Before I tell you about our day, I remembered that I’d forgotten to add two things to yesterday’s post. One was photos of the covered bridge, the weir and the river at Taftsville just up the road from the Inn and second was a very short, quick video of the apple pressing at Cold Hollow Cider Mill. I’m  starting to get forgetful in my old age! 

This morning before we left the Inn we had a lovely breakfast with four new guests, a couple originally from Scotland who now live in East Sussex and an American couple from Guilford (I thought they said Guildford but apparently not!) in Connecticut. We had a very lively discussion about Scottish independence, Brexit and Donald Trump!!

The American couple, Ken and Naomi, were on their way to Stowe to partake in the 27th annual ‘British Invasion’ which is a weekend celebration and salute to the Great British motorcar and British lifestyle. They own a Jaguar and last year won first place in the Jaguar Sedans (1955-87) MK I/II, 420, S-Type, XJ6, XJ12, XJ6C section with their 1962 Jaguar Mark II. Fingers crossed they managed another win this year too.

So, it’s “goodbye” Vermont and “hello” New Jersey!

Now then, as we spent most of the day in ‘the beast’ I’m afraid there’s no ‘action’ to speak of but just what we could see out of the car windows as we hurtled along.

We departed lovely Vermont and headed out for Atlantic City. The drive was scheduled to take 6.5 hours but allowing for stops on the way ended up taking seven. It was a much easier drive than we were anticipating and arrived in brilliant sunshine and not the rain we had been expecting. To smooth our passage we listened and sang along to the tunes of John Denver. All together now, one, two, three:

We needed a smoothing tune or two because Margaret (sat nav) didn’t want to take us on the route to Atlantic City that we preferred (i.e. away from New York as we knew it would be too busy on a Friday afternoon), instead she insisted on trying to turn as around at every exit en-route! It’s not like Margaret, she’s usually so co-opertive!

A long drive like this one can be rather boring but a few sights along the way made it interesting including this rather pretty picture as we left Vermont of Echo Lake in Tyson and one of the Fall colour ‘in progress’.

At one point on the drive I began to wonder if I’d had a drink or two, albeit it rather early for a drink, because I realised that I was indeed seeing cows and a moose(!) standing on a roof!! Luckily, on closer inspection I realised they were not real after all.

I felt really at home when I saw this sign. My name before I married my dearest was in fact Weston! Pleased to see I was offering ‘luxurious accommodations and fine dining”, definitely my kind of place.

When we saw this one we were rather confused ………….. had we been transported back home and didn’t realise it!

It was very kind of the good ‘ole folk of New York and New Jersey to lay on a welcome for us!

and boy were we pleased to see this sign!

We are not staying at a casino but at The Claridge Hotel and Brighton Park here in Atlantic City. It has a very interesting history as it stands on the site where the founder of Atlantic City, Jeremiah Leeds, built his family settlement in the late 1700’s. The hotel opened in 1930 during the great depression and some of its famous guests included Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Princess Grace of Monaco, Al Capone and Nucky Johnson who was an Atlantic City, New Jersey political boss, Atlantic County Sheriff, businessman, and racketeer! Some of you back home in the UK may have seen Sky Atlantic’s Boardwalk Empire in which the character Nucky Thompson was actually based on Nucky Johnson. Great show!

Tomorrow we’ll take some photos of the hotel, I know, the excitement is just too much, but in the meantime, this is the view from our hotel room looking over Brighton Park and out to the Atlantic Ocean. Is that the UK I can see, I’m waving, 👋are you all waving back?

That’s all for now folks, see you tomorrow!