Travel Adventures Continues

The day we left camp was the same day that Princess Diana died: August 31, 1997. * That day is forever etched in my mind because there were many emotions present on that day. Sadness because I realized at that time that a great experience has come to an end, but also sadness due to the global news we’ve received. At the same time, happiness because I received a humongous bonus at the end of camp, as well as happiness that the next adventure was to start, YES!

Now, what was the next adventure you ask? Well thank you for asking! A few of the guys bought a beaten up van and wanted to travel 30 days from East to the West Coast. And I had the privilege to be with them for the first week of that journey. 

Beaten up van!

First stop: Buffalo. We wanted to see Niagara Falls and hang with Ishmael who was also part of camp. So we arrived at Ish’ mom, ate the most delicious quiche ever where after Ish indicated it was party time! We piled into the van and went to a hangar where there was already a line waiting outside. Great our surprise when we got out of the van, police came squealing around the corner, blaring horns and flashing lights. It literally felt like in the movies cus Ish yelled Get in get in get INNNNN so we piled back into the van and squared away. We stopped on an overhead highway somewhere nearby and saw some type of action going on at the hangar where the party was supposed to be. Bummer! No party! Nevertheless, we still managed to get back home around 4 AM! 

Niagara Falls

Second stop: Manhattan! Unfortunately, I drew the shortest stick as I was the first – AND ONLY – driver as the others snored their hearts out in the back of the van. Now remember, this was before Tom Tom or Google Maps or GPS or any of that stuff, so it was using those paper maps to get to where we were going and it took around 7 hours of driving time (to include time for getting lost). I had this little cassette transistor radio with ONE cassette, and as I was also tired and on the brink of falling asleep, there was this one song I put on repeat just to keep awake! Thank God we arrived safe and sound in Manhattan for some tremendous sleep time 😀

Third and last stop (for me): Philadelphia! This is a beautiful city to drive through, people were quite friendly and too bad for me I didn’t have much time to be there longer. It’s on my bucket list of cities, that I want to revisit some day! I won’t bore you with the rest of the story – if you want more you can always holler below and I’ll write up another story another day.

For now, this has rounded up my two week’s category of Travel – travel adventures continues is the last chapter. Next two weeks I’ll be talking about money, as that comes back in almost all my stories (I’m sure it does in yours too). Maybe this will teach me something new: who knows! Hope you enjoyed this series.. on to the next!

*For the beginning of this story, feel free to read the previous part here.