i took the yellow bridge road, and ended up in squirrel park.

so, i had planned to make it take longer to get to pittsburgh, but here i am. i left akron and picked a place on the map, the place turned out to be lisbon, ohio. on the map it looked as if it might be a decent sized little pocket, but i was wrong. and on top of that it was a major holiday, so everything was closed anyway. i stopped in lisbon and walked around the town in about six minutes, then i went to the next biggest town, east liverpool.

east liverpool was about 17 miles away. not a big deal, i set off for it and found myself parked in an industrial shipyard overlooking a river. i do not know what river it was, probably the ohio (now that i think about it). anyway, like i said it was the holiday, so i was just looking for something to do. i went into the actual town and my god was it depressing. this was one of those completely run down towns that has such a charm to it.

the buildings were all brick and generally about three stories, very old looking. they were also decrepit. most of the storefronts had for rent signs, and there were about 5 barber shops. i parked and fiddled around in the back of my truck for awhile. it was drizzling out, so that was like strike three worst day. nothing is open because it is a holiday, and even if it werent, nothing would be open, and then it is raining.

so i walked around that town for about an hour. it was a nice walk, the town had such a charm to it. two years or so ago i was determined to buy a little commercial building in a town like this, site unseen. they were ebay and you could buy these 2 and 3 story building for $10,000. i didnt have that much money, never in my life have i had anywhere near that much money and i dont have any credit. it was a bit of a pipe dream, but i was so ready to just purchase it and then beg borrow and steal myself the money to buy something.

now i am a bit glad i didnt. i wouldve gotten one of these buildings here, it this town probably. sure they would be charming and need a lot of work, but once they were fixed up there werent any people in the town. there werent any jobs and if i started a business (a plant nursery was the plan) there wouldnt be any customers. that was a sore spot between emily and i for a minute. i was so ready to just leave and go start a new life with some property in a small town that was close to a big town.

the big town being pittsburgh, it has been a goal for a long time to be in pittsburgh. and east liverpool is only about 40 miles away. the town i was looking at before was new kensington, about 30 miles north of pgh. i plan to go up there when i am leaving to see the building that i was going to purchase. or at least try to find it. i want to see what failure i couldve endured or what glory skipped me. anyway, thats what i was thinking about walking all through this town.

after awhile i got pretty bored, and tired. i would walk and then stop whenever i saw a bench or someplace i wanted to stop and i would read a chapter of the book on hand. i have burned through two books over the last two days. my tiredness led me back to the truck where i consulted the map.

i was too close to pgh to go much further without just plunging into the city, but i really wanted to wait until wednesday to get to pgh. not enitrely sure why, but partly because i am nervous about my truck in a big city. the tags are expired and the new ones should be in pgh on wednesday or thursday. i will feel better about leaving my truck if i didnt think it was going to be towed all the time. or heavily ticketed. anyway, looking at the map i traced my journey.

i have been to fifteen states on this trip so far, and i have slept at least one night in every single one of them. then i looked at the ones i have skipped or the ones that i logistically wont get to ont his trip, states like minnesota and wisconsin, michigan. and i started making little trails of my journey to come, different paths to take and places to be. it is so overwhelming, a smile so large breaks across my face thinking about this future and it hurts. i cant do it very long. but what i noticed is that i will probably skip over west virginia and a few other interior mid southern states on the east coast.

but, there is this little sliver about 10 miles, maybe less of wva that is between ohio and pennsylvania, and i would have to drive through it. so i decided to drive to it and sleep there last night, for posterity. i slept in chester. mostly, i just read my books and watched some movies, it was quite boring. this morning, i made the trip into pittsburgh, and it was one of the most memorable/best ever drives of my life.

not the entire drive, my truck is running a bit rough because i need an oil change, but the last couple miles, from forest to pittsburgh is absolutely amazing. i was just driving along and it felt like i was back home in oregon, driving out to the coast or in the west hills. it was still raining and gray out, sweater weather, my favorite. and then we started hitting some suburbs which werent exciting, and then a tunnel.

tunnel have always been a mixed bag with me. i love going through them, but i am completely terrified of them. when i was a kid, 13 or so, i read a book called 'the stand' by stephen king and everytime i go through a tunnel i think of that book. it is an apocalyptic book, a flu like virus decimates the population. the stories follows about 14 characters, two of them have to get out of new york. they go through the lincoln tunnel, but there isnt any power (no lights) and it is a gridlock of cars with bodies that have been rotting in august for the last month or so. it is scary. and thats what i think about. i cannot get through the tunnel quick enough.

pittsburgh!

generally tunnels spit you out into more forest or a different hill or something, but not this one. this one you are in a tunnel and then all of a sudden you are right in downtown pittsburgh, on a bridge crossing the monongahela river. it is just an awesome entrance. and its wierd, i have been to pgh before, at least twice but i dont think i was driving ever. becasue i didnt have a license for about 5 years. the five years that i did most of my traveling, go figure.

now i am here. i plan to be here this week at least. i walked around a bit and have been sitting chilling out at a bookstore using their internet for a couple hours. i dont know whats next. i dont really plan to stay here until the protests at the end of the month, but my friends are organizers for it and maybe i should stay and help? maybe not. i will have to decide that.