After a very nice stay in Savannah (thanks to some great recommendations from several friends, you know who you are), I set off north. I didn’t have anything really planned until I got to Philadelphia (and even that was mostly to get a cheesesteak, which I’ve been craving for a while). I’d initially planned to stop in Richmond, but had some free time, so continued on until I reached Fredericksburg.

I recalled the other day that I have an app on my phone called Untappd for rating and recommending beers you try, which is a great way to keep track of new beers so you can refer back to them later. It’s been more than a year since I’ve used it, because, you know, pandemic, so I didn’t remember it until now, which is annoying, since there were several California craft beers I tried and I’ve completely forgotten their names.

It’s not bad.

When I got into Fredricksburg I hopped on the Expedia app to find a place to stay. Punched in Fredericksburg. Was too tired to realize that it popped up Fredricksburg Texas, not Fredricksburg VA, even though I was IN FREDERICKSBURG VA. Tried to cancel, the Expedia app told me to fuck off and the trip was non-refundable. Ended up having to make a second booking for Virginia.

Also, I witnessed a delightful van:

In Fredricksburg I stopped in at Chatham Manor, an important spot during the Civil War. Unfortunately, the house itself was closed to the public:

There were a few external exhibits, however, including some that talked about the history of slavery. There was also several references to Chatham Manor as “the Big House” which made me cringe and also made me want to watch Django Unchained again.

There was also a statue:

I really like that in Art; sculptors (?) can just be like “and in this one she’s playing with her dog and also her left boob is exposed, why, because it’s her favorite boob, now fuck off” and everyone just accepts it. Sort of. I have to assume if my family had visited this site when I was a kid I would have been dragged away from the statue so as to not let the unwholesome seductive image of an exposed breast corrupt my mind, because that’s the type of people my parents are, but still. It’s fun!

I stopped off in Philadelphia to get a cheesesteak and went to Jim’s South Street. I parked maybe twelve blocks away and walked to get there. There was a line outside the door. While I was waiting outside the door, a trio of extremely drunk girls (this was maybe 4:30pm, but hey, it’s spring break) walked past. One of them stopped, inhaled deeply, and said “that smells so fucking good” to her friends. You’re telling me.

Inside, people were being incredibly compliant with social distancing, mask usage, etc, which was probably because of the massive bouncer they had working the door. Turns out having muscle telling you “stand right there” and pointing to the spot you need to stand at is really effective and making people follow the fucking rules.

I spent a bit of time in Philly, but opted to get a move on, since I’ve been here before, and I’d like to reserve some more time for places I haven’t been to. I really do want to move over to the East Coast, though, or some place closer to it. There is quite simply a level of history here that the West Coast (best coast) doesn’t have, and an amazing number of things I’d like to do or see. In an alternate version of this road trip, I’d like to spend three or four days in every one of these states, learning more about them.

I don’t think I’ve adjusted to the east coast time zone yet.

In other news, I have (very deliberately) been not following the news until the other day. And we’re back to shootings again. What the actual fucking fuck.