PA Day 6- Caves, Churches, and Crashes: Trekking the Length of Pennsylvania
Today I made the long drive from one end of Pennsylvania to the other. I fueled up for the journey at Burlap and Bean Coffee in Newtown Square. So far I think it's my favorite coffee shop I've been to. The coffee was great, but the staff was just so friendly and it was a great place to just hang out, knock out some writing, and catch up on Nathan for You (possibly the greatest accomplishment television has ever produced). They also had a stage in one corner, so I think they must host music and other events, making them a definite place to keep on your radar if you want coffee a little bit outside of Philly.
Fully caffeinated, I hit out for the open road. I decided to break up the long drive by hitting up as many Atlas Obscura points of interest as I could. The first one I stopped at was Crystal Cave in Kutztown. The Cave is considered one of PA's most popular natural attractions. I didn't actually get to see the cave however, because you can only go in with a tour guide and tours lasted longer than I felt I had time for. Fortunately, the gift shop was full of all kinds of strange and beautiful rocks and minerals, sculptures, and knick knacks so I didn't feel like my stop was wasted.
Unfortunately I didn't get to hit up any of the other things I wanted to see, because instead I hit another car. Nobody was hurt, and neither of our cars seemed badly damaged. I'm very sad and frustrated though I got into an accident at all let alone that it was basically entirely my fault. I do think it's kind of crazy that the state of PA deals with highway road work by putting full Stop Signs on right on on-ramp entrances and exits as opposed to yield signs. Forcing cars to get up to merging speeds from a dead stop or coming to a complete halt from highway speeds just seems unnecessarily dangerous to me. Essentially what happened is I assumed the car in front of me was coming to a rolling stop because it seemed pretty safe to merge, I slowed down to a rolling stop speed, while I was checking my blind spot they came to a dead stop because of the road work stop sign, and I rolled right into them.
Like I said, a pretty minor crash all things considered though I'm not looking forward to seeing what happens to my car insurance after this, and after talking with police officers and insurance agents, and body work people, most of the day was gone and I still had a four hour drive ahead of me.
The crash definitely took the wind out of my sails, so I retreated into comfort food getting a pumpkin pie blizzard from Dairy Queen along one highway and, later in the night, some chicken tenders and mashed potatoes from a highway Roy Rogers. The blizzard was an old favorite, but I never had Roy Rogers before. Maybe it was because of the rough day that preceded it, but the chicken really hit the spot and as far as fast food chicken tenders go, I'd rank it between Popeye's and KFC and much better than Chik-fil-a.
I got into Pittsburgh a little too late to hit most of the spots I wanted to, but I did get to see the Church Brew Works, an old church turned brewpub. It was absolutely gorgeous on the inside (the best part was that the confessional was now a bathroom. No matter what the room was used for expelling evil). Their beer was really good too, but the flight came with seven beers as opposed to the four I was expecting so I also ordered an appetizer to help space out the time and fill my belly to make sure I didn't accidentally get more tipsy than I'd like. I had had enough bad driving experiences to tempt fate on this one. For my app, I got the crab dip which was a mix of cheeses, beer sauce, and crab meat surrounded by beautiful slices of fluffy Italian bread for dipping. I'm sure the idea of cheese and crab isn't immediately appealing to everyone, but I absolutely loved it. As for the brews, the flight came with a pilsner, an oktoberfest, an IPA, a dunkel, a saaz, a hoppier oktoberfest, and a brown ale. The Dunkel was definitely my favorite, with the brown ale, and the hoppy oktoberfest coming in second and third. The Hoptoberfest surprised me, because I generally don't like hoppy beers, but I guess it was nicely balanced out by the greater maltiness of the base beer. Definitely worth the stop.
Favorite Random Sightings: Gentile's Market (Waiter, I'll have one gentile please); Handsome Hounds; A giant billboard saying, "Real Christians Love Their Enemies" (so far Christianity is the only religion sect that I've seen numerous advertisements for on the side of the road. The other guys clearly need better PR); Bear Alignment Services (it must be somebody's name but we all read it the same way the first time, right?)
Regional Observations: I have seen so many dead deer on the side of Pennsylvania highways.
General Observations: I am not convinced that all strip malls aren't actually the same place free of time and space
Albums Listened To: Flower Power: Age of Aquarius by Various Artists; Flower Power: Born to Be Wild by Various Artists; Flower Power: Groovin' by Various Artists; Flower Power: Time of the Season (Disc 1) by Various artists (All of these are two disc collections of every hit single from different years during the late 60's and early 70's)
People's Favorite Jokes:
Why do teenagers always travel in odd numbered groups? Because they can't even.
Song of the Day:
One of those protest songs, you wish hadn't stayed relevant
