Vacation Day 6

When I was back in college I had this gag about driving my car out west. At the time I was driving an 1988 Plymouth Reliant. It was a beat up car and most people knew that it had no chance of getting all the way cross country. I told people that I was going to drive that car until it broke down and I was just going to settle where ever it broke down. I usually followed this up by saying with my luck my car would break down in Harrisburg.

Three years after college I decided that I was finally going to move west. One of the people I had to visit before I left was Jimmy Gownley in Harrisburg. This was in the spring of 1998. On that trip my car died in Downingtown, PA just west of Philadelphia. The joke now was that I had to settle in Downingtown. Anyone who knew the plan of moving to Portland, OR really got a laugh out of this.

Today I am visiting Harrisburg for the first time since that trip in 1998. I borrowed a car from my dad to get out here. On this trip that car is having issues. I am waiting to hear from the mechanic . I hope I am not stuck in Harrisburg for too long on this vacation.



I realize that there are a lot of things that happen on this vacation that I am not going to write about. There are lots of interactions with family and friends that I will keep to myself. I spent most of yesterday and today hanging out with Jimmy Gownley, my first college roommate. We talked about everything from family life to politics, film to comic books, work to what our lives are really about. We talked about what our old college friends where doing and made jokes about old times. I realize that I am not going to write about these conversations.

This vacation is different then others. Since I am here to see family and friends it might be less interesting for people to know what it going on. It is not as universial as going to a city to just to sight see. I know that I do not want everyone to know what I think of everything that happens on this vacation. It feels good to keep some things to myself.