We’re camping in Maine the week after next, outside Acadia. I am SOOOO excited. Just going to hike all week.
We are going to the Jersey Shore. It’s an easy drive, and we are renting a place with a kitchen, 3 bedrooms and two baths. Nice porch with furniture and a short walk to the downtown and boardwalk.
It will be a nice change of scenery.
We’re trying to camp (we have a car-based awning room and a separate pop-up tent). We have an account with NJ state campsites. They are fully booked on the weekends until it gets below freezing at night. It is almost impossible to get a reservation now. We were able to get some reservations in NW NJ near Delaware Water Gap in early October (Th/Fri, no weekends possible). The whole allure of camping is “get up and go,” but you really really need a reservation now.
I am still quarantining from my trip to see my 91-year-old dad in MN. My sister and I drove out and stayed in Hampton Inns and Hilton Garden Inns (Hilton “Clean Stay” protocols). They were fine. We had no housekeeping by request. We brought all of our food in a cooler from Whole Foods in Stamford CT and restocked for the trip home from a store called Fresh Thyme in Rochester, MN. The rooms we stayed in had fridges so we wiped them out and used them. Rochester is “Med City” and everyone was wearing masks and social distancing. MN is still on NJ’s naughty list but people in Rochester are very serious about Covid hygiene. I can tell you all about super-clean rest stops in PA (the Sheetz in DuBois PA and a mom-and-pop place in the aptly named Jersey Shore, PA. Rest stops in IL, WI were really dirty, sadly. We ate in the car. We stayed in the Maumee OH Hampton Inn and it was immaculate. The pool and the gym were closed but the staff was so nice, and they gave us paper plates and utensils for our food.
We met my Dad outside his nursing home and were able to wheel him to outdoor dining places in Rochester. We could only see him for about an hour at a time but it was well worth it.
Thanks @NJSue. We need to stay in a hotel, thanks for recommending Hilton Hotels, I was just looking to see what would be the best hotel chain to stay in. I couldn’t find any Airbnb near where we are.
Lol, I am familiar with that Sheetz in DuBois, it must be a popular road stop on I-80
Right, @deb922 I was very favorably impressed by the DuBois Sheetz! They also had a lot of pre-packaged decent looking food for sale too. That stretch of I-80 can be a wasteland so it’s nice to know there is an oasis of sorts on it.
@taverngirl, have a great time! We’re heading up to Bar Harbor the first weekend in October, with our two very close friends (the wife is the one I’ve mentioned who is 59 and diagnosed with Alzheimer’s). We’re staying in a small inn. It’s a suite I’ve stayed in before, so I feel it’s safe - two bedrooms separated by a hallway. No other rooms on the floor. I’m hoping it’s still warm enough to eat outdoors, but if not we’ll do takeout. Dora Anne Mills, the former head of the CDC in Maine, said that people are being very safe in Bar Harbor.
I have to give credit to Hampton Inns. I stay in them a lot. I’ve stayed in the Hampton Inn Cambridge MA because it is a short walk from my D lives and has free parking (always a plus in an urban area). Very clean, very reasonably priced.
We’re leaving soon to spend a few weeks with FIL. Most of it will be at his cottage on the river. It’s a really nice cottage he built - 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, full kitchen, and enclosed porch overlooking the river. There aren’t many people around anyway and I’m hoping there will be even fewer now that Labor Day is over. I’m also hoping BIL doesn’t come much if at all. He and SIL are back working again. I’d love to be able to just hide out and let H and FIL have some good father/son time together fishing and working on projects.
I think the kids (living here) are eager to have some time to themselves too (youngest and DIL). Hopefully they’ll take good care of the place and the critters.
We’re going to miss our game playing nights though. It’s fun having 4 of us for games.
I’ve stayed at the Hampton in Maumee! A dear friend lives a couple miles away. Sheetz and Wawa are generally very good about cleanliness and tidy bathrooms.
My daughter was in Bar Harbor this past weekend. She loved, loved, loved it!
It’s funny to read about a particular hotel that CC people have stayed and loved - yet it’s a hotel you drive by all the time and don’t think twice about it !
Sheetz was in my son’s college town and saved him many times for snacks and road trips. I remember stopping in and thinking it was way nicer than any gas station shop I’d ever been in!
Those traveling the Ohio Turnpike I’ll also put in a plug for the rest stops in Ohio on the turnpike - if you traveling through Pennsylvania and getting close to Ohio just “hold it” until you get to Ohio!!! 
Sheetz gas stations rock! That is always my first choice traveling and in town. Fortunately, there are plenty within driving distance from us.
Their food is awesome too, but sadly I have stayed away since the pandemic. Just too many people in/out for me to eat there. And right before the pandemic hit, our local station was demolished/rebuilt and out of commission for about 4 months. I am really missing it now!!!
We are going camping in two weeks just for the weekend. It is only a little over an hours drive from us. D1 and her bf and their dog are coming along with D2. We have a large campsite that can fit all 3 tents. We will be doing a lot of hiking on wide open trails. The weather should be in low 70’s during the days and low 50’s at night so great camping weather. We are all looking forward to a change of scenery.
Under normal circumstances we like Sheetz, Rutters (local chain to our area I think), and Flying J/Pilot for having reliably clean restrooms and multiple eating options. We used to stop at them all the time.
Since Covid we haven’t been to any of them. Pretty much all of the hot spots in PA are along the main thoroughfares. I suspect it’s due to how many people stop at these places and basic odds. Now we go for the small local places unlikely to see many travelers when we have to gas up and grocery stores that are smaller and not along a main path - also drawing mostly locals - when we want food.
Interesting news story about catching Covid. Those who test positive were twice as likely to have eaten in a restaurant within the past two weeks. Now I’m wondering if the restaurants are the culprits or the fact that if someone is eating in a restaurant they are less careful to begin with. The two can go hand in hand as well (still catch it in a restaurant from someone else who is less careful).
We’ll stick with Take Out. We’ve had some nice dinner/dates in our car these past few months. People watching is fun if you pick a decent spot!
My D20 and I did an overnight in Mystic, CT the weekend before last. Overall, it was a great outing, and nice respite from the monotony of the last six months. It is funny, as avid travelers, this wouldn’t have even really registered as anything on our radar prior to March, but now it felt like a big exciting adventure.
The hotel was immaculate and everyone everywhere was wearing a mask. We dined indoors for one meal (as the wait for an outdoor table was 2.5 hours). I’ll admit, I was a nervous wreck about it (kept staring at the AC vent wondering what might be spreading through the room) and couldn’t really enjoy that meal. It will be 14 days tomorrow since we were there, so I’m staring to breathe easy again that we didn’t catch anything while there.
Now we are home and I don’t see any travel in our future for a good long time again.
@abasket we usually stay at the Courtyard by Marriott or the Country Inn and Suites in Rossford when we stop in Toledo on our way to the kids. I like that we can jump right on the turnpike.
There’s the Northwest Ohio content for today ?
I’m still a little afraid of hotels (shared air circulating through the guest rooms give me pause) but after going nowhere all spring/summer I rented a lake/mountain cabin for four nights for my D21, dog and I. H had to stay home for work. We did a little hiking but it rained much of the time. That was OK…just being in the cozy log house felt like an experience. Only an hour away from home but it did feel like a big deal after so much sameness every day.
So now, we’re going to brave another trip …one night in Williamsburg VA, because my D has become very interested in W&M, possibly as an ED. I booked one of the tiny, one-room freestanding historic kitchen houses that Colonial Williamsburg converted to guest houses (before the price goes WAY up for the fall season). We probably won’t be able to tour campus, per se, but there would be nothing stopping us from walking the sidewalks of the periphery looking into campus. Plus, just soaking up the atmosphere of town, to see if this is a place where D could live for four years. We’ve visited before, but last time D was in eighth grade. We’ll probably hit U Richmond on the way home (self-guided tours are allowed there) although I’m not so sure about the fit. The drive will be a few hours each way so I’m going to have to get over my fear of using public bathrooms during the pandemic…guess I’ll have to hold my breath while dashing in and out quickly! I know a college trip is not really a vacation but in a year like this, It seems like a major thing.
We went to Mystic in early February and who knew that would be our last outing! I caught up with a cousin I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. I’ve always liked her, but somehow we’d never made the effort to keep in touch. I wish I were closer to my extended family. One of the drawbacks to having spent most of my childhood overseas. I see my mother’s side of the family more often because we share property. Speaking of which we have tentative plans to stretch out the mid-October holiday weekend and go to the shack at the Cape. We’ll just tootle around in kayaks, hike in the local parks and eat a lot of take-out. Hoping the Covid numbers stay steady in both NY and MA so we can go.
We are making a beach trip in mid-October to the Florida panhandle. It’s about a 12 hour drive for us from Texas. We want a change of scenery and flying is complicated so we decided to just drive. Looking forward to it and hoping for decent weather.
We have a camping trip planned for the last week of Sept. reservations in one area but also an idea of another area if needed. First spot is close to fire and alternative area is presently closed by USFS due to all forest service camping being closed in the state due to fire risks. I’m fine if it doesn’t happen.
I live in a tourist town and yesterday went to a part of time I don’t go to much. I was surprised at how busy it was for a Thur 1-3 pm. All the wine tasting spots were full and the restaurants on the main streets were full. I had lunch with my sister at a spot on one of the side streets that had good outdoor distance tables plus they were only 1/4 full. Most people I would say were from out of town. We both felt that the tables at 75% of the places weren’t distanced as much as we would be comfortable with.