Washington, DC to Erie, PA
Friday, July 20th

I knew it was time to leave DC because as I was ready to walk out of room the maintenance crew knocked and said that they needed my bed. Talk about closure. I grabbed some coffee from the cafeteria and hit the road. The drive is relatively easy, especially with the PA turnpike. It amounts to about five and a half hours. My iPod was on the fritz so I listened to CD’s and talked on the phone. Both items helped me pass time on the road. The last three years that I have left DC I have felt like I did not thank people enough. Realizing that although my work schedule was quite busy I was able to get to do a lot of things and see a great deal of people. I regret not getting out to Graham’s house, I could have spent more time with friends, and there were a lot of people I did give proper good byes to. Nobody is perfect, especially me, who at best is interestingly flawed.

Why do people put crap like this in/on the back of their cars?

Upon arriving in Erie, the town of my youth, I headed to the McGarrey’s Oakwood Tavern in my old neighborhood. In addition to having the BEST Reuben’s known to man it was also the location to countless end of the season parties from youth baseball, football, and basketball teams. The beer is cold and cheap and the food is great. Besides the reuben sandwich, it almost pains me to write that, the perch sandwich is the next most well known menu item. I met my Uncle Dave, the father of Alexis, Buff, and Matt the other Memphis Stephanys, for a beer. It was decided to have a small cook out at their place. I picked up Grandma at the family catering place and went to Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue’s for burgers and Smith hot dogs. If in the next few posts that relate to Erie you sense a gastrointestinal theme you are right. When one gets back to Erie there are certain spots and foods that must be attended to. The weather was quite mild in fact I was chilly outside for the first since last April in Memphis. We had a great time catching up.