The Pitts

Pretty much since Grand Rapids we’ve been ‘rocking’ the turnpike, which has to be the weirdest highway I’ve traversed in my limited travels. Not very many exits from it, and rest stops with crappy food every 20 miles or so—but they’re always open. We left Chicago too early and loud grumpy humor abounded. We finally stopped for breakfast outside the city at a truck stop with disgusting Hardee’s breakfast. A jovial Amish family was also partaking—are they allowed to do that? I began the trend of the squished-“penny souvenir” back in Indy and continued it with a Chicago squished penny and we departed for Pittsburgh. After chugging through the flat monotonous countryside of most of Ohio, we finally began to see some hills and finally beautiful green mountains and valleys of Pennsylvania. Hours (and hours) passed. One of the cool things about Pittsburgh is that is abruptly appears between the tree-covered mountains... not much suburban ‘boo-shit’. Pittsburgh was kind of dirty but none of us cared—we loved it. We arrived at the club Brillobox and loaded our gear up the twenty-some-odd wooden steps to the upstairs portion of the bar. We had plenty of time before we were to play, so we explored one of the main stretches and stopped in at Armand’s World Famous Fish Sandwich (the kitchen was already closed, so it was just a bar.) It was right up our alley (if we had alleys things could go up): dark, smoky, Jeopardy playing on both TVs and no one else in there under 50 years of age. The bartender proudly showed us the counterfeit ten dollar bill that was prominently displayed above the register.

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After the show we decided to make some movement towards our next destination: The Big Apple (does anyone ever call it that anymore?) Continuing on the turnpike we stopped in a rest station at around 4 am. Daniel and Lucas saw the Burger King there and concluded that, because it was open, they must purchase some food. I was thoroughly interrogated by the friendly gas station clerk and was only too happy to regale him of our band’s identity and goings-on. After a good ten minutes I was finally able to purchase my ginger ale and return to my sleepy band-mates at the Baptist Bump. I monkeyed my way up to the windshield with a squeegee (estimating the demise of approximately 150 bugs since we cleaned it last). After logging an hour more or so we stayed in a hotel for the first time on our trip. Wireless internet allowed us to take care of important business, such as watching the Strong Bad email about his candy bar “Splounskched”. Living in the gutter with Grandma!

-Jambo