Big Country

Pennsylvania and Ohio – Du Bois and Kenyon College

Day One

The day started off sort of dark and gloomy. There isn’t much that one can do about weather, unfortunately, and so all that we could do was pack up our little car to the brim and get out onto the open highway. The plan, as it was originally conceived, was to drive out to Western Pennsylvania, set up camp, and figure out what to do the next day. What happened, of course, was entirely different.

A couple of hours into Pennsylvania, we noticed that my “Check Engine” light had gone on. No change in driving pattern, no precarious sounds from the under the hood, just a bright orange light burning it’s way into my brain. We pulled off of the highway and, under the advice of my parents, decided to check the fluid levels. Deciding that it might be the anti-freeze/coolant mixture, it was deemed best to pull off at a service station that we had just left behind, and find some of the solution to top off the reservoir.

In the meantime, we found a place to set up camp at Clearview Camping in Du Bois, PA. In the middle of nowhere. On the edge of a hill. At eleven p.m. We were like Rambo(s), setting up the tent.

Now, as you can imagine, the unfortunate thing about setting up a tent on the edge of a grassy valley is that the wind tends to intensify and whip against the walls after scooping up from said valley. The wind blew so hard that the canvas walls were touching our faces while we were lying in our sleeping bags. In a sleepy stupor, I decided it best to pass out in the car, and after the wind died down, Brian moved back into the tent to catch a few hours of sleep. Needless to say, neither of us were either comfortable or well-rested.

With little rest, and a mysteriously broken car, it became apparent that we were either cursed or doomed — neither of which being a very good option. Not the best start for any trip. Hopefully things will look up, fast.

A part of me honestly believed that we were going to fly away in the tent, like a huge kite. Fortunately, we didn’t.

Day Two

Today, we decided to take some initiative, and woke up early in various stages of discomfort. We hit a Lowe’s to pick up some needed hardware, and WalMart for some new tent stakes — the weather would not be getting the best of us, again.

After finding some greasy breakfast at the Du Bois Diner, we decided to head towards Pittsburgh, on the advice of a Nissan mechanic who assured us that, “a non-flashing ‘check engine’ light was nothing to worry about.” This seemed to be true until, there came a intermittent dull bucking from the engine on the while en route to Pittsburgh, culminating in a more-intense bucking about twenty minutes out from the city. Deciding it best to stop into a Nissan Dealership, we gave in to our little car and put her in for repairs. Four-hundred dollars later, our car had been fitted with a new fuel-injector and four new spark-plugs, to replace the broken parts that our dashboard was trying to tell us about.

Two days in, and we had already faced enough bad-luck for an entire trip. Go figure. Is it officially bad luck to start a road-trip on September 11th?

As I write this, I’m sitting in my friend Mike’s dorm room at Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio. It’s very quiet here — most of the ride felt like driving through a large, black cloud. A good four hours later, we were happy to see civilization again, and happier to get a night’s sleep on a soft, flat surface. I’ve been thinking about how the rest of the videos are going to go, and I don’t think I’m going to decide on any sort of format. Everything will be a little different.

Lessons so far? Well, over five-hundred miles in, we’ve realized that this country is big. Really, really big. So, tomorrow — Chicago?

6 Comments so far
Leave a comment