Wilkes-Barre, Penn., … pronounced like Wilksbury … I just learned is the boyhood home of swing musician Tommy Dorsey. Good to know. It is also the jumping off point on the road to Scranton … you know Scranton, the fictitious home of the branch office of Dunder Miflin paper company … you know … The Office.
Well when I learned I was within two hours of Dwight, Michael and the DM gang, I said two words.
“Road trip!”
The drive from Jonestown (which is just north of Harrisburg, Hershey, Annville and all that) toward Scranton on I-81 is a nice little jaunt passing through rolling hills and forested mountains. The trees were just starting to change into their bright fall attire — a few reds, golds and yellows mixed into a blanket of green all over the countryside.
On the day I made the drive, of course it was raining again … seems like it has been rainging here for weeks, while other parts of the country need this moisture. Anywho, there was also a scenic little fog, hugging the hills and obscuring my vision as I zoomed along. Fog has a way of setting a mood and making everything look like it should be a postcard.
So, as I drove along Wilkes-Barre on the interstate, I glanced over and saw a huge church on a hill, shrouded in fog, but with a few rays of sunlight hitting it too. Quite picturesque. I took the next exit, hoping the sun would continue. Rainbows make pretty good landscape photos too … but as of 10 a.m., still no clearing. That is the only reason I stopped. W-B turned out to be a great diversion. I bolted down Main Street and circled W-B’s Public Square … where I found both a Barnes & Noble (the King’s College location) and the DD of the East … Duncan Donuts.
Get this. What the funk Dunk!?! No Wi-Fi at this location? Oh well … there are about a dozen other Wi-Fi hotspots within range of the donut shop, and several are not password protective, although the signals were sporadic. The hotspots popped up on my Wi-Fi finder as if to say “climb aboard.” I did. And therefore I blog.
No Wi-Fi often means no pings … but Uncle Dunk, I will give you 3 pings for a decent cup of coffee and a seasonal little pumpkin donut. No Wi-Fi is so 2002. Really? At least the store was open. The Barnes/Noble across the street opens at noon.
There is a dude in DD rolling up last months promotional poster, he just pulled from the wall. It reminds me of a late night visit to Dunkin that my high school buddy Randy and I made so long ago. We offered the staff $10 for the poster on the wall because we liked the slogan “It’s worth the trip.” I guess you had to have been there.
There are one or two other laptop types here at DD, but no doubt the Wi-Fi-less nature has scared some away. Next to me is a young man reading a newspaper and pulling coupons (a precursor of groupons) from the pages. (He must have known the Wi-Fi her is sketchy.) I am tempted to jokingly ask him what that strange, archaic thing is he is messing with … made of paper … and filled with information. But I didn’t.
Meanwhile, I realize my camera is in the car and I need the memory disc out of it for an upload. I think about asking the newspaper guy as second question … to see if he will watch my computer as it walked to the car. But the car is close, in plain sight so I blow it off.
It is cold outside and I barge out the door in my shorts and t-shirt, leaving my coat behind. As I walked out, I was thinking this must look strange to the other donut eaters … just storming out the door, leaving my stuff behind. It occurred to me that they would see, as i pulled the camera from the car, and returned and they would understand my rush.
But … what if i had stepped into the path of an oncoming car by mistake. HA … now that would have puzzled them. They might think I had just had it with this blog and walked into oncoming traffic deliberately.
Well … i made it back safely, and my life and this blog did not end in mystery. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to craft (a word I only use tongue-in-cheek) a few shots of old churches and such around town.
Know what I saying?
