Saturday 3/8

Location: Swarthmore, PA to Forest, VA
Weather: Rain, wind to partly cloudy, low 50s.
Music: Pearl Jam – Ten, R.E.M. – Reckoning, Tomahawk – Tomahawk, Porcupine Tree – Recordings, Netmusique – Red Flag Radio, Battles – Mirrored, The Decemberists – Her Majesty the Decemberists, Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty

After we had planned to leave “around 8 or 9”, I was thrilled to see Alex up and about at 7:00 and even after a couple of mishaps, we were on the road just after 8:20. Alex came up big by knowing what air pressure the tires needed and, after two gas stations on MacDade came up short, Delaware once again came up big with a hose that was long enough to fill all four tires at once. On top of that, there was a non-sketchy Jiffy Lube right across the street. I chowed down on an always-amazing Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwich, nervously lied about getting some radiator service done, didn’t do so well at buying the cheapest oil, but was thrilled that we were able to do the Escort a few favors.

As the WMMR weatherman had dismally predicted, the weather was miserable as we sped through Baltimore and on towards DC. Traffic was heavy on the outer ring but kept moving except for one brief bottleneck. US-29 around Manassas (Bull Run?) became the first of many Virginian four-lane divided highways with high speed limits (50-55) but all grade-level interchanges (i.e. stoplights). Later, we’d catch another Virginia epidemic: the “business route” US highway. These are designed to allow the main road to bypass commercial centers and are handy when paired with the fast roads described above but they also cause plenty of confusion to first-timers.

We pulled into what looked like a routine strip mall after seeing a Qdoba sign, but quickly learned that “shopping center” didn’t begin to describe this small village. Festive jazz music was being piped in, and we cruised up and down a few rows of shops before finally finding our parking home. There was a lot of open land between us and DC, so it wasn’t suburban sprawl, but there also wasn’t really a town nearby (we were in Gainesville, but it didn’t seem to have any other identity). Guess we need a new name.

The weather started to turn while we waited for our burritos and we were both happy as Alex got in some fantastic driving up to the top of the main ridge of the Shenandoahs on US-211 while I got to sight-see. The Escort had never before been driven so well…well, we got to the Luray entrance to Skyline Drive and turned to enter before noticing that it was $15 to get in. Why didn’t I check that before we left? The weather didn’t look to good on the other side and for a Benn, $15 to drive a road is as bad as paying too much for gas, so with the help of a bouncy National Park Service employee we u-turned back to the free lands. The trip down the backside of the mountains was another adventure and eventually we found our way to I-81.

I-81 deserves its online reputation as an attractive option for truckers wishing to avoid the city traffic on I-95, and we played cat-and-mouse with one Peterbilt for several miles. The scenery was generally good, though, and we got a kick out of James Madison Informational radio. These days, even a large school in Nowhere Virginia with a interstate cutting its campus can have a ~25% acceptance rate.

While the trip back east over the Shenandoahs towards Lynchburg was easier than the one farther north, our most dramatic road of the day was a short stretch of VA-6, which literally switch-backed down a mountain for about half a mile, dropping several hundred feet. After that, though, the rolls got much gentler and with Aunt Joy’s incredibly detailed directions, we had no trouble getting to our destination in Forest.

My cousin Elizabeth was a lot friendlier than I remembered her, and after some initial awkwardness things got more comfortable as her, the two of us, and my cousin David and I caught up while playing ping-pong in the basement. Joy somehow managed to cook hot dogs and hamburgers outside despite the cold temperatures and wind. During dinner, the topic of Rock Band (the video game) came up out of hand. David made a joke about how appropriate it would be to have the game around for our visit, and Joy unexpectedly agreed. Wow, a great American impulse buy! It was actually pretty liberating. By 7:30, we were back from the mall and jamming to Say it Ain’t So. Given this and dad’s recent willingness to spend, I guess it’s time to put those stories of the ol’ Quinton family austerity to bed.

I guess it’s enough to say that we played until almost 2:00 in the morning, knowing that it was actually almost 3:00 because of the start of daylight savings time. Elizabeth was very nice to sit and play bass on easy/medium for a couple of hours while the rest of us fulfilled our dreams, and then Aunt Joy did the same on bass and/or vocals as we asked. She actually seemed to be having a great time; I guess you do have to believe SOME of the hype about video games. Alex was better than David and I, especially on vocals (which he avoided doing as much as possible) but the difference wasn’t large enough to create tensions. I got to sing along with Mike Patton on “Epic” and in general had fun doing a lot of everything while taking some pride in being able to usually carry, ugly and cracking, a tune.

Forgot to pack: toothpaste.