Let's Hear it for Scranton

Note to self: traveling through Pennsylvania is annoying (but maybe not quite as annoying as it used to be).

Last week I went down to Virginia with Kristy. I've been down to various southern destinations via Interstate 81 and Pennsylvania has gotten a bad reputation. (1) It's really hilly (2) it's long. Oh, and (3) there's always construction.

Heading south, we had just enjoyed our few minutes skirting the outside of Scranton, when we ran into road work. But once we got down to one lane of stop and go, we went for miles and miles before we came to any road work. And when we did, we were amazed to find three people down on their knees scraping tar out of some cracks _BY HAND_. No joke. We did about 21 km in an hour and half for some by-hand interstate craftsmanship. (And . . . ok . . . a few miles later there were a few more people doing a little more work on a small bridge. But still, scraping tar on the interstate . . . by hand? Was it Michael I saw standing on the shoulder, running the show . . .? )

Another strange thing is that I've been through Pennsylvania a lot and I've always had the impression that's it's all hills with a few miles at the end that are flat (you pass the transports going up and they fly past you on the way down). But this time I realized that it's actually kind of close to being half hills half flat. (Maybe that's what happens when you stick people in hours of construction - - that means you, Pennsylvania.) And once you're through the hills you are rewarded with a bunch of exits that have Starbucks. Going north you should fuel up on Starbucks to get through the hills.

So - forgive me Pennsylvania, you're not so bad. You're actually pretty scenic it's just I'm always in a rush to get to warmer air. I'm Canadian, eh. See what I did there? I implied that Canadians live in perpetual winter and rush like crazy people to get to where it's warm. I also said "eh" so obviously I'm Canadian eh because eh defines our culture and us as a nation eh. But we're probably responsible for that ourselves because we're so in the dark about our own cultural identity as a nation of nations, that we latch on to things like hockey and eh and beavers and moose and maple syrup and try to imagine that these things define us as a people.

OK, sorry Pennsylvania, that turned into a bit of a rant. Yes, you're not so bad.