Great Westward Push Day 1 (Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002 — Cambridge, Mass. to Buffalo, N.Y.): Was That a DeLorean?
I think I was supposed to leave a little free space in the car for my future passengers, but I didn’t do a very good job. I loaded the trunk with just about everything I could think of — water, food, clothes, maps, shoes, coats, and an auxiliary tire that I got through mail-order (just in case I get a flat, I’ll be able to get a new Protégé-specific tire mounted immediately).
Left at 10:48 from 47 Norris Street. Weather was sunny, clear, and warm; great for a road trip. Hopped on the Mass. Pike and took it west, west, west, through Massachusetts and into New York. Got a great view of Albany while crossing the Hudson River.
Some time around here, I was coming up on a funny-looking car and I said to myself, “That looks like a DeLorean.” Well, it was a DeLorean. And weirdly, on the CD player I had Chuck Berry playing — a double Back to the Future reference (especially when “Johnny B. Goode” came on)!
Had lunch a bit past Albany (at about 192 miles), at Roy Rogers. When was the last time I ate at one of those? They’re mostly gone from New York; my dad, a big fan, would occasionally take the family to dinner there years ago, and I would sometimes go to the midtown Manhattan Roy Rogers with my grandmother. Had a roast-beef sandwich and fries. Then, when I was done gassing myself up (twice literally, actually), I gassed the car up and resumed on my way.
Several hours and a couple of hours later, I caught up to the DeLorean and once again passed it. What is a DeLorean doing going between Albany and Buffalo? And with a Texas license plate? The only think I could think of was Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) saying, “First, you turn the time circuits on.”
Got to the Econo Lodge in Buffalo at 6:30, about 440 miles covered. It’s pretty basic — maybe shabby, actually — but seems sufficient. Of course it has to be directly under the landing path to the Buffalo airport (or maybe the Niagara Falls airport; hard to tell). Jets and prop planes soar less than 1000 feet overhead. However, it’s not bad, and I assume that the airport closes at night and noise won’t be a problem.
Went to Chili’s across the street for dinner — have I really left Cambridge? Then went to a drugstore to buy a contact-lens holder, the single item I appear to have forgotten. In the room by about 8:30. Getting all my stuff sorted out so I know what’s where and why.
That plane sounded like a 737.
Miles: 441.9
Noteworthy CDs: Steppenwolf (esp. “Magic Carpet Ride”), Chuck Berry, (esp. “Johnny B. Goode”), B-52s