Started planning for 'a' road trip after Succos (2023), the amount of variations & routes I went through until we settled on this one is in the 2 digits...
Anyways let me go straight to the point.
Planning:Used a combination of Google Maps &
RoadTripper to plan the actual route.
DDF, Trip Advisor, Yelp & Google to research Places to stop & Go Daven to find Minyanim.
After settling on this route, which is a +- 1000mi route, average of 160mi (3.5 Hours) per day if doing 6 days, sounded the most doable, since we are traveling with 4 kids ages 2-7 (ble"h).
Created a spreadsheet where I listed every day, beneath it all the stops for the day, with all basic information i need to know for the place, including how long it'll take me to get there from the previous place, that way to make sure I'm leaving on time to go to the next place. (Tip; I didn't show this list to my kids, so they should get the road trip experience, of just wandering down the road and finding interesting and fun places to go to).
And obviously this list was just a guide since you never know what to expect, where you would wanna stay longer then planned for, or if the weather does it's thing [only happened once b"h].
Accommodations:Booked all Hotel stays via Chase Travel website, since I used my chase points to cover the hotels. will list the hotels later throughout the report as we get there.
Vehicle:Used my car, a 7 seater SUV, A
car roof bag for the luggage, and a fresh Oil change right before leaving (
).
Food & Packing:Polar Bear Cooler with, Mlik, Cheese, Chicken & Pastrami, Frozen Cake (terrible idea, ended up badly soggy) & lots of ice.
Box with, Bread, rolls, wrap, snacks, ketchup/mustered/cans pickles, crackers, etc.
Box with, Betty Crocker, Hot water kettle, 1 set of cutlery for food preparation, disposable plates/cutlery, napkins, disposable table clothes.
Box with crocks/shoes, soap & shampoo, toothpaste, etc.
One box of clothing for each day (6 boxes total)One box of clothing for each day (6 boxes total).
Bought
this foldable luggage cart on amazon the to schlep the 3 boxes (box 2, 3 & the clothing box of that day)
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DAY 1 / NY-CT / Sunday August 18Left Home around 11:00am, drove down south for about an Hour to stop # 1
Flushing meadow park Surrey bike rental Took a 6 seater bike for an hour, was really fun, heavy to paddle but fun anyway.
Ate lunch at the park & then we where back in the car and drove east/north for about 2.5 hours to Orient Point NY which is by the way a beautiful drive once the I-495 ends, it's full of farming fields, mainly vineyards, it did not feel like I'm driving in Long Island NY.
We arrived at the
Cross Sound Ferry, which is all the way by the end of the NY 'tail', waited in line a few minutes & then we drove onto the boat, parked the car, went unto the deck & ate supper and enjoyed the views/ride for the next 1 hour & 20 minutes. all in all it's a cool experience! the boat is quite big, It could take up to 120 cars and 1000 passengers according to their website! we had 2 RV's and a few trucks on our boat as well.
We arrived in CT around 6:30pm, went to the Hotel,
Hyatt Place Mystic to check in & settle down for the night, then drove back to
Chabad in New London CT, but unfortunately had no Minyan, Davend Mincha/Marriv there, went to ShopRite for some eggs, fruits & vegetables to have for Monday & went back to Hotel for an early night.
Todays Totals:Milage: 175
Hours of car travel: 3:25
Cost: $50 Bike Rental, $144 Boat ride = $194
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DAY 2 / CT-RI-MA / Monday August 19Went back to
Chabad in New London CT for Shachris, no Minyan again, but I'd rather daven in a Shul then in a Hotel Room...
Ate breakfast in Hotel Room (as discussed in the "Food" section on the beginning), At 10:00am we left the hotel, Stopped at
Olde Mystick Village but left fairly quickly, since it wasn't interesting at all.
Drove east/north for just under an hour to the
Roger Williams Park Zoo, was raining since the morning, but we decided to go anyway hoping for the best, and b"h worked out great, as soon as we pulled into the zoo parking lot the rain stopped, and after half an hour the sun came out!, the Zoo it self is absolutely beautiful & amazing! we all loved it, the variety & unique animals they have - I haven't seen in many other zoos, we arrived around 11:30 in the morning and left at 4! (and that's even though some interactive activities for kids, like petting zoo where closed due to rain date schedule).
We then went for a calm walk at the
Cliff Walk, specifically starting at 'The Breakers, since from there going in one direction is stroller accessible, for about half an hour, it was a beautiful walk.
We then drove to
Brenton Point State Park which is a beautiful park on the ocean where we ate supper, packed up and stopped at the
Levi Gale House (across the street from Touro Synagogue, the Touro Synagogue is only used Monday & Thursday for Shachris I believe) for Mincha/Marriv.
After Marriv, it was time to head north for about 1 hour & 20 minutes to Needham MA (outskirts of Boston MA), since I couldn't find anything interesting enough for the kids to enjoy, MA was more a matter of just sleeping over on the way to the next stop.
Arrived at
Homewood Suites by Hilton Needham Boston at 10pm, and checked in for the night.
Todays Totals:Milage: 198
Hours of car travel: 4:15
Cost: $120 Zoo = $120
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DAY 3 / MA-ME / Tuesday August 20Davened Shachris in
Beth Menachem Chabad of Newton 6:30am Minyan (started early to get as early as possible to Maine), went back to hotel, ate breakfast, packed up Lunch for the way & by 9:30am we where on the road heading to Portland, Maine.
For the first stop that day I planned to catch the 12:15pm ferry to Peaks Island but we missed the boat by 30 seconds! so we went
here which is the back of the Harbor Fish Market & were the freshly caught fish (mainly lobsters) arrive, we actually saw a fisher boat arriving full of Lobsters, it was interesting to see the seagulls rounding up on the nearby roofs as soon as the boat pulled in.
Then we went to
Mackworth Island (only a 15 minutes away by car) which is a beautiful little island accessible by car through a narrow road, and has a breathtaking [stroller accessible] path around the perimeter that takes (according to AllTrails) 30 minutes to complete, we only went about 10 minutes in where we sat down for Lunch by a picnic table on the side of the trail that is by the edge of a steep hill down to the ocean. [see picture]
Then we went back to the
Casco Bay Ferry in hopes to catch the 2:15pm boat, which we did & even spotted some seals in the water from the boat!
Peaks Island is a bigger island (then Mackworth Island), Lot's of Summer homes around there, interesting thing though is, the only access is through the Ferry, so that Ferry brings all types of supply, including Amazon packages. We rented a Golf Car there, we made our way around the Island, stopped a few times by the ocean throughout the way, there isn't much to do on the Island (besides for non-kosher food) but the kids loved it as they all had a chance driving the Golf Cart.
Took the 5:00pm boat back to Portland, and headed to
Portland Head Light lighthouse, Ate supper there, and went to the Hotel,
Home2 Suites by Hilton with a view of PWM runway! we watched some takeoffs in the morning.
Quick run to local Grecery to grab some Fruits Veggies & eggs to have for the next day.
Todays Totals:Milage: 156
Hours of car/boat travel: 4:00
Cost: $50 Ferry, $113.73 Golf Cart = $163.73
To be continued...