Do you wanna ride in my Mercedes, boy?

On Saturday we took a spin in the hot blue Mercedes up to Ivoryton, CT, to see our friend Jenn perform at River Rep in "How The Other Half Loves," a wacky British farce written in 1969 by Alan Ayckbourn. Driving along tree-lined Westchester roads in a classic car, I felt like I was transported back to 1972. To deepen the mood, I played songs from 1972 (America's "A Horse With No Name," Steely Dan's "Do It Again," Doobie Brothers' "Listen To The Music," and Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze," to name a few) on my iPod. I was feeling 9 years old again until I felt a twinge in my shoulder and quickly snapped back to my current age.

While antiquing in Essex, CT, I bought a beautifully preserved Linguaphone French language course, with records and books in a carrying case, for $18. We shopped for dinner items at the Stop N Shop, which reminded me of the steroidal supermarkets I used to shop at in Virginia and which are so different from the minuscule bodegas I'm used to in NY. Before the show, we hung out at Jenn and Steve's cabin in the woods and grilled some tasty pork tenderloin and ratatouille.

It was well after midnight when we got on the road. We were both pretty tired, and we thought about stopping for the night somewhere, but Goggles Paisano commandeered the Mercedes at warp speed amid almost no traffic. He condensed the 2-1/2-hr drive by about 60 percent. Sweet old thing, even if it does get 10 feet to the gallon and there are no cup holders.