July 7, 2016, Middletown, NY- This is another of those years when I could not be present for my son’s birthday. He was at sea, anyway. I rose early, at Glick’s Greenhouse compound, and bid Beth and Dave a fond adieu. My goal was to reach Saugus in time to visit a bit with a nephew and his family, who were visiting from Indiana. Some goals don’t get reached.

The day began nicely enough. I made good time past the Lehigh Valley, and its tough, surviving cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, jumping on Rte. 209, past the Stroudsburgs, to Bushkill Falls, where my in-laws spent their honeymoon, and several subsequent wedding anniversaries.

The privately-owned park retains its magic, and offers a fairly extensive network of hiking trails, some of which are paved. Families and single wanderers alike were having a fine time, this morning. Here a few of the scenes I encountered, in this Pride of the Poconos.

Pennsylvania has had copious rain, so far this summer. Thus, the rain forest ambiance of Bushkill Falls, and other places in the Poconos, make for a lovely vacation stopover. The sense of peace and tranquility I found there, sustained me through what followed, in the afternoon.

After stopping in Port Jervis, NY, in the Three Corners region of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and enjoying a hearty lunch at Muller’s Diner, I sensed something was awry with Nissan. Once on I-84, it was worse: Lack of acceleration reduced my speed to 50. It was fortunate that I made it up the road apiece, to Middletown, and found a Nissan dealership. The men took two hours to find and fix what their diagnostics said was the problem: A clogged front exhaust pipe. Thanks to them, I was back on the road by 4:30. It was too late to see nephew and his family, but I made it safely to my mother’s house by 10 PM. Safety is always first.