Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

We went down for a hockey game between the Pens and the Calgary Flames. We got up at 6am on yesterday (Saturday) and set off. We got our dose of Timmy's... I realized we never drink so much as when we're on a road trip when we become caffeine whores. Anyway, the drive was nice. Who knew the state of Pennsylvania was so pretty? Lots of rolling hills and valleys, very unlike the boring flatness of Southern Ontario. Nothing out of the ordinary, except across the border it's deer season so we'd occasionally see hunters in fluorescent orange suits in the woods as we're zooming by. On a side note, my grandmother told me that when you're hunting you have to bring pink toilet paper. If someone sees white flapping around (like when you're wiping after a doo doo), they could assume it's the butt of a deer and take aim. Ouch. Sage advice if you ever think of going out into the bush during hunting season.

The drive took about 6 hours, maybe less. We stopped at the outlet mall in Grove City. Much to buy, nothing that really caught our eye. I liked the one in Michigan better. We did find some roadside stores that sell fireworks and Mr. Stinky almost wet his pants. We didn't buy too too much in case we get stopped at the border, but their shit is a fraction of what you pay in Ontario. I got a brick that shoots 100 crayon-sized missiles with reports for: $2.95US!!!

Pittsburgh is a nice city. The buildings were nice. Very unique architecture... although my knowledge of architecture doesn't extend past "arcs are strong". Modern buildings, archaic buildings, buildings over roads, roads through buildings, interesting stuff.

We sat in the upper bowl of the arena directly behind home net. They were actually good seats, this way we could see the Flames on offense twice. There were also a lot of Flames fans. We wore our jerseys and didn't feel out of place, the fans were friendly enough as well. A little bit of ribbing but it was in good fun. Calgary won 3-2 and we were happy.

We thought about driving home after the game but hotels are cheap down there and Mr. Stinky was tired so we stayed down. People in the next room were loud and rowdy into the early hours of the morning. We were pissed because we had wanted to get some sleep and leave early so we probably only got about 3-4 hours of sleep. I really wanted to exact some revenge in the line of fireworks and snowballs. I was even thinking of pouring water under their door and soaking their carpet. When we got up at 5am this morning, Mr. Stinky banged on their walls a few times. Dumbasses!

Lake effect really drives the snow down when she feels like it. It had snowed 1-3 inches overnight and was still going when we left. Some spots were OK, others were not; we drove in white-out conditions. AT LEAST PEOPLE KNEW HOW TO DRIVE IN IT!!! Southern Ontario has nothing on the northeastern states. Bridges were icy and driving was hazardous at times. Mr. Stinky had to be really careful and even though I could barely keep my eyes opened, I made myself stay awake to watch out for cars, deer, edge of the road...

So we made it back OK. No snow here, but 5 times the amount of salt on the ground. We drove just under 1200 km in 2 days. Not bad. We enjoyed the trip, we'll have to think about where we want to go next time. It'll have to have fireworks, though. ;0)