My Life Was Changed By A Train

Here’s the map of our trip from last week.

We had such a wonderful time. We got to spend some quality time with both of B’s grandmothers and I also got to meet a lot of people that were friends of their families; people who have known B his whole life. It was really special.

On Tuesday night, I had to work late so we got a late start getting on the road.  We left around 9:30 and had planned to drive as long as we could, get a room, and start over in the morning.  We stopped in Dandridge for dinner at Perkins and then I made it to Bristol (yes, I realize that it’s not far to Bristol, but I was exhausted) and B then made it to Roanoke. We were both so exhausted that when we got into the room, we actually agreed that it was great that there were two beds in the room because neither wanted anything to disturb the sweet, precious sleep.  Ahh, romance.

We awoke and were greeted with a beautiful sunrise over the mountain with a scenic Shoney’s view.  No, we didn’t eat there. (I didn’t have breakfast and B had his leftover pie from Perkins.)

At this point, we began the lovely drive through Virginia on I-81 which is ended by the horrendous drive through the DC/Baltimore area. Toll roads, traffic and construction, that’s what I call road hell.

We made it to Philadelphia and went straight to check out the dueling Philly Cheesesteaks at Geno’s and Pats. Except, I had to, um, powder my nose, and both places are walk-up and had no bathroom. We walked a few blocks and to be honest, there aren’t many places you can use the restroom in that area.  Finally we found an open air fish market/restaurant and bar.  We split a shrimp cocktail and both had a local beer (so we’d be technically customers), visited their facilities, and walked back to the cheesesteak duel.

Geno’s was really flashy with all it’s neon and glitz and Pat’s was very unassuming and plain.  In addition, Geno’s had a sign that said “This is America, please speak English” and had “freedom fries’ on the menu and Pat’s sign had an earlier “Since…” date, so we decided to eat at Pat’s.

Pat’s does have a “How to Order” sign out front that intimidated me a bit. It was already pretty obvious that I didn’t sound like everyone else so I was more than a little worried about how this would go down. It strictly said I was to order a “steak ‘wit’ or ‘witout’” and then shut up. That was it.  If I screwed up, they would send me to the back of the line and I’d be humiliated. I got up there and said, “Eye’d liek a ssssteak wit…onions”. I sounded like a moron (the onions are assumed, that’s what the ‘wit’ and the ‘wit’out’ is about). A redneck moron; B giggled relentlessly). Fortunately there was no one else in line, so he couldn’t have sent me to the end of it, and evidently they have this whole idea of southern belles up there, so I got my cheesesteak wit’out humiliation.  And it was good!

Yes, those are cheese fries.

To be continued…