The morning is a delight. The air is dry and cool. The breeze, from the north, is constant. The weather report predicts thunder storms and a high of 77˚. There is a tropical storm warning in effect.

I have to go out again for the third day in a row. I am not a fan of leaving the house. The roads are clogged, and I have to sit through a few light cycles to move left or right off the main road. I curse the drivers who have no idea where to go and go slowly while they look. The nuns would call driving on Cape Cod in the summer an occasion of sin, but I think of the cursing as a tension breaker, a reliever from the stress of driving behind cars from everywhere but here.

When I was a kid, my favorite road for a family ride or trip north was Route 1. I remember looking out the window almost the whole trip. I didn’t want to miss a thing. The dinosaur at the miniature golf course was one of my favorites. I always wondered if the course meant sending my golf ball through the teeth of a dinosaur. While on the road, we never stopped to eat. My mother packed picnic lunches, but I would have loved to have stopped at the Ship restaurant. It was huge and looked out of place. It was landlocked. The Prince Pizzeria had a leaning Tower of Pisa and a full parking lot. We drove right by it despite our pleas to eat there. The Kowloon Restaurant had a tiki on the front. It was everything a 50’s Chinese restaurant had. Drinks came in tiki glasses. Inside there was a waterfall, and the decor was big on plastic tikis. Russo’s Candy House was the one stop I most regretted watching disappear through the rear car window. I remember Adventure Car Hop and Woo Woo Ginsberg on the radio as it was one of his sponsors. It looked like the drive-in restaurants in American Graffiti but without the roller skates. You just sat in your car for the waitress to bring your food. I don’t remember exactly when The Adventure Car Hop disappeared and was replaced by some sort of business. I remember driving by and thinking it still looked like The Adventure Car Hop without the food.

Even now, should I choose to venture north, I would use Route 1 and Route 1A. If something caught my attention, I’d stop. I wouldn’t pack a lunch. I’d eat at some small drive-up. I’d probably have a cheeseburger and fries with a chocolate milk shake. Such are the joys of the road.