Road Tripping it Down to Jacksonville

Leaving Johns loft feels so long ago.

I looked into my laptop bag and found remnants of my last night with Bianca, Sid, Eva and Lohdee. It just made me realize how long it’s been since I left the city. . . and now here I am, in Amelia Island Florida, once again.

View Larger Map

I’m glad I broke the trip up, always another adventure to get ready for: driving to Philly, (surviving the arrival into town was nothing I could have prepared for). I arrived into West Philly, University City to be exact, at 11: 00p.m on November 4^th 2008. The moment in history when Barak Obama was announced the victor of the 2008 U.S Presidential Election. I had tears running down my face. Not for the same reason so many others were crying in the streets- and they were. But because I had returned to the city where, “it had happened”, I lost Maria. The process was a long and drawn out brake up and one could argue that it happened on my grandmothers porch in Brooklyn, or in Collegeville PA or Conchehocken PA or Montreal or even Barcelona for that matter. I guess there’s no one pin point where one could say, “that was the moment where I lost Maria.” With that said, my body felt that it had returned to the scene of the crime. Many distractions in Montreal and yes, New York was hard too, but there was a whole lot of cathartic action going on in Tyrel (my Tercel) as I watched people gallop, leap and scream in the streets with joy.

As soon as I saw Shelly I told her, “you need to help me re-associate this city”. And thanks to her, Matt, Ashly and few others, I did. I had good times in “haunted spots”. I didn’t go into Conchehocken (although I did drive by) I certainly didn’t go out to Collegeville, (that would have been somewhat sadistic). I can save those spots for another time.

While in my head I thought I had 11 days for the Philly/NYC venture I guess I never really properly looked at a calendar because in actuality it was closer to 6. This was broken up between: a New Kids on the Block concert with Matt (NO, I didn’t meet them and the seats were terrible in comparison to the previous concert); watching an Ottawa vs. Fliers game (Ottawa won and I was not popular for cheering them on); having lunch with my cousin in Manhattan; visiting my other cousin (Stacy, who came to Mtl. for the New Kids concert) in New Jersey; spending the day with Andrea at the Guggenheim and in Williamsburg Brooklyn; venturing the Village with Dana and her possey; wondering the streets of Manhattan (at my pace for a change); chugging back PBR’s in a B.B.Q Pork/jock bar with Dana + others; hitting rocks with hammers out in Ringing Rocks PA (a national park where a quarry of rocks with abnormally high mineral content provide endless entertainment for those with hammers in their hands- B.Y.O.H) and basically chilling with Ashley (one of Shelly’s roommates who was in actuality one of my heroes of the trip- she came home the night of the election and offered me beer after my 9 hour drive).

The drive was pretty easy going. I was pulled over by a cop for talking on my cell phone (which I wasn’t ! and he kept me just a little extra longer because his records showed my car being registered to a “Sherman” ? He asked if I had any hockey bags of marijuana in the vehicle and I couldn’t resist to tell him that there was in fact a hockey bag in the car but it was filled with stinky equipment- can you believe he asked me to show it to him? I had to get out, open the trunk and show him my putrid smelling

equipment that Bill had refused to drive back to Montreal from Philly for me earlier in the year.)

The only other delay I had along the way was at a gas station in up state New York where a man in his 40’s stopped me to talk about politics for like 20 minutes. Let’s just say, he wasn’t too pleased at 11:00 pm later that night.

The drive from Philly to Florida with Shelly was much smoother sailing. We slept in a town called Raily North Carolina- it’s in the “College Belt” or something like that. BUT!!!!!!!!! Someone in that fucking town keyed Tyrel!!! My hood is now keyed! I guess there is a POSSIBILITY it happened in Philly but I spent a lot of time with Tyrel packing him up two days ago and as soon as we walked out of the used book store in Raily I noticed the markings right away… not cool. Shelly sais not to love inanimate objects like cars and I hear her on that, but, this is Tyrel we’re talking about, TYREL. No one should mess with Tyrel.

I had some amazing authentic Mexican food thanks to Shelly (who didn’t eat because she wasn’t feeling well :( and still isn’t: (. Then, just a couple hours ago I was treated to dinner and a beer by Nielle’s parents who met us just outside Savannah Georgia. Nielle is one of Shelly’s best friends and was my goalie last season who brought us to the Gold Meddle position so many of you heard about. So, basically, I owe Nielle big.

Ringing Rocks: