Day 3 - Escape From The Storm

Day 3 - 12/24/2008
21:00
Knoxville TN.

Getting out of Virginia proved pretty difficult as the valley I was in was hit by heavy fog that reduced visibility to only a few feet ahead. I took this picture when it cleared up a bit.


I never realized how much snow Virginia gets. When most northerners like myself think of the south, we think of it being worm all year long, like in California. Not so. At least not in Appalachia. I listened to reports of a major ice storm coming to the area, and drove on as fast as possible to avoid it.


There really isn't much to write about today, so I apologize for this pathetically short post. I did learn from the back of a pick up truck that Obama was going to take our taxes and flush our freedom.


At the Virginia-Tennessee border route 11 splits into 2 separate routes, 11E and 11W, both of which go north and south.
They meet up in Knoxville and once again continue as one united 11. I chose 11W, and was in Knoxville a couple of hours later. That is where I am now. It is Christmas Eve, and to call the city a ghost-town would be an overstatement. The hotel has an exercise room, so I will pretend that I am not exhausted, lift weights, then put my head down to get an early start tomorrow.

Day 2 - I Don't Need Your Civil War

Day 2 - 12/23/2008
23:00
Harrisonburg VA

I began the drive from Scranton and headed south passing through several rural Pennsylvania towns, many of which reminded me of the town in The Deer Hunter (I laughed because I even accidentally stumbled upon classical guitar music on the radio, just like in that movie's soundtrack). Little communities built on hillsides of some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Obviously, my crappy pictures can not do it any justice.





Maryland and West Virginia were also beautiful, but there isn't much to write about. The drive was very slow. Route 11 passes through a lot of residential neighborhoods where the speed limits can be as low as 25mph.

Eventually I crossed into western Virginia, and was around the city of Harrisonburg when the sun went down. I saw city lights off of the route to my left, and headed off in that direction, eventually coming to a spot with about 6 hotels next to each other. I called each one to find out their rates and settled with the cheapest one.

As I arrived in the lobby, I was greeted by a young man with a close resemblance to Kenneth from the TV show 30 Rock. Like the character, he was extremely polite and proper. I signed the room contract, and asked him what there was to do in the city as far as places to go out to or to just look around.
"Oh there's nothing like that, and besides, you don't want to go into town, there's lots of people out, and it'll be hard to park."
"Is there a good place to drink?"
"Oh, no, I don't know about that, no, there's some restaurants right around the hotel if you just want a bite to eat though".
I looked over the counter to Kenneth's desk and saw a book with a title along the lines of "Ebracing God", or something of that nature. I thanked him.
On the table in my room there was a copy of a bible complete with a guide on the best way for beginners to read it, and the main lessons that should be taken in from specific parts. I thanked Jesus for the cheap hotel rate, walked out of my room, passed Kenneth in the lobby as he gave me a concerned look akin to one you would give to someone walking into a lethal situation, and went out to explore.

The temperature was down in the low teens, which made it painful to walk around. There were some historical sites from the civil war, but nothing that struck out at me, so I walked into a bar & grill and ordered a beer and a steak. Two middle aged women sat down one chair away and had a very loud conversation about a reality TV show. I could sense that the one closer to my chair wanted to make conversation, and I knew it was inevitable that she would force me to talk to her at some point. I gave myself as much time as possible by looking straight at the TV, but when the bartender asked how the food was, that was her in. "Well, it sure smells great, they have great food here, I really love it." She introduced herself & her friend, and told me they were from some close by town where there are caves that were used by some southern civil war general. I think about 65% of conversations I've ever had in the south somehow make it back to the civil war. I pretended to be impressed, paid the bill, and left.

Day 1 - Meet Me Tonight in Electric City.

Day 1 - 12/22/2008
18:00
Red Carpet Inn (sans red carpet), Route 11, Scranton, PA

As planned, I took off from Boston at 03:00, and arrived in Rouses Point, NY, right around 07:30. Not counting about 15 minutes of wind and snow in Vermont, the drive was smooth. I can probably count on two hands the number of cars I saw on the highways from Boston to Burlington VT. There were two shooting stars. That's probably not a big deal for most people, but I spend 99% of my time in a city, so it's something I've never seen before.

Anyhow, I got to Rouse's Point, checked out Lake Champlain, and headed west alongside the border before the road slowly curved to the south. Not much action in New York's north country. Incredibly cold, and a lot of old mills & mill towns. On two occasions I saw people traveling in horse and buggies.



In one of my Route 1 entries, I commented on what I thought was a southern phenomenon of dogs running around on major roadways and getting hit by cars. Clearly this does not only happen in the south, and much like shooting stars is just another thing that I've never seen. First, there was a puppy with a pink collar lying on the side of the road, then a couple of hours later I had to swerve at the top of a hill when I saw two dogs hanging around nonchalantly in the lane I was in.



I always took it for being one big college town, and once again I was wrong. A lot of people around. Most areas I saw were depressed and had building boarded up. It reminded me of Albany a little bit, but then there's a certain something about all cities in New York state and southern Connecticut. It's that really cool no bullshit attitude people carry themselves with. I get that from everyone regardless of age, ethnicity, dress, or social status, and I haven't seen it anywhere else in the country. You can tell by their demeanor that they don't give a fuck what anyone thinks, they're going to do what they're going to do, and they could care less what it is you do. Love that.




After the PA border, Route 11 travels along a nice looking creek, then turns into a freeway. As the sun went down, the freeway ended and turned into one of the main streets in downton Scranton. I saw a Red Carpet Inn, which advertised cheap rates and internet access. Sold. $50 in the heart of downtown isn't bad.
I'll go chek out the city now and report back in a few hours.


22:30
Walked all around downtown Scranton. Most of the stores were closed, which was too bad because there was a cool looking record store I would love to have visited. I saw some of the historic sites, and read up on what was written next to them. They call themselves the electric city because they were the first city in the US to have a trolley system. There were a fair number of cars on the road, but as far as pedestrians go, the sidewalks were pretty much empty, making it look like somewhat of a ghost town. Not sure if that was because of the freezing cold, or the holidays, or what, but I shrugged it off and kept going, checking out what I could.



I looked for a place to get a drink, and maybe a bite to eat. A number of decent looking places, but none of them had more than a couple people inside, and I wasn't feeling it. I was on the way back to the room, and noticed a sports bar called Whistle's close to the hotel. I ordered a Yuengling and chicken wings, smoked, talked with the bartender who had nothing interesting to say, ate the wings, stared at some college football game I didn't give a shit about, had another Yuengling, and left. $9.80, not bad.

Tomorrow, my guess is I'll write from somewhere in the western Virginia.

From The Lands Of Hockey To The Lands Of Gumbo

Here we go again!

Last time you heard from me, I had finally achieved the mission of driving down the entire stretch of US Route 1. It's been a year since then, and I'm at it again, this time covering US Route 11. Route 11 has a northern terminus in a place called Rouses Point, NY, which is a little village by Lake Champlain, on the border of New York, Vermont, and Canada. The southern terminus is in the great city of New Orleans, LA.
So...to recap the rules of my road trips.

• Drive on and only on a given route, with the exception of perhaps veering off a bit for a cheap motel.
  
• Drives will begin each morning a little before sunrise and stop a bit after sunset, as it would not make sense to do this in the dark when I can not see the surroundings.
  
• The days are short this time of year so stops must be kept to a minimum.
  
• There can be no geographic discrimination of where the stopping points will be, only that they will be right around where I'm located at the time when it is too dark to see things around me.
  
• If I'm anywhere even remotely interesting, I will wonder around at night.

The plan is to leave Boston at 03:00 Tuesday 12/22/2009, so as to get to Rouses Point by sunrise, which is around 07:30 (by the way, I'm cheating a little as I'm writing this 1st post after the actual first day of driving has been completed, but that was my plan, and I did stick to it successfully).
All right, without further ado, lets drive!