Asia—Phoenix
MoTW—Out There
3:25 pm: Found Centralia after driving through it. Saw signs with
mileage leading up to Centralia, but someone managed to end up at the
end of a road with the only options a right or left turn. The woman
looked at the Mapquest directions and stated that a right turn would
take us to Hershey so we had missed Centralia and needed to backtrack.
So, back we went and came to a 4-way stop. Took a right turn and drove
down the road a bit but saw nothing of interest except woods that COULD
contain a hillbilly killer or two, so back to the 4-way stop. Went
straight this time, but again nothing of interest to us since we were
looking for some big gaping holes in the earth. Went back to the 4-way
and turned left (figure this out in your mind, folks) and she saw a
building with Centralia something-or-other on it, so we were there.
Turned down a road and then another where we stopped. I got out to smoke
(of course) and looked around and saw absolutely nothing of interest.
Got back in the car and drove up another road which led to nowhere and
got out again. Nothing except an empty wine bottle and a spray-painted
outline of a body which she photographed since we needed SOMETHING.
Again, no big gaping holes in the earth. Got back in and drove around a
bit and got the idea to stop at a house and ask where these fucking
holes were but decided against it since we might be asking someone whose
relatives got swallowed up by one of those gaping holes and that would
bring back bad memories and they would curse us because we were nothing
more than stupid, asshole tourists. With a sigh and a heavy heart, I
admitted defeat and we were off to Hershey.*
4:30 pm: Entered Hershey. Saw the amusement park. Saw all the traffic.
Didn't like it. Drove around a bit and ended up at a outlet mall where
the woman tried to find some info about anything, but came up
empty-handed. She couldn't even shop because the stores were all closing
by the time we got there, but she did manage to find a bathroom. I
smoked while I waited. Nothing else to do. Kind of wanted to check out
the candy factory but couldn't figure out how to get there so we left.
Batting .000 so far.
6:26 pm: Reached Gettysburg. Found a Days Inn, dropped off our stuff and
headed into town.
6:50: Hit a roundabout and went around and took the wrong exit. Turned
around after a bit, went back to the roundabout and took a guess at
which of the remaining two exits to take, went around and took it and
actually picked the right one because we found downtown Gettysburg. I
was a bit dizzy from the roundabout though.
7:18 pm: Found a bar called O'Rourkes and had dinner and a couple
beers. Talked about what we wanted to do. Read about a ghost tour back
at the hotel and decided that we would decide after leaving O'Rourkes if
we wanted to take this scary tour.
8:15 pm: Walked to Cemetery Hill and checked out the statues and
monuments. Decided that we would take that ghost tour, but as we were
walking away, I thought that this battle in Gettysburg wasn't that big
since Cemetery Hill wasn't that big. This showed how stupid I am about
Gettysburg and how, maybe, I should have payed more attention in History
class.
8:45 pm: Oh. There's more than one ghost tour.
8:50 pm: Decided on what ghost tour to take. $7.00 a person, but worth
it to see ghosts and haunted shit. I'm psyched! Picked up a couple shot
glasses at the shop that sold the tour tickets then went across the
street to the convenience store and picked up a Diet Pepsi Max so I
could be properly wired when chased by one of those Slimers or whatever
they have in Gettysburg.
9:00 pm: Quite a few people taking this tour. This is gonna ROCK!
(*NOTE: There's actually two Centralias listed in Pennsylvania. Did we
go to the wrong one? The one we were looking for is basically
uninhabited and the one we went to had houses, cars, people and probably
bats. I'm guessing I fucked up and picked the wrong one.)
COMING NEXT: Part 3!
