese:

Van’s doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the food was de-lish, and the service fabulous. I was stuffed silly for my last hour of driving to VT . Here I am! It’s actually 4:41am as I am typing right now so I am technically into day 2. I better get to bed because I have an early morning run calling my name again. Eat, run, eat, run.

After I run in the morning I’ll be heading to the oldest farmers market in the state of Vermont for my first time ever. (Unfortunately the location has changed because the hurricane wiped out the commons it’s usually on.) I’m looking forward to meeting the participating farmers and artists. (Apparently there’s a place near the market I need to get chocolate cake too. Yes, I know- maybe I should up my running mileage!) The second stop for tomorrow will be the Southern Vermont Garlic & Herb Festival. Yeah!

Maybe after that stop, my stinky breath and I will sneak in a nap…

***Total miles driven today, day 1: 244