Day 86: Middlesex, Vermont to Buffalo, New York. Day 87: Buffalo to Cincinnati, Ohio. Day 88-89: Cincinnati.

Unsurprisingly, our NFL road trip schedule does not fit neatly around major holidays -- the holidays need to fit around it. So, the Scoppettone family Thanksgiving celebration -- pandemic edition -- involved a time-shifted meal and virtual visiting. The Vermont contingent, Greg and I, along with Anna and her boyfriend, Adam, cooked and ate a lovely traditional meal (complete with two pies, apple and pumpkin) on Wednesday. After dinner, we packed leftovers for friends and neighbors who weren't able to cook or travel. Anna got to play Thanksgiving Santa Claus on the actual holiday, driving around to deliver food while Greg and I were driving to Buffalo, NY, our designated stay-over spot in the journey to Cincinnati.

 Thanksgiving leftovers in our hotel.

The next day we were up and out early. Near Erie, Pennsylvania we passed this dramatic roadside sign yet again. Below is a bit of context from Wikipedia.

Cattaraugus Reservation is an Indian reservation located partly in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 1,833 at the 2010 census.^[2]

The largest part of the reservation is in Erie County; smaller portions are located in Cattaraugus County and Chautauqua County. This is one of the reservations of the federally recognized Seneca Nation of Indians. The Seneca maintain most of their administrative and public service facilities for the Cattaraugus Reservation in the Erie County portion.

When Nadia was in 4th grade she made the Ohio State candy,  Buckeyes, for a class project. They are incredibly delicious.  Even though they are rather time-consuming to make, they became sort of a family tradition. So, when I discovered these giant-sized replicas at a rest stop near Cincinnati -- well, I just had to take a picture.

We pulled in to our Cincinnati hotel in the late afternoon. It was literally an art museum -- part of the 21c Museum Hotel group. The lobby was stunning. Here are pictures of some of the art.  They don't do it justice. Click on the images to see them better. The one below took up a good-sized wall. It is hard to see it here, but this is a textile piece -- it's quilted!

 

   

The view from the window in our room.

The view from inside our room, including an interesting light fixture (below, right).

  

Inspired by the art. Here's my attempt at a still life.

We passed this on the way home. Despite the special offer, we didn't stop.

On the field: NFL Week 12, 11/29/10: New York Giants @ Cincinnati Bengals. The battle of the backup quarterbacks. Injuries were a factor in this mess of a game. New York eked out a victory. Final score: Giants 19, Bengals 17. Giants are now 4 wins and 7 losses and somehow in first place in the division.

On the map: distance from last week's game at Charlotte to home to Cincinnati: 1,761 miles. 

Day 79: Middlesex, Vermont to Martinsburg, West Virginia; Day 80: West Virginia to Charlotte, North Carolina; Day 81-82 Charlotte, North Carolina

It's hard to say when we officially hit the wall on this crazy journey . . . this week? last week? three weeks ago? It certainly has been challenging. We've driven approximately 21,000 miles over 3 months during a pandemic and a crisis of leadership in our country. Like everyone, we've juggled those broad concerns along with the more immediate ones of how many miles do we need to make and which hotel should we stay at and do we have enough Lysol spray and disposable gloves on hand.

Week 11 of the NFL season found us headed back to Charlotte, North Carolina. Since it is 14+ driving hours, we spent the night in a hotel just over the border in West Virginia. As we neared our stopping point, we were treated to a fiery sunset. I took a gazillion pictures, but they don't capture how dramatic it was. 

Greg was able to find some roadside attractions to make our next day's journey more interesting. 

We visited Patsy Cline's grave, tucked into a nondescript graveyard on the side of a county highway in Virginia. Like others before us, we left a couple of pennies on her grave. As we were leaving, I noticed that the graveyard had a special section for pets. 

Pennies are left on graves, most of all, in remembrance of the deceased. Leaving a coin from your pocket is a way to leave a part of yourself at the burial site. The coin is a visual reminder that, even in death, the memory of the deceased lives on. It is also a sign of respect to the dead, as it shows that their memory has value to you and is something you want to commemorate. (from SouthUniversity.edu)

A few hours later we stopped for coffee -- literally. The building below used to be a restaurant. It seemed to be occupied as a home now. It was an abrupt pull-out but, if you ignored the constant road noise, a tranquil spot. Across the road, a meandering river looked lovely in the sunlight.  

Next stop -- a visit to Johnny Appleseed, whom we found just off the highway in front of a motel that had seen better days. 

We pulled into the Charlotte Metro area on Friday afternoon. I'm not sure how people who live in Charlotte deal with the congestion. An odd attitude, I know, since I spent so many years in Los Angeles. Perhaps living in Vermont has eroded my tolerance for bumper-to-bumper traffic. 

Otherwise, Charlotte seems to be a pretty nice city, clean and modern with lots of public art. Sadly, like many cities we've been in, there appears to be a significant homeless population. Also, like many places, the compliance with Covid protocols seems to be spotty -- hard to witness when we're constantly hearing heart-wrenching stories from front-line workers in hospitals. 

The bar above had a mask mandate, but not much compliance. The next pic is a party trolly. You can't see it because of the hedge but, unlike the party buses we saw in Nashville, this one was pedal-powered -- the drinkers sat on bicycle seats facing each other. So, I guess the proprietors get points for trying to be environmentally responsible while completely ignoring covid protocols.

Here are some more Charlotte pics.

         

Greg on game day.

On the field: NFL Week 11, 11/15/20. Detroit Lions @ Carolina Panthers. Matthew Stafford's injured thumb proved too much for the Lions quarterback to overcome. Stafford was sacked 5 times and threw many errant passes on the way to a shut-out. Final score: Lions 0, Panthers 20.

On the map: distance from last week's game in Hoboken to home to Charlotte: 1,266 miles. Here's the map. The route to Charlotte can be seen below. It is the third line stretching downward from the right. Our route this time is highlighted in blue and green.

Day 73: Middlesex, Vermont to Hoboken, New Jersey. Days 74, 75: Hoboken, New Jersey

The trip to Hoboken seems like a walk in the park to us road-ready travelers these days. We can get there in one driving day and, if we choose our route and timing correctly, we can mostly avoid the twin demons of travel -- road work and traffic. We were pretty lucky this time, dodging serious Friday traffic by leaving early, we arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon. Greg had a conference call, but we managed to fit in a walk. Our hotel has a stunning view of the New York skyline.

The weekend was uneventful. But we did have a little real estate conflict in the room on Saturday morning. Greg has been Zooming most of his meetings. Both of his announcers have recently had Covid-19, so he's taking no chances. As it turned out, I had a Zoom meeting with my critique group at the same time. Greg's meeting started first, so he set up on the desk in the room. A half hour later, I created a makeshift set-up for myself. We'd been chatting for a while before one of my critique partners asked, "Are you in a shower?" It worked out pretty well, actually -- good acoustics. 

The liquor store across from our hotel has a tribute to a famous son of Hoboken. Forgive the poor photography. I was shooting through their window.

Below is Frank's mug shot from an early arrest. I blew up the inset, so you can read it. His offense is written in cursive below the date.  I'm not sure if the handwriting is his. 

             

  

As we headed out of town, we stopped by the house where Frank was born, as well as the house where he grew up. 

                                                               

         (above)  The house where Frank was born. 

(below) Frank's boyhood house stood here.

         

                                                          

A few miles later as we headed for the freeway to begin our journey home, I snapped a last minute look at the New York skyline. The shot below was taken from the car as we passed a ballpark in Hoboken.

On the field: NFL Week 10, 11/15/20: Philadelphia Eagles @ New York Giants. Daniel Jones was great. He ran for 64 yards, including an exciting touchdown. He's faster than he looks.

On the map: Distance from last week's game, Nashville to home to Hoboken: 1,417 miles. 

Here are the maps. The first shows the well-traveled route from home to Hoboken. This journey is traced in brown.

Day 65: Middlesex, Vermont to Cleveland, Ohio. Day 66: Cleveland to Nashville, Tennessee. Day 67-68: Nashville.

Vermont looked lovely as we drove away in the early morning of November 5th. Since Nashville is 1088 miles (17+ hours) we broke the journey in -- you guessed it -- Cleveland, Ohio. We were up and out early the next morning and headed south.

The drive was long, with the usual roadwork and pushy trucks to contend with. But, we were treated to some lovely skies on the way.

 

When we stopped for lunch at a rest area, we were able to learn about an interesting historical event. It felt a bit like something they might have talked about on the Beverly Hillbillies TV show back in the day. 

(click on the photo below to expand so you can read the story)

We stayed in the suburbs of Nashville en route to somewhere else earlier. At that time, I'd found the city clean, modern and seemingly diverse. But, I saw a different side of "the music city" this time. Since Greg was covering the Titans game, our hotel was right downtown. 

The nightlife was hopping! I hope you can overlook my poor photography skills. Greg was too busy working to take pictures. The name of the bar below at left seemed appropriate to the mood of the city. The photo on the right shows one of the ubiquitous party buses that roam the streets day and night. Evidently all the people are related because none of them were wearing masks. 

                        

I saw lots of swankily dressed urban cowboys/girls. And music was most-definitely in the air. 

                                                               

I'm sure this town would be lots of fun under different circumstances. But for me, obsessed as I am with the state of our nation, it was a bit surreal. The only sign that there was a momentous election being decided was on the front page of the local newspaper. 

I spent Saturday morning in the hotel, as usual, and only learned of Biden's victory when my mother-in-law texted me to share the happy news. I saw no reaction, positive or negative, on the streets of Nashville. I left the tv on most of the day, even while I was trying to work. The scenes of masked jubilation helped to ease my feeling of isolation.

Greg checked off another game from his plate during this crazy season. At least the Titans organization seemed to be taking the pandemic seriously. These were the only fans allowed.

Greg and one of his core cameramen on game day. Jesse lives in Milwaukee.

On the field: NFL Week 9, 11/1/20: Chicago Bears @ Tennessee Titans.  The game was overshadowed by national events as Joe Biden was declared the victor in the presidential election on Saturday. The Titans were declared the victor on Sunday. Final score: Bears 17, Titans 24.

On the map: Distance from last week's game at Cleveland to home to Nashville: 1,665 miles.

The map: route to Nashville shown in red.