As I am sure everyone in the US knows, Pope Francis is coming to Philadelphia. I am not excited.  The last time a pope visited Philadelphia was in 1979 - it was John Paul II and I was in high School.  Mom & Dad took a bunch of the kids & our friends down for the mass.  My mom got pulled into a screaming match with weird rest room attendant at the Reading Terminal train station (it is no longer a train station) and everything was so crowded that we couldn't hear anything or see anything.  We kids (of which I was the eldest at the time) ended up playing cards all through mass - a fact that I am not embarrassed to admit because - IT WAS BORING.  

That said - I am sure any mass lead by Pope Francis will be more interesting but since darn near everyone is streaming into the city to visit the Pope, we are going west. I have no desire to be trapped in my home or neighborhood by the traffic jams created by security teams that never studied the traffic patterns of the Philadelphia area.  It is my honest assessment that the main  arteries in eastern Montgomery, Delaware and southern Bucks counties are going to become parking lots.  Gah!

Welcome to our crazy city Pope Francis!  I hope you have an enjoyable time and that someone gets you a good soft pretzel and a cheese steak while you are here! 

Yes, you would be correct - that's the beautiful city of Chicago off in the distance and that's as close to it as I got! Not to worry, I've sampled Chicago before so staying outside the city on this brief jaunt was quite alright with me!

I flew out to visit Michael (see previous posts all over this site) and a lovely time was had by all.  US Airways Vacations got me a terrific airfare/hotel combo so I stayed in a lovely hotel (with a free shuttle from & to the airport) and I upgraded to first class coming home using miles (yes I'm spoiled, don't judge me).  Grubhub provided a wide range of places that delivered (room service is expensive).  It wasn't a "cheap" trip but it certainly was affordable and that's the point, right?

Yes, I know the airplane is American Airlines - but with the merger with  US Airways.... you get the point.

And now a word about RC Cola..... you can get it in Chicago!  It used to be more readily available in the Philadelphia area - in fact, growing up in Oaks, there was one at the gas station down at the corner across Egypt Road and the sodas were a quarter! Of course that was back in the days when soda cans didn't have those nicely rounded bottoms..... Ah! memories!
Unfortunately it doesn't taste the same as I remembered it - which was quite a disappointment, but still - nostalgic!

But back to the trip.... 
I will admit that I have a huge guilty pleasure when I stay in hotels - I watch as much cable TV as I can.  Why? Because I don't have cable TV in my house and without cable, I have NO TV in the house (thank goodness for my wireless blue-ray player, Netflix and Hulu!). Let me tell you - hotel cable is such a disappointment!  There isn't much to watch and I suppose the point is to keep people OUT of the room and into the world.  That said, I still soak up as much as I can on my visits.

Our hotel had round towers as part of the structure so a room in the tower ended up being pie-shaped with the widest part at the windows and the narrowest part at the bathroom/entrance.  I had the tiniest shower EVA (at least there was good water pressure)! One neat thing was that the fire tower was inside the center of the tower - so exiting in an emergency would have been quite efficient (if we had had to do that, which we did not).  Many of planes taking off from O'Hare flew over the hotel and let me tell you, some of them were so low I thought I could reach out and touch them!  It was neat and disconcerting at the same time.

On the way to the airport, I saw this sign which made me chuckle - note the very bottom "kiss & ride" - I hadn't ever seen a sign like this near an airport before - certainly NOT at Philadelphia! ;)

Once again another great road trip that didn't involve driving but in my book still counts as a road trip!  One of these days I will get to make an actual road trip with driving and all that good stuff so stay tuned!

A very long time ago, I ran away from home (if moving 2,000 miles away at the age of 30 can be considered "running away from home") with my boyfriend Blaise (aka Michael). It was a most excellent road trip and overall an interesting experience (one best left for the scrapbooks).  While we didn't stay out of state or stay a couple, we did remain friends and I still look back on that trip and all the subsequent road trips we made together, with deep fondness, laughter and the occasional tear.

Now Michael is setting out on a new adventure - less then 1,000 miles away this time but still..... away from and without those of us who enjoy him the most, especially when there is a road trip involved.  I'm excited for him - but at the same time, I feel a great sadness, too, that really can't and shouldn't be explained here.

So why mention it in the first place? Well, because this IS a road trip (even if I can't go along for the ride and I would have done some driving if given enough notice.....) and it IS a adventure and that's what we talk about here!  I'm also trying to encourage him to start his own blog about his adventures and perhaps this just might do the trick!  So if you want to encourage him to blog about it as well - COMMENT HERE! 

And so Michael Blaise - as I wave my hanky at your departure I leave you with the following:

1. At least you are not driving to Chicago - we all know there is no parking in Chicago (hug the Shedd & the Adler for me!)
2. Don't eat a full pound of gnocchi - remember Atlantic City? 
3. Take your vitamins! You don't want to get to the end of your trip with a nasty cold.....like New Hampshire
4. Since making audio tapes of your adventures would be exceeding weird on a bus, keep a blog! (no room for all those tiny tapes & batteries anyway!) And no - you cannot take a cat with you....... and sit on your own Barney pillow!
5. Limit the Chinese take out - there's never any place to keep the left overs as we learned the multiple times we ordered delivery to hotel rooms!
6.  Be flexible - expect the unexpected and always travel with coffee (think Salt Pond Visitors Center hiking trail....)
7. Take lots of photos and share them - we want to be part of your adventure, too!
8. Sun block & sun glasses are always a plus & never turn down a free hot shower!(Delaware Sea Shore State Park)
9. Lastly, keep warm/cool; don't forget to eat and be safe! 

And never forget we love you and will miss you very much!

PS. I'm so proud of you!