Traveling

I first wrote the phrase "traveling underground is a good way to keep dry" in 2007. It was the title of an improvisation that my friend Timothy and I did at Berklee College of Music (before I transferred to NEC).

I've always had a fascination with traveling, and modes of transportation. As a child, I remember riding the T into Boston to see Disney on Ice, and being completely blown away by the trains, and moving underground.
When my aunt, uncle, and cousins moved to New Hampshire, we would visit them. This was long before Boston's "Big Dig," and we would always end up sitting on the Lower Deck of Interstate 93, elevated high above the city, watching it move around us. I remember going by the old Boston Garden, and being able to see the inside of the arena during its demolition - seating intact, with just the wall facing the highway removed.

After my High School graduation, my father and I drove an antique Ford Model T up to Maine from our house. It took 8 hours of back roads to get there. Something especially neat was driving up through Boston - Up Dorchester Ave., through the North End, and over into Charlestown. We turned so many heads, and in passing a duck boat full of tourists, could hear the clattering of their camera shutters.

During my first year of studies in Boston, I knew I wanted to leave my first school. I took an audition at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and that trip was really interesting. It took about 7 hours to get there. My mother and I drove down Interstate 95, passing by NYC on the way. In Philly, I didn't know where anything was. I still don't. I've passed through it a few times since I was there in 2006. I really wanted to go there, although if I had left Boston, I probably wouldn't have done anything that I've been able to do here. I sometimes catch myself imagining what might be different had I gone there.

Since September, I've gone to Central PA three times to visit my best friend, who moved there last summer to pursue a Master's degree. On this most recent trip (June 2-8), I was lucky to be given a flight voucher from Providence to Philadelphia (I have the best stepmother!) as a graduation present. I hadn't flown for over seven years, so it was basically a brand new thing for me. The take off was fast and exciting, and the flight was really short - cutting about six hours off my travel time. On my return trip, I took Amtrak from Harrisburg to Philly, and a commuter train down to the airport. Adding trains into the mix was a good idea, and something that I'll always do in the future. Going from Harrisburg to State College on a bus is fantastic, because you are being taken on a tour of the Appalachians, but as you go farther east, the landscape on the highway is nothing special. The train was also much quicker.

Over my last spring break, I went out there and used only Buses - I did it overnight. Getting into NY around 1AM, I ate in Times Square, got on another bus to Philadelphia, and hung around Center City for a few hours before catching a third and final bus, arriving in state College at 1PM.

Being in Philadelphia brought back memories of the Uarts trip. Walking around Market and 12th streets, I knew that my mother and I had been there before, and that was a strangely beautiful thing. That's something that is a good marker for many places I go. I am so often cheerfully thinking "We were here."