Actual departure time: 1 p.m. (is anyone surprised we were late?)
The day started out with such hope. We woke up bright and early, with every intention of being on the road by 10. But a gas fill-up, air tire pressure check, water and ice purchase, buying pj pants, and two bank stops kinda put a damper on that idea! That was a good thing though, because Cai called to tell me I had left my laptop behind. So it was fate that we hadn't left Worcester yet (or so we're telling ourselves).
But once we hit the Pike there was no turning back. We took the exit for 84 W and the GPS informed us we'd be on 84 for 331 miles. At that point I thought, do we even need this thing?? It was good that we didn't though, because several times throughout the trip the nice lady voice would inform us that the GPS signal was lost. It looked like we weren't moving at all on the map! Then somewhere in PA Grant saw a hawk swoop down and pick up a mouse on the side of the road. He said he had a belief that seeing lots of animals on a trip is a good omen. I said, "Not for the mouse." But then we saw two more hawks flying near our first rest stop, and that was pretty cool. (It's hard to see them in the photo but I swear they're there!)
The first rest stop was at a place literally just called "Liberty" somewhere in PA, with another sign that read "Tobacco Junction." We saw several smoke shops throughout the state, in fact. At Liberty they also had "superbangers" (fireworks) and Tijuana Mama sausages. Once we left there it was straight onto Scranton, our first halfway stop for the day. We passed a sign for Dunmore Throop, which to me sounded like a character from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But I looked it up to confirm that there is, indeed, a place called Throop in PA.
Once we reached Scranton at 5:30 p.m., we came to an intersection with two signs that said "Red Detour" and "Blue Detour." We decided to choose the blue pill, which brought us past such places as Coney Island Texas Lunch (wha??) and the Honky Tonk Restaurant & Saloon. We drove into a parking garage for the Mall in Steamtown, where they had a number of murals on the wall of the local history. It didn't seem like we'd find much in the way of unique places to eat, though, so we wandered around a bit more.
We wanted to eat dinner at a place called "What the Fork," but it was a food truck and we couldn't get to its current location before it moved again. So we chose a more stationary place called Cara Mia's on East Drinker St. They had a number of deli sandwiches with local names, and Grant had a Mountain Dew ham sandwich. I'm not kidding- it was Mountain Dew soaked ham with Swiss cheese, horseradish, lettuce, tomato, and raspberry vinaigrette. He said it was good and didn't make a face, so I have to believe him. :) He also had a drink we'd never heard of called "Cherikee Red." And they had these chips from a company called Middleswarth, that used cottonseed oil. The chips had more of a french fry taste which kind of threw me off, as I'm more used to the Lay's chips. But they were still good.
We left Scranton at 7:15 p.m., going past a sign that read (in this order) $300 LITTERING FINE. We joked about throwing $300 out the window since that kind of littering was apparently okay. We got behind a tow truck that read "Duchnik's" and had a lot of fun with that name for about 5 minutes. We also passed signs on 81 S for Montage Mountain Road, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Jersey Shore and The Lube (another name we had fun with for 5 minutes). Later on we saw signs for different colored detours including black, green and orange. Our last rest stop was at Pilot Travel Center, where they had a game room (which Grant called "paltry" by gamer standards), a shower, a printer and fax station, and laundry. We thought that was pretty impressive, but then Grant discovered in the men's room not only a cologne dispenser that offered a spritz for a quarter, but also toothbrushing gum, condoms, lubricant, and glow sticks. Yes that's right- everything you would need for a rave.
After that, we found our hotel (Comfort Inn in Mercer, PA) with no problems and checked in at midnight. When we walked in we noticed the carpet was a bit damp, which was odd! Thankfully we didn't get here until late or else who knows if we even could've walked on it! Our ambition for tomorrow is to do breakfast before they close at 9 a.m. and be on the road by 10. We have a 10-hour day tomorrow so hopefully we do better than today! Until then, good night!
License plates seen along the way:
Saskatchewan (seen before we left Worcester!)
1:22 p.m.- Maine
1:32- Connecticut (at exit 9 on the Pike)
1:33- Virginia
1:38- New Jersey
1:39- Florida
1:40- New York
1:44- Georgia, Indiana, Illinois (all on tractor trailers)
1:49- Michigan
2:17- Oklahoma
2:19- West Virginia
2:20- Missouri
2:21- Iowa
2:36- California
2:40- Tennessee and Pennsylvania
3- Maryland and Prince Edward Island
3:03- Arizona
3:42- Minnesota
8:27- Texas
8:50- Colorado
9:07- Ohio
10:03- Nebraska
10:11- Wisconsin
10:18- North Carolina
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