here's a little diddy, about meghann d. ...driving somewhere, in the country





Tuesday, November 9, 2010

how far out of the way would YOU drive, just for a joke?

here within will lie the conclusion to the lingering karow family recommendation.  but let's lead into it first...don't worry, you'll know it when it comes.

finishing airport exchanges in the mid afternoon, left the three of us [ now doug, anouk, and myself ] with loads of time to put some miles behind us before we called it a day.  it was to be an ann arbor michigan morning, so there was plenty to cover.  we didn't really find ourselves needing to stop all that often along the trip.  only pausing to take the required 'state border' photos and then keep on keeping on.  it wasn't until around [ well technically in ] battle creek, mi that we decided to stop for some grub.  ending us at the arcadia brewery and grille.  much of the town, all located on one main street, seemed to be closed, but we had hit the jackpot here since the kitchen was open for another thirty minutes.  anouk and doug got a beer sampler to share, 10 different house brewed blends...myself a plate of bbq'd chicken, 'a' with a salad, and 'd' with a bbq'd meat variety plate.  too much food, too much excitement, and too much lay before us to linger.  we pulled into the lamp post inn in ann arbor around one in the morning, snuggled in, and wait for the daylight to break.

the morning greated us with a tinge of a chill and a childlike aww from anouk to travel around the town, this being the location of some younger years spent.  pass an attened elementary school, the home of her living, and into the downtown-main campus area for some walking around...but mainly souviner shopping for her dad.  parking being what it is in many small towns and especailly one populated by college kids that have 'no respect for rules or laws', i pull into a thirty minute zone and check my watch.  we do the obligatory school bookstore stop and decide that it doesn't look busy enough to necessitate moving the car, we'll just do a small bit more of walking around.  one thing leads to another, t-shirt stop after post card stop after hot dog stop, and an hour plus has passed.  walking back to the car we hear some men mutter about a 'misouri' license plate and 'should know better than to be there for to long'; 'you can get double tickets parked there'.  well low and behold, there was a ticket.  flippen' 45 bucks!  and for what?  taking a little extra time to commerce your town?  fou-wee i say.  [ the ticket is still not paid.  what are they going to do...arrest me the next time i'm driving around in michigan for an unpaid parking ticket?  sorry parentals, i'm sure that's not the right choice... ]


this event did put a small damper on the mood of the day, but we fully blaimed doug...him being male and thus obviously a bad influence for the luck.  traveling on.  we headed to cleveland, ohio and the rock n' roll hall of fame.  quite a interesting site if you're looking to check out memorialbilia, but if [ to me ] you're really intrigued by the history of it all: how it came about, who started what, where, with whom, and how; this doesn't seem to be the place.  and you can't take pictures inside anywhere.  even without a flash!  bummer.

there was a lot to see though, which made us hungry.  from the food network show 'the best thing i ever ate', i had come acrossed a recommendation for lolita's in southern cleveland for fried brussel sprouts.  heck, let's give them a try.  it ended up being in this really nicely decorated and mid-upscale restaurant in the middle of the nowhere ghetto area of town.  reluctant to leave the car unattended but curious more about the food, we entered.  and i must say, those sprouts were amazing.  they had capers, anchovies, olive oil, and garlic in them and you can tattoo your name on my forehead if i don't testify that they quite frankly tasted like onion rings.  soupy oily [ :( ] but splendidly delightful to the taste buds.  this dinner was also called to order not only to satisfy our bellies, but to decide on the plan of attack for the next day.  original original plan [ being pre-doug ] was to drive through canada and get to niagara falls for some glory.  but him traveling with us and without a passport lead us to the next original plan, which was to drive the u.s. side to niagara falls for some glory.  but after my time spent with the karow's, another options was thrown into the mix.  it would be to visit connecticut and a small town named...wait for it...wait for it...mianus.  honestly and truly there was at least an hour long debate about which option was the right choice.  pro's and con's.  how long and in what direction we would be driving for the rest of tonight.  and what we could do and see in each of the places.  and wouldn't you know what we chose...

mianus was just a blip on the map, an unheard of destination up until two weeks prior, and about eight hours in the opposite planned direction, but somehow it won out over the falls of niagara [ probably because you can no longer ride in a wooden barrel down them.  just kidding ].  pronounced mya-noos by a local, we found out that there was indeed no town named such, that it was just a river.  until we found a street sign!  then there was a totem pole...in mianus.  we found a moose head...in mianus.  found a sign for slow kids playing...in mianus.  the options seriously endless, as well as the laughs.  it never got old, and frankly i don't see the hilarity slowing down any time soon...in minanus.  :)  we easily killed four hours plus goofing off and wandering around.  trying to find other awkward sayings referring to the referred to place.  having spent the night in bloombery, pennsylvania, already six hours into driving, and finding ourselves running on sleep caught between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m., the six additional hours to boston seemed just a stretch too much.  so i called long time best buddy ol' pal jenn in providence and we crashed her pad.  it wasn't no big deal.  we just went out to eat at julian's where there dessert menu has a picture of kiss on it and you can drink a bee sting.  some kind of gin drink, i didn't even try to go near it.  honey, lemon, something, something...there might be a third something too.  i don't remember.  the night carried on late with some games and enjoyment, the next days would be bitter sweet as our trio's travels had but two days remaining and i, having grown accustomed to the companions, would definitely be sad.

notable michigan:
     1.  much of this was noted from constructions zones, because it seemed as if much of the state's road were underconstruction.  any-who, they have straight flashing lights for when there is a lane closed and cones set out to block it.  it's not any kind of move over indicator.  these signs are miles into a project...suppose they are just there to remind you. 
     2.  and secondly in construction areas, how to word this?  imagine three lane traffic heading in both directions.  well the north bound lanes want to do some repair, so they close down two lanes, leaving one, but then also take the south bound down to two, and use one for north traffic.  thus the split one direction of travel, but leave all of the roads in complimentary numbers.  it was quite strange the first time to cross the median with cars still traveling beside me...but so far away.
     3.  noted by anouk and doug, the highways are littered with adult stores.  so many.

notable pennsylvania:
     1.  they paint dots on the road so that you know the minimum distance you should be behind someone.  no tailgating.
     2.  there were all kinds of detour signs, each with their own colored arrow.  i'm guessing perminent detours, but i didn't really get it.
     3.  noted doug:  random port-a-potties along the highways.

notable connecticut:
     1.  astro turf lawns.
     2.  lemons in the diet drinks [ learned that it's a new england thing.  along with leaving a bit of straw wrapper on the top of the straw but placing the straw in the drink, instead of just handing you a completely wrapped straw to open on your own.
     3.  'reduced salt use' signs for the winter time [ also new england common ].



1 comment:

  1. You went to mianus with out my knowing! I feel so violated. Love you lots and tons always sister lady.

    ReplyDelete