I am not a man to use exclamation points, but if you read this entry, you will understand the reason for the excessive use of exclamation points I used in the title. Ok, here goes....
After leaving Boston, I drove to Lawrenceville to meet up and stay the night with my friend Jim. On Sunday the 4th of July, he and I got up early and swam with his swim team in Philadelphia at a long course outdoor pool. Except for the green color of the water and the excessive amounts of chlorine, it was a refreshing swim.
After lunch, Jim and I drove to suburban Baltimore to pick up Raymonde and Erin, two former Lawrenceville teachers, and then drive to DC to see the fireworks. Due to various circumstances, Ray, Erin and Jim decided to stay in Baltimore instead of trekking to DC. During our conversation, I mentioned that my car was in South Bend being fixed. It turns out that Erin and Ray will be in South Bend next weekend to visit Erin's parents. I was planning on driving to South Bend on Sunday July 11th and staying in the motel 6 that night and waiting it out. Now, it looks like I will be dining with Erin's family and having people I know to hang with in South Bend. Unbelievable #1.
But it gets SO much more unbelievable. Because the three were not going to DC, they drove me to Baltimore's Penn Station so I could catch a train to DC. I got on the AMTRAK and it should have taken me about an hour to get to Washington's Union Station and then from there I would get to my friends' Leah and Rich's apartment to watch the fireworks from the roof of their building. All great plans go awry. The train gets to it's first stop, the BWI rail station. We sat there for five minutes and then the conductor told us that due to a substation power outage down the line it would be at least two hours until the train would start moving. WHAAATTTTT!!!
The train riders, including me, all poured off the train and started forming groups to share cabs to different points in the DC metro area. I got into a group but then things start to get weird with this pushy guy and I kind of moved away from that group and got into my zen mode again and thought to myself "it will all work out." Unfortunately, there are NO cabs at the rail station. Instead, we had to get on the shuttle bus to take us to the airport itself and from there we would catch cabs.
At the airport, as we are all getting off the bus, I look over and see
My friend Nora B.
Yes, it is Nora, my friend who lives in the DC area. She was on my same train coming down from New York City. We hugged and I learned that she had called her boyfriend and he was coming up from Virginia to pick her up. It was decided that they would drop me off at a metro station and I would continue my journey from there. It was going to take Matt, her boyfriend at least an hour to get to us, so we got something to eat and caught up on our lives in the year since I've seen her.
Unbelievable!!!! If the train had not stopped, I would never have known that a dear college friend of mine was on the same train I was on. Now she was bailing me out of an unfortunate situation.
We got me to the New Carrollton Station and I eventually made it to Leah and Rich's around 8:30PM. That gave me about 45 minutes to spare in order to catch the fireworks.
UNBELIEVABLE!
After leaving Boston, I drove to Lawrenceville to meet up and stay the night with my friend Jim. On Sunday the 4th of July, he and I got up early and swam with his swim team in Philadelphia at a long course outdoor pool. Except for the green color of the water and the excessive amounts of chlorine, it was a refreshing swim.
After lunch, Jim and I drove to suburban Baltimore to pick up Raymonde and Erin, two former Lawrenceville teachers, and then drive to DC to see the fireworks. Due to various circumstances, Ray, Erin and Jim decided to stay in Baltimore instead of trekking to DC. During our conversation, I mentioned that my car was in South Bend being fixed. It turns out that Erin and Ray will be in South Bend next weekend to visit Erin's parents. I was planning on driving to South Bend on Sunday July 11th and staying in the motel 6 that night and waiting it out. Now, it looks like I will be dining with Erin's family and having people I know to hang with in South Bend. Unbelievable #1.
But it gets SO much more unbelievable. Because the three were not going to DC, they drove me to Baltimore's Penn Station so I could catch a train to DC. I got on the AMTRAK and it should have taken me about an hour to get to Washington's Union Station and then from there I would get to my friends' Leah and Rich's apartment to watch the fireworks from the roof of their building. All great plans go awry. The train gets to it's first stop, the BWI rail station. We sat there for five minutes and then the conductor told us that due to a substation power outage down the line it would be at least two hours until the train would start moving. WHAAATTTTT!!!
The train riders, including me, all poured off the train and started forming groups to share cabs to different points in the DC metro area. I got into a group but then things start to get weird with this pushy guy and I kind of moved away from that group and got into my zen mode again and thought to myself "it will all work out." Unfortunately, there are NO cabs at the rail station. Instead, we had to get on the shuttle bus to take us to the airport itself and from there we would catch cabs.
At the airport, as we are all getting off the bus, I look over and see
Yes, it is Nora, my friend who lives in the DC area. She was on my same train coming down from New York City. We hugged and I learned that she had called her boyfriend and he was coming up from Virginia to pick her up. It was decided that they would drop me off at a metro station and I would continue my journey from there. It was going to take Matt, her boyfriend at least an hour to get to us, so we got something to eat and caught up on our lives in the year since I've seen her.
Unbelievable!!!! If the train had not stopped, I would never have known that a dear college friend of mine was on the same train I was on. Now she was bailing me out of an unfortunate situation.
We got me to the New Carrollton Station and I eventually made it to Leah and Rich's around 8:30PM. That gave me about 45 minutes to spare in order to catch the fireworks.
UNBELIEVABLE!
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