Turtle Tales: Day 22 & 23

We started our day out on Thursday by driving to Clinton, a neighboring town, to drop off the truck for a tire repair. We had picked up a nail in our front passenger side tire, somewhere on the road, and had a slow leak which had rapidly become a fast leak. Funny how that happens!

We then drove to Somerville to visit Jim's brother and his son Billy (our nephew), who are partners in the Auld Architect Partnership and maintain their office in Somerville. Rob has been an architect since 1973, and Billy joined his Dad in 1998. We got to see some of the work they have done in the area and were quite impressed to say the least! They are also involved with Habitat for Humanity and have received many recognitions for their work with Habitat.

After visiting with Rob and Billy, we headed to the Spinning Wheel Diner to eat lunch. I know I have mentioned diners before, but the food is just so good, and they give you more than you can ever think about eating! Diner food is different - especially the desserts which are homemade on the premises! We couldn't finish our meals - no less eat our dessert, so we came home with leftovers for dinner and dessert to boot! (Bread pudding and tapioca pudding!)

Jim and Penny watched the Giants beat the Panthers, and I spent the evening catching up with friends and family back in Texas. I also played with the dogs and watched the deer come out for their evening feeding in the yard. It was so surreal to be so close to these majestic animals.

Today, Jim and I drove to Berkeley Heights to get two new tires on the truck, as they had told us yesterday, after putting on our spare tire, that we had two worn tires that really needed to be replaced! Our truck is not even a year old, but we have so many miles on it from our travels, we are going through tires like crazy. We had the tires on the RV replaced before we left home, so we should be in good shape for another 60,000 miles or so...........:)

I have to say, Jim is getting good at manuvering in the NJ traffic! It is nothing like our five car traffic jam in Port Lavaca! Everyone in NJ moves at one speed - FAST! If you don't go with the flow, you get trampled! Forget the speed limits - they make theirs up as they move along up here!

When we returned, we had lunch and played with the girls, then headed to Wally World (Wal Mart) to pick up more water for the girls and knitting needles as Penny had shared a new eyelet pattern to use in making prayer shawls and I wanted to get started on making a shawl right away! Once we gathered what we needed at Wal Mart, we drove to Sergentsville, NJ to see the last remaining covered bridge in the state. It was built in 1862. It has been re-enforced for traffic along the way, but it is still used on a daily basis. We also drove through some interesting communities, and I must say that this area of New Jersey is really quite lovely. Rolling hills, mountains, lush yards, houses on acerage, not back- to- back or side- by- side, as most would imagine. Hunterdon County reminds me of some of the areas in New York where I was raised.

We have been enjoying our visit with Jim's family. We had planned to leave for Warwick, NY to stay with friends, but they had a house fire at their lake house, caused by the storms that went through that area on Tuesday, and are busy trying to get that cleaned out and resolved with the insurance company, so we thought it would be better not to bother them at this time. We will take a day trip from here to visit my home town of Cornwall-on-Hudson, and friends in Newburgh and surrounding area. We will then head to Rochester, NY where we will see some lighthouses and then head to Niagara Falls. We should be there some time next week.

The leaves on the trees are just beginning to change colors, and the temperatures have gotten cooler. Yesterday when we got up, it was 48 degrees! The high today was 70.......I can live with that! It felt so good!

Til next time.............enjoy the pictures!

Scenes from the Auld Architect Partnership