New York City to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, to New York City, August 9, 2012

★ Dingy and bleak. A good day if it were happening in Beijing. Not here, in the land of the post-industrial economy and the Clean Air Act. A brownish pall hung over the airport runways and cargo cranes, over the open Turnpike, over a corn field, over the flat, cost-optimized facades of executive parks and extended-stay chain hotels. Above the brown, a dull jumbled colorless sky. There was no setting at which the Mazda’s air conditioner could hold the thick incoming air at a comfortable temperature. A sign in an open green field, with trees behind it, invited drivers to Picture a New Town Center Here. It was all too easy to do just that: the brick veneers, the studied irregularity, the extra cars backing up on Route 1 under thicker and thicker brownness to come.

Weather ratings range from zero to five stars.