Catching Up

I hit my first setback of the trip but more of that later. But first let's catch up on the last few days. I've covered over 1200 miles since my last post.

After Charlotte, I spent most of Wednesday driving up to Pittsburgh. It was a scenic drive through the mountains, but rather uneventful. A couple of the highlights: passed a town called Nutter Fort which made me chuckle and a town called Fayatte is the self proclaimed "coolest small town". I would agree that is is small. Hit sixty miles of construction losing an hour and got into Pittsburgh just in time to sit in an hour and half of rush hour traffic. Also turns out that I left shorts in Charlotte. Not a big deal but the shorts had my only belt on them and that really sucks.


Now I know Pittsburgh is a huge sports town and very passionate about their teams, but since there is no NBA team they are not big basketball fans. In fact I went to a sports bar to watch game one of the Lakers/Celtics and had to remind them that the game was on. Also, I know Pittsburgh is known for being a hard working, blue collared place but I think some of the work is unnecessary. I had to make three stops for alcohol. You cant buy alcohol in bas stations or convenient stores like in Florida, so I stopped at a liquor store. However liquor stores strictly sell liquor and wine, not beer. So I had to go to a beer store for that did not sell ice. So then I had to go back to a gas station to get a bag of ice to keep my beer and liquor cold. Like I said, unnecessary hard work.

The next day I explored downtown Pittsburgh for a few hours. Came across the Three Rivers Art Fest and caught a cool cover band in this little plaza. And yes, for those who where wondering, if I ate at Primanti Brothers, I had the corned beef. Then it was off to the game at the very picturesque PNC Park. I was very disappointed with the lack of tailgating in the parking lots before the game. Granted they have as many fans as a Marlins game but I had to shut down my traveling bar due to lack of customers. The game itself was a decent one. The Pirates blew an early 4-0 lead to loss 6-4 to the Giants thanks to an Aubrey Huff monstrous 2 run homer that cleared the bleachers and might have landed in the river to break a 4-4 tie. Oh, did I mention the game was delayed by nearly 3 hours due to rain. This set in motion some unfortunate chain of events.

Thankfully once the game did start is was relatively quick and ended at 12:35 am. I was suppose to be in Toronto (300+ miles) for a 1pm game vs the Yankees the following day. This several options:
1) Sleep for a few hours in my car in Pittsburgh and hit the road early in the morning for Toronto

2) Drive for a few hours and, sleep in a hotel and do the rest of the drive in the morning

3) Drive straight to Toronto and sleep (somewhere) until the game starts

Take a moment to think about which option I chose.

At the time, I went with #3, pounded a Monster and took for the open, yet extremely dark, road. However, Mother Nature was against me and the rain the delayed the game had moved north and became much more severe. 20 miles in the rain was so bad I couldn't go faster than 40 mph even with my brights on. So about two hours in and 100 miles later, I found a reasonable place to crash for a few hours. I set the alarm for six hours later-9am-and immediately passed out. However, the next link in the chain of unfortunate events happened when the alarm was set for 9 PM and never went off.

I woke at 9:37 am, took a quick shower and hit the road for the remaining 200 miles. It took less than 10 minutes to cross the border and all was going well until 23 miles (close to noon) from the Rogers Centre I hit traffic. Noon on a Saturday, no accident, no construction, just an ass load of people on the road traffic. If you know me, you know I HATE traffic. I can understand and sometimes tolerate traffic if there is a good reason, but in this case I was cursing at the top of my lungs while going nowhere. I took me 2 AND A HALF HOURS to go the 23 miles! I will repeat for effect. . . 150 minutes for the remaining 37 kilometers. By the time I parked ($25 because the the cheaper lots were full) the game was already in the bottom of the seventh. I sure as hell was not buying a ticket for 2 innings for a stadium that I had already been to. So I figured if i wait til the 9th I could just walk right in like most places let you do. Nope, not in Canada apparently. In fact, people were still buying tickets at the window in the 8th inning and scalpers were still selling tickets! The one positive, I got an Italian sausage and a soda for $3.

Pissed at an entire country, I decided instead of giving them my money and waiting around for the afternoon game the next day, I would turn around and high-tail it back to the States. And so I did. On the way back I felt like an impromptu stop off at Niagara Falls would help me gain my peace. I had not been to the Falls since my sister was looking at colleges 15 years ago and it was winter. The Canadian side of the Niagara Falls is crazy. It's like somebody took Lake Tahoe and dumped it on the border. Its full of places to stay, casinos and tourist traps. However, it seemed fun and I found a cheap motel and spent the night. The motel was just a few blocks from the main street with the bars and to blow off the rest of my anger towards the Canucks, I went out and got drunk. Apparently many people go to Niagara Falls to get married because I met three different bridal showers out for a night on the town

Which brings me to today. I am currently in Maple Shade, NJ (about 15 miles east of Philly). Tonight I was able to watch the Flyers game in a Flyers bar. Sucks that they lost, but fun anyways and the chicken wings were incredible. Tomorrow night starts 6 games in 6 days in the northeast starting with the Phillies hosting the Padres.

Shoutouts:

Jim Trdinich and the Pirates organization for the free ticket and parking pass

The Cadillac Motel in Niagara Falls for being a drunk stumble away from the bars. However, I know Niagara Falls is supposed to be one of the most romantic getaways in the country, but I would not take my wife/girlfriend/mistress to this place. I saw many couples staying there and was ashamed for those cheap guys.

Celtics and their fans for giving it to the Lakers tonight.

John Wooden, greatest basketball coach in history at any level, may he rest in peace.

Randoms:
Propose that all interstates have a consistent speed limit of 70 mph and if it a toll road 75 because you pay for the convenience.

Further proof that McDonald's is in fact the devil. Check out the price of my lunch . . $6.66





Songs that gave me a boost (there are a lot because there was a lot of driving): Kings of Leon "The Bucket", Otis Redding "Shake", Better than Ezra "Desperately Wanting", Atmosphere "Sound is Vibration", The Gaslight Anthem "Drive", Rage Against the Machine "Renegades of Funk", Dialated Peoples "Beat Junkies", Cage the Elephant "Free Love" and Switch "Two of a Kind (Mary Kate and Ashley)"-which got me thinking what did happen to the Olson Twins. There was a countdown for their 18th birthday and then nothing.




1247 miles, 234 songs

Feel free to leave comments. Please let me know how I can make things more intersting. Plus, it lets me people are actually reading this besides my family.