The Departed (Di-PAH-tid)

Sunday June 17, 2007
Revere, MA to Lancaster, PA

I had been up all night drinking and listening to music with Graham's brother Evan. I knew I'd feel like shit the next day. Being awake while my alarm is buzzing nullified its purpose. We were to drive about 400 miles...piece of cake. Most of our belongings we chucked into the backseat, bot very comfortable back there but I was too tired to care.

Along the way we saw some breathtaking vistas, at least where the highway slices through the Appalachian mountains, but it was nothing compared to the vistas we would see the next day.

I slept in the back of the Subaru the duration of the trip. I woke up surrounded by a rural, farm area. The smell of fertilizer permeated the car. I hadn't been back to Lancaster in a few years, that was one thing I'm glad I missed. Graham calls the gaseous-shit "The Pennsylvania Skees."
One of the few things, however, that I did miss is a deli called Issac's; hands down the best sandwiches in the country, Carnegie deli can go to hell.

We finally arrived at Shawn's (Graham's mom) condominium. Our friend Ted Stoltzfus and Kevin Dalbey also stopped by. It felt like old times again at the Woolley house, where I used to hang out a lot, listen to music, jam, be goofy etc. They have always been hospitable to me over the years and I appreciate that. Everyone got the opportunity to catch up with everyone else regarding his/her current undertakings. We continued the conversation at Isaac's Deli.

When we came back from the deli we decided to play a game called Telephone Pictionary--a game of word and pictorial interpretation. How it goes is everyone forms a circle and is equipped with a pen and paper. Then, each person comes up with a sentence (the more nonsensical the better) and writes it on his/her paper. Then each person passes it to the adjacent person and that person will interpret his/her sentence and try to draw it. After the drawings are done, then those are passed to the adjacent person to interpret and make a sentence out of it. So by the end of the game, a person's paper will have many sentences and drawings that deviate further and further from the original sentence and drawing, which most importantly generates laughter and good times. I only wished we had time to play Balderdash as well...

After spending time at Graham's mom's place, we ventured over to Lebanon where his dad Robert lives. Dalbey (aka Dean Moriarty reborn) drove us maniacally and executed hair-pin and drifting. I read about crazy driving in On the Road. Dalbey, in the parlance of this blog, "balled the jack."

I was happy to have another chance to jam out on some 12-bar blues, and some Judas Priest with Graham's dad on guitar and Graham on bass, and myself on drums. Robert was fortunate enough to live the era of great 70's bands, and see a host of them such as Procol Harum, Wishbone Ash, Deep Purple in their prime. After jamming and cooking out, we got drunk off Trapper Creek Berry Mead and Yuengling beer and played more Puerto Rico. Both libations are recommended!