Philly or Burst

I am once again fully conscious, and more importantly, alert. Let me tell you about my weekend.

I started off by getting stuck at work way later than I wanted, so by the time I met up with my mom and Nick, it was about 4:30. Getting out of Chicago on Memorial Day of course meant traffic, but it wasn't actually as bad as it could have been. Somewhere in Indiana we stopped at a Culver's for dinner and sat down to plot our night. Originally we were going to try and get to Columbus, but the timing wasn't working. Since we aim for bigger cities and their suburbs for stops rather than stopping at a random town we don't know anything about in the middle of the night, the next big city we'd hit was Cincinnati.

So, in my early 20s, I spent a lot of time hanging out with friends from online by picking essentially picking a city and then all going there for a weekend (or Wednesday to Wednesday, shut up I had no responsibilities then). The best years were the ones we had in Cincy, and those were some of the greatest weeks of my life, so of course we had to head back to the Cincinnati Marriott North. It's definitely changed since I was last there, mostly some of the furniture and the fact that there's a Starbucks counter now. I still remembered the way around, though, and would point out which floor I stayed on what year, and I think I even pointed out the vending area where I guzzled an entire margarita after an argument and then went back to a room party. (I'd say it was a memorable night but I do not remember most of it!) It's also just a great hotel, where the woman at the front desk even stepped out from behind it to point out where things were, and everyone was super friendly. The area's also grown out since I was there. At the time they were just building it up, and aside from a gas station and a couple restaurants, you had to drive elsewhere to get to anything. Now there are plenty of restaurants and coffee shops, a movie theater, and apparently a wine store which would have been a major attraction/problem back in the day (see also the margarita story). I actually really hope to get back here again soon, maybe with a lot of old friends.

We got out later than intended again, partly because there were pictures I needed to get of the hotel lobby, and we had 2:30 tickets in western Pennsylvania, sooooo Nick got pulled over for speeding. He wasn't going that fast, though, and it was the weirdest way I've ever seen someone get pulled over: the cop was sitting in his car on the side of the highway when he got out of his car and STEPPED INTO THE HIGHWAY to flag us down, even though cars all around us were speeding past. It always sucks getting pulled over, especially when you were definitely on par with the rest of traffic, but Nick had a good way of looking at it. After all, if he hadn't been speeding, there was no way we would have made our 2:30, so it was worth it.

After doing no more than three miles over the speed limit at any time and not stopping at all, and also driving through West Virginia for all of twenty minutes, we made it to our destination at 2:15. The confirmation email warned that we might be waiting for up to half an hour until our group actually went on the tour, but they took us right at 2:30 to see Fallingwater. It's a Frank Lloyd Wright house, built in the woods, on top of a waterfall. Wright was very much into bringing the elements of the outdoors inside- it's habit to look for the ways he implements them in each house I go to now- so this is pretty much the ultimate in doing that. It's also the ultimate in being super hot, because it was in the 80s and very humid, and the house is open and doesn't have air conditioning. They did have fans going in the rooms and gave us little handheld fans to take with us, because they were definitely needed by the time we got to the third floor. It's absolutely gorgeous, though. It became my favorite of his houses so far, and I'm sorry that we weren't able to get tickets for the more in-depth tours that would allow us to take pictures inside the house.

Outdoors, though, I definitely got pictures.

I'll put some on the Instagram if you want to see more.

We stopped for snacks and water, because after a lot of stair-climbing and a little hike in hot weather, Nick understandably hit the wall. Which happens. When you're stressed and busy and haven't had enough to eat or drink and it's hot, you can very easily hit a point where if you don't get a carb in you, you're either going to pass out or kill someone. Personally, I do this most years at SDCC and if you're going to be doing a lot when you're traveling, keep in mind that you very well might do this too. After leaving their cafe, we drove back through the terrifying sharp-cornered hills of rural Pennsylvania (that is definitely on the Insta) and then found our way to the highway to try and drive another five hours.

At one point, I caught a sign and said, "Did that just say we're in Maryland?"

"What?" Nick said.

"I could have sworn that sign just welcomed us to Maryland."

Sure enough, we were in Maryland. We had not planned on it. We thought the route would just take us straight through Pennsylvania, but since our hotel was in New Jersey, and we were using Waze, which took us through southern Maryland. I can't even make Google Maps do it, so annoyingly this map is not entirely accurate.

That said, it was a great detour. We found a surprisingly great pizza place just off the highway for dinner, and we looked over our options, realizing that Waze was probably going to take us through Baltimore. Here's the thing. I love Baltimore. I know it gets a really bad rap, but I really enjoyed my time there when I went before, and immediately I asked, "Do we have time to stop at The Waterfront?" Because apparently I travel enough that I have go-to places for certain cities. Unfortunately it was already going to be very late by the time we got in, and even if we just stopped in for a quick drink, it was Saturday night, and that wasn't going to be quick. We had to bypass it this time, but I've got it in my head to get back to DC sometime soon, so I'll get back then.

Our route also took us through Delaware! We'd been through Delaware before, on our way to Philadelphia from Arlington. We even stopped at the same rest stop just to say we were there, and also because we all desperately needed caffeine and to wake up. But this also meant that with Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey in one day, it tied my personal record and straight up blew up Mom's. (Previous record: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire.)

You could tell when we finally got to Jersey because people immediately began trying to kill us with their cars. Immediately. People assured me that it was only the northern drivers that sucked, and then I was told that the southern drivers were scary, and there is not a lot of state! It's okay, I live in a state full of shitty drivers, too. That said... New Jersey didn't suck this time. We stayed at a Super 8 in Mount Laurel, about half an hour from Philadelphia. It was a smoking room and had some burn marks on the bathroom counter, and the pillow smelled of smoke when I woke up, but it really wasn't bad at all. The people were friendly, the room was clean, and I didn't fear staying there. Good on you, New Jersey! Work on your drivers!

We got to Philadelphia pretty early, and it was already hot. We paid too much for parking, showed Mom the Liberty Bell, and then got water ice from a street vendor. See, last time I was there, there were carts for those and cheesesteaks everywhere. I'm a vegetarian so the latter did nothing for me, but I finally snapped and decided I'd get a water ice at the next one we saw... and we never saw another one. So I made sure to do it this time, and then we walked around. Philadelphia is not a city I'd consider a top five favorite, but I'm more than happy to set out and explore it, and I've never really seen the same stuff. We stopped into the Old Carpenters' House and the Old Bank Building which is now a portrait gallery, and tried to get into a few more things but found that a lot of it was closed because we forgot it was Sunday. Still, it's great to be able to see amazing buildings like the post office and printer's office, and they are amazing. They're old but well-maintained, and they're surrounded by newer buildings, which makes for a really great look.

We made it to Christ Church before it was Mom's turn to hit the wall, and while sadly we couldn't go inside, I think because there were services starting soon, around back they had dispensers for water and lemonade for free, and we stopped to regroup and ultimately decided to reel it in. We walked back through the neighborhoods to find the car, and then headed over to Reading Terminal.

Reading Terminal is not far away, and it's a great big market. It's very crowded and you're probably going to stand in a line, but I like it. There are plenty of local quick service places, and you can find cooking supplies or candy or jewelry in the shops. Last time I bought a pair of earrings from Africa that I still get compliments on. We got coffee and snacks, then took a trip to a bakery because once I knew they had vegan cookies, I needed vegan cookies. And Mom wanted to find some old style candy, so we found that and got a bunch for the car, and then decided that we could start off to our last overnight city: Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh is about four and a half hours west, and required driving through several mountains. It was our earliest night, where we got to our oddly-placed but very nice hotel around 8 pm, early enough to get dinner and not have to get back on the road. However, the fact that the hotel was in a weird spot seemed to require us to drive around neighborhoods with super scary hills. Around Fallingwater had been a tame roller coaster. This was insane. It was sharp curves around houses and other cars that were going too fast, steep declines that sometimes led into the guardrail disappearing to allow access into even steeper hidden driveways like the worst surprise ever, and bumps because the road was not the best. Thank god the way back took us a more normal route, and we were able to get to bed at a more or less decent time.

Pittsburgh was not done screwing with us, though. After eating breakfast at the hotel and checking out, we tried to find the highway and hopefully a gas station, and instead we seemingly drove around the suburbs for at least half an hour. I have no idea what the GPS was trying to do, but we got gas, and we got on the road. And I wish we'd gone back through Maryland again. Pennsylvania and Ohio are pretty, but there weren't any real places to stop. Where Maryland had cool rest stops and restaurants where you could stop off for a meal, these states had service plazas. They have Sunoco gas stations, maybe a couple fast food places like McDonald's or Roy Rogers, occasionally a Starbucks, and one big place to get snacks or souvenirs. There's not much to them, and everyone is nearly the same, and it makes for very boring driving. Especially when you're on the road for ten hours. It was also hard to find anywhere to stop to eat because the fast food options weren't really appetizing, and that was all there was. The drive was largely quiet, because after four days with the same people you've said just about everything you need to say for now, and you just want to get home. Conversation tends to be like:

"Do you need to stop?"
"Yes/no."

That's it. It felt like an accomplishment to get to Indiana, where after a while at least the service centers ended and you could choose your own adventure. When we got to Michigan City we finally stopped off and made a snap decision to stop at a Steak and Shake, where they were super busy, ignored us when we got there, finally told us that there just weren't seats before she decided to clean off an empty table, and then left us without menus. I think we were there for almost fifteen minutes from start to finish without ever getting menus, and we had a deadline to get Mom back home for work, so we left and went to a Chili's instead. I think I might be done with Steak and Shake.

We finally got Mom home half an hour later than we'd planned, but that still wasn't bad, all things considered. We know how we all work together before we start planning next year's big trip. We got in a good adventure. And most importantly, I learned that maybe New Jersey isn't all bad.