Larry Grossman 7 at 70: East Coast Road Trip

August 17, 2021 • By THIRDHOME

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THIRDHOME member Larry Grossman turns 70 this year.

In celebration of this milestone, he’s hitting all 7 continents with the help of THIRDHOME.

Meet Larry:

World Traveler, Philanthropist, Friend, & THIRDHOME Member

As Larry travels the globe with THIRDHOME, he’ll be blogging about his experiences as he navigates the post-pandemic world. His planning began in 2019 with THIRDHOME Director of Adventures, Liz Bates, who has assisted him in pivoting to satisfy his travel cravings when COVID-19 restrictions have not allowed him to visit a destination. Keep reading to learn more about Larry’s most recent travel experiences.

Test Run: The Pandemic Pivot Blog

East Coast Road Trip

For starters, I love everything about Spain. Tapas, flamenco, Mediterranean food, Las Ramblas in Barcelona and Moorish architecture. I planned to return to international travel and visit southern Spain in September as a vaccinated American and visualized myself sitting on a balcony in my Third Home condo in Malaga, sipping sangria, and gazing at the Mediterranean. Seaside condo, check! Car rental to explore the Costa del Sol, check! Renewed passport with extra pages, check! And then I saw the dreaded CDC Traveler’s Health notification: “Level 4: Very High, Avoid travel to Spain”. And thus began my “Pandemic Pivot”.

I consider myself a pretty adventurous guy, but the emergence of the Delta variant and the possibility of quarantine made me reconsider and go to “Plan B: East Coast Road Trip”. So, I returned to the THIRDHOME website and there it was: “Chateau Plateau” in the New York Catskills. In 8 hours and 3 minutes I could arrive at the front door of the house and thereby satisfy my travel addiction. I booked it quickly, places like this don’t last long on the website, and then it got better! I called my friend and muse Liz Bates, THIRDHOME travel guru and after whining about my lost European adventure and informing her of my revised road trip she had an idea. “Don’t stop in New York, keep going north in New England.” “Why don’t you consider going “glamping” in Cape Cod, I know a great place and September is beautiful in that part of the world.”

I replied that Larry’s Camping Era ended about 4 decades ago and I was presently a bit of a lodging snob, in large part due to being spoiled as a Third Home member. So camping was not an option, and by the way, “what the hell is “glamping” anyway? She patiently pointed me toward the Cape Cod “Autocamp” website that highlighted Airstreams and luxury tents that bore no resemblance to my prior camping experience of sleeping in a pup tent in a noisy and bug infested campground. I humbly apologized, and at her suggestion, made a reservation to spend 3 nights in an iconic Airstream “Suite” located in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The spacious Autocamp Clubhouse featured gourmet coffee, killer granola, indoor and outdoor fireplaces and pizza in the evening. Spending 3 nights in an Airstream proved Liz right: “Glamping” was the way to go for an old guy who loves the outdoors, but doesn’t want to spend any remaining part of his life climbing in and out of backpacking tents.

Cape Cod highlights? There were several!

1. Bike riding along the coast on the 10.7 mile Shining Sea Bikeway. (Thank you Autocamp for the complementary bikes).
2. Sampling lobster rolls in waterfront restaurants.
3. Sipping Bloody Marys while boating over to Martha’s Vineyard on the Island Queen Ferry.
4. Riding the oldest carousel in the country, “The Flying Horses”.
5. Nightly campfires at Autocamp in our private fire pit.
6. Visiting Bad Martha’s Brewery in Falmouth and ordering “Tatooed Lady Beer” from a real tattooed lady.

And so it went! My 8-day New York tour included a stop at Citifield Stadium to watch a NY Mets game. This was followed by my first visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown allowing me to verify that my beloved Chicago Cubs had indeed won the 2016 World Series and I hadn’t imagined it. From there I proceeded on to my reserved THIRDHOME in the Catskill Mountains in time to witness the beginning of fall foliage.

A week at Chateau Plateau proved to be an exceptional getaway and just what the doctor ordered. The majestic home is located at the top of Plateau Mountain with no neighbors, no noise and breathtaking sunrises over the Catskills. By day we explored small towns like Woodstock, Stamford and Hunter, New York. Back at the house I read, took photos and hung out with Tina and David without a care in the world. Each evening happy hour on the deck was followed by sitting by the fireplace and yakking with my friends til’ bedtime.

My New England pivot and adventure was just what the doctor ordered. I substituted NY wines for fruity sangrias, hiking in the Catskills for daydreaming on my Malaga balcony, and I enthusiastically embraced exploring a different body of water along the beautiful Cape Cod coast, in lieu of my lost Mediterranean adventure. I figured Spain would still be there next year, as would airplanes, tapas, historic sites and the Mediterranean Sea.

7 at 70 up next: Covid be damned, I’m going to Morocco!!!!


To read more about Larry’s adventures with THIRDHOME, click here. Stay tuned for more of his travels!

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