This is third in a series of entries from blogger Sally Doran on her summer road trip (find previous here).

     After our whirlwind weekend of excitement in the Big Apple, we landed Sunday night in Florham Park, NJ (just west of Newark, so we're back in the car).  I think the teen guys, Jake and Kyle, are kind of happy to enjoy some couch time with take-out food after being on the go so much for almost three days. We stayed at a Hyatt Summerfield Suites in Florham Park/Morristown, NJ and I would recommend this hotel chain whole-heartedly! Very new and good-sized suite, contemporary furnishings, free afternoon snacks and hot breakfast, free Wi-Fi, pool and-- very important-- AAA discount! I only wish the Summerfield Suite chain had more locations in other parts of the country where I travel.

       We don’t really get to spend much time in New Jersey before it’s on to a 90 minute drive to Allentown, PA so I can continue my business there Tuesday morning.  It's a straight, nice drive across I-78 West…and in NJ as well as other states, I notice they hide their fast food chains and gas stations away from the exit so it's a more scenic drive.  In Ohio, it's all clustered right there in plain view…it's so much nicer here to see the trees instead.

      I've done a little homework on Allentown so I know that its' one great claim in history is some patriots had to hide the Liberty Bell here in 1777-78 so that the army wouldn't melt it down and use it for ammunition …they have a museum commemorating that.  Of course, the city is also famous from the Billy Joel song of the same name, but my friends here say that’s kind of unearned notoriety since the dying steel business bemoaned in that song was actually located in neighboring Bethlehem. I guess Billy didn't think he would get radio play with a song called "Bethlehem."

     Allentown boasts a well-known amusement park/water park- Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom. The dual park has coasters and water slides, thrill rides and splashy ones.  In fact, it sounds like just the kind of spot Jake and Kyle can spend the day while I attend my business meeting and lunch, so we pick up a couple of tickets at a special AAA member rate and we each go about our day's adventure.

      My friends who live in the Lehigh Valley-named for the communities in the general Allentown area- say the Musikfest that takes place July 31-Aug. 9 this year is really great. American Idol winner David Cook is one of the headliners and other top names on the bill for the 10-day festival include a "who's who" of music greats: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joan Jett, the B-52s, Third Eye Blind, Panic at the Disco and many more. Wow, I suddenly see I need to schedule this meeting next year during Musikfest!

     So at midway through our trip, here are some observations I've made:
• AAA savings so far on this trip- $51.00! That's $5 a ticket for the Grayline tour, 10% on our food and clothing at Hard Rock Café, $15 at the Hyatt Summerfield Suites and $12 at Dorney Park!
• Can we truly be so lucky as to not hit a traffic delay on any of the highways and turnpikes I’ve driven- more than 500 miles worth- due to either an accident or construction? I could get used to driving without that frustration! Better knock on wood real quick, still have hundreds of miles to drive.
• My first experience with GPS…I definitely give it a "thumbs up"!  But, I just can’t abandon my AAA map; I need to see the big picture of where I'm traveling and get a sense of where I am geographically. But it sure is great to have someone navigating for me while I’m driving…and “GyPSy”, as I’ve decided the female GPS voice can be called, is also pretty polite about redirecting me when I either ignore or miss her driving advice.
• For all of the high tech cell phones, i-Phones, Wi-Fi enabled Netbooks, and iPods keeping two teen boys alternately connected to their friends or blissfully tuned out, I saw some of the trip's biggest smiles and laughs from Kyle and Jake as they indulged in a game of checkers from the rocking chairs in front of a Cracker Barrel! We made a pit stop before leaving Allentown for Baltimore so I could change from my business attire and they found themselves some good, old-fashioned fun. Sometimes, its life simplest pleasures that you remember most, I thought.  But I didn’t dare say it to them and spoil the moment.