Think back on your most memorable road trip.
My friend, Denise is from Philadelphia. She moved here, to Wisconsin after college. That’s when we met, introduced through a mutual friend. We spent a year hanging out. Probably one of the most memorable and fun years of my life. We were in our early to mid-twenties which meant that when we hung out together, we often got into many shenanigans.
Spending that year together was a lot of fun for both of us. However, after a year of living in Wisconsin and away from her family, she wanted to move back home to be with them. So, she had a garage sale and sold most of her possessions. She even used an opportunity during the garage sale to teach me about male privilege, which as a gay man I had not contemplated how my being a male could affect a woman negatively until then. It was an eye-opening learning experience.
There were a lot of learning experiences while she lived here, for both of us. For example, she learned what a water tower was. She thought they were signs in the sky that told you what city you were in. I explained to her that they fed water into the houses because she was from a big city she didn’t know. In case you’re unaware, in big cities, they have water tanks on top of the houses that feed water into the house. It makes me wonder how they get the water up there, but that’s a blog post for another day I suppose.
After selling her possessions in the garage sale, she packed her car. That mutual friend and I helped… well, I mostly stood around and commented on things if I remember correctly. The mutual friend, Rio, was a god at packing a car. Thinking back on that situation, I bet he would be an expert at Tetris. Before she closed her truck, you couldn’t have slid a butter knife between any of the items, they were packed so snuggly into her trunk.
During her planning of the trip, she invited me to go along and she offered to pay for my plane ticket back home. I agreed, the opportunity to travel and see the city with her was too good to pass up. Thinking back on it, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. We prepared for the 16-hour trip and departed. We ended up going through Chicago and staying in Greenville Ohio, I believe. Unfortunately, she had to drive the whole trip because I didn’t have my license. It was still tiring, I don’t remember getting to the hotel in Ohio. I do remember waking up and eating breakfast at the Perkins next door.
The turnpike was a lot of fun but because I had thrown my back out not too long ago, we had to stop periodically so I could get out of the vehicle and stretch. I think that unfortunately, added a lot of time to the trip. The rest stops on the turnpike were so sporadic that there were a couple of times that we had to stop on the turnpike. Stopping on the turnpike was not a pleasant experience for either of us.
Going through the Appalachian Mountains was beautiful. Snaking through the woods and up over the mountains and through the tunnels to stunning vistas of pine tree forests was incredible. If you ever get the chance to travel by car through the Appalachians, I highly recommend it. I remember driving into the city, the highway was surrounded by gorgeous wooded areas, and then suddenly we were in a metropolitan city full of skyscrapers.
Overall, the whole trip was 16 hours, not including the night in Greenville. Her family was very nice and hospitable after we arrived. I remember having my first Philly Cheesesteak. Damn, those are good. I could go for one right now despite it being quarter after nine in the morning. Some day, I’ll have to write a blog post about both of my trips to Philadelphia and share the experiences that I had while there. For now, though, I have to go shovel. It’s nearing the end of Winterstorm Gerri. I’m not quite sure how to work a snow blower, and nobody is awake to show me so I will do it the old-fashioned way, I suppose.
I may write another post tonight, but if I don’t it’s because I’m celebrating one of my nephew’s birthdays today, he’s turning 17. Feel free to leave a comment and share whether you’ve been to Philadelphia before, or what your favorite city in the US is. I appreciate all of the likes that I’ve been receiving, it’s very encouraging.
Take care.