Roadtrip to Philadelphia: day 1 (Saturday)
After a slightly late start, we turned our U-Haul in the direction of I-70 and headed east. Along with us in the cab (in addition to Charlie, our teddy bear, the mac, and all three seasons of Arrested Development), is the dessert pack of Jones Soda, so thoughtfully picked out for me for Christmas by Nathan. To preface the following, Ian is a Vayniac. Gary Vaynerchuk fan, that is. He has the Thunder Show where he reviews wines. You can watch him on his podcast. TV.WineLibrary.com. Actually, do that right now, then come back and read the following.
Lemon Meringue: 90+
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Cherry Pie: 92
laughter at the lid (lids said “a happy event will take place shortly in your home” and “all your hard work will soon pay off”)
Anna: I can smell… a little bit of angel food cake, with cherry flavoring. Good cherry flavoring.
Ian: The bouquet has warm aromas, like a maraschino cherry, and then towards the end, you get a little vanilla, and cream soda action, and what I would call a good old-fashioned good time. That was the sniffy-sniff, by the way.
Anna: Yeah… vanilla. It reminds me of that va-va vanilla lip-gloss I used to have. That was high school, before you. Sorry.
Ian: Lets give it a whirl.
Anna: So…. It takes like, wow, I can taste the vanilla. And cherry….
Ian: Wow, there’s cinnamon, right there. Kind of a graham cracker crust action on the palate there. Very airy, light, fluffy. It has a component that reminds me of being at Grandma’s house, because she makes the best cherry pie by the way, and even though it isn’t near as good as her cherry pie, it still reminds me of her cherry pie. So grandma just pulls the cherry pie out of the oven, and I’m like eight years old, and I know the smell of the cherry pie and she’s cooking it. So I run into the kitchen, I stick my finger in the cherry pie and it burns the heck out of my finger, and I put it n my mouth and it burns my mouth too, and its like that warm cherry pie that’s cherry, and crust and bread and cinnamon that I appreciate and adore. Good job Jones Soda! Even though the lemon meringue didn’t rock my pants off, I feel like on this cherry pie, the belt is off, and my pants are unbuttoned. You know, it’s that kind of thing. It’s that good.
Aside from the entertaining Jones Soda reviews, we also accomplished the conquering of Missouri and Illinois (purchasing a now very loved Sonicare Toothbrush and eating at Culvers, on recommendation from Fox), and stayed the night in Terre Haute, Indiana. Which trails into day 2, next.
Road trip to Philadelphia: day 2 (Sunday)
We packed up our things, and I had to finish up just a few things, but Ian took stuff out to the U-Haul. He came back and said “Anna, I have some bad news.” The first thing that pops into my head is that someone broke into the U-Haul and stole our stuff. Then he said we had a flat tire. I was relieved, but this was still a problem. After running across to a gas and service station to find their service side was closed on Sundays, we called U-Haul. This was on recommendation of calling someone the nice ladies (with strong accents) working there said to call, and he told us to call U-Haul. Ian stayed with the truck, and I waited in the lobby (the truck was way in back) in case they came that way. By the way, if you have a flat, you call the U-Haul number, and they arrange for someone to come fix it, and they pay for it too, even if you didn’t buy the insurance! So I watched news and cleaned out my purse. The service guys, who were a little weird but very nice and helpful, looked at the tire, said it had a hole in the wall, and took it, before leaving to get a new one. Ian and I are so thankful we stopped in Terre Haute. We were going to try and make it further to Indianapolis, but we got tired. It was such a blessing, and an answer to the prayers of many many people, because we could have blown the tire. And the service was very fast, especially considering it was Sunday. We made it out of Terre Haute around 1 p.m., and the guys even called about 30 minutes later to make sure we were still doing okay!
We continued on through Indiana, then Ohio. We had to stop in Columbus to see the Horseshoe (where Ohio State plays football), and it was so huge. We took pictures!
We traveled on and made it through to Pennsylvania. We went through lots of tunnels.
Basically, we drove under several mountains, were astonished at how high the toll is (I think total we’re spending about 20 bucks to drive across Pennsylvania, seriously!!), at how low the speed limits are, at how bumpy the roads are, and how they can’t write proper English on their road signs. “tunnel: 1 miles” and “keep alert.” PDOT should so hire me to fix all of them. Hehe. I also collected a few more entertaining Ian quotes. “Holy crap, is that a mountain?! That scared me!” and “Is that sushi or puppets?” in reference to a billboard, which I can’t remember what it was anymore, but neither thing, I think. Right after this he continued singing a song he’d be singing right before, and the very next words out of his mouth were “It must have been a lunatic you’re looking for.” I about died laughing! We also continued our Jones Soda reviews.
Blueberry Pie: 85
Hello everybody and welcome to SodaLibraryTV. Today we’ll be reviewing another item from the Jones Soda Dessert pack – Blueberry Pie.
Anna: It reminds me of something that I can’t remember what. Maybe candy… at the pool…. Blue raspberry sour punch straws? Without the sour, and with some cotton candy in there.
Ian: I have a very distinct blueberry memory. Lets give it sniffy-sniff. Ready? Oooh, it’s kinda got a, I can smell a little blueberry, but it’s kinda a bad smell too. It kinda smells like a cleaner of sorts. It kinda has some sugary crust action. But not a good nose. It’s not a cherry good sugarfied. I’m not liking it as much. No cream soda. This is different. Hmmm. Kinda smells like a, oh, what’s the name of the dishwashing liquid you put in the dishwasher? That’s what it kinda smells like. Like a jet-dry or something. That’s what it smells like. Lets give it a whirl. *smacks* You know, blueberry has to be a hard taste to recreate in a soda. Because Jones does a good job of recreating things, but I’m not getting it. A little in the aftertaste. It’s not bad. I get kinda the crusty action I did on the cherry. It’s got that same kind of taste to it. And it’s sweet, but I don’t really get… it’s like a mixed berry, not a blueberry. Not my favorite. I’m going to give this an 85. Because I think they tried really hard. Knowing Jones, as hard as they could. Just not very much like blueberry pie at all, and I don’t like it that much. Sorry.
Anna: It’s incredible they get that crust taste in there though, for the pies in general. Wow.
After the soda review, we stopped in Carlisle, a smaller town before Harrisburg.
Road trip to Philadelphia: Day 3 (Monday)
We woke up early this morning so we could make it to Philly by noon. We could actually see the landscape, unlike last night because it was already dark. It is so pretty here! We thought of The Village as we drove through Lancaster, and we discussed future visits to Hershey and Scranton (for all you Office fans out there). We arrived at the apartment complex right on time, signed some papers, and moved everything up to the apartment, which took all afternoon, but we got it done! Ian and I even got the gigantic TV up, with the help of a rolling cart and a service elevator. Our view is amazing.
We went to Target and Wal-Mart to pick up a few more things we realized we needed, and some parts of Philly are a little scary after dark. We also ate McDonalds (3 double cheeseburgers each, shared small fries. And I think their burgers are bigger here…. Not sure though.) Tuesday was more unpacking, and returning the U-Haul. Officially without a vehicle now. We took a bus then the orange line (subway) back. The closes place was still pretty far away, and a little more run down area, but everyone was friendly. That seems to be a trend here. We stopped at the Reading Terminal Market for lunch, where I had my first official Philly Cheesesteak sandwich.
We wandered around looking for dessert, and I saw a sign at a chocolate place that they were looking for part time sales help. We made a lap, discussed, then decided I’d pick up an application. We talked to one of the owners, Terry (or Terri? Not sure yet how she spells it), and she was SO nice, and after a short conversation, said I was hired! She was really interested in us (as newlyweds and from Kansas… “How do you say “coffee?” I love how everyone is interested in accents!). Her and her husband are so nice, and flexible, and the people that work there, and around there, are so nice. I’m excited to start! (tomorrow, a.k.a. Friday at 10 a.m.). You can check out their web site at www.chocolatebymueller.com.
We scoped out the city more, got library cards, went past the library and saw the Rocky footprints along with several cop cars going past and a helicopter with a searchlight very near the museum, went back to the complex and bought groceries (grocery store in the basement of one of the buildings, how cool and handy!), ran into someone living here from K-State, made dinner, and Ian started watching LOST. He’s addicted now.
Wednesday, yesterday, we checked out the city more, saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, we went to the firm and Brian (or is it Bryan?) gave us a tour. They are all so nice there… I know Ian will be in good hands! We took the blue line to Penn, wandered, got some Penn gear (Dad, Cornell never sent me any mail, all the other Ivy Leagues did... but if you wanted to get me a Cornell shirt to combat the Harvard and now Penn ones, feel free! *wink*), came back home, unpacked, cooked dinner, watched more LOST, unpacked more… discovered the pretty shiny glass building, which has blue lights on at night, has the lights programmed differently each night and Wednesday is sparkle/twinkle day. Today, Thursday, Ian left for his first day of work, exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time, but he is going to do so well there! I’m staying home, you guessed it, unpacking, doing laundry, working on the bulletin, gearing up for my first day of work tomorrow. By the way, laundry is expensive here! $1.75 per wash and $1.75 per dry. And you put money on a card in the lobby, and use that in the machines instead of quarters. So, if you want to send laundry money, send large bills. Hah!
Okay, I know this is ridiculously long, and thank you if you finished reading this, or even if you skimmed to the bottom here! I promise the next ones won’t be so long. We love you all and miss you, come visit!