Roadtrip by David Perry, Unit 687
On a recent vacation to Connecticut for Labor Day, Anna (Unit 621) and myself (Unit 687) made the 8 hours drive up the east coast. On the way we made a few pitstops and such and of course, admired the scenery.
6 hours into the trip, we were of course ready to a make a stop and wanted to find a nice gas station after we had just crossed into New York about a half a hour earlier.
"Ok, next place I see, we'll stop." I said. Moments later, something caught my eye. "Free Coffee Ahead" Something went off in my head and took a double take of a wooden sign posted on a highway sign. It couldn't be. A half mile later another sign... "Free Coffee At Next Rest Area". Thinking to myself, it sounded an awful lot like a Coffee Break (or Wake Break) that most REACT teams do around Holidays.
Still in denial, but very curious, I had to check it out. Pulling into the rest area, I was searching far and near for an orange sign with the REACT logo. Pulling into a parking spot... a hah... found it. It was indeed REACT.
Walking up to the table loaded with all kinds of doughnuts, pastries and of course, coffee. I ran up to them and asked "Whose in charge of theis operation!" The 4 people behind the table stunned as if they were doing something wrong replied "Him!" and pointed toward another member (the president) over by their communications van which read "Putnam/Dutchess County REACT".
After a few moments of alkward silence between them, I pulled out my REACT ID and showed it to them. Almost suddenly, the stunned status turned to laughter and they asked where I was from. "Maryland I replied." I explain to them and I had a gut feeling the the free coffee signs where a REACT operation and that I had to check it out.
We got the full treatment then. A tour of the comm van, a look through their photo albums (some in particular to September 11th, 2001) as well as a few photo ops.
After about another 45 minutes of story sharing and tips in team operations we had to get on our way.
But not before we snapped a couple more shots. What a great wake break... that alone gave us a enough energy to make it the rest of the way to Connenticut. Best wishes to Putnam and Dutchess County REACT. We enjoyed our visit!
