Road Trip - City Scamper

To continue where Adam left off:

We all slept in until 12AM the next morning, when Rach woke up, feeling quite sick. It took a while for all of us to completely get up as we all needed the rest, but eventually (and after Erika throwing me outside in the cold) we all got ready to go grocery shopping.

After finding directions to the Weis nearby, we drove there and bought food for the last three meals of our trip, and medicine and tissues for Rach. (We also picked up some dry wood from a house along the way to have a fire, as it had been raining quite a bit). Immediately upon returning from the store we ate our fist real meal in nearly 24 hours, which consisted of microwavable soup and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Next, we walked along a trail that went around a small lake. The lake was frozen, so we also spent a lot of time walking on the ice, which was a lot of fun. Also, slowly the lake became more and more foggy until we couldn’t see the opposite side. Watching this process while on the lake was very cool.

By the time we got back, it was time for dinner. We made a stir fry using only an electric frying pan and some microwavable Tupperware containers. It was delectable, especially as we had not eaten a full good meal for so long.

Having filled our stomaches, and as it was raining outside, we took a 1.5 hour nap, both to catch up with sleep and give the sky some time to let up on the rain.

When we woke up, the rain hadn’t stopped, but we started the task of making a fire outside in the fire-ring anyways. It wasn’t easy as we had no kindling. We ended up prying as much bark and as many small pieces as we could off of the logs.

After about 45 minutes, we finally got the fire started. We immediately tried to cook some Jiffy Pop, but after 30 minutes without much success, we gave up. By then Rach was feeling quite sick, and the wet-coldness had gotten to all of us (despite the fire) and we went inside. We tried eating what we could of the popcorn, but half was burnt (and I mean black and connected burnt) and the other tasted like plastic. So I took what was left and popped it in the microwave (again using tupperware, but this time, it ruined it.)

After some team spider solitaire on the laptops, we watched Music and Lyrics, a pretty good chick flick. Then, after some final talking and goofing around, we went to bed.

So continuing our events… The girls were done with their interviews and now it was time for the guys to do their interviews. We got up and at 9:30 we were ready to head out. The first interview was with Philip Iglehart, who along with his wife Tracy Hetzel work as graphic designers from there home. How cool is that? We got there on time, and had a really good interview.

They worked together in a corporation before going into their own business. At first they had to prove how good they were to get work, but now they get people contacting them all the time. They don’t even need to go looking for work; their name gets passed on by word of mouth.

One of the most interesting things is that Philip doesn’t have a degree. However, he did say that one would help a lot. For me at least, being interested in graphic design, I really liked how they were able to do the things they liked while staying at home and working with a bunch of different companies and people.

After this interview, we went back to the hotel and packed up our belongings. The cleaning guys kept talking to us and seemed to be pretty anxious for us to leave so they could clean the room. Finally we had everything ready and checked out. Then we went back to the Inner Harbor area, and ended up traveling around until we found a pretty nice diner and had lunch.
I just want to say, as the driver of the car, that I don’t enjoy driving in the city. All the one way streets make missing a turn quite a hassle. So missing one turn to get back to the highway means 10 minutes of trying to find a one way street going the right direction so you can go around the block again.

That happened a couple of times on our way out of Baltimore, so we got the next interviews a few minutes late. Gavin and I interviewed a Help Desk Engineer and a Network Engineer for Dataprise Inc. They both had a lot of good stuff to say, although I think that being a Network Engineer would be more fun than working at a desk helping people’s computer problems. The networking is more specific but seems more interesting.

Both of the Engineers seemed to be pretty laid back guys who enjoyed their work. They both stressed the importance of experience instead of, say, book knowledge. Degrees are very helpful, but there is no substitute for hands on experience.

Then came the 5 hour drive to the cabin. Boy that was long. After already driving a couple hours, driving 5 more while it got dark was quite the experience. Gavin and Rachel slept in the back seats for a while, and then were grumpy since they were so packed in. After a few pee stops and lots of complaining, we made it to the cabin.

It was about 8:45 and it didn’t look like anyone was in the office, but thankfully they left us our keys. Whew. So we settled in, relaxed, and realized that our interviews were over. To celebrate we watched 300. Contrary to Erika, Gavin and my beliefs, Rachel liked it. So we can all agree on a movie!

Things were just about settled down when Erika and Rachel decided it would be a great idea to tickle me. So after I almost beat them both, Gavin joined them and the three of them managed to beat me. Then it was just a matter of time before each of the rest was attacked by the other 3. Finally we went to sleep and it was soooooo nice.

We didn’t have internet after the last posting so we are going to be writing about each day asap.

Day 3 in Philly was the day for Rachel and my interviews. We stayed at Temple this night assisted by the R.D. there named Ryan. We had to go to 3 different areas of Philly with less than 40 minutes to get to each. We had stayed up late the night before so we could figure out where each interview would be. The first interview was at the pregnancy place. We interviewed a woman there who was very thorough in all that she said and with all of our questions. That interview went for over an hour and left us only about an hour to get to our next interview. We had to take the trolley. We were more used to taking the subway, so when we had to take the trolley none of us knew what to do so we ended up only just getting to our second interview on time. We went to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The woman we interviewed there wouldn’t let us record her. We interviewed a social worker in the children’s autism department and her intern who was only going to be there for a few more weeks I think she said. That interview was ok…but only lasted for a short time.
The last interview was the most nerve racking interview we had. We had less than an hour to get there and it was in a very different part of the city than either of the other ones were in. We followed the directions we had and we took the trolley again. When we got off we started walking and when we had to pick left or right, we ended up picking the wrong direction and walking for about 9 blocks in the opposite direction of the place we had to go which was 9 blocks from where the trolley ended up. That made us 18 blocks away. There was garbage everywhere! There were no garbage cans on the street for people to put their trash in, so they threw it in the alleys between houses or just on the sidewalks. It was disgusting. During this whole walk, my feet, as well as Rachel’s, were dying from the heels we wore..but Rachel had brought extra sneakers. So I started limping along and when Rachel called the woman we were going to go interview and we found out we went in the wrong direction, we all needed to take a break. So we stopped and Rachel set down the tripod and in the fluster of things we kind of forgot it. We didn’t realize we had left it until we were almost to the place we had the interview at. So, at this point Adam turned around to go get it and Rachel and I didn’t want him to go by himself so we sent Gavin with him. (they did end up finding it where we had left it Thank God!) So Rachel and I went on by ourselves to find the place of the interview. We were in a really bad part of the city for two white girls that were dressed up in fancy clothes and carrying purses and a video camera to be by ourselves. The area was predominantly made up of african americans, which made us seem even more out of place. So, we were getting shouted at and hit on everywhere we turned. I thought it would look better if one of us were on the phone, and it also made me more calm, so I called my boyfriend while we walked. Nothing bad happened to us, but it was still scary. We eventually found the place, but we were an hour late to the interview (which looked bad but the women there understood). Once we finally got there the receptionist was really nice and gave us some drinks and we sat down in a nice comfy conference room where the interview would take place. I realized that my pants had been basically rubbing layers of skin off my legs so I couldn’t walk anymore because it looked like there was a huge rash up and down my legs. The guys eventually got there and we convinced them to go get the car because of my feet and my legs. The interview went well, but we had to wait like an hour after we got there because Wanda (the social worker there) was really busy. The place the interview was at was a substance abuse rehabilitation center. They only help women, and primarily african american women, get into programs that will help them get over their addiction, such as rehab or detox. So after the interview, which went really well, Rachel and I had to wait for the guys to bring the car. We sat on a couch and I ended up sitting next to a woman that was there waiting to find out if she was going to be admitted into a detox program or not. She had been there for a big chunk of the day and when I sat down next to her I felt like God was telling me I needed to talk to her. So I did. I wrote down as much as I could remember in the long car ride to Baltimore, MD after we left Temple.

Her name was Melissa and she is 29 years old. She started heroin when she was 18 and decided to quit before she turned 30, so this is hopefully her last attempt out of about 3 other times she has tried to stop. She’s from a smaller town in PA where she has a husband and 3 sons who are 12, 6, and 4. She left them 3 years ago to come to Philly for easier access to drugs. She visited her home a year ago but was arrested for no reason. Melissa said she was at her mom’s house which is in a drug area of the town she lives in and when the cops didn’t recognize her they picked her up while she was on her way to a store for a candy bar. She was clean at this point. When the cops found out that Philly had a warrant out for her arrest she was taken back there and put into jail. When she got out, her husband was coming to pick her up, but he got lost on his way there and ended up in New Jersey so she hasn’t been able to get out of Philly since. They gave her money when she was let out and soon after, she started using again. The only question I asked her that she got upset about was when I asked what she was arrested for. 3 counts of prostitution and 1 count of possession. She seemed ashamed of the prostitution which is a good thing, but nothing can be taken back now. Her boyfriend, who has never touched drugs, and who loves her, would be the father of the baby she may be pregnant with right now. She is still married though, but the boyfriend is still planning on supporting her going to detox. Melissa has tried to quit before but has always started again because all of the other times she was trying to stop for her family, but since she is doing it for herself now she will be able to stick with it she said. Her husband is planning on taking her back even through all she has done. She is planning on leaving Philly which is good because she can get drugs anywhere, including the nearest corner if she were to walk out of the place we were at she could have gotten them. She looked at Rachel and I and told us that she was jealous and she wished she could be in our position without having to wake up every morning sick because we need the drugs in our system like she does. If she could she would go back to life before drugs. Her friend was there to do the program with her and Melissa said she knows she can do it now. Her husband is ther for her (they have been togehter since 4th grade and he was the first boy she ever talked to when she moved to PA) and her boyfriend is willing to let her go back to her husband when she is done with the program, but will support her and cherish the time he has left with her now. I asked her why she started using. She said to deal with the pain; her husband had sustained an injury while working and he had to stop working. She had to start trying to support her and her whole family, as well as raise her kids. She ended up losing her job and losing her house. She felt like a failure. For some reason, she turned to drugs to get through it and it obviously ended up consuming her. We kept telling her she can do it and her response was always that she knew she could and she will this time. We put a note in her bag telling her we enjoyed getting to talk to her and good luck. Hopefully she gets to use this as inspiration and doesn’t just throw it out. She could definitely use as much prayer as possible to stick through with this.

At our interview with Wanda she said something about how a lot of users have what they see as legitimate reasons to start. Wanda said people need to learn to not judge others for using drugs. They go through things that sometimes we can’t imagine. This applies to Melissa’s situation. We may not think she had a good reason, but a lot of us haven’t dealt with what she had and even if we had to, we know we can turn to God to give us strength. She doesn’t know that she can. I think if we all showed God’s love and grace to others then they might want what we have. A relationship with Him.

That is just the beginning of that long and eventful day. After all of that happened, we got to ride in a car for a long long time, we got lost again, and when we finally got to the hotel we didn’t have internet so we couldn’t really do much on the computer. But, we ended up going to the inner harbor in Baltimore for a bit, then we went to a diner where these drunk men were staring at Rach and I which was a bit ridiculous, then me and Rach took a bubble bath in our bathing suits while the guys slept. So that was the end to that long long day.

sorry this is so long, but this day deserved a long post.
Erika

So Adam and I just went for a walk to the car because we needed the printed out directions to our interviews tomorrow. We were getting close to the car when we saw a man rummaging through the trash. He said good evening to us and asked if we had any change. Neither of us had anything on us. We went to the car and grabbed some muffins and chex mix and offered them to him. He told us he was diabetic and that those foods would probably kill him. We offered him all of the food we had in the car, but because of his health condition he couldn’t eat any of it. He asked for gloves but we hadn’t brought any with us.

He showed us his tags from Vietnam and told us that he was a war veteran. He told us he had served our country and had done his duty. He told us as if this was how he was showing his worth as a person. He said no one cares about you when you are poor. It was like he felt like he needed to prove himself by telling us he had served the country. We ended up parting with him wishing us a good evening and us disappointed that we couldn’t help.

It was heartbreaking that we couldn’t help this guy…we really wanted to give him something and couldn’t. I felt so helpless not being able to do anything for him. What is even more heartbreaking though is that this guy and too many others experience this every day. I can’t even imagine being at a place where I needed to dig through trash cans to survive. I can only imagine how humbling it would be. It’s awful that a person should feel the need to explain their worth through their military record. Aren’t we all infinitely worthy just for being creatures of the Almighty God? It’s terrible that because of his experiences, this man felt like he needed to prove to us that he was worthy of our attention. It shouldn’t be this way.

We came back feeling pretty disheartened knowing this guy was going to be out in the cold hungry tonight. It felt like my heart was breaking but I can only imagine how much more grieved God must be to know what his child is experiencing. I put hope in knowing that, even when we feel helpless and out of control, God looks after all of his children regardless of what society thinks of them. I ask that you would pray for the man we met tonight–that he wouldn’t know hunger and cold anymore and that he would know God’s love through the actions and words of all the people around him.

- Rachel

So, today we spent another day in Philadelphia. First we went to the The Franklin Institute Science Museum
. There we enjoyed learning about electricity and the body. We also enjoyed the Star Wars display. (Well, actually, Adam and I about peed our pants. It was amazing! There were tons of props from the movies and costumes. The girls enjoyed it, but were not as excited. But now Rach actually wants to watch Star wars, so that’s an accomplishment.)

After that, we moved into Messiah’s Philadelphia, and ate a great meal at Temple’s cafeteria. (they have slushlies and hot/iced fancy coffee drinks!). Then we took the metro to Rittenhouse square, where we enjoyed a great view of the city from the park. (Especially Rach, who enjoyed being able to gaze at the buildings whilst standing amongst trees.)

Next, we walked around trying to find a coffee shop that was still open. Unbeknownst to us, around that area of Philadelphia, nothing is opened up at midnight. We searched until we got to cold to care about anything except for being in a warm building, when we found the nearest metro station and rode home.

Overall, it was a good day for all of us. It was a different experience than yesterday, but good.

Here are some pictures from the day:
Day 2

Well, we made it to Philly in one piece. The car ride was nice and long…but Gavin slept and Rachel drew on Adam’s arm and I did a bit of homework in the back seat. We had to pack the car so so full! The trunk barely closed. Then Gav and I had to try to get in the back seat..it was interesting to say the least. Once we got in Philly Rach got a little claustrophobic with all the tall buildings around her…she got really shaky when we got off the subway and were surrounded by them. She has to see the sky. That is why we both live in the country…we are definitely NOT city girls.

After we got here we had to park a bit down the road from the RD’s house we are staying at, then we went and explored South Street. There were some pretty awesome shops there. We ate at this amazing greek restaurant and saw some awesome art work on the walls outside of the buildings and there was a garden in the middle of South Street called the “Magic Garden” that was completely made of trash. (I’ve posted the pictures I took today here).

After South Street we had quite an adventure getting back to the house. We tried to ride the subway and it was more challenging then we expected. The man that worked there didn’t know how to get to the street we had to get to because he is from NJ…but we eventually found it. This whole time we were lost, Rach was about to pee her pants! But, she made it.

Now we are about to go to get some REAL philly cheesesteaks! We are either going to Pat’s or Gino’s because those are the two famous ones here and Kate Nicely (the RD) told us they stay open all night so it will be great.

Rach and I get the upstairs spare room, Adam gets the couch, and Gav gets the basement tonight. That is if we ever get to bed. Well…time to walk .7 miles to the food place. Night!

Erika