I left Camp Partridge and set off on a road trip through the wonderful North East of America, known as New England. Destination was Paoli (just outside of Philadelphia) and an 8 hour drive lay ahead.
I don't know why I chose this way. A friend, Britney, was driving this way and I was on route to Pittsburgh, and figuring that a drive to Paoli and a flight from Philly was cheaper than flying straight from Burlington. Also it gave me the opportunity to see, even just a brief glimpse, of the rest of New England. Probably a decent decision looking back on it.
My ride was sweet. A sleak black BMW, I got lucky on this one, I could have been going down in any old shit heap, at least this had some class and style.
The start of the journey was an emotional one. I hadn't gone to be until about 3am and I was awake bright and early at around 7am with a sore head from the night before. I groggily checked my things and got them ready and then went to chat about the evenings exploits. We had just had our end of summer party, and frankly it was a messy one.
It was then time to say goodbye, there were tears and hugs everywhere, and a sudden dawning that it was other and we would never have this time and possibly never see these people again.
Soon we were off, driving down the dirt track, a crowd in our wake, it was done. Although this was the step on to the next part of the trip, the travelling, and the whole broadening of the mind that I had been told so much about. My trip was to take me to Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Washington, Hartford and New York. First though was the matter of getting down the country and to Paoli.
We set off in the rural abd beautiful Vermont hills. Its greenery still looks beautiful and is great for a relaxing start to the drive. This dispersed into Massachusetts, a little less green than Vermont and the home of Boston, I must admit I was asleep for a lot of this bit so can't give you much than, I think it looked nice. Then down into Connecticut and into the very urban Hartford (somewhere I would visit in more detail later). We were making great time up to this point and had even stopped for a cheeky Pizza Hut for lunch. Then we hit traffic, grid locked for ages, and this seemed to follow us all the way to the outskirts of New York City. Literally people taking ridiculous chances, diving up the hard shoulder, I had never seen anything like it, it really was every man for themselves. So with a bit of driving skill from Britney, we were out and flying down the famous New Jersey turnpike, just like off the start of the Soprano's, my only regret is that I didn't have a bit of Alabama 3 to play for that leg of the journey.
We soon emerged in Rutherford, New Jersey, and I looked down to my right and caught a glimpse of Giants Stadium, home of the NFL's New York Giants and New York Jets. An impressive feat of enigneering, I am quite the fan of stadiums, probably goes with my sporting interest, but I always like to make time to have, at least, a look at a stadium when I go somewhere new. Then we were on the home straight and with a mad dash to the finish line we were suddenly in the leafy suburb of Paoli.
We got to Britney's house, dropped our things off, settled and then we got out to see a glimpse of the town before I was to leave the next morning. I also met my mate Matt from the camp, who went to Haverford College, the local college. I had a Philly cheesesteak (what else?) with him and chilled out at his place for the evening. I good way to spend my evening, I also went to a bakery and had a huge chipwich (Two huge chocolate chip cookies with ice cream inside).
So the road was done, now to take to the skies! Next stop da'burgh!
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