Day 6: Salem, MA-Connecticut-New York-New Jersey-Allentown, PA

August 17, 2009
Salem, MA-Allentown, PA
Miles: 326.2 miles
Music: “All the Pretty Girls” –Fun., “I’ve Got Friends” –Manchester Orchestra, Old Crow Medicine Show




Woke up relatively early and hit the road after a quick stop at the post office and goodbye to Marissa. We were basically on the road again all day and stuck in traffic through New York of course. I was running out of gas, had to pee, was sick of driving and wanted food. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. We eventually pulled over and took care off all those issues and Anna finished the drive to the Senderowitz Home in Allentown. They lived in a fantastic hose in a nice neighborhood. Their basement was filled with old arcade games like pinball, pacman, skee-ball and baseball. Rissa texted me and asked if we’d seen the basement. I said, “You mean canteen on steroids?” Because that was pretty much what it was like. Marlee showed us the rest of the house then her father, Donald, took us all for ice cream! Darea and Marlee got ice cream cones bigger than their faces of course. Wish we could have spent more time there it seemed like a very interesting town! Went back to their house and watched a Bat Mitzvah video and looked through photo albums. We are so lucky to have such amazing friends in all the right place.

Day Four: Worcester & Boston

August 15, 2009
Worchester-Boston-Worcester, MA
Miles: 101.6 round trip

Later start and had a nice breakfast Dianne cooked for us. Darea’s mom drove us to Boston for lunch at Anthony’s seafood restaurant on Pier 4. On the way we ad many phone calls.

Phone calls today: we all talked to Darea’s mom
Luke texted his Dad about the trip and dad told him to call so I did. Dianne called me a liar.

Luke talked to Lauren, Darea’s sister She thinks I’m really American
Anna talked to Luke’s mom Lise about the future life plans (what else is new)
Anna talked to her momma about ballet shoes

At the restaurant, I have never eaten so much on my life. Still full form the dinner before we had a huge platter of seafood including mussels, clams, oysters, crab and many sauces. (bread on the side) The entre I had was shrimp scampi which was very rich but delicious. SO MUCH FOOD. I managed to hide a grin when Diane ordered a gin and tonic (one of my favorite drinks) Famous people eat at Anthony’s restaurant and put the photos up on the wall. It’s kind of a big deal.

Drove back and decided that laundry was becoming a dire situation. We all went to the local laundry-mat and Darea did her laundry and Anna did mine. The reason for this is because I have been trying to find a place to wash, and vacuum my car and get the oil changed. Unfortunately for me, I’m a huge doofus and I got on the huge interstate highway, paid a toll, and got lost. When I asked the girl at the toll how to get back, she looked at me and said “That’s where you just came from!” I said, “I KNOW RIGHT?!” She kindly told me how to get back and I figured it out. Turns out, there was a car wash and a Jiffy Lube about a block away from the laundry place….but in the other direction. I vacuumed my car and decided to come back for oil change in the morning. There is no reason to wash the outside of my car because it’s just going to get dirty anyways. I also like the fact that there are dead bugs stuck to my car from 15 different states (so far). Holler.

We came home and I re-packed the car, vacuumed, chatted with Anthony and got ready for sleep. Good day of organizing

Anna is ridiculously good at navigating and not getting lost like me. I however am good at driving and being told where to go. Darea is really good at putting on her makeup and reading a book a camper gave her.
–Love, Luke

Day Five: Worcester-Salem

August 16, 2009
Worcester-Salem, MA
Miles: 68.7 miles

Peggy and Anthony packed us a great lunch of sandwiches, potato salad, beer, water, pie, and silverware! Nicest people we’ve encountered. They were so hospitable. The drive to Salem was not that long and on the way we passed a sign that said “Dinosaur State Park” I got really excited and made Anna Google it to see what fun things were there. No camping so it was a deal-breaker.



When Luke says he was excited to see a sign that said “Dinosaur State Park” that is probably the biggest understatement ever, he was like a fat kid in a candy store or Luke in Oregon. His seatbelt held him in place but there was a good possibility he was going to jump out of the car at the sight of the word Dinosaur on a road sign. To be fair to him that is a rarity. Bless him I think the 8yr old Luke in him wanted the state park to have actual Dinosaurs in it, if not life size replicas. It makes me sad that we will not discover that place of wonders on this trip. Darea x.



Got to Salem on the hottest afternoon of the summer Marissa’s house was fantastic and really nice. It was tall and skinny with three floors. We set off for the city and Marissa played tour guide. We saw where the scene in Hocus Pocus was filmed at a tree with benches around it in a playground. We saw the Salem Harbor, bought some postcards, checked out downtown, then went to a place called The Willows. There was a Jazz festival happening and we ate ice cream and shopped around this Saturday market-type place. Met some cool artists including an oil painter and a photographer. We walked and walked back to Marissa’s house. On the way we stopped for Thai food and visited the most fantastical bookstore I’ve ever seen it was covered wall to wall with books. Completely filled! This tiny old man who ran the place said all books were half price. Once we returned to Marissa’s we were all too tired to go out and hit the night life. We caught up on emails, and letters, made more travel plans and went to bed. Nice evening in the witch hunting capital of the world!

–Love, Luke

Day Three: Manhattan-Worcester

August 14th, 2009
Manhattan-Worcester, MA
Miles:169.8 miles

Woke up early to Anna bringing us breakfast in bed! Slight headache from the previous night but it was worth every minute.

We left for the bus station and managed to get to the Falcor and on the road before too long. Unfortunately, we went all the way back to New Jersey to be stuck in traffic for a long time. The day was mostly filled with driving and spacing out. Darea and I were very sad to be away from friends and kids at camp. Drove most of the day. Stopped and had some great hotdogs at a service plaza. Made it to Worchester (pronounced “wuh-ster”) around dinner time.

We were greeted by Darea’s mom Dianne, her friend Peggy, and Anthony. I have never met nicer people. Very nice hosts. Cooked us a big dinner of ribs, chicken, sausage, potatoes, and wine. After dinner, we sat and chatted about camp and told funny camp stories about walkie-talkies and strange doctors.

I slept like a baby on the fold out couch.

Note to self: Darea did not like the nickname “drizzle” will work on more tomorrow. -Love, Luke

Day Two: Manhattan

August 13, 2009
Manhattan All Day
Miles: many on foot

Anna, Darea and I went to Starbucks for breakfast while Niall went for a run through central park. We eventually ended up in Times Square meeting up with a bazillion camp counselor friends and a few campers as well! We planned on spending the day walking around Manhattan as a big group. The rule was that you had to be at least 17 to make decisions about where we were going. Went to the M&M store then wandered around central park until we found the Strawberry Fields area and took pictures by the Imagine sign.

We walked and walked with some on and off rain drizzles and tried to eat at a place called Serendipity but the wait was two hours. I decided to park my ass on the street and eat one of those hotdogs and salted pretzels off a cart while everyone else went for starbucks. Best meal of the day hands down and it was like 4 dollars to boot. Sweet deal if you ask me. Anna and myself decided to go wander around the Metropolitan Museum of art. I told Anna I thought that sculptures in the olden days must have had a difficult time containing their laughter when sculpting nude men out of marble. How could you not giggle a little bit if you’re were chiseling away at a pair of testicles?! Come on people that’s funny.



After more hours of walking up and down the island of Manhattan we met up with Avi Dobkin and went to dinner at Planet Hollywood with about 28 other camp people. After running around the night life like a bunch of chickens with no heads, Caitie, Darea, Anna, Chelsea, Steve and myself all went to the empire state building and took photos from the top. On the elevator Chelsea blinked three times in a row in every single picture I took of the group. We gave up and made fun of her.

Walked more miles to a bar called Blockheads where everybody else was. Had many nice conversations with friends from camp and people started to dissipate. Anna and Darea went back to the hotel and a bunch of us guys still wanted to go to more bars. After having a quick wingman convention with Niall, McMagic, Eric, Dean, Jeff, Scrivoney, Adam and Dean’s friend Effe, we headed out. Lindsay was there too. After looking around for a few times we all realized that we had spent most of the evening in a gay bar. Some were oblivious, but nobody cared. It was a while lot of v-neck shirts, skinny jeans, perfect hair and teeth and masculine love in the air.

Some guy propositioned me in the bathroom and I told him to go forth and reproduce with himself and I left promptly. Anything goes in NY I guess.

I stumbled to the subway with Niall after more teary goodbyes and plans to meet in the future. Niall figured out that the subway does not run at 2 in the morning and that we needed to take a cab home. If he hadn’t noticed some small print on a sign I probably would have sat there all night.

Probably the best part about the night was the realization that I actually like New York City. It just took me a long time to decide. I weighed many pros and cons including, but not limited to: poverty, money, asshole people who just walk and stare with blank looks on their faces, the power of the American industrialized city, alcohol, my friends, the subway, efficiency, and food. The bottom line is that I like New York and we for one night of the summer, we owned the city night life.


Niall & I stumbled to the subway after more teary goodbyes and plans to meet in the future. Realized the subway was not coming and took a cab. Probably would have sat there all night if he hadn’t found the fine print. Haha. Best night in NY ever. Love, Luke