American Road Trip Part 2 - Man with a Van

Greetings from the Mid-West,

Terrifying. That’s the only way to describe it. Suddenly finding yourself driving a big truck, on the other side of the road, in a foreign country, in a big city during rush hour was completely terrifying. Added to that was the fact that I’d never really used a sat nav (GPS) before, and it was causing more problems that it was solving. I think it’s fair to say my first hour of driving in Philadelphia is an experience I won’t forget. After managing to miss three turn-offs in a row I eventually found myself down some side street in a Philly suburb. Obviously my relationship with ‘Jill’, the bossy American female voice of my sat nav, was not going well. So I dumped her and switched to the calming English tones of ‘Daniel’, and things started to go better. When I eventually get to the long simple roads of Kansas I might switch over to Swedish ‘Ingrid’. Just for the cultural experience of course.

Driving a truck is a weird experience and you suddenly become aware of lots of things you don’t think about when driving a car. Namely height, length and width, and they all determine where you can go. Height means that streets with a low bridge are a no-go. Width means that small streets are out of the question. Length causes all kinds of problems and means you can’t park in most normal car parks or turn in any small spaces. I’ve found the whole thing really stressful when not on the highways. I do, of course, feel ridiculous. My dad has been a truck driver all his life. As was my Granddad who drove trucks full of explosives to the front lines during World War 2. This isn’t even a proper truck as it’s really only a removals truck. It’s 16’ long and 11’ high. Too big to park in a normal car park, but always slightly embarrassing to park in a truck stop in-between 16-wheeled, 70’ long juggernauts, where truckers look at me with pity.

So anyway, having finally got on the road, I went off to discover the rest of Pennsylvania. I was expecting an industrial, built-up state, but found that a lot of it is rural wilderness, mainly forested rolling hills that look amazing in the Autumn. The Deer Hunter, Silence of the Lambs, Night of the Living Dead, and Witness were all filmed in the state. Yes that’s right. It’s Amish country. The infomercials on TV even sell Amish-made products because they have such a good reputation for quality. Pennsylvania is HUGE. It’s dominated by it’s two big cities which are Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. But they’re in completely opposite corners of the state, and when I drove between them it took nearly six hours! Six! You could drive from London to Paris in less time! Whilst Philadelphia is a short distance from New York and very ‘east coast’, by the time you get to Pittsburgh you feel that you’ve crossed a divide and you’re very much at the start of the mid-west. Pittsburgh (much like Sheffield), is known as the ‘Steel City’. The football team are the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it’s very industrial. I wasn’t expecting much, but when I arrived on a beautiful autumn day it looked pretty impressive. Straddling three rivers, the city is full of big steel bridges (more than Venice!), and is surrounded by lots of hills. It doesn’t have the glamour of Philly, but it does have a friendly town feel to it. It's a gritty city, but it's a pretty gritty city.

After Pittsburgh I headed west. As I reached the Pennsylvania border, listening to the Beastie Boys’ ‘Fight for your Right’ on the radio, the station cut out. I did a quick search and could only find country music stations. Welcome to Ohio, said the sign. My journey was just getting started.

Take care,

Jamie