There and Back Again (pt.4)

A Companion Trip to the US of A

Got chocolate milk?

So we had spent the night in New Jersey…

The next morning, I was feeling a little overloaded and needed a breather to myself to lay in bed and read by myself, and eventually Jackie and Martie took Miki to the park for a while. Us three remaining decided to make breakfast for everyone after that, and I showed people how I make scrambled eggs with soft yolks, which seems to be something only I have ever accomplished, based off the reactions I get. 

After a pleasant breakfast, Chrissy, Mary, and I headed off to a local mall to hunt for some things Chrissy was looking for. It was nice to just get out and go somewhere for a while, even though I notoriously despise malls. We kicked around trying to find things for an hour or two before returning and eventually sending Mary on her way back to New York. We simultaneously gathered up our Miki and headed out to meet up with Chrissy’s dad elsewhere in the state. 

I couldn’t actually tell you where in Jersey we stopped, but we picked him up and headed to the corner diner—apparently diners are everywhere in New Jersey, to the point that “diner hopping” is an activity that teenagers do for fun, which involves going diner to diner and ordering the cheapest thing on the menu. I had a very acceptable (side) Caesar salad there, no chicken this time, while Chrissy had eggplant parmesan and Miki did not eat his fries. It was pretty good food but it wouldn’t surprise me if people take one look at these diner menus and get full analysis paralysis. 

We went back to visit with some of Chrissy’s dad’s friends for a while, before heading back to Pennsylvania, with rumor of weather warnings… it definitely snowed 10 cm or so in the time we were inside visiting, that’s for sure. We scoffed at first but…

That was one hell of a return drive. They use so much salt on the roads in the US and somehow our rental Kia did not like it, resulting in a murky film on the windshield that was so ever-present that we ran out of washer fluid just after we got out of Philadelphia (we had intended to avoid the city, incidentally, but missed the turnoff). The entire trip from there on out was interesting to say the least, as there was nowhere to pull over to clean the window, let alone buy new washer fluid. Let’s just say that the wet wipes that Leona had left with me came in handy. We were very glad to relax after that trip. We didn’t stay up too late, but maybe I polished off the last of my Mike’s Hards when we got back. 

We had one day left in Coatesville before our trip home, so we went to the YMCA, where Chrissy attended another class and I again did some yoga and stretching on my own (until she joined me, of course). We then hit the pool for an hour, followed by a hot tubbing. It was a nice place! I tried to do some of the belly-dance moves that I learned in the fall in the water and it was very fun to try—some moves became considerably easier, while others became considerably harder. 

After that, we went for pizza and sat on the opposite end of the pizzeria from the TV because it was inauguration day and we didn’t want to watch that garbage, especially with it falling on MLK Jr. Day. We enjoyed our slices and then checked out a disappointing dollar store before heading back to have another night in. 

It’s fun to stay at the…

Our last morning involved me delving into the chocolate milk that I bought before we went to AC and had thus neglected to drink. It also once again involved the YMCA, though this time I participated in the Pilates class, which is something I’ve never actually done before, as I get the same sort of workout from Ashtanga yoga, which I prefer. It was fun to try something new though, and learn about a few new tricks and techniques, as well as how to use a new resistance tool. It’s always good to have as many options in my arsenal to deal with my chronic pains as possible, so I’m always glad for the chance to have a new experience trying something out. 

I admit that I really liked the YMCA on the whole. It had tons of classes, basketball courts (which were mainly being used for pickleball), aerobics rooms, a pretty well-stocked gym, stretching areas, and a children’s play place (for paying members) that had fully Finnish-styled tontut as decorations, which gave me a little extra delight. We were also amused to find the faulty Finnish on their welcome sign though… (points if you can spot it in the photo below).

We decided that we would have one more trip to a pizzeria before leaving the country, with the first freshly made pizza of the trip eaten in-restaurant for Chrissy, and probably the best Caesar salad (with non-powdered parmesan cheese!) of my trip so far as well! Plus the lady working there was really nice. 

After we returned to Chrissy’s mom’s place, I noticed that I was particularly exhausted for some reason and went to have a bit of a snooze. After that, I woke up to find that my stomach was not feeling particularly agreeable… oh hey, remember how norovirus was going around? Well, if I had it, it was the day we left, amusingly enough—just my luck, right? I knew it would go down that way. Fortunately, my stomach’s funky on a good day when I’m jetlagged and out of my routines, so I managed just fine after we had packed up, said our goodbyes, and headed out on the road once more. 

Miki slept through most of the car ride, only waking up when we stopped at a drug store to grab a couple of things. Then we reversed-engineered our way back to the car rental place and airport, met a guy in the security line who used to be a roadie for some heavy bands (and was in one himself for a while, though I can’t recall the name), and sat ourselves down in an Irish pub to get some broccoli gratin to munch on before boarding our flight. I appreciate that, like me, Chrissy doesn’t see the point in queuing to get aboard, so we ate at our leisure before heading over to get on the plane. 

We weren’t seated together this time around, but I did still have a full row of four seats to myself, so after my meal showed up, I settled down watching (and dozing through) the new Wonka movie before doing my best to sleep for the return flight. Due to the gulf stream, it’s only an 8-hour return flight, but we had a good tail wind, so it ended up being less than 7½ hours by the time we landed. 

At that point, we lost one another getting off the plane, as I had planned to meet them at luggage, but ended up being detained because… despite having been at a casino where I used it for ID and having left the country, it turned out that nobody informed me and I did not notice that my residence permit had expired. Well, oops… fuck. I ended up getting a small fine for it and they sent me on my way, so it wasn’t more than an annoying delay in the end, but it did cause me a pretty hefty panic (I have my history with immigration services, after all), even though they assured me that my residence status was not a problem. 

So it was a bit of a rude return at the end of an otherwise very fun trip. In fact, I am really glad to have gone on this trip right now, because… with everything that’s happened since the 20th, it’s hard to be okay with America right now. I was grateful to have visited there for a week, during inauguration, because we see so many awful people in the news and online that we forget sometimes that there are a lot of genuinely nice, kind, good, friendly, helpful people who live there too, they just don’t make as much noise, nor do they need to constantly call attention to themselves. 

I was reminded that, despite the horrifying sugar content in everything there (on average, nearly double what it is in Finland), there are a lot of great things and great people in the USA as well, and the rest of us should not forget that and turn Americanophobic. So, thanks to Chrissy and America for a fun trip. I’d like to come back again someday, maybe visit my friends out in Connecticut? Let’s see what 2026 brings!