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2004 US Tour

Pittsburgh to Baltimore

  

I crawled out of bed before Mark awoke and snuck off to Weirton for some quality time with my Kroger. It was cold as a witch’s tit outside and I actually even saw some snow on my windshield going over the hill, but it all pretty much ended by the time we REALLY ventured out into the world for breakast at Ritter’s. I love Ritter’s…

And I hate Giant Eagle. After a couple of visits, I’ve decided that it is one of the single worst supermarket chains I’ve ever patronized. And I’ve patronized a lot of grocery chains. The stores are a tacky merchandising mess and the employees range from incompetent to down righ surly. Of course, they have a virtual monopoly in Pittsburgh, and it shows. Sorry. Just had to get that off my chest…

 

Today, we toured Shadyside and some of the outlying areas on the way south to Charleroi, which is where Mark’s father and aunt were born. We saw the old family homestead and drove through the surprisingly large and active downtown, before stopping at the Sunoco and getting on the Turnpike. We got a price break because the toll collectors were in the last day of a strike…

Lunch was at a very sucktastic Bob’s Big Boy in a service plaza. And we actually made it to Baltimore at a reasonable enough hour to have dinner there, at a passable pizza place in Timonium, before touring the bridges and tunnels by night…

Baltimore to Greensboro

  

We’d grown better able to avoid the ghettos by this second visit to Baltimore, and we saw a fair amount of the city, although our time was a little limited. This time through, we did get to eat at the Overlea and we made it downtown as well. And then it was time to move on…

  

We took the old road, US 1, from Baltimore to Washington and I relived a little more of my childhood as we passed the Laurel Shopping Center, where my mom and I used to hang out while my did went to the horse races (and where George Wallace was shot in 1972). Hechts and the Hot Shoppes have moved on, but the Giant Food is still there, original sign in place…

We met Juan Felipe at a Colombian restaurant with amazing food on Glebe Road in Arlington. He gave us the tour of the town (which is more appealing than I’d remembered) and put up with us until rush hour subsided, while somehow managing to avoid being photographed…

And then there was a very long drive back to Greensboro, which seemed even longer since it didn’t start until 8:00 at night…

In Greensboro

   

The best thing for me about our altered itinerary was the extra day with my mom and dad. On this last day we finally made it to Libby Hill and managed also to squeeze in both one more cafeteria visit and one more cousin…

It’s always a little sad going to bed the night before leaving…

Greensboro and Home

Early (relatively) breakfast at Waffle House followed by goodbyes which tried with mixed success not to be tearful. Then Mark and I were off to Charlotte to take one more turn through town, drop off the car, and fly back to this place which we’ve both come to hate so very much…

Back to DFW, back to SFO, back to the Best Western El Rancho Inn in Millbrae, and then back to harsh reality of a smelly, undestocked, overpriced Bay Area supermarket where we stopped to get essentials on the way home. It’s only fitting that our first stop upon returning would be at Albertsons…

Our East Coast fate is pretty well sealed. It’s too hard to resist the more reasonable cost of living, the more rational population, the well-stocked supermarkets, the plentiful nearby road trip options, the better food, and so on and so on…

Details to follow…

Back to SF

Been back home in California about three hours now. Must keep reminding myself that my self-imposed sentence here will be over soon…

Pictures soon from Charlotte, Greensboro, Baltimore, Schenectady, Albany, Niagara Falls, Pittsburgh, Arlington, and assorted other locales where groceries are cheaper, homes can still be purchased by mere mortals, and Waffle Houses are plentiful…