Saturday, September 11, 2010
Our 2010 Vacation
The trip started at 4am Wednesday. The cab ride to the airport was uneventful. It was then Rob realized he forgot his backpack. The backpack that had his Kindle in it. Boo. We were also surprised and excited about how many BSU fans there were at the airport! The rest of the trip to NY was pretty uneventful. Josh and Jahleel picked us up at La Guardia. It was so hot and humid! We headed towards New Jersey and I got my first glimpses of NYC. What a toilet! It was rush hour so we spent a lot of time bumper to bumper with all the honking cars, trucks and buses trying to get out of the city. There is trash everywhere…EVERYWHERE! In the gutters, against the retaining walls, in the middle of the road, flying around in the air currents from the traffic. Everywhere. We were stopped for a moment and I saw two unopened packages of cheese crackers, an unopened box of Hostess donuts, and a hypodermic needle on the side of the road underneath the guardrail. Hello NY! The rest of the ride passed with various views of some old architecture, some cool bridges, more roads than we have in the whole of Idaho and the unending, unabated traffic.
Josh and Jahleel live in Wharton, NJ. It’s a small town that actually reminds me a lot of Troy, ID. There are a lot of old homes (nearly all are skinny and at least two stories, apparently the norm for the East Coast) and lots of trees. That’s another thing I noticed – the foliage. All the highways and freeways outside of the city proper are heavily lined with tall trees and bushes, stark contrast from the miles and miles of vista you can see when you drive in Idaho. You can’t see anything from the roads we traveled.
We got up early the next morning so Josh could drive us to the Rockaway Mall to catch the bus to NYC to catch the bus to Boston. We got off the bus at the Port Authority. We did not have any idea where to go. All the people on the bus headed toward what looked like stairs that went down. We followed. We ended up on an escalator going down…to where? It was completely encased in steel – the walls, the ceiling – the whole thing. It felt even hotter down there than it did on the surface. When I stepped onto the escalator, I honestly felt I was venturing into the Seventh Level of Hell. The escalator stopped at some glass doors that opened up into the Port Authority terminal. Lots of shops, little food places, and of course, the people. My God, the people! We finally figured out how to get out onto the street and ended up on 8th Street right in front of the New York Times building. Again, so hot and so humid! We kind of stepped around the corner to get our bearings. NY looked exactly like I pictured it in my mind, but on steroids. It was louder, hotter, more crowded, more colors – more everything! There was a lady a few feet from us talking to herself.
We had a NYC map that Jahleel had given us and we were attempting to find the way to Times Square. I mean, we had two hours before we had to catch the Bolt Bus to Boston, and we were in NYC…Times Square was a must, right? We finally figured out the way and headed down the sidewalk. I am not sure I can describe that short walk. First of all, the amount of people was absolutely overwhelming. They came from all directions; behind us, around us, toward us. There were cars and cars and cabs and tour buses and trucks and cars and more cars. They all honk nearly constantly. There is trash everywhere. Scaffolding rises from the sidewalks on every block, creating partially obstructed walkways everywhere. People just flow around the obstructions like an army of ants around a big rock. No one even seems to look up from the ground. There is heat everywhere – from the sun, off the roads and buildings, emanating from cars, rising from the grates from the subway. We stopped near the NYC Police Station at Times Square and saw some empty tables and chairs in an open area in front of Sephora and Starbucks. We sat there for about fifteen minutes and seriously just gaped. Made our way towards 34th and 8th Streets at the Tick Tock Diner to meet our bus. This walk as the same as the walk from the Port Authority. By the time we got to the bus stop, we were both dripping with sweat. The stop is not really a stop, it’s just an intersection. There are no benches. The Bolt buses come about every 15 minutes or so and depart to Boston, DC, Philly, etc. They just pull up and leave constantly. We were about 45 minutes early so we walked up the street a little to sit at a bus stop. Another note here…ever since the flight from Denver to La Guardia, time has slowed. Slowed like molasses in winter. Like snails in a footrace. The 45 minutes we waited for our bus felt like hours – the sweat dripping down our backs, the cars and taxies honking and barreling their way up the streets, the Hasidic Jews curiously crossing this one intersection in front of the bus stop – it just went on forever.
Finally, on the bus to Boston. The ride was relatively comfortable. The bus was clean and had places to plug in your phone or computer. I used this opportunity to plug in my phone and download Google Maps for my Blackberry so I could track our four hour ride to Boston. We drove out of NYC and got onto the freeway (or, as Josh’s TomTom calls it in an English accent, “the motorway”) out of the city. We passed the Bronx and Queens, I think. I can’t believe that people choose to live this close to so many other people. There was high rise after high rise of apartments. A sea of brick, concrete and asphalt covered in a mass of people.
My dear friend Matthew met us at the Boston South Station. I cannot tell you how wonderful and what complete relief it was to see a friendly and familiar face! We had been sitting outside the station for about three minutes and Rob had already given a five to a kid who immediately ran down the street…towards? Who knows? Matt brought us a box of Maine saltwater taffy and a “Charlie card”…the fare card that gets you on the subways in Massachusetts. He rode the subway with us to Cambridge and walked us to our hotel. We felt (and looked) like microwaved cheese and were thrilled to be in a lovely, air-conditioned room. We cooled off and cleaned up and then met Matt and his girlfriend Julia at a pub around the corner from the hotel. We had a great dinner and then they walked us to a liquor store. Another aside…in all the states that we went to, you can’t buy beer in a convenience store. You have to go to a liquor store. We went back to our room and chilled out. Finally were able to get a good night’s rest. Woke up the next morning and headed out. We stopped for coffee at a cute shop near the hotel. It was run by a Slavic family who were extremely kind to us and make the best corn muffins I have ever had. We also met a cool guy at this coffee shop. He’s in wheelchair and stopped on his way out and asked for a smoke. We talked about BSU and he said that the person who chose the blue turf “must have been effing high or something.” He invited us to the nightclub he worked at called the Phoenix Landing. He told us to tell them that “Jimmy Red sent us.” Seemed like a stereotypical Irish Bostonian, said the eff word and “wicked” a lot, was even red-headed. A new friend in Cambridge! Walked past the MIT museum but did not go in. We then walked down the main drag in Cambridge, Massachusetts Avenue, or Mass Ave as the locals call it. The buildings are very old and close together. We walked several miles into Harvard Square and through the Harvard campus. What a beautiful and historic area! It was amazing how noisy and crowded Harvard Square was and just across the street, through the gate that dates back several hundred years, the campus was cool and quiet. We met Matt at the hotel and then took the train back into Boston. It finally started to cool off a little as Hurricane Earl came into New England. But Earl made it even more sticky. It was almost hard to breathe. The Red Sox game had been cancelled because of the weather but we walked all the way around Fenway anyway and took a couple pictures. Matt took us to dinner at Boston Brew Works and I had some delicious fish and chips and a blueberry beer with actual blueberries floating in it! We took the train back into Harvard Square and saw some of what we did not know how to find when we were there earlier in the day. We went to the Harvard Co-op (don’t say co-op however, say “coop,” as in chicken) and I bought a Harvard shirt and hat and Rob bought a couple books. Also went to the famous Newberry Comics. Took the bus back to Cambridge (as to experience all forms of public transit in this town) and stopped for a drink at the Middle East, original home to Morphine and bid Matt goodnight. The brunt of Earl finally hit Cambridge and it rained pretty hard all night long. Matt and Julia met us in the morning in Union Square and accompanied us back to Boston South Station. We said our goodbyes and then walked the short half block or so to the bus terminal there. We sat outside and people watched for a while and the SAME dude Rob gave money to two days ago hit us again and got another five bucks!
The ride back to NY on the Bolt Bus was totally annoying. Four hours without stopping, a middle aged woman and her kid sitting in front of us listening to music so loud through the headphones you could still hear every note and beat of her bad music selections. Her kid played a game console of some kind that would intermittently beep or honk loudly. Then the woman went to the bathroom. Hmmm…let’s see…how to describe?…let’s just say that for this particular woman, feminine hygiene should be MUCH more important than it apparently was. We had to pull our shirts over our noses for the next 20 minutes. Totally, totally, totally gross. Made it back into NYC and made the reverse trip from two days prior. Felt more like pros navigating our way back to the Port Authority and “home” to NJ. I am confident that I will probably never return to NYC. Too much of everything. Tooooooooooo much.
Back in NJ, we had dinner with Josh’s family. A typical Philippine meal of white rice, BBQ chicken, chicharron (deep fried pork belly, ie. Heart attack city!) and vegetables. It was delicious! We then finally saw Avatar on their giant TV with theater surround sound. It was AWESOME! The next morning we went to church with the Patterson family. Can you believe it? Me, at church! Jahleel sang a solo and we were both blown away by her beautiful voice! The sermon was about loving the people in your life. Everyone was so kind and seemed genuinely happy to meet us and have us in their midst. We ate another Pinoy (Philipino slang for Philipino) lunch and headed back home. We and Josh got packed up and we loaded into the car, programmed the TomTom for our hotel in Cheverly, MD, and headed for the last great most important part of our trip, the BSU/Virginia Tech game!
The trip was another four hour drive. It was WAY more fun, however. Josh and Rob talked and laughed the whole way – it was fun for me to listen to. We plugged into Pandora and screamed 80’s music all the way there, all three of us. Was a blast! The roads were pretty clear, fast, and expensive. It cost a little under $20 in tolls from Wharton to Cheverly. We got to the Howard Johnson in Cheverly about 8pm. Got into the room and found that the TV did not work. Apparently, Earl took out the satellite the day before. A crappy hotel in a questionable neighborhood with no TV? Lame. We decided to go grab something to eat and the boys wanted a couple beers. No worries, right? As soon as we walked out of the hotel, there was a gaggle of black women sitting outside smoking. When we walked past, they started yelling, “Auntie Em! Auntie Em! I’ve lost my Auntie Em!” and then cackling like mad women. They were letting us know we were not in Kansas anymore. We drove down the road aways and did not see any place that sold beers. There was a cop in a store parking lot and Josh asked where we could get some beer. “Here? On a Sunday evening? Nowhere.” He said it in a way that said, “go home white boys.” We went down the road a little further and it just got darker with less businesses open. We turned around in a parking lot of a nightclub that was thumping with gansta rap. We then saw a bodega thing that said it was open and had beer. There were about five black dudes sitting out front of the store, surrounding the door. We pulled up and they turned around and smiled. We left. We finally decided to give up on the beer and went to KFC (because we could see it from where we were) for something to eat. The guy who took our order at the drive thru did not speak English very well and it seriously took like 10 minutes to take the order and we were preparing for an ambush on our car. Okay, so we are from Idaho and we watch too much Gangland. But, we were totally freaked out! Even New Jersey Josh was starting to feed into the negative energy. We headed back to the hotel but could not figure out how to turn into the lot and had to go around twice. We imagined we were being tailed and were worked into a near frenzy by the time we finally made it back to our hotel. The hecklers were gone from the front and we made it into the room, triple locked the door and holed up, none of us in the mood for eating our now cold chicken.
We got up the next morning decked out in our BSU gear and took the shuttle to the Metro station. I felt like a pro getting my fare card there. Saw a lot of BSU fans on the Metro but WAY more Hokie fans. We got off at the Smithsonian stop and caught our first glimpse of our Nation’s capitol and the Washington Monument. We walked towards the monuments, got pictures of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. We got stopped by some old folks who asked us if the whole population of Idaho had moved to DC. We explained about the game and they wished us good luck. It was pretty awesome – everywhere you looked there was blue and orange. We were high-fiving people we did not even know and we said “Go Broncos” about a hundred times. Bronco Nation is incredible.
We went to the WWII memorial and then the Vietnam Memorial. It looks smaller than I had imagined from far away but when you get up to it, the number of names is staggering. It is quite moving. There was a little old lady Park Service employee who was carrying a beat up dog-eared book that listed all the names of those who were killed. She was helping people find names on the wall. She seemed so dedicated to what she was doing. I thought it was a fitting memorial to the soldiers who died in Vietnam.
We headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit and got primed for the game. We took the shuttle back to the Metro with a couple of Hokie fans who were really cool. The subway was PACKED with folks headed to the game…prolly 10 to 1 Hokies to Broncos. Everyone was doing some friendly jawing back and forth. It was really fun. The fans streamed off the Metro and walked the near mile to FedEx Field. It was amazing. A river of maroon and orange dotted with spots of blue. The stadium is giant…the field actually looked very small to me, but the seats that rose up off the field looked like they went on for miles. The energy was intoxicating. BSU fans are rabid, but so are the Hokies. Come to find out, there were more than 86-thousand fans at the game, more than 70-thousand were Hokies. Can you picture it? There was a little less than 3X the entire capacity of BSU’s stadium at the game, and 75% to 80% were for the opposing team. This game was supposed to be on a neutral field. Uh, I call total horseshit on that! It was all Hokies all the time. It was a home game for them, no doubt about it. They showed BSU fans maybe twice on the giant screens at either side of the stadium. The Hokies had their band, their cheerleaders, etc. The big screens only showed VT colors, fans, and only said stuff like “make some noise!” in Hokie colors and on Hokie plays. We watched the ESPN broadcast of the game when we got home last night and the broadcast was WAY more BSU friendly than the stadium was. Anyway, you watched the game, right? It was an awesome game. Beers are $8 for a bottle of Coors and a mixed drink is $12. What a rip off! But! Rest assured that the stadium sold a lot of it. We screamed like we have never screamed before and we have certainly converted Josh to a BSU fan. The end was spectacular and we loved every minute of it. I admit I was a little worried at the beginning of the 4th quarter, but our boys pulled it out in the end and it was all worth it. We filed out of the stadium and celebrated with our fellow BSU fans. The Hokie fans were very gracious in defeat. We heard lots of “The Broncos are for real, man” and “I am going to be following BSU for the rest of the year.” They seemed sad, but also knew they had seen a great game played by two great teams. Rob completely lost his voice and I am still froggy even now.
We spent the next hour or so trying to figure out how to get back to the hotel. We thought earlier in the day we would just get a cab. Coming out of the stadium with more than 80-thousand other people made us realize that there was no way a cab could get anywhere near the stadium so we started walking. We finally made it up to where the crowds cleared out and were able to get a cab. The driver asked where we were going and then asked if we could direct him. Uh, duh, we are not from here! Luckily he had a GPS! He said, “How much you pay me?” and I said, $20. He said “for three people? You pay me $30.” Whatever man, just get us out of here. He made a wrong turn and then said, “this further than you say.” I told him “no way man. The GPS said 4 miles.” I totally grew balls and I actually think I would have fought him if he would have pushed it. There is a gas station at the bottom of the hill from the hotel and we asked to be dropped off there. We saw a dude at the bottom of the hill who asked who won the game. The Broncos! He said, “Y’all are going all the way.” We walked to the top of the hill and found that the wrought iron fence and gate had been closed and locked. There was a sign that said you could drive around to the other entrance. Of course, we were not driving and as you can imagine from our adventures the night before, I was NOT walking anywhere when the hotel was RIGHT there. I called the front desk and she told me that there was nothing she could do. She said we could climb the fence if we wanted. Seriously? CLIMB an 8’ wrought iron fence? I could not believe she actually advocated that! There is a letter to Howard Johnson in the works, I can assure you. So, Rob actually fit under the gate. He and Josh then helped me over the fence. Are you impressed? I scaled a fence. Tore my pants a little and got stabbed by the fence in the knee, but mostly was unscathed. Josh came over a part of the fence that was chain link. We got back into the room and commiserated about the killer game for a bit and then finally went to bed about 1:30am.
We had to leave by 6am. Man, it rolled around fast. We stumbled out of bed and packed up for the long drive back to NJ. Josh had to work that day so we hung out with their sister-in-law Becca, her infant son David, and Josh’s son Julian. Did a little laundry, read all the recent stuff posted online about the Bronco’s win, etc. Jahleel got home from work and we went to the really bad Chinese buffet. We watched Ip Man, about Bruce Lee’s mentor and teacher. Great film, check it out. We had to get up at 4:30am to get back to La Guardia on time. We travelled from La Guardia to Denver, Denver to LA, and finally home. We had been up for 20 hours when we finally passed out after watching the game again on TV.
It was a great trip! We were in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Rhode Island and California. Whew! Thanks to Matt and Julia for hosting us in Boston. Thanks to Josh and Jahleel for being our hosts for the whole week! They opened their home and their life to us, fed us, drove us, scheduled us and took care of us. We can’t wait to see you guys again. Thanks to Katie for taking care of our home and girls while we were gone. We are so glad to be back in Idaho! See you all in Glendale in 2011, right? GO BRONCOS!!!
Josh and Jahleel live in Wharton, NJ. It’s a small town that actually reminds me a lot of Troy, ID. There are a lot of old homes (nearly all are skinny and at least two stories, apparently the norm for the East Coast) and lots of trees. That’s another thing I noticed – the foliage. All the highways and freeways outside of the city proper are heavily lined with tall trees and bushes, stark contrast from the miles and miles of vista you can see when you drive in Idaho. You can’t see anything from the roads we traveled.
We got up early the next morning so Josh could drive us to the Rockaway Mall to catch the bus to NYC to catch the bus to Boston. We got off the bus at the Port Authority. We did not have any idea where to go. All the people on the bus headed toward what looked like stairs that went down. We followed. We ended up on an escalator going down…to where? It was completely encased in steel – the walls, the ceiling – the whole thing. It felt even hotter down there than it did on the surface. When I stepped onto the escalator, I honestly felt I was venturing into the Seventh Level of Hell. The escalator stopped at some glass doors that opened up into the Port Authority terminal. Lots of shops, little food places, and of course, the people. My God, the people! We finally figured out how to get out onto the street and ended up on 8th Street right in front of the New York Times building. Again, so hot and so humid! We kind of stepped around the corner to get our bearings. NY looked exactly like I pictured it in my mind, but on steroids. It was louder, hotter, more crowded, more colors – more everything! There was a lady a few feet from us talking to herself.
We had a NYC map that Jahleel had given us and we were attempting to find the way to Times Square. I mean, we had two hours before we had to catch the Bolt Bus to Boston, and we were in NYC…Times Square was a must, right? We finally figured out the way and headed down the sidewalk. I am not sure I can describe that short walk. First of all, the amount of people was absolutely overwhelming. They came from all directions; behind us, around us, toward us. There were cars and cars and cabs and tour buses and trucks and cars and more cars. They all honk nearly constantly. There is trash everywhere. Scaffolding rises from the sidewalks on every block, creating partially obstructed walkways everywhere. People just flow around the obstructions like an army of ants around a big rock. No one even seems to look up from the ground. There is heat everywhere – from the sun, off the roads and buildings, emanating from cars, rising from the grates from the subway. We stopped near the NYC Police Station at Times Square and saw some empty tables and chairs in an open area in front of Sephora and Starbucks. We sat there for about fifteen minutes and seriously just gaped. Made our way towards 34th and 8th Streets at the Tick Tock Diner to meet our bus. This walk as the same as the walk from the Port Authority. By the time we got to the bus stop, we were both dripping with sweat. The stop is not really a stop, it’s just an intersection. There are no benches. The Bolt buses come about every 15 minutes or so and depart to Boston, DC, Philly, etc. They just pull up and leave constantly. We were about 45 minutes early so we walked up the street a little to sit at a bus stop. Another note here…ever since the flight from Denver to La Guardia, time has slowed. Slowed like molasses in winter. Like snails in a footrace. The 45 minutes we waited for our bus felt like hours – the sweat dripping down our backs, the cars and taxies honking and barreling their way up the streets, the Hasidic Jews curiously crossing this one intersection in front of the bus stop – it just went on forever.
Finally, on the bus to Boston. The ride was relatively comfortable. The bus was clean and had places to plug in your phone or computer. I used this opportunity to plug in my phone and download Google Maps for my Blackberry so I could track our four hour ride to Boston. We drove out of NYC and got onto the freeway (or, as Josh’s TomTom calls it in an English accent, “the motorway”) out of the city. We passed the Bronx and Queens, I think. I can’t believe that people choose to live this close to so many other people. There was high rise after high rise of apartments. A sea of brick, concrete and asphalt covered in a mass of people.
My dear friend Matthew met us at the Boston South Station. I cannot tell you how wonderful and what complete relief it was to see a friendly and familiar face! We had been sitting outside the station for about three minutes and Rob had already given a five to a kid who immediately ran down the street…towards? Who knows? Matt brought us a box of Maine saltwater taffy and a “Charlie card”…the fare card that gets you on the subways in Massachusetts. He rode the subway with us to Cambridge and walked us to our hotel. We felt (and looked) like microwaved cheese and were thrilled to be in a lovely, air-conditioned room. We cooled off and cleaned up and then met Matt and his girlfriend Julia at a pub around the corner from the hotel. We had a great dinner and then they walked us to a liquor store. Another aside…in all the states that we went to, you can’t buy beer in a convenience store. You have to go to a liquor store. We went back to our room and chilled out. Finally were able to get a good night’s rest. Woke up the next morning and headed out. We stopped for coffee at a cute shop near the hotel. It was run by a Slavic family who were extremely kind to us and make the best corn muffins I have ever had. We also met a cool guy at this coffee shop. He’s in wheelchair and stopped on his way out and asked for a smoke. We talked about BSU and he said that the person who chose the blue turf “must have been effing high or something.” He invited us to the nightclub he worked at called the Phoenix Landing. He told us to tell them that “Jimmy Red sent us.” Seemed like a stereotypical Irish Bostonian, said the eff word and “wicked” a lot, was even red-headed. A new friend in Cambridge! Walked past the MIT museum but did not go in. We then walked down the main drag in Cambridge, Massachusetts Avenue, or Mass Ave as the locals call it. The buildings are very old and close together. We walked several miles into Harvard Square and through the Harvard campus. What a beautiful and historic area! It was amazing how noisy and crowded Harvard Square was and just across the street, through the gate that dates back several hundred years, the campus was cool and quiet. We met Matt at the hotel and then took the train back into Boston. It finally started to cool off a little as Hurricane Earl came into New England. But Earl made it even more sticky. It was almost hard to breathe. The Red Sox game had been cancelled because of the weather but we walked all the way around Fenway anyway and took a couple pictures. Matt took us to dinner at Boston Brew Works and I had some delicious fish and chips and a blueberry beer with actual blueberries floating in it! We took the train back into Harvard Square and saw some of what we did not know how to find when we were there earlier in the day. We went to the Harvard Co-op (don’t say co-op however, say “coop,” as in chicken) and I bought a Harvard shirt and hat and Rob bought a couple books. Also went to the famous Newberry Comics. Took the bus back to Cambridge (as to experience all forms of public transit in this town) and stopped for a drink at the Middle East, original home to Morphine and bid Matt goodnight. The brunt of Earl finally hit Cambridge and it rained pretty hard all night long. Matt and Julia met us in the morning in Union Square and accompanied us back to Boston South Station. We said our goodbyes and then walked the short half block or so to the bus terminal there. We sat outside and people watched for a while and the SAME dude Rob gave money to two days ago hit us again and got another five bucks!
The ride back to NY on the Bolt Bus was totally annoying. Four hours without stopping, a middle aged woman and her kid sitting in front of us listening to music so loud through the headphones you could still hear every note and beat of her bad music selections. Her kid played a game console of some kind that would intermittently beep or honk loudly. Then the woman went to the bathroom. Hmmm…let’s see…how to describe?…let’s just say that for this particular woman, feminine hygiene should be MUCH more important than it apparently was. We had to pull our shirts over our noses for the next 20 minutes. Totally, totally, totally gross. Made it back into NYC and made the reverse trip from two days prior. Felt more like pros navigating our way back to the Port Authority and “home” to NJ. I am confident that I will probably never return to NYC. Too much of everything. Tooooooooooo much.
Back in NJ, we had dinner with Josh’s family. A typical Philippine meal of white rice, BBQ chicken, chicharron (deep fried pork belly, ie. Heart attack city!) and vegetables. It was delicious! We then finally saw Avatar on their giant TV with theater surround sound. It was AWESOME! The next morning we went to church with the Patterson family. Can you believe it? Me, at church! Jahleel sang a solo and we were both blown away by her beautiful voice! The sermon was about loving the people in your life. Everyone was so kind and seemed genuinely happy to meet us and have us in their midst. We ate another Pinoy (Philipino slang for Philipino) lunch and headed back home. We and Josh got packed up and we loaded into the car, programmed the TomTom for our hotel in Cheverly, MD, and headed for the last great most important part of our trip, the BSU/Virginia Tech game!
The trip was another four hour drive. It was WAY more fun, however. Josh and Rob talked and laughed the whole way – it was fun for me to listen to. We plugged into Pandora and screamed 80’s music all the way there, all three of us. Was a blast! The roads were pretty clear, fast, and expensive. It cost a little under $20 in tolls from Wharton to Cheverly. We got to the Howard Johnson in Cheverly about 8pm. Got into the room and found that the TV did not work. Apparently, Earl took out the satellite the day before. A crappy hotel in a questionable neighborhood with no TV? Lame. We decided to go grab something to eat and the boys wanted a couple beers. No worries, right? As soon as we walked out of the hotel, there was a gaggle of black women sitting outside smoking. When we walked past, they started yelling, “Auntie Em! Auntie Em! I’ve lost my Auntie Em!” and then cackling like mad women. They were letting us know we were not in Kansas anymore. We drove down the road aways and did not see any place that sold beers. There was a cop in a store parking lot and Josh asked where we could get some beer. “Here? On a Sunday evening? Nowhere.” He said it in a way that said, “go home white boys.” We went down the road a little further and it just got darker with less businesses open. We turned around in a parking lot of a nightclub that was thumping with gansta rap. We then saw a bodega thing that said it was open and had beer. There were about five black dudes sitting out front of the store, surrounding the door. We pulled up and they turned around and smiled. We left. We finally decided to give up on the beer and went to KFC (because we could see it from where we were) for something to eat. The guy who took our order at the drive thru did not speak English very well and it seriously took like 10 minutes to take the order and we were preparing for an ambush on our car. Okay, so we are from Idaho and we watch too much Gangland. But, we were totally freaked out! Even New Jersey Josh was starting to feed into the negative energy. We headed back to the hotel but could not figure out how to turn into the lot and had to go around twice. We imagined we were being tailed and were worked into a near frenzy by the time we finally made it back to our hotel. The hecklers were gone from the front and we made it into the room, triple locked the door and holed up, none of us in the mood for eating our now cold chicken.
We got up the next morning decked out in our BSU gear and took the shuttle to the Metro station. I felt like a pro getting my fare card there. Saw a lot of BSU fans on the Metro but WAY more Hokie fans. We got off at the Smithsonian stop and caught our first glimpse of our Nation’s capitol and the Washington Monument. We walked towards the monuments, got pictures of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. We got stopped by some old folks who asked us if the whole population of Idaho had moved to DC. We explained about the game and they wished us good luck. It was pretty awesome – everywhere you looked there was blue and orange. We were high-fiving people we did not even know and we said “Go Broncos” about a hundred times. Bronco Nation is incredible.
We went to the WWII memorial and then the Vietnam Memorial. It looks smaller than I had imagined from far away but when you get up to it, the number of names is staggering. It is quite moving. There was a little old lady Park Service employee who was carrying a beat up dog-eared book that listed all the names of those who were killed. She was helping people find names on the wall. She seemed so dedicated to what she was doing. I thought it was a fitting memorial to the soldiers who died in Vietnam.
We headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit and got primed for the game. We took the shuttle back to the Metro with a couple of Hokie fans who were really cool. The subway was PACKED with folks headed to the game…prolly 10 to 1 Hokies to Broncos. Everyone was doing some friendly jawing back and forth. It was really fun. The fans streamed off the Metro and walked the near mile to FedEx Field. It was amazing. A river of maroon and orange dotted with spots of blue. The stadium is giant…the field actually looked very small to me, but the seats that rose up off the field looked like they went on for miles. The energy was intoxicating. BSU fans are rabid, but so are the Hokies. Come to find out, there were more than 86-thousand fans at the game, more than 70-thousand were Hokies. Can you picture it? There was a little less than 3X the entire capacity of BSU’s stadium at the game, and 75% to 80% were for the opposing team. This game was supposed to be on a neutral field. Uh, I call total horseshit on that! It was all Hokies all the time. It was a home game for them, no doubt about it. They showed BSU fans maybe twice on the giant screens at either side of the stadium. The Hokies had their band, their cheerleaders, etc. The big screens only showed VT colors, fans, and only said stuff like “make some noise!” in Hokie colors and on Hokie plays. We watched the ESPN broadcast of the game when we got home last night and the broadcast was WAY more BSU friendly than the stadium was. Anyway, you watched the game, right? It was an awesome game. Beers are $8 for a bottle of Coors and a mixed drink is $12. What a rip off! But! Rest assured that the stadium sold a lot of it. We screamed like we have never screamed before and we have certainly converted Josh to a BSU fan. The end was spectacular and we loved every minute of it. I admit I was a little worried at the beginning of the 4th quarter, but our boys pulled it out in the end and it was all worth it. We filed out of the stadium and celebrated with our fellow BSU fans. The Hokie fans were very gracious in defeat. We heard lots of “The Broncos are for real, man” and “I am going to be following BSU for the rest of the year.” They seemed sad, but also knew they had seen a great game played by two great teams. Rob completely lost his voice and I am still froggy even now.
We spent the next hour or so trying to figure out how to get back to the hotel. We thought earlier in the day we would just get a cab. Coming out of the stadium with more than 80-thousand other people made us realize that there was no way a cab could get anywhere near the stadium so we started walking. We finally made it up to where the crowds cleared out and were able to get a cab. The driver asked where we were going and then asked if we could direct him. Uh, duh, we are not from here! Luckily he had a GPS! He said, “How much you pay me?” and I said, $20. He said “for three people? You pay me $30.” Whatever man, just get us out of here. He made a wrong turn and then said, “this further than you say.” I told him “no way man. The GPS said 4 miles.” I totally grew balls and I actually think I would have fought him if he would have pushed it. There is a gas station at the bottom of the hill from the hotel and we asked to be dropped off there. We saw a dude at the bottom of the hill who asked who won the game. The Broncos! He said, “Y’all are going all the way.” We walked to the top of the hill and found that the wrought iron fence and gate had been closed and locked. There was a sign that said you could drive around to the other entrance. Of course, we were not driving and as you can imagine from our adventures the night before, I was NOT walking anywhere when the hotel was RIGHT there. I called the front desk and she told me that there was nothing she could do. She said we could climb the fence if we wanted. Seriously? CLIMB an 8’ wrought iron fence? I could not believe she actually advocated that! There is a letter to Howard Johnson in the works, I can assure you. So, Rob actually fit under the gate. He and Josh then helped me over the fence. Are you impressed? I scaled a fence. Tore my pants a little and got stabbed by the fence in the knee, but mostly was unscathed. Josh came over a part of the fence that was chain link. We got back into the room and commiserated about the killer game for a bit and then finally went to bed about 1:30am.
We had to leave by 6am. Man, it rolled around fast. We stumbled out of bed and packed up for the long drive back to NJ. Josh had to work that day so we hung out with their sister-in-law Becca, her infant son David, and Josh’s son Julian. Did a little laundry, read all the recent stuff posted online about the Bronco’s win, etc. Jahleel got home from work and we went to the really bad Chinese buffet. We watched Ip Man, about Bruce Lee’s mentor and teacher. Great film, check it out. We had to get up at 4:30am to get back to La Guardia on time. We travelled from La Guardia to Denver, Denver to LA, and finally home. We had been up for 20 hours when we finally passed out after watching the game again on TV.
It was a great trip! We were in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Rhode Island and California. Whew! Thanks to Matt and Julia for hosting us in Boston. Thanks to Josh and Jahleel for being our hosts for the whole week! They opened their home and their life to us, fed us, drove us, scheduled us and took care of us. We can’t wait to see you guys again. Thanks to Katie for taking care of our home and girls while we were gone. We are so glad to be back in Idaho! See you all in Glendale in 2011, right? GO BRONCOS!!!
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