Day 31

A drive by day, so a good rest before the last three days. We were up and off pretty early, none stop to get on the road, as it was a longish drive by. We had to make Towanda PA before dark. Jack was going to start the driving, but decides not to so BP is driving, which always scares Felipe, not sure why you’d have to ask him that! Now Jack has an iPod which has the Monopoly game on it, and this is the start to vicious Monopoly games, wheeling and dealing and trying to bankrupt each other! Just a game lads! More later.

I ask Felipe to take a pic of a truck with the initials PFC on the back. I’ve asked him to do this because my son John supports Portsmouth Football Club, so he at least might appreciate this pic! Pretty much of a muchness the scenery, although it’s starting to change to rolling hills and not as near as densely wooded as yesterday. We roll into Roanoke, which in fact is a really great little city and has a wonderful old area, which we park in and decide to eat the local BBQ food at The Blues BBQ Company restaurant. Great spiced lunch, but Andriy and Raymond have pizza – not as good as the Bronx boys! Stoked up we move on.

We’re on the road again and I’m seeing signs that maybe indicate that once again I’m back in the Old Country. You just cann’t get away from UK place names! First up are New Market and Edinburg, both close enough spellings for me. Then Winchester, which is very close to where I hold my Camps on the South coast of England, at Lee-on-Solent. Winchester was once the capital of England. Also we’re still in the bible belt, churches and crosses everywhere, hey whatever grabs you. West Virginia comes and goes pretty quickly, as does Maryland. Then the Mason Dixon signs which indicate that this is where the North and the South were divided at one time. PA welcomes us, and by this time Angel has won three games of Monopoly, much to Andriy and Jack’s annoyance. These game seem to last forever! He’s just been crushing them, along with a little help from Felipe though. They trade properties, and wheel and deal, apparently just like the real world Jack says. But there’s no stopping Angel. In a least one of the games Jack and Andriy literally give up in disgust, losing all to Angel. He’s really just too good at this game. Go into finance Angel, I’m sure you’ll do well. Felipe plays to annoy Jack and is always making “ridiculous trades” as Jack says.

Carlisle is next to show up, this is a town on the opposite side of the country from my home town in England. Berwick-on-Tweed is on the East coast of England and on the border with Scotland, while Carlisle is on the West coast of England on the border. Just how many more UK place names will there be?

The Susquehanna river is pretty wide and we are now following this river for quite some time, and it’s getting late, and getting dark. Very dark by the time we get into Towanda. Everywhere is full, even camp sites. There is a huge oil and gas industry in the area and they literally take all the available space in hotels, motels and camp sites. We do find a camp site, but the first one we went ot Felipe was really terrified “Hey this is in the middle of nowhere, we might get killed!” He’s very touchy about stuff like this and trusts no one especially late at night. We do find a camp site and settle in for a good sleep. But before going to sleep Angel reminds us all that he’s the KING of Monopoly – sorry Jack!

BP