Day 26: Leaving D.C.

Today was one of those days dedicated to driving. And after the day I had yesterday what with being flipped from pillar to post by Hertz and burning myself to a degree not seen since the holidays of my childhood, I was eager to get a good start to the day. Sadly yet another poor mix of pasteurised eggs and some other bland ingredients turned me off breakfast and in an attempt to get something out of it, I had a strange cinnamon bun and coffee (forgetting of course I bought tea two days before in Savannah!). Out on the road in the Dodge Avenger (though what it’s avenging I don’t know!) I figured out why it was so bright all of a sudden – I’d left my sunglasses in Malibu number 2 which I dumped back at Dulles last night. Still too pissed off with Hertz and their totally rubbish customer care I decided not to go back for them and instead added to the tally of costs brought on by this whole debacle and purchased a new pair of sun glasses (or ‘glimmers’) at a whopping $20. Back on the highways, I felt the feeling I was being led slightly astray by the GPS when I received delayed instructions which then turned me onto one of D.C.’s choc-a-bloc routes. Sitting there for the guts of an hour, I had yet another reason to hate this abomination of a car – the stupid Hertz NeverLost was splitting my GPS signal, but this time I couldn’t do anything about it, the rascals have installed it pretty tightly.

Nonetheless, I persevered. My destination today was Buffalo, New York. Why Buffalo? Well it’s simple – I’ve no interest in the Niagara Falls but Toronto’s hotels seem to be made from gold because their prices are ridiculous. Just like Vancouver two weeks ago, I’m not sure how or why, but Canada seems to have a trend of really expensive hotels – and not just the high end ones, even the more basic chains have scary pricing. On the way to Buffalo, I decided to go via Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I’m not quite sure why, but something drew me there. Maybe I heard Joe Biden talk about it at some stage, or saw it in a movie, but I wanted to go that way, and so I did. Passing thorough the State of Maryland briefly, I crossed into Pennsylvania at what appears to be the begging of ‘fall’ or autumn there. The colour palette of this state at this time of year is stunning. Largely forested, the shades of green, red, auburn, yellow and browns is spectacular. Turning off the highway into Harrisburg, I noticed a sign saying ‘Capitol’ and then realised after turning onto State Street, that I was in fact in the State Capitol of Pennsylvania! What luck I thought, having visited so many so far. But today seemed to be a business day there, so I just strolled around outside. Then I decided to get a quick bite at a nearby café. I was the only diner. A surreal mix of 1990s and 1980s décor and over-attentive bordering on pissed-off staff produced a rather nice plate of bacon and french toast. After a quick restroom break I was back on the streets of Harrisburg, and once again took to the road with that awful car.

Okay a note about the car; (sorry if this bores you) I have now driven about 10 American cars and so far they’ve all been pretty bland (including the Ford Mustang, purely on its fuel economy I mean). All fail the efficiency test and it’s largely down to a few factors including the inexplicable need for huge engine capacities, over-reliance on air conditioners and chief among them the combination of really crap fuel quality and a strange obsession with automatic transmissions. Cars with automatic gearboxes are invariably going to be less efficient than manual cars because they don’t change gears as fast as a human can (in the sense of selecting the correct gear at the right time). This POS however seems to be completely inept in that department. On several occasions today I counted to 5 before it chose the correct engagement timing for a gear. That’s 5 seconds where the RPMs are up in the 3000 to 4000 range – meaning burning fuel unnecessarily. Now most of these cars have a semi-manual override that you can use to change the automatic gears manually, and while that worked great on the Malibu and Fusion, this thing seems to gain an extra 6 gears in manual mode – one for me, and then one in between that it chooses. I’m not sure, but it’s frustrating. In high gears it’s not too bad, you can tap the gas and it can change the gear after a few seconds but it’s in the low gear that I feel I’m leaving a trail of gasoline behind me on the road. For some reason it takes forever to engage from 1 – 4 and then 5. All this in traffic means it’s just drinking some very expensive fuel at my expense.

Anyway, today I realised just how beautiful America is. The winding roads of northern Pennsylvania going through the forests and coming across small towns and villages are breathtaking. The stark contrasts between the industrial urban cities and towns and the rural farming villages and settlements is strong but melded. Sure, there’s some elements of poverty to be seen too and quite a lot of dereliction. But it’s all part of the charm. At one stage I was feeling somewhat groggy so noticed some junctions on the GPS and tapped in Starbucks and found myself in the middle of a city called ‘State College’ which is basically The Pennsylvania State University with some businesses around it. After getting completely lost in the actual college campus I bailed on the idea and got back onto the expressway. After all that funny business, I kept going north. The majority of the roads were 55mph contra-flow single lane roads, and this had both its literal ups and downs. As dusk began to fall, I was descending one of these hills (known as the Appalachian Mountains) I took the iPhone camera and held it outside the window to take a snap of the colourful trees when I noticed a huge black bear climb over the crash barrier on the right side of the road, stroll across to the other side and climb over the crash barrier on the left and disappear down the embankment. I was gobsmacked. Mostly because I had forgotten there could be bears there, but also, because I saw no signs saying anything about bears and I’d driven through the entirety of Yellowstone and Yosemite totally bear-sighing-less, and up here in northern Pennsylvania one just takes the time to cross the road at the exact time the Dodge and I are headed down a hill. I kept snapping photos but he (or she) was too far off in the distance for the photos to prove just how big he (or she) was, but he (or she) was there and he (or she) was fabulous.

Dusk turned to nightfall and then I just put the head down and concentrated. Crossing into New York State for the first time in my life, I ploughed through the countryside up into “Up-State New York” and pulled over to book a hotel. Hotels.com’s portal was down most of the evening, but by the time I pulled in at Hamburg outside Buffalo, it was back online. I chose the cheapest thing I could find and headed in that direction. Soon after I was passing Buffalo Niagara International Airport and had checked in. I went to get some gas and some food and fell across Max’s Classic American Grill, right beside Dennys. It had way more cars outside, so I went inside and a few moments passed before one of the best burgers I’ve had since coming to America in August was placed before me. After removing the pickled zucchini and devouring the deliciousness, I went back to the motel to write this and hopefully sleep afterward. Tomorrow I’ll cross the US/Canadian border for the second time in as many weeks to check out Toronto for a few hours before hopefully going on to Detroit or Toledo. Later!