01-09-10
Greetings from Interstate 95
In the spirit of Steve’s last post I decided to also give a little synopsis of my travels over break.
Setting out on New Years day (our departure was pushed forward by a day due to an impending storm) Dave and I loaded up the Cadillac and headed to his sister’s spot outside New Haven CT. As soon as we arrived we saw a family of deer on their front lawn which I thought were fake reindeer statues left over from the holidays until they started moving. It was rather late when we arrived and everyone was asleep but we were greeted by a series of wonderfully informative signs leading us down to the basement where the beer was. We drank a few, watched Chappelle show and hit the hay.
The next day we grabbed a slice of that famous New Haven coal fired apizza. Our stomachs were full and ready for all that Pennsylvania had to offer us. We arrived in Allentown around supper time and were quite surprised by the level of hospitality our hosts showed us. A homemade vegetarian sheppard’s pie for dinner, a show at a local venue called the secret art space and an impromptu historical tour of the Lehigh Valley region. Dawn and Joel were wonderful hosts and after breakfast at the Queen City Diner the next day we headed out towards all points south.
Hey looks like we crossed the mason dixon line, we’re finally in the South… ok, so when does it start getting warm? Apparently not in Richmond, the ole thermometer registered barely over 30. Luckily the warmth of our hosts Abi, Chelsea and Rosie made our visit quite enjoyable. We started with dinner at a local gastropub near the university. The place was bizarre – no menus, just a listing of entrees at the door, one sink for both bathrooms outside the actual toilet area and some bluegrass bands attracting a wealth of punk-looking loyalists. Once back at their apartment in the fan district we shared drinks, stories and played silly games to pass the time. We were sad to leave the next day, but forward progress was what we were after and warm weather was the dangling carrot.
We were now deep in the South. Although TomTom said we were 30 minutes outside Charleston there were absolutely no signs of an urban center in sight. Plantation Oaks was where we hung our hats that night. Nicole brought us to a Po-boy joint she had been looking to try on our way downtown for dinner. I, the catfish and Dave, deep friend whole quail. This was some serious southern comfort food as even on an empty stomach I wasn’t able to join the clean plates club that night. Driving around downtown we finally realized why we couldn’t see any tall buildings as we we approached city limits – there were none. Palmettos, yes ma’ams, neo classical southern mansions and a strong police presence were the language of this land. Looking around, it seemed we’d been transplanted to the post civil war, ante-bellum southern society that used to inhabit these hallowed grounds. It was time to leave, the warmth we’d been promised was still lacking and we had a long drive ahead of us the next morning.
95 is a fun road, it has a twisted sense of humor that you only get to know after driving it for days on end. Towards the end of our journey I could hear it’s Maniacal laugh that seemed to be saying “no matter how long you drive me you’ll never reach your destination. MUAHAHAHAH!” Ghosts of all the lives it had taken and speeding tickets its patron had received lingered in the air around us. The naive exuberance for being back on the road was slowly evaporating from my mind as I learned even after crossing the Florida border we still had over 7 hours to go. At least we had the car’s outside thermometer to watch as it climbed to the 80s right? Ok, that was a bit too optimistic, 70s? Fine, we’ll settle for 60s. WHAT?! we’re here and it’s barely crossed the 40 mark? Yup, record colds kept the mercury just slightly above the freezing mark the whole time we were in sunny FLA.
It’s the journey, not the destination that counts.
