A Made in America Road Trip: Day 1

A Made in America road trip: Day 1 Wednesday June 24, 2015

I had been on summer vacation from work for less than a week, so my body was still programmed to get up early. I was awake way before I needed to be, especially since I was completely packed to leave. So I got ready for the day and then chatted with Nick for a bit. Once he was ready to leave for work, I hopped in my car and drove to his parents' house. I got there shortly after 9:30.

It took very little time to pack Kim's car, and then we were on our way to Milford, CT. Kim seemed surprised by the amount of traffic, but, having made the trip to Pennsylvania on too many weekdays in rush hour, I was surprised by the lack of traffic. Funny how different experiences change perspectives. The drive passed very quickly, with just a stop for lunch at De’Angelo’s somewhere in CT. Pretty soon we were arriving at our first tourist stop.

Kim is a collector of Pez dispensers. She started collecting them decades ago. When I realized how close Pez was to her parents’ house, I began to understand why. I had never been to the Pez visitors center, so she felt it was only logical to take me there.

I’ve been to many factory tour/visitor center places, but they have typically involved alcohol, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect here. Turns out it’s a very colorful place, filled with display cases of MANY different Pez dispensers, from several different decades. Plus displays about the history of Pez, and an area where you can watch the factory workers working. This day, they were packaging Pez dispensers. It was pretty cool to see all of the displays. They’ve also made the place interactive, by creating a Bingo game, where you search the display cases for the date that different Pez dispensers were created. For someone as attentionally challenged as I am, it was a great way to keep me engaged, and it definitely kept me interested in being there longer. The visitor center is not a big place, but there are a LOT of dispensers in those display cases.

Once we’d explored for awhile (and bought some new Pez dispensers), we headed for Kim’s parents’ house. Turns out it was just 10 minutes or so down the road. We got there and visited for quite awhile, before Kim, her mom and I took a walk down the block to see Long Island Sound. It was a warm, clear day, so it was beautiful.

Once we had had enough sunshine, we walked back to the house to start the dinner debate. Eventually, the decision was made to go to On the Border, so we headed over there for Mexican food for dinner. Dinner was pretty good, and was enjoyable. Nick’s family is a lot of fun, and they’re good people. I enjoy spending time with them.

After dinner, we paid Kim’s brother a surprise visit, so that she could get her baby fix. Ken and his wife had twin girls in October. They also have teenaged sons. The twins were cute, and we were there for about an hour before going back to Nick’s grandparents’ house to collapse into bed. The plan was to leave at 6:30 the next morning, to go pick up Kathy and Hannah and start the drive to Pennsylvania.