We have a first today on the Odyssey! Since we started this web page, we've struck up an ongoing email correspondence with a number of folks whom we have never met in peron. Today, we finally met a couple such folks, Karl and Kristina of Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. Karl and Kristina have been following the Odyssey on and off since we started some two months ago and have provided us with a number of ideas for places to go along the way. Their interest in our trip goes a bit beyond simple curiosity about how many metaphors I can mix in a single paragraph -- they are thinking about a similar trip of their own in their Vanagon Weekender, Beverley. That's the six of us there at the top -- Beverley, Karl, Kristina, Otto, Kristanne, and me. I kinda think Otto likes Beverley...older women and all, dontchyaknow?
I suppose, however, I should start at the start -- our departure from New York City. Regrettably, we had to leave after only three short days spent exploring -- not nearly enough for the lifetime of delights that NYC doubtlessly possesses. We didn't even get beat up at a Yankee game...bummer. After saying goodbye to Mark and thanking him for his wonderful hospitality, deft touch with the coffee pot, and refusal to wake us up early in the morning, we headed out on the subway to get Otto, backpacks and all.
We were a little bit nervous as we walked up to the lot where we had left Otto -- everybody has heard the horror stories of having a car in NYC, ranging from simple hubcap theft all the way on up to complete dismantling of your vehicle curbside, leaving only the cigarette lighter and your evergreen tree air-freshener behind. Much as we like that air-freshener, we were hoping for more. Fate smiled happily on us, though, as there was nary a scratch on Otto other than those that were there when we parked him three days earlier. Our wallet $63 dollars lighter, we were outward bound, ready to pay through the nose for the privilege of driving on the highway. Boy, I hate toll roads.
| We drove them anyway, though, pulling into Karl and Kristina's driveway in Pennsylvania only about an hour after we had said we'd be there. Not too shabby for us. It was great to finally meet Karl after exchanging so much correspondence. He was just as nice in person as he was in an email. After exchanging familiarities, we headed off to check out the Allentown-Bethlehem area of Pennsylvania, Karl serving as our able tour guide. If you're saying to yourself, "Allentown...Allentown... haven't I heard that in some annoyingly catchy pop ditty that I can't get out of my head for three days after I've heard it?", then you've not only just described the song, "Allentown," you've also described pretty much the entire Billy Joel song catalog. Hey, I didn't start the fire, so don't blame me. |  |
| Bethlehem was a very interesting town to see. Much like Allentown, it is suffering the effects of massive steel mill closures -- mills that employed a significant percentage of the populace. Nonetheless, Bethlehem still succeeded in being a charming small town, home of Lehigh University and a really great dessert place where we stopped in for some afternoon sweetness. | |
 |
By this time, however, it was getting close to the time when Kristina would be returning home from work. So, we all piled into Otto -- this time with Karl driving -- and headed back to Trexlertown. There, we met both Kristina and Cindy, the amazingly energetic male turtle. Don't get me wrong -- Kristina was energetic, too, but she didn't have anything on Cindy. Usually kept in a glass fish tank, Cindy would bump into the same place on the wall repeatedly for upwards of fifteen to twenty minutes, apparently trying to get out. Karl said that after almost twenty years of living in the same tank, Cindy still hasn't quite figured out that this technique is probably not ever going to work. It's probably just as well, since Cindy's survival skills once let out from the fish tank pretty much amounted to finding the toes of those folks wearing sandals, and gumming them into submission. |
| As Karl grilled up some steaks on the outdoor barbecue, the rest of us soaked up the gorgeous sunshine while enjoying some good conversation...always nice to have on the Odyssey, since conversation between the two of us has temporarily dwindled down to lines like, "I think our socks smell," and "Hey, how 'bout that road sign!" Road overload is not a pretty thing. | |
After a great dinner, we went inside to look over some maps and plan our route for the following day. Tired as we were, we managed to get one more good picture of Otto and Beverley together and then head off to bed. I think Otto is going to request visiting rights. I just hope Beverley isn't a love-em and leave-em kinda van -- Otto would be crushed.
We went up to bed early -- we were bushed from the week before, and Karl and Kristina were heading off for St. Croix early the next morning. Still, I couldn't help but keep dreaming of last week's Maine lobster...except something was very wrong. Why would anyone eat a napkin holder?
See you next time on the Odyssey as we blaze through Pennsylvania, seeing sights and attempting to get to our sweet home Chicago.
Total Miles for 7/30 = 160