Story time! This post is all about my trip to Philadelphia with my mom.
Wednesday: We left around noontime after my mom had worked for a few hours. This day we drove through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and made it into Indiana, where we spent the night at Terra Haute. Also, for this trip we borrowed my grandparents' TomTom. I had a love-hate relationship with this device. It was nice to have, but it's not like a printed map where you can see the next set of directions right away, and some of the directions were very unclear..."keep left" just meant stay on this road and don't take the exit...couldn't it just say that?? We also bought a couple books on CD. The book we listened to this day was kind of bland.
Thursday: We left bright and early around 7am, and drove through Indiana, Ohio, the sliver of West Virginia that comes up between Ohio and Pennsylvania, and then on through Pennsylvania. I have to have a brag moment with my car on this leg of the trip...we made it up to 38 mpg before the end of our trip to Philadelphia. I could've hugged it, I was so happy. Also, Pennsylvania is apparently very proud of their toll roads. More than $20 to drive through the state?? Holy bejeebers, people. And then we made it to Philadelphia after sunset. We had quite the traffic jam just getting into the city from the north, and we actually stayed on the New Jersey side of things. Driving through inner Philadelphia at night. Our nerves were fried.
Friday: Mom had driven through Philadelphia and her stomach and head were still hurting from her nervousness from driving in the city, so it was determined that, rather than coming with me and trying to find something to do all day in the city, I would go to the conference and she would hang out at the hotel and feel better. That means I drove back into Philadelphia on my own...oh dear! Considering my conference was at the archdiocese offices, I was going into the heart of the city. I left 30 minutes ahead of time so I'd have plenty of time to get my bearings and find parking. First of all, $5 toll to cross the bridges into the city...highway robbery if you ask me. It would've taken an hour to bypass the tolls, which would've been silly, so we bit the bullet and had me pay $5 a day to pass over the bridges...robbery, I tell you. Then I got downtown. I discovered too late that I had driven by the cathedral, so I decided to keep driving to find a parking garage, because I didn't notice the cathedral parking open for outsiders (employees there have a card to swipe to open the gate). I kept driving and finding parking garages too late...and you DON'T stop and slow down downtown traffic. Finally I'd had enough, I was about 15 blocks away from the offices, so I turned down a street and was going to turn around and make a loop back and try again for a parking garage I had missed. Lo and behold, there was a parking garage on that street. By that time I just wanted to be done, so I pulled in and let them take my car (that's scary, leaving your car for parking garage attendants to park on their own. I've never had so many moments of not feeling in control as I did on this trip).
I walked the 15 blocks and made it to my seminar. It was lovely. Talks on contraception, stem cell research, care at the end of life...and excellent speakers, as they are all ethicists at the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Oh my gracious. I was definitely out of my comfort zone...most of the attendees were doctors and nurses. Trained professionals in health care ministries. I became used to the question, "What is your ministry?" and answering, "Oh, well, I just graduated from college...still job searching..." But everyone was so kind and professional. I made friends with an older RN from California. She's originally from India, and is a descendant from the Catholic community set up by St. Thomas the Apostle. It was a nice experience to be in a graduate setting, making friends with people older than me. Perhaps it's just because I've been surrouneded by peers my age most all my life, but it's still a foreign concept that I can be friends and peers with people older than me. I mean, my new friend had children my age, yet here we were, sharing our life stories and finding lunch together. It really was wonderful.
After the conference, I made my way back to the hotel and my mom presented the option of ordering in pizza. Yes. Please. I was so glad we chilled together and took the rest of the night to watch the Food Channel.
Saturday: About the same story, except this time they left parking by the cathedral open for us, so I didn't have to walk so far in the morning. And this day, my brother came up from Virginia to spend the evening with us, as he had to be at Fort Meade the next day for some training. So after I was done with my conference, we made our way back into the city. Unfortunately the monuments were closed by mid-afternoon, so we had no chance to see them, so we decided to do another Philly tradition...hoagies. The Food Channel has had a presentation on two competitors, Pat's and Geno's, that are across the street from each other. What we didn't realize was that it was in the midst of a super-crowded neighborhood. For real, I don't know how people live like this. We drove down streets so narrow that we were forced onto sidewalks. My mom and I were both definitely hyperventilating. Luckily, we found parking just a couple blocks away and walked to the restaurants, and bought a hoagie from each place to do the comparison. Geno's uses thicker cuts of steak, whereas Pat's cuts it up finer. The decision was that we all liked Pat's better. After having ENOUGH of the packed streets and awful driving, we made it back to our hotel, grabbed snacks at the gas station near us, and watched a couple episodes of the BBC show Sherlock that my brother had on DVD. Also, it was around this day we learned that it is against the law to fill up your own car with gas in New Jersey (and Oregon). Mom about got in some trouble for doing so. You simply roll down your window and give them payment, and designated workers fill your car for you. Weird.
Sunday: On this morning we went to Mass at a parish near our hotel, ate some breakfast, and headed out our separate way from my brother. We planned to make it to Terra Haute around 9 that evening, so we could take our time getting home on Monday. The first part of the trip was uneventful. We put in our second book on CD once we were out of the city (it was much better and scarier than the first book), and the first part of the trip absolutely flew by. We made it through Pennsylvania and Ohio, and stopped for our second driving switch near Springfield, Ohio. When we were done and getting back on the highway, we heard a sound as if we had ran over some tire debris. About twelve miles later, our battery light came on and the engine was overheating. This is where the trip went wacky. We pulled off the road, called my dad, and poured some cold water that had been in our cooler of food. We determined that the serpentine belt was off and tore up. There would be no more driving till we could get it fixed. We called the roadside assistance number on my insurance card in the car, but they didn't have our policy info (really?? really??), but they contacted a tow service for us, and found an O'Reilly's store where we could get the part. Mom was coordinating with that person while I was relaying info to Dad and calling the O'Reilly's to make sure they'd have the belt ready and in stock. By 7:45 the tow truck was contacted and we were at the mercy of their speed in getting to us...the O'Reilly's was closing at 9pm. We prayed a rosary, and within 20 minutes the truck was there and getting our car loaded (thank you, Mama Mary!). We finally made it into Springfield, and the gentleman I had contacted at the store was going to assist us in putting it on, but it turned out the pulley of the alternator had snapped and broken, which led to the condition of the serpentine belt. We were sitting ducks. The kind gentleman at O'Reilly's drove us to a hotel (which gave us a discount considering our situation, which was extremely thoughtful). We'd begin again the next day.
Monday: I can't say this day started off terribly great. We didn't want to spend money on any kind of transport, and we were only a mile down the road from the O'Reilly's, so we took our luggage and walked...but then the wheel of the heaviest luggage broke, so we struggled for about 6 blocks dragging a one-wheeled suitcase. Finally we made it to the store, bought the alternator, and they arranged with a car repair service around the corner to have our car pushed by a small tractor so we wouldn't need a tow, and they started on installing everything. Another gentleman with O'Reilly's drove us to a coffee shop where we waited for an hour and a half. We finally had the car all ready about 11am...but as we were leaving the engine light came on, and we discovered the cruise control stick had been damaged, and would no longer work. Still don't know about that one. The engine light was actually nothing, and so we finally started on our way. The rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful. We ran over some tire shreds that got stuck under the car and had to remove those. It was difficult driving without the cruise. Let me tell you, I appreciate it so much more now. Especially when we were driving through the Flint Hills in the last 3 hours. It was from about 9 to midnight, and I just could not keep any kind of steady speed, as it was dark and I'd get nervous around curves, so I kept fluctuating between 65 and 75 mph. I've never been so happy to make it home, with it's broad streets, uncrowded-ness, and all around charm. And now I don't want to travel again for a very long time.
A couple of reflections from along the way:
Having a safe trip does not mean that nothing will go wrong, only that when things do go wrong, you can still find laughter and gratefulness. Mary really did keep us safe the entire way, and provided us strength and graces to make it through our emotions and concerns.- I loved having a conference on bioethics and the Church's positions while in the city of Brotherly Love. It seemed appropriate that I was learning about the Church's focus on the dignity of the human person and love of neighbor while in this city.
- It takes traveling to a big city to appreciate the wonderfulness of a small town, or a large town that only wishes it was a big city, like Wichita. Oh, Wichita, you do try, but I like you just the way you are.
