The final leg… Bethlehem to Boston

One wrong turn…

Well this is it…the final leg of MTTS 2014. Kind of a bittersweet day, knowing it has to come to an end. We all lined up at the Steel Stacks for the final parade out of Bethlehem. No surprise and delight stops this time, just a nice, scenic drive to Boston. That was until we decided to follow some “rogue” MINIs and divert from the route! We didn’t’ know they were going a completely different way. But we soon realized we weren’t anywhere near the original route, so we decided to just enter the hotel info for tonight into the GPS and roll into Boston early for a change. As if…!

Lining up at the Steel Stacks

We soon were on our way into New York City! That was kind of cool at first, as Cindi had never been there. So she was excited to see the NYC skyline as we headed toward the George Washington Bridge. The problem was that the GPS and the highway signage didn’t seem to match up. And the traffic was horrendous!! I thought it was a typical Friday lunchtime traffic jam until I realized it was Saturday…should there be this much traffic on a Saturday?? Must be an accident…

Entering George Washington Bridge

Nope….but it was a Yankees game, and we soon found ourselves directly across from Yankee Stadium! Once we got past all that baseball traffic, things settled down a bit. We ended up with a beautiful drive on Saw Mill River Parkway until we finally got onto a road taking us into Connecticut.

It was lunchtime, so we thought we’d look for a Ruby Tuesday’s again. Sure enough, there was one 6 miles ahead, right along our route! Except that when we got there, there wasn’t one anywhere to be seen! We decided we were not meant to eat at Ruby Tuesday’s…! So it was Red Robin. Lol! Oh well, it was definitely better than Burger King!! We were getting pretty giddy after lunch…! I was getting tired, so decided to stop and get a Dr. Pepper and some peanuts. Ok, how many of you have ever poured your peanuts into your pop? Someone showed me that once, and I thought, eww! But omg..it’s a taste sensation!! Who’s with me, here?? Lol! I hadn’t ever tried it with Dr. Pepper before, but it was amazing! Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it!!

And then there’s Pop Rocks…! I picked some up at the Jell-o Museum and decided it was time to try them. Wrong!! It’s been YEARS since I’ve had Pop Rocks, and trying them again on the freeway just outside of Boston was not the best idea I’ve ever had. As soon as they started crackling, I started laughing! And then Cindi blurts out, “It’s like your mouth is on fire”, and I lost it!! I think the guardian angels took over at that point, because I was laughing so hard, I was crying! And trying to see the road and drive when you can’t breathe or see is not very smart!! But it sure felt good to laugh so hard…again! We regained our composure and our driving abilities and smiled the rest of the way into Boston!

From there, we finally caught up with some other MINIs and got to the hotel. We actually had about an hour before heading off to the final Evening Event. This final event wasn’t quite as “all out” as I remembered from 2012, but it was still fun. The food was awesome, the setting was spectacular, and the company was grand! How perfect to be enjoying the Boston Harbor with great food and great friends, old and new! This has truly been an epic adventure and one heck of a road trip! In the morning, we say goodbye…one last blog to come!