trip to New Jersey

I drove up to north western N J to visit a college friend.  She lives in a very small town - they have a post office, but nothing else except about a dozen homes.  Her house was built in the 1940s, I think, but has an open floor plan, which surely was unusual for the times.  The area is very rural - the view out the back is of a dairy farm.  The countryside is so beautiful, especially with the fall leaves.  We ate out twice and spent Saturday browsing around in antique/junk shops in a nearby town.  I had a great time and, amazingly, managed not to buy anything!  It must have been my friend's influence, as on the way home, I stopped at another store and did buy two cheap items - some old buttons and a child's rake.

The drive up was not too bad, as I could enjoy the fall colors while I sat in stop and go traffic on the Baltimore beltway Friday AM.  The drive home had no bad traffic and was fine until just south of Harrisburg, PA when I noticed that the temperature gauge was reading above the HOT mark!  I pulled off at the next exit and added some coolant, as there appeared to be none in the overflow box.  I waited a bit and went back on the road.  Almost immediately, the gauge went back up, all the way.  So, I pulled off again and considered my options.  I called my brother Tom for his advice.  He said it might be the thermostat, and advised me to call AAA and get a tow.  I did that and rode all the way to Laurel in the cab of a tow truck.  I never realized how high up those cabs are!  You can see way over the traffic, but the ride was very rough.  My car is at the garage now and I'm waiting for the owner to call me and tell me how much this repair will cost!  At least the tow was free!  Thank goodness for AAA.

View from the car along one of the back roads.

 Looking across the valley.

 This lake is just a short walk down the road.

This is an old, abandoned mill at the end of the lake.