The Travel Chronicles of The Road

After a random text and a brief talk...I am off to New York. Just like that! I'm one of those people that all you have to do is say "Hey, do you want to go to...." and more than likely I'm like "Yup..lets do it" Maybe its my new outlook on life..I just want to live it, do it, see it and be able to say, I did all of these things, instead of wanting to do all of these things.
Random Texts came in Sunday night while watching football and we left late on Wednesday-with dogs in tow and whoa, right out of the gate seemed to be issue after issue. The initial plan was to leave at 9am. Which almost never happens as you plan, I hate life sometimes for that, but whatever! I was feeling sick the night before. You know, when it starts to kind of get harder to swallow, and you're like shit..its coming. I poured myself into bed and ohhhh, 4:30am, woke up about 10 texted my friend to see what our departure time was and what not. Well, his a/c went out in his house, which is the WORST freaking feeling in Florida, ever! He was waiting on the a/c guy to come out. I popped in "He's just not that into you" and passed out on my couch for what felt like a life time. The plan was to go to Tampa and get my new Canon 50D camera, but since I was McSicky that didn't happen. The other issue was, I was waiting on a check to clear my bank so I had access to my new bank account. Damn you 7 day bank hold!
So, I get to his house at 4, we head into Tampa in the middle of rush hour so I can get this Bad-Boy camera, I go in, get the camera, get the accessories and dart for the check out, gal rings it up gives me the speech about the extended warranty (which I was already sold on) and I proceed to write a check. I'm excited, I am mentally already taking pictures with this camera in New York, and then she tells me they don't take "starter checks" WTF? Its not like its a BAD account its just NEW and might I add its good! So, I have to leave the store with out this amazing camera, I am sad! I get out to the car, no bags, and forgot the coupon! Hey I am not much of a coupon person, but it was 10% off and that bad-boy camera was costing a pretty penny. So I went back in, got my coupon, looked at the bag of happiness that held my camera and had to leave again, with out it. Walk back to the car and get a new game plan. We'll just get it in Delaware, no sales tax there? Schweeet! Deal!
So, by the time we get some food, gas and get the F out of traffic its about 6pm on Wednesday. We drive from Florida to Georgia, which, felt like forever on 95! Then up to South Carolina and of course North Carolina, which took us till the middle of the night. Which at that point I passed the hell out. The deal was, I would go if I didn't have to drive, since I've driven across country already this summer, I'm driven out! I woke up to the car alarm going off at 5am in a rest stop. Which was like the loudest alarm ever. Apparently we pulled off so my friend could get some z's and when he reached for the key he hit the wrong button, I think we woke everyone at the rest stop up, whoops! I went back to sleep and when I got up again we were in West Virginia, which was all foggy. It felt like 7:30 am. Really, I woke up, and thought, whoa, its foggy, feels like 7:30 am. I asked what time it was, it was 7:30 am, How did my body know that? The trip thus far was okay, I'm getting more sick before I'm getting better so the more I can rest the better off I am. Of course my poor friend has been driving all night.
In WV we stopped for breakfast and to get shot glasses, my new collection includes shot glasses from states I'm driving thru, we stopped at Walmart, cuz they always have tourist stuff, after walking around for some 20 minuets, no-go! A lady as we were leaving pulled us aside to tell us about the store she works in and all of the souvenir stuff they had. She said "It's called Dove-like the bird" and she really flapped her arms so we understood that its a "bird" reference, It was pretty comical!
WV lead us into Pennsylvania which takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get across, its annoying how long it is, I thought Kansas was bad, this is WORSE! As we enter into the Northern-Snow states the quality of the roads goes to shit. Its a rough ride, no matter what kinda car you're driving. At this point we're on to Thursday, which is money day I called it, The day the check finally cleared the bank. So, we've gotta hit up the bank since Chase takes it sweet ass time to send me a damn Debit card. Life would have been TOO easy if it came on Wednesday right? Pfft. Didn't happen! So you'd think there would be a Chase bank in Pittsburgh right? WRONG! The closest one is in Ohio, which is totally out of the way, oh and not to mention, since we decided to go to the Falls first, then NYC Delaware was out of the question, so getting Bad-boy camera would have to be done in Buffalo NY.
We head out to the "detour" so I can have some cash, its about an hour out of the way, whatever, we hit the road, get into Ohio to Chase, I'm expecting some sort of delay with the bank, and thankfully the stars aligned that day, all went smoothly. We passed Sharron, PA and they happened to have a Quaker Steak & Lube Restaurant. Which I happen to love, and they're voted best wings, USA. So it has to be good right? I was already sold, I go to the one in Clearwater back in Florida. So we head into PA to get on track, stop at Sharron, PA and it felt dirty. Run down city, old-which I love old cities, this one was old and poorly maintained, it gave you a grimey, gringy feeling to it. The people didn't change your mind of the town either. We have lunch, take it all in, and hightail it out of that shithole!
From PA, we head into NY and its pretty smooth from there, we get into Buffalo/Niagara about 7pm. Its time to hit up Best buy, at this point we've been traveling for 24 hours, its about 21 hours to get from FL to Upstate-NY so we're doing well. I check online for best buy and who has the camera, and head out to the one in Buffalo, or so I thought. We had already crossed the 2 big bridges and tolls on the Niagara side, the Buffalo store is behind us, so we cross the two bridges, again, and tolls, and back-track about 15 miles. Oops.
I get into the store, its about 7:45 march over to the Digi-Cam sign, tell the 19 year old what I want, he tells me he sold the only one they had about four hours ago. I gasped, and now I'm just tires, sick and cranky. He checks inventory to see who has it, and I'm thinking...Great its going to be in Albany or NYC which is a good 8 hours away. We're scheduled to go to the falls in the morning and I REALLY wanted to shoot with the new camera. Why take the shitty Nikon when I can have crisp amazing pictures from a Canon? Not that my Nikon is a POS, its just not as bad-ass as my "potential" new camera! He checks, there is one about 10 miles away. I get in the car, tell my friend the bad news, oh and to top it off, when he called the store to verify if they have it, and hold it, some biaaatch told him they wont hold it because they're closing in an hour. WTF? There is only ONE..ONE of them and she wont hold it till I can get there? So I have a mini panic-attack. You know when you're set on something and you're under a time line, and its that anxiety of are you going to make it or not? Well add that, plus we needed to get gas, plus I wasn't in control of the car, so everything just felt so slow to me. We get to Best buy about 8:30 and I RUN in there, right to the Digi Cam place and see a guy, I tell him I need to buy a camera. he looks at me and said, hold on let me get someone who works in this department, WHAT? You're just standing here and you don't work in this department, UGH! I am secretly crossing my fingers and HOPING that they have this cam! Guy unlocks the door, and Viola..its there. I get it, get the goods, check out and head back into the car.
Just to hear my friend tell me that Bella got sick and threw up all over my blanket, the dog bed,and the sheet in the back seat. I feel so bad for her. I know its because she hasn't had anything today. Milo ate and drank and Bella didn't want to. We get a hotel that takes pets and wont charge us extra..sweet! I clean up all of the mess and charge the batteries to the Camera and head to bed! It's been a LONG day!