Jamestown, NY >> Vienna, VA
On leaving New York last Thursday, I had two options: 1). put the pedal to the metal and haul it down to South Carolina, or 2). meander slowly down the East Coast, visiting a dozen friends "on the way." This was not a difficult decision. Roadtrips are glorious. That being said, I must admit that it would've been nicer not to have to drag most of my worldly possessions along with me on this trip. My car was rather full, to put it mildly. As in, I felt slightly claustrophobic at times as my stuff hemmed me in on all sides.
However, I wasn't about to let claustrophobia or "unsafe driving conditions" - a.k.a. not being able to see much out the rear window - rain on my parade. Or the fact that I had to do this roadtrip on my own because my stuff took over my car. If you can't fit a friend in the car with you on a roadtrip, I can now testify that visiting 12 people along the way more than makes up for it.
Here are the highlights from my mini-adventure, starting with Thursday morning:
I left late, of course, and drove a little bit faster so I'd be on time for lunch with Todd in Pittsburgh. Todd's a friend from high school, church, and camp, and he's currently getting his Masters of Geniusness from Carnegie Mellon. I managed to get to Pittsburgh on schedule, only to have my GPS spaz out due to Pittsburgh's screwy infrastructure, which made me late for lunch. If someone could let me know what drunken fool designed Pittsburgh's roads and bridges, I'd appreciate it. Anyways, Todd and I met on CMU's campus and had a great lunch at some little cafe/restaurant in CMU's sprawling campus center. Despite my GPS pitching a fit, lunch with Todd was an excellent start to my travels.
Next stop: Gettysburg College. I drove through a persistent rainfall during the four hour trip from Pittsburgh to Gettysburg that afternoon. [Total hours in the car on Thursday=7.] The drive itself was super gorgeous, even with the bad weather. Once I got off the PA Turnpike, I drove on the Lincoln Highway for part of the way to Gettysburg. This highway cuts through some beautiful mountains. As in, let's drive up a mountain! Ok, let's go down. Oh hey, another mountain to climb! Repeat. Driving down the mountains, I kept seeing signs about reducing the gear for your vehicle, which I assumed applied only to truckers. Wrong. I realized near the end of this little roller coaster ride this actually meant cars needed to downshift when going down the mountains, that's how steep it was! I'm lucky my car still has functioning brakes.
I reached Gettysburg in time for dinner with Linnea and Liz. Their college's cafeteria has a gluten-free section, which they were psyched to show me.
SIDENOTE: I love that my friends frequently call or text me when they see the words "gluten-free" plastered on anything. [That statement wasn't even entirely sarcastic. Sometimes it can be endearing.] For any of you out there who are concerned your friends may forget about you, simply get a weird disease and they will surely think of you anytime they come across that disease during their lifetime.
Hanging out with Linnea and Liz on Thursday and Friday was great. I got an exceptional tour of their campus (which included a stop by some famous haunted building I've seen before on the History Channel!), learned all about the Battle of Gettysburg at a museum downtown, had lunch at Gettysburg Eddie's, and toured the battlefield. If you weren't aware, the efforts to preserve and memorialize the battle have been pretty extraordinary. If you haven't visited Gettysburg yet, go! Now!
Actually, you should wait. Wait for Spring. It's about to get uncomfortably cold around those parts.
I left Gettysburg early Friday afternoon for the University of Maryland to see the one and only Clare Bubniak! Clare's a friend from camp; we were on staff together in 2010. We walked around campus, mocked the Occupy Wall Street protest that was taking place in the middle of the quad (about a dozen subdued protesters hanging out in the center of an unquestionably liberal institution - not exactly a striking demonstration), and got coffee, of course. We happened to meet a celebrity while drinking coffee and catching up. That's right, THE University of Maryland mascot came up to us, and we took a picture with.. him? her? It's impossible to tell. I think it was some kind of bird. Maybe not. As you can tell from my stellar description, it was quite unforgettable.
After Clare and I circled the parking garage my hoarder car was parked in, we finally located it and I took off for Vienna, VA. I got there a little over an hour later, and I spent Friday night through Sunday evening with my friend Matt (from Allegheny). Matt was the unofficial fifth roommate in my apartment senior year of college, who'd show up to watch hours of House with us and graciously help us eat food whenever Becky went on baking sprees. Our weekend consisted of: a wine bar (to pretend we're classy grown-ups), the best gelato I've had on this side of the pond, Superhero Movie Marathon Day (when it SNOWED! all day Saturday in the DC area), cigars and scotch, church, and watching the Steelers game over dinner with Ryan Cole at a brewery in DC. Ryan's another Allegheny friend, and will someday be Mayor of Meadville. If I recall correctly, he agreed I could run his campaign.
This concludes part one of my trip. To be continued..
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