The road trip to Philadelphia was going to take 20 hours.
We piled into the car and prepared for the long journey ahead of us. We had pillows, blankets, iPods, a huge cooler box of food and drinks and the determination of 7 young travelers!
We drove and drove, crossing state line after state line, hours slowly dripping away as the kilometers disintegrated beneath our tires.
Sandra drove the entire day with Asad as her right hand man, and so the rest of us slept, only waking for food and bathroom breaks - which were frequent. Amir drove all night and it was my job to keep him sharp and awake. We kept ourselves busy by engaging in intellectual, in depth conversations until about 4am when my resolve faded and I was doing all I could to keep my own eyes open, let alone Amir's! My saving grace was Asad who woke up and claimed to not be able to sleep. He took over my post and I closed my eyes. I awoke about 7 minutes later to a torrential rain storm that made both seeing and driving impossible! We pulled over into a mall parking lot and attempted to wait the storm out.
We woke up the next morning when the sunlight flooded the car. We had just accidentally spent the night in a parking lot and we were now 8 hours behind schedule! We traded drivers and continued our mission to Philly! A few hours later, we pulled up to the largest outlet mall in the state! We all but ran out of the car and into the food hall where we all scoffed down huge delicious burgers. After lunch we all split up and scoured the mall for deals and steals! Amir and I tore it up and went to all the fancy shops first, defiantly underdressed and looking a little scruffy after sleeping in a car and not having had a shower in a long time. We found a few places to spend a bit of money and then met up with the family again. I had my last dinner with them at a cute little diner that served horrible food, after which we had another 3 hour drive until we truly parted ways.
They were going to drop me at my hostel in Buffalo, New York, and then cross the border into Canada and head home to Toronto. We followed the GPS off the interstate and to the address my hostel had given me. We ended up in the most sketchy neighborhood I had seen yet and saw no sign of the hostel. I called the front desk, after hours, and was relieved when someone answered! We were in the wrong zip code and had another 30 minute drive into downtown, both a blessing and a cure as I was so happy to not be sleeping where we were currently but frustrated and somewhat embarrassed that we had further to go. It was 2am and we were all exhausted!
We pulled up to the top of my street because, of course, it was closed to street traffic, and said my final goodbyes to everyone. It was sad saying bye to the brothers: Asad, Areef and Ateef, they were a lot of fun.
Amir walked me and all my bags to the lobby and we said our goodbyes with the promise of seeing each other soon back in SA!
I found my room card and linens left for me on the front counter, and slowly made my way up to my room, dropped my bags and fell into bed, finally. I was so grateful to the family for seeing me there safely, and to the hostel for allowing me such a late check in. There were many things that could have gone so wrong, and many people who could have turned their back on me, and none of them did. What a great feeling it was!
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