Day 340 (Halfway Point)

Crazy, totally unplanned coincidence: Anna, one of the girls that used to be in my youth group, lives in Ohio like 10 minutes from my aunt! Through the miracle of facebook, we were able to figure this out and we had lunch today before my mom and I left for Pennsylvania. She insisted that we have lunch at Bob Evans because it's a popular restaurant chain out here that we don't have in California.

It was really great to see her because I hadn't seen her in years! We reminisced on old times and caught each other up on our lives. We only had about 2 hours, but it was really good to catch up with an old friend.

Afterwards, my mom and I left for Cranberry, PA. Isn't that a cute name for a town? Since we are at approximately the halfway point of the trip and nothing other that the lunch with Anna really happened today, I've decided to reflect on the trip thus far...

Most Exciting Moment: Definitely escaping the flooding car two nights ago. If that remains the most exciting part of the entire trip, I am totally okay with that!

Most Magical Moment: Fireflies in Indiana. I'm from California and we don't have fireflies there, so seeing them for the first time was really cool.

Biggest Surprise: My dad showing up in West Virginia. Sneaky little bastard!

Funniest Moment: My dad thinking that he accidentally bought the amethyst geode that my mom got for him in South Dakota. He was going to surprise us with it when we got home, LOL!

Biggest Disappointment: Parcel delivery service in the United States (postal service, UPS, etc.) I waited in vain for two weeks for some stuff to show up at my parents house before I left and they never did. One of them was the Interagency Pass for the National Parks, so I ended up having to buy a second one. Those suckers are $80.00 a piece! My sister's cheese was supposed to be overnighted from Wisconsin and it showed up three days later! And, I still don't have my cell phone charger 'cuz it never showed up at my aunt & uncle's house! I'm gonna have to buy one now 'cuz trying to coordinate mailing it to another stop is basically going to be impossible, and I've already gone way too long without my cell phone.

Coolest Natural Wonder: Devil's Tower, WY (w/bonus prairie dogs!) Just go, trust me.

Coolest Man Made Attraction: I'm gonna have to give this one to Hillbilly Hot Dogs. That place is an absolute riot!

Coolest City: Chicago. So much to do, so little time! Plus, the public transportation rocks!!!

General Assembly: What can I say? It was and will be the largest and probably most important part of the trip. I learned so much there and made a lot of new friends. Will the Presbyterian Church ever become the open and embracing church that we want to be? Of course it will. The only question is, how long is it going to take? I've met some of the people now that are fighting for equality in this denomination, and I can confidently say that the cause is in very good hands. I will definitely need to step up my involvement, because that is the right thing to do. Of course, this will mean playing less Magic, but with Russ and Doug gone, less Magic seems to be in the cards. (No pun intended)

Day 338 (Flood)

To say that today was interesting would be a severe understatement. It started out rather tame; we went to the Huntington Art Museum. They don't allow you to take pictures there, but I was able to get some pictures of their conservatory. They had some pretty cool plants there.

For lunch, we went to Hillbilly Hot Dogs. This place was a riot! Anyone in the Tri-State area absolutely MUST, MUST, MUST pay it a visit! We went to the original one in Lesage. There are two other locations, but the original has the most outrageous decor, including two old school buses for seating!

Jamie Oliver says Hillbilly Hot Dogs is "A" okay!

We went home for a while, then went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. After that, we went to JC Penny's to "walk off the calories." It started to rain really hard, and when the store closed, a lot of the patrons were taking shelter from the rain, staring out into the parking lot in disbelief.

Little did we know, this was only the beginning of our problems. We finally gave up on waiting for the rain to subside and made a run for the car. The rain continued to pour during the 20 minute car ride back. There's a little creek that runs alongside the rural road leading up to my aunt and uncle's house. This little fella' had swollen many times it's normal size and was now flooding the road. It hadn't been raining all that long, so my uncle thought we would be able to get back to the house. As you can probably guess, water got up into the car and it died. We stayed in the car for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do, but the water was rising fast, and when water started seeping to the cab, we decided we needed to get out of the car as fast as possible.

Luckily, the car had stalled out across the street from one of their neighbor's homes, and we waded through the road-turned-creek towards her car port. My Uncle knocked on her door and she joined us outside as we watched helplessly as the water level continued to rise. My uncle had left the emergency lights blinking and another neighbor showed up to see what had happened. The seven of us watched from the car port as the water level kept getting higher and higher, the water eventually sweeping over the hood of the car.

After about an hour, the rain lessened and the water level dropped. We went out to the car to see the damage. The emergency lights were still blinking, but the water had ripped up a 2' x 2' section of asphalt which was now leaning against the grill of the car, along with some logs and various other forms of debris. Unfortunately, it was too dark for me to get any pictures of any of this.

Another neighbor drove by and help us push the car off the road. He left to get gas with the intention of coming back to tow my uncle's car back to their house. By the time he did get back, we decided it would be best just to push the car onto the neighbor's driveway and leave it there for the night. So, in the dark, in the pouring rain, my uncle, my dad, the two guys from the truck and I heaved and shoved and pushed that car up onto the driveway. Then the guys gave us a ride back to my uncle's house in the back of their truck. I would never wish for this to happen again or to happen to anyone, but damn if it might not end up being the most exciting part of this trip.

We are all showered and dried now and the rain is still coming down. According to the guys in the truck, the rain has washed out a decent chunk of the road, so we are stuck here until it gets fixed, but my uncle assures me this will happen first thing in the morning.

Tune in tomorrow to see what happens next on "Charles & Nora's Trip Across America!"

PICTURE OF THE DAY: Some of you will get this. Some of you won't.