Ann, you must be glad to have made a decision. Good luck and best wishes for that and all days of your trip! I'm sure you and your husband will do fine. The 22nd should be an "ordinary" Monday: no holiday-weekend traffic, etc. (And just think: the rest of your driving will be a snap!)

I'm sure you're planning to write a trip report. Do let us know how the driving goes, too!

:) ggreen

Seetheworld, Did the beds look uncomfy?, we have taken all advice and are going with CI in Hawthorne, J62 has given me excellent advice (regards driving) as has Howard, i thank them both.
Will post a trip report, have done many trips to USA and only got lost twice (in PA & Finger lakes, not bad going eh)
Seeworld, hope your journey from Heathrow goes smoothly, though i feel this is much like JFK area (as are most large cities).

:) No, the beds looked fine (I just didn't try them). In fact the room looked nice. I saw a double room and it had two club chairs and a cushioned bench. There was a coffee maker set-up with a small wetbar sink. The bathroom was clean and a decent size with counter space. It looks rather new, clean and bright lobby, the little area where they serve coffee was quite nice too. I was pleasantly surprised.

One final thing, even though our 2nd night is lenox MA, because we want to go through Litchfield Hills part of CT to get there (Route 7) i think, the Taconic route is out of the way.

After Hawthorne am thinking of driving up through Danbury and going through small towns i.e. new milford/new preston etc to reach our final destinaton of Lenox, does this sound doable.

We anticipate leaving Hawthorne 8/9am getting to Lenox 4pm lish.

Are we way off the mark?

Unless you are planning a lot of stops, you should be in Lenox well before 4 p.m. With "normal" driving (i.e., with no major stops), it shouldn't take more than 3 hours or so.
Route 7 is a beautiful ride, especially if you hit it right for the foliage.

Can't wait lots of leaf peeping/lovely scenery/lots of lovely food(no dieting this week for me!!) pretty towns/ chatting with people from all over.
We have met some really nice americans on previous hols, lots of laughs as they seem to love our British sense of humour!! (except when leaving JFK,when we will be uptight narks, no doubt! but thats another story).

While in Lenox, check out the Museum of the Gilded Age.

Yes, Route 7 and those small towns in CT are lovely.

If you want an interesting - very American - shopping experience, stop at Stew Leonard's as you head out of Danbury and pick up some picnic items. (There's also one in Yonkers on I-87 and one in Norwalk, CT.) They have quite a following for their fresh products, and kids love the petting zoo and other entertainment(!). www.stewleonards.com/html/about.cfm

Am adding those recomendations to my holiday to do list as i type, all info much appreciated. Am going to try and see as much of what is recommended as possible.

Again, thanks to you all