Thanks to our little detour from having to cross the Canadian border over Detroit, we got to see a little bit more of the U.S. than we had originally planned. We didn't take too much time to stop, other than to eat and sleep, because we were so excited to get to the East Coast, but we did discover a few things during these three days of driving. The first thing is that it is totally possible for me to do Jillian Michaels and 8 Minute Abs while Alex is driving the RV! It's even kind of fun to try to keep my balance and makes it more of a challenging work out. So glad I figured out that time saver! Also, we discovered that our RV has some leaks. We hit our first real rain on this trip in Ohio, and it was nothing like the sprinkling Seattle rain that we miss. It felt like a full on monsoon! All the sudden our sun roof started to leak and some vent in the bathroom was leaking a lot, so I ran around sticking pots and bowls under the leaks. The RV is officially our first home now!
Ok so the first city we stopped in was Detroit, MI to make some dinner. Now I don't want to sound racist, because I'm not at all, but I have to admit where we were, I didn't see a single white person. And the African Americans looking at us driving around in this huge RV looked like they either wanted to steal our motorcycle or at least pop our tires. 
I don't want to judge the city since we didn't have time to really see all of it, but my impressions from what we did see where not that great. Even Alex admitted he was kind of scared just to park for a little bit to eat. It totally could have just been where we were though. We did enjoy the shiny GM buildings and their random skinny apartment buildings though.
After that we stopped to sleep in Cleveland, OH. We were enjoying Ohio, I think because it was raining and we really miss rain, until we hit all these toll booths. It was ridiculous! We got charged almost 30$ in tolls by the time we got out of Ohio. And their roads are crazy. I mean look at this! Just look at this! I don't even know what else to say...
After that we crossed over to Pennsylvania. Now Pennsylvania we loved! It was just how we'd imagined it, with lush, green trees everywhere and old, historic houses. It was so green and beautiful, we felt like we were in Ireland (not that we've been... yet). We also stopped at a Dunkin Doughnuts to use their wifi since we couldn't find a Starbucks anywhere. Whatever happened to Dunkin Doughnuts? There use to be one right by my house when I was growing up and it was like the hang out spot in Renton. I hadn't even realized how cool Dunkin Doughnuts was until we walked into the one in PA. And I had one of the best doughnuts of my life there. It had a peanut butter filling with chocolate frosting! Delicious!
But my highlight of Pennsylvania had to be that I saw some Amish people riding along in their carriage! Now I don't really know how to put this, but basically I'm obsessed with Amish people. I've been reading all these books about them and doing all this research about their history because I think it's so fascinating how they are able to preserve their lifestyle in modern America. And honestly, I think I could live an Amish lifestyle quite happily. I would miss my espresso machine and my phone and that's about it. So anyhow, I really wanted to go see the Amish villages in Lancaster, PA but they're too far of a detour from our route, so when I saw this Amish couple just trotting along the road in their horse-drawn carriage, it made my day!
The next day we crossed the very murky Delaware River over into New Jersey. I decided the reason that George Washington crossed it by canoe or whatever in that famous scene was probably because he didn't want to get his clothes dirty in the muddy river. Alex, who grew up in American schools unlike me, then had to tell me the actual history of the story which I had not remembered. But honestly I think learning about the different kinds of mushrooms and berries that you can and can't eat and why the Finns hate the Swedes was a much better way to be educated...
No comments:
Post a Comment