driving and driving

I am pleased to announce that I have arrived in Willoughby Ohio safe and sound. The ride ended up to be a little over 6 hours, and surprisingly not so bad. Central and western Pennsylvania were so lovely and peaceful - the highway wound through green valleys, and while I know that it's the wrong season, it seemed like fall foliage time since a lot of the trees were a pretty orange/red color. I felt like Will in Good Will Hunting when he's driving to California at the end. Except I don't have all the issues he had. And I'm not as good at math.

I did learn a valuable lesson when it comes to books on CD. I put in the first CD of John Krakauer's Into Thin Air, was listening intently for about an hour, when all of a sudden it began to skip and the narrator began to stutter. While I was thankful the scratching noise was not coming from my car, I was upset that my story had been interrupted, and even more upset when I tried to scan forward to pass the scratched part to find that it brought me back to the very beginning of the story. I don't know how much I missed, but I think I'll have to start anew with disc #2 tomorrow. Boo.

So I'm staying tonight in a B&B that is adorable. The photo above on the left is in my room, and the photo on the right is a necklace I bought at a cute antique store I wandered into (Brooke - look familiar? Like the waitress' earrings!). It's a cute little town but unfortunately everything closed at 5 or 6 so I only got to go to a few places since I got here later in the day. So I'm going to take it easy tonight and rest up for my big drive to Chicago tomorrow. I've found the HGTV channel so I should be content.

rainy day in P.A.

Today was my last day in Emmaus, and it poured rain all day. Which worked out well since I was still recovering from my constant state of nausea, so I felt that it was ok to stay indoors and relax. And watch tv. And surf the internet. My usual daily routine anyway. I'm happy to report that I am 99.5% cured so I'll be safe to hit the road tomorrow, as scheduled, en route to Willoughby Ohio.

It will be a very very sad day to say goodbye to Brooke and John who have been such amazing hosts - acting as obliging chauffeurs, informative tour guides and comforting doctors throughout my stay here. They've introduced me to such life highlights as the amish (the AMISH, people! no comments on the amish?!), HGTV, Wii and Philadelphia. For which I will be forever indebted to them.

I'm looking forward to the moment when I post the next entry because that means that my 6 1/2 hour drive to Ohio will be over. So until then, good night!

*Note: The above photo has nothing to do with anything, really. They are just these wind-spinny things that were for sale in the amish country that I thought were nice and happy and colorful.

motown philly

The good news:

I may have found my new favorite city - Philadelphia! I don't know how I've managed to neglect it, having lived relatively close to it for the last ten years. But at last Brooke and I made the trip in for the day (it's soooo close to your new town, right Brooke?), and since we planned it so last minute, we only really had the Liberty Bell and South Street on our list of to-do's, as we didn't know much about the city and figured we could let our instincts guide us. And my role as "the compass" would make sure we didn't get lost. The Liberty Bell was...well...a bell. Though it was good to see a piece of history and re-learn what my 8th grade teacher probably taught me. Then we walked down to South Street and passed the most beautiful, charming brick townhomes along the way. Many of the streets were cobblestone and surprisingly quiet and tranquil. We expected the city to be full of honking horns and traffic but found it exactly the opposite. We almost got up the nerve to go into one of the open houses of a home for sale but got cold feet since we thought we'd probably look a little suspicious as twenty-eight year old tourists in sneakers checking out a 1.5 million dollar home. Now, we know we probably saw only the fanciest part of the city, but that's all we really needed to have us leave on a high note - conversing the entire time in exclamations about how this was the best trip ever and that perhaps we should move here.

The bad news:

I got sick. As we drove out of the city my stomach started to feel queasy and after about 1/2 hour of trying to convince myself it was nothing, I realized it wasn't going away, so we pulled over on the side of the highway and waited until I felt better. Which wasn't happening even after 1/2 hour of waiting. Brooke passed the time reading a map of the Lehigh Valley and assuring me it was interesting and that she didn't mind waiting. The thought of driving made me sick, but I couldn't get rid of whatever was making me nauseous (too much information - I'll stop). Nevertheless, we did end up leaving the side of the highway and I held my breath and tried to focus on anything but vomit for the 20 minutes of car ride left before we got home.

I'm almost over it and am feeling much better now. I'm a bit concerned about all the stomach problems I've been having over the last few months, but I figure the Conde Nast cafeteria's MSG is just taking it's sweet time to exit my system.

And now I will let you go as it's time to return to my beloved HGTV.

amos, root beer and manure

Yesterday was the long-awaited (at least on my part) trip to the Pennsylvania Amish Country. We drove out there in the morning (Brooke, how far was it? Many many hours from where you live, right?) and found our way through massive Amish farms and passed by horse drawn buggies. I made the intelligent observation that it reminded me of the bike ride I did last year outside of Amsterdam, and then remembered when I saw signs in the area that said "New Holland" that that is where the Amish - aka "Pennsylvania Dutch" - came from. Smart.

Our first stop was Kitchen Kettle Village, a somewhat miniature town with cute little touristy shops and a banjo playing band whose members had a median age of about 70. I'd say the median age of the tourists there was about 70 as well, so the people there didn't really know what to do with me and Brooke in our flip flops and sundresses, to the point where one old salesperson took it upon himself to ask us what the occasion was for dressing up. He then told us a joke involving pennies. We laughed politely/awkwardly and left confused.

Next stop was the Bird-In-Hand farmers market. Brooke got a 25 cent cup of cherry apple cider. I got jam and a magnet. Then across the street, we found what may be the best store I've ever been inside - an antique store that had endless rooms of everything you can imagine - old books, records, glassware, toys, etc etc. Oldies were playing on the radio, which makes any place I'm in immediately the best place in the world. I was happy.

Last stop - to see the "famous" statue pictured above - of Amos the Amish man. We had read that he speaks wise, Amish words of advice, but we were disappointed when we found out he had been silenced after being sold and moved around a few times. His stature itself was definitely NOT a disappointment though.

On our drive back we bought some home-made root beer (delicious) from an Amish girl at her family farm and saw the biggest, oldest rottweiler ever. Then we had an unfortunate experience of truly learning what farming can involve when I tried to take a photo out the car window and we were attacked by the vicious smell of manure. Words cannot describe the cloud of manure that invaded our car and caused Brooke to almost vomit and crash the car. Do you close the windows so more doesn't get in?! Do you open the windows to get fresh air that is not fresh at all?! What do you do?

Overall it was an intriguing informative day, as Brooke taught me a lot about the Amish from what she had learned from reading the fictional book "Plain Truth". And the trip has since spawned many more important questions about such things as other religions, mezuzas, and taxes. Thank god for Google.

hello my name is _______

Meet Stanley. He's my partner on this journey. I've named him this because he's a bit of an older gentleman (read: I think only old people ride this type of car) and he's classy.

Note the California plates - which just goes to show that it was fate being matched up with Stanley. He also gets along well with Jill the GPS. This trip is all about teamwork.

hgtv

Brooke has introduced me to the HGTV channel. And now I am obsessed. I stayed up until midnight last night watching their real estate shows before forcing myself to turn it off. Help! I've got it on again now! I can't stop!

pretty picture

Just wanted to add some color and show a pretty picture of the park we walked through in Old Greenwich last night. The geese/ducks (?) were quite obliging to pose for me.

road rules 101

I'm in Emmaus! To get here, I had my first solo drive and it took about 2 1/2 hours. This is one of the shortest drives of my trip, and I've unconsciously been very intelligent in planning it this way since, by having a short trip at the beginning of my drive, I could get my bearings again with being on the road. It's kinda like riding a bike - I'm back up and riding easily. But a few things I've learned:

-Avoid New York City at any cost. I had to pass through NYC on I-95 (or something like that) and hit stopped traffic and found myself in the minority with my car - it's about 90% trucks. And they are so noisy! And impatient! Just like New Yorkers, so it makes sense I guess.

-Don't panic when approaching toll booths (which exist way too often on the east coast, I will say). I don't have an EZ Pass, and again I'm in the minority since I'm traveling mostly with commuters, so I had mild moments of fear as I approached random lanes, hoping I'm in the right one and that I won't get a ticket. (apparently one should head towards the "ticket" lane if they are like me? Although I don't have this so-called "ticket"? hmmm...)

-Invest in a GPS system. My GPS/friend's name is Jill. Apparently that's the name they give the American accent. If I chose to listen to the American man's voice, his name is Jack. Clever. She's been trustworthy so far in guiding me, and keeps me awake and in check.

That's the current report from Pennsylvania. I have to say I've enjoyed the ride - the scenery is nice, the radio sings along with me, and so far there have been no obstacles. I'm clearly in the honeymoon period.

trekking on

Tonight is my last night in lovely Connecticut. Time to unfortunately say goodbye to Mike and Anita who have been so wonderful - I've gotten the grand tour of the area (and developed envy of anyone who can afford to live here), gotten back into actually using my camera and taking photos again (large format photo of the two of them above!), been fed lots of good food (love the herb cheese!), and have experienced the joy of their cable tv (I'll forgive them for exposing me to Tila Tequila - most traumatizing tv show ever).

Next stop - Emmaus PA. Land of rodale and um....I'm not sure what else but I'll soon find out! Brooke's there, and that's all that really matters anyways.

viva americana

.

I am currently in Stamford, CT with my lovely hosts Mike and Anita - the two in the above photo, captured doing what they do best. It's my first extended stay in this state, and it's really beautiful. When I was younger, I thought that Connecticut would be the perfect place to get married, have beautiful kids and live in the quintessential colonial home with a white picket fence and American flag hanging off the front balcony (where we'd all sit on our porch swing watching the sun set...whoops - I digress), and it looks like this is indeed the case. I feel at times like I'm in a movie, or as Anita has pointed out, on an episode of Dawson's Creek, minus the annoying characters and ridiculously unrealistic dialog.

It's been so nice to be out of the city, relaxing, taking photos and watching cable tv. We headed to the "forests" of Connecticut tonight to take some photos and I had my usual experience with flies/mosquitoes/any insects really - where the whole herd heads straight towards my face and and doesn't leave me alone until I'm officially insane. But it was all worth it as I took my first real photos with my large format camera and only ruined ONE polaroid. Very exciting stuff.

So that's about it from Happy Town, America - living the life and enjoying my first part of the journey. I'll let you go while I get back to my glass of wine and classical music on the radio. (cue a lengthy, dramatic, content sigh)

So you can sleep tonight...

Everything fit!

the route

View Larger Map It's past midnight and I'm antsy, trying NOT to think about how I will fit all of my stuff into the car, so I thought it would be a good idea to distract myself by sharing the route I'll be taking. You will notice such hot spots as a suburb of Cleveland and a lengthy drive through the cornfields of Nebraska. Where I may go insane, I have heard. But sanity is really unimportant since I'll probably be brain dead by the time all this driving is over, so what the heck.

moving day eve

Here is my life. In boxes. Hopefully condensed enough to fit into the rental car tomorrow morning. I like to think I'm good at puzzles so it should be ok. But in the meantime, prayers are welcome and much appreciated.

I am currently sitting in my empty(ish) apartment, looking at the plush air mattress I'll be sleeping on tonight and staring obsessively at my tv for the last few hours I have with it before it will be taken from me. One can never watch too many Bravo reruns. It's strange but exciting to think that in 24 hours I'll be out of here and saying goodbye to New York. But my noisy, stomping neighbor upstairs (see ya Paul!) and my bout with food poisoning last week have made it all a little bit easier to say farewell to this big smelly city that I've known and loved.

I'll keep you posted with adventures from the road. Stay tuned. And pray! Seriously.