Day 1 on the road...

Hey folks, we made it out of the City! We're hunkering down for the night at my parents' house upstate, and tomorrow we'll drive up through New York and go to Shelburne Farms near Burlington, Vermont.
Today was spent stuffing our van with the innards of my friends Ashley's and David's Crown Heights apartment. After finally getting it all in a semblance of order, we piled into the leftover space in the van and yelled triumphantly as we drove away from the vacated apartment. We stopped in Greenpoint to say goodbye to a friend, making time to up our blood sugar with Peter Pan donuts.
We still had to make our way up to the Bronx, where we got to have an amazingly prepared dinner at the house one of David's many connections. The family we visited had never in fact met any of us. It was partly because a cousin, who used to work for David's mom, had told them such good things about David and his family that they received us with such warm hugs, good food and good stories. But we could tell that they were a warm, friendly family by nature, and it was incredibly fortunate for us to have them as one of our first stops. David kept saying that he hadn't been treated so well since he was twelve.
Our 82-year old host told us about how she came to New York City from Virginia when she was sixteen and never went back. She's seen the changes, went to bars in Harlem when the men and women went all dressed to the nines. Her husband used to own a bar, where they loved to watch the people and admire their style.
Her husband also had stories, though his were about his time in the Navy. He served from 1940 to 1946, and he was nearly killed once when a kamikaze fighter hit his boat. As I understand it, the boat was steered away so as to save his life and others, but the crew still lost a dozen men. He also remembered seeing bodies in the water, and in reflecting upon it commented on the pointlessness of war.
We ended up spending a few hours with them, just dining and telling stories. As we left we promised to ring them from every state we visit.
It was a lovely time, and I doubt that tomorrow will be any less so.
Good night, everyone!
~Alicia

Publish Post