April 2010 – Part Four

Wednesday was the longest day of my life and I don’t really want to talk about it. We went from Keokuk, IA to Cleveland, OH on the back-est of the back roads. I swear the GPS was giving us directions akin to: “Turn left in what looks like Farmer Joe’s field, but will turn out to be a cow-path-like intersection in .2 miles”. Honestly, it was one lane roads without striping or anything. I felt pretty lucky that we had a full tank of gas or else we may have experienced first hand that famous mid-west hospitality. Cleveland certainly does rock after 11 ½ hours of driving.

Thursday was our last day of travel and we were planning on arriving in Willow Grove around 6:00. My sister, LaNae was flying in to spend a few days sight-seeing and helping me get settled and she would be getting to T3’s around 6:00. Perfect, right?

I wanted to stop in Pittsburgh to eat lunch at The Original…The O. It had been featured on my favorite documentary of all time, “A Hot Dog Program” and it seemed a shame to pass it by. We made it to Pittsburgh in good time, and the GPS got us right there, however, there was no parking except street parking and good luck finding a space at lunch time near a bazillion hospitals and a university. So, while I drove around trying to find parking, not accidentally turn the wrong way down a one way street, or hit a pedestrian (students, it seems, will universally walk into the street without concern for oncoming traffic) I kind of lost track of where we were in relation to The O. We finally ended up parking in a hospital garage, and before I take my Mom on another road trip she is going to have to learn how to use the GPS. I am not joking, MOM.

We asked about The O and got directions, it wasn’t far we were told and started walking. After walking approximately 17 miles we started thinking the directions were faulty so we asked, and asked, and kept getting either no help or bad directions. Honestly, I was just about to give up on eating there at all when we ran into someone who told us that the street we needed ran PARALLEL to the street we were on, and so, we had to look for “this” cross street. Angel in Pittsburgh is what I call that lady. We finally made it, and it turns out it wasn’t that far from the hospital.

I’m not sure if all the stress of finding parking and being lost and walking about a mile in the wrong direction, but I was not so impressed. I actually had a hot dog…my first in many years, and it was okay, but not great. The fries were as ginormous as advertised and they were good dipped in the accompanying gravy, but the service was poor and unfriendly and the food was really just okay especially for the price. (My milkshake was excellent, but I would have rather tried Stella’s.) Anyhow, the detour for The O cost the schedule big time and now the GPS was telling us we wouldn’t be getting to Philly until 7:30.

Shortly after leaving Pittsburgh, we were approaching the on ramp for the eastbound Penna Turnpike. The GPS was telling us to keep going straight, but I knew that T3 lived just off the Turnpike and that it was the fastest route there. And that is when it hit me. Our adventure across Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio…It was because I’d disabled toll roads when I was in PA in January. When I was here before, I had no cash and didn’t want to get caught at a toll booth with no way to pay, so I disabled that feature. When I went back to Utah it didn’t matter as Utah doesn’t have toll roads. Suddenly the trip through Farmer Joe’s fields made sense. Head. Slap.

A couple of hours away from T3’s the lack of sleep (I may have had an angry bear sharing my hotel rooms, at least that is what it sounded like) started to catch up to me, so I finally pulled over and asked my Mom to drive while I slept for a little while, and to please not squander the time I’d made up by driving on the Turnpike. When I woke up, we were still on the Turnpike, going 45 mph with a semi barreling past us. And that is why I did most of the driving. Mom wanted to check into her hotel before meeting up with T3 and LaNae for dinner, so we hurriedly did that and finally, finally we were there.

KiLee made chicken alfredo with home made breadsticks for dinner (my favorite), and it was nice to sit, relax and chat with everyone. At last, LaNae and Mom headed back to their hotel, Nate inflated the air mattress (I was crashing at their house to save money), and I went to bed, a Pennsylvania resident.