Steel and Coal - Day 0 - The Old and the Older

“Steel and Coal”

7/22/16, “The Old and the Older”

En route, I-78, Pennsylvania

A year ago this weekend, on this very highway, a passenger in this very car, en route to Columbus, Ohio, I wrote about the old and the new.  I wrote about the familiarity of this annual trip I have taken to the randomest of places with my friend Stu, and I wrote about the new experiences and aspects of my life.  Well, over the past twelve months, something funny has happened.  Those new aspects of my life, they have become the familiar aspects of my life, they are now the old.  What I considered the old a year ago is merely the older.

This is now the fifth annual trip I have taken with Stu, and, as always, we usually start discussing next year’s trip during this trip, often during Day 0.  Last year, as we drove to Ohio, we talked about coming to Pittsburgh this year.  Today, on our way to Pittsburgh, we have discussed going to Maine next year.  This is now one of my oldest traditions.  What else in my life have I done on a regular annual basis for five years in a row?

My Jewish Christmas celebrations would be one such tradition.  In fact, I believe it was during a Jewish Christmas that I first went to West Virginia over a decade ago.  My annual Fourth of July World Heritage Site tradition dates exactly back as far as my annual trip with Stu.  In fact, it was the very day after I flew home from Nashville that first year that I flew with Stu to Kansas City to begin our first trip together.  And what about those new aspects of my life that I was beginning last year.  Well, some of them fell out, but others became new traditions, and what I once considered new, I now consider old.

I suppose every single tradition I have, from my trademark water bottle and cigar pose to my pre-departure lunch at Hop Won to my pre-departure Cohiba had a first time that I did it, had a time when it was a new experience.  Now, they are old traditions, and there are older ones.  My annual trips with Stu, they have been so diverse, but they have certainly became one of my oldest traditions.

Each trip, though it has been executed differently, has had the same theme, and it is a testament to why our travel destinations integrate so well together, in addition to being a fan of the same type of travel style, which is based on seeing as many sites as possible, rather than spending an extended time at a destination.  Stu has a goal of riding every roller coaster in the country.  I want to see every National Park Site in the country.

Random places around the country, places that are by no means tourist hotspots, have both amusement parks and National Park Sites.  While we’re there, we experience all the local favorite foods and famous restaurants.  The first year, it was a week-long trip to Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma (three new states for me), along with a new World Heritage Site in Illinois.  We experienced Kansas City BBQ, Oklahoma corn and okra, and St. Louis pizza and beer.

The next year, it was a little different.  I flew into MSP, Minnesota being a new state for me, then I did my own tour for about six days, also being able to check North Dakota and Montana off my list, visiting more National Parks, and experiencing the scariest night of my life, before meeting Stu back in Minneapolis for the last four days of the trip.  We went to numerous amusement parks and National Park Sites together, again, along with visiting the capitals of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, eating, of course, the famous Wisconsin cheese to excess.

The next year, it got shorter.  It was just a weekend trip together, and it was the last time we did the trip by plane.  We flew to Seattle, and we separated for Saturday, me visiting a National Park while Stu went to his amusement park, and we met at the end of the day to make our way to Victoria.  The next day, we explored the capital in Victoria and then back to Vancouver to go to another amusement park before Stu dropped me off at the airport to continue his trip without me.

Last year, it was the first time we drove from NYC, and it was also the first time we brought along another travelling companion.  We left NYC Friday evening, arriving in Columbus, Ohio around sunrise.  We spent the weekend exploring amusement parks and National Park Sites in Ohio and Kentucky, fittingly calling the trip “Buckeyes and Bourbon”, before driving back to NYC overnight Sunday, arriving Monday morning.

This year, it’s even shorter.  We are bringing along a different travelling companion.  Our destinations of Pittsburgh and West Virginia have led me to entitle this trip “Steel and Coal.”  This year, we will arrive in Pittsburgh late Friday (after midnight), see one amusement park and three National Park Sites, and then drive back from West Virginia Sunday night, arriving back in NYC late Sunday (after midnight).  As my reader can see, this has become a very old tradition.

Likewise, so many of my traditions of Day 0 are now old traditions, as well.  I woke up early so that I could get to the office early, so that I could leave early, so that we could get to Pittsburgh around midnight.  I had packed the night before, so that I could get to the office as early as possible.  Having arrived early, I had easily finished all of my tasks for the day, in fact, almost completing all of them before I left for lunch.  I headed to Hop Won for my traditional pre-departure lunch, followed by half of my Cohiba.  I left the office at 4 PM promptly and went to finish my Cohiba.  My plan was to bike straight down to other cigar shop to meet my friend who had some more cigars for me, and then Stu would pick me up there at 4:30 PM sharp, and we would drive to Pittsburgh from there.  Well, that didn’t quite work out.

Everyone was running late.  As I was heading downtown, I realized that I had forgotten my water bottle at my apartment, so I went back to pick that up.  It was sweltering out, so it was a brutal 5-mile bike ride downtown.  I got to the cigar store exhausted, and I was cheerfully greeted by the staff there, whom I hadn’t seen in almost a year.  The new shop had just opened, and it looked very fresh.  My friend showed me around the shop and gave me my cigars.

Stu was soon at the shop, and we headed out, getting stuck in some brutal traffic, taking over an hour to get from Wall Street to New Jersey.  I was starving at that point, so we stopped at a gas station once we got on I-78.  We were all starving, so we loaded up, starting to eat in the car, and continued to stuff our faces as we got back on the highway.  Once we crossed into Pennsylvania, I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so that I can take a little bit of a nap before we arrive in Pittsburgh in over three hours.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Well, I took my nap, and we’ve had dinner, two of them, in fact.  That’s another one of my traditions with Stu.  We usually eat two dinners at least once during the trip.  Stu comes prepared with his list of all these iconic foods and restaurants he wants to try, and he refuses to eat until he is done with all of his roller coasters.  I have no such compunction about experiencing high-speed inversions on a full stomach.  I will be eating a large omelet for breakfast tomorrow, in spite of the copious amount of food we have eaten since our arrival in Pittsburgh after midnight.

The first time Stu told me we would be eating at two different BBQ places for dinner for our first night in Kansas City, I told him no way.  We did it anyway.  It soon became an old tradition, then an older one.  This trip, I was the one who insisted we stop for Essie’s famous hot dogs on our way to Primanti Brothers.  Stu informed our travelling companion of our old tradition.  Tomorrow, we will be having breakfast at Pennsylvania’s most iconic restaurant, visiting one of America’s most iconic amusement parks, along with a very iconic Frank Lloyd Wright house, and then having dinner at West Virginia’s most iconic restaurant.  It will be a very iconic day.  Ooh, idea for the title of tomorrow’s entry.

After I closed on I-78, we played some car games, or at least Stu’s idea of car games.  He was the driver, so he had privilege.   After a while, I took a nap.  I also realized that one of my favorite movies, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, was set in Pittsburgh, and we’d be passing through the iconic tunnel/bridge later.  I excitedly texted my friend, who shared in my excitement.  Before I knew it, I woke up, and we were almost in Pittsburgh.  Our first stop was a place my manager who grew up in Pittsburgh had recommended: Essie’s Original Hot Dog Shop.  The recommendation was well received.  It was a bit of a hassle to order, but we each got a hot dog, along with a huge portion of fries to share called a small (I shudder to think what they call a large).

We scarfed down the food before heading to Primanti Brothers for some of their “almost famous” sandwiches.  The menu was very ironically written.  We got a burger and a roast beef sandwich for the three of us to share.  What makes their sandwiches so famous is that they put fries on the sandwich itself, along with tomato and Cole Slaw.  Well, I don’t like raw tomato, and I’m not a big fan of Cole Slaw, either, so we had to get those on the side.  The sandwiches were very underwhelming.  The hot dogs and fries at Essie’s were much, much better.

We put the hotel in the GPS, and we prepared to cross Fort Pitt Bridge.  I cued up the “tunnel song” (Heroes by David Bowie) from “Perks”.  I wished that we had a pickup truck so that I could have fully reenacted the scene, but sticking my phone out the window had to suffice.  Also, we were going the wrong direction, since the tunnel was before the bridge in the scene from a movie.  “We accept the love we think we deserve.”  I could write pages on that quote, but that is better suited for my personal journal, especially in light of what has happened over the past two weeks.  That’s a quote from “Perks” in case my reader was not aware.  After our second dinner, we headed to the hotel, which was oddly situated in the Green Tree borough of Pittsburgh.

After we settled into the room, I headed back down for a smoke.  I had hoped to smoke my pipe, but I seem to have forgotten my tobacco.  I opted instead for an OpusX (aged over seven years).  I then found a bench with a decent enough view of Green Tree, where I sat down and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so that I publish and get to sleep.  It is 3 AM now, and we have a very iconic day tomorrow.