My Weekend -or- Soup gets stranded in rural Pennsylvania!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is what I did on Saturday. 'Twas the least-fun day I’ve had all year.

I’m in the George Washington University choir. And, GWU and Bucknell University had a two-chior concert thing this weekend. See, we learn the same music and help each other perform at our respective colleges concerts. So, in order to get to Bucknell, which is located in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, we were supposed to leave GWU at about 9:00AM Saturday morn. I set my alarm for 7:00 to be safe.

Unfortunately, through no fault of my own, I proceed to wake up at 10:00.

Hilarity ensues.

See, this is the only concert we have this spring, and thus it is very important.

My director said that, seeing as this was our only performance the entire year, that anyone not on the bus would fail the course…which I certainly cannot afford to do, as it would kill my GPA and kick me off of my scholarship. So, I try to think of how to get to Lewisburg, PA while sitting in my dorm room.

Greyhound buses! What a great idea!

So, I go online and check fares to Lewisburg. Unfortunately, the only bus that left Washington to Lewisburg left at 7:15 AM, which wasn’t helpful. The best they could do was to get me to Harrisburg (the capital, which is about one and a half hours south by bus.) I take that bus, leaving at about 1:15 and getting to Harrisburg at about 4:25. I proceed to catch ANOTHER Greyhound toward a city called “Sunbury,” which is in the middle of nowhere, but only 20 minutes south of Lewisburg.

The concert is supposed to start at 8:00 PM.

I leave Harrisburg at 4:45 and get in to Sunbury at about 6:10. I have just under two hours to get somewhere 20 minutes away. No problem, right?

Anyway, this town is quite small, and I walk over to the nearest gas station and ask them for the number of a cab company. Sounds reasonable to me. They give me the number, and I go to a pay phone to get one to come my way. I call them up, saying I need a cab to take me from the corner of North Fourth and Arch streets to a place in Lewisburg. The guy on the other line says “Lewisburg? You know that’s going to be about twenty five bucks, right?” I acknowledge the price and accept it. The guy says that a cab would be where I am in about a half an hour.

So, I walk over to the nearby Burger King, took about 10 minutes to eat, and go out to wait on the corner. The cab should be there at about 6:45, and I get out there at roughly 6:25. Waiting 20 minutes in the cold isn’t that bad, I don’t think. 6:45 comes and goes, no sign of any cabbie.

Interestingly enough, I accidently hail a few pizza delivery guys because the little marquees on the top of these cars resemble cabs slightly, and I was in quite a rush, as you can imagine.

So, 6:45 comes and goes, and I decide to wait an additional fifteen minutes just because. To my chagrin, the time ticks past 7:00 with no sign of the taxi. By now it’s getting quite cold outside.

I waltz back in to the convenience store and ask the number for a DIFFERENT cab company, as I wasn’t too pleased with the one I already got. As it turns out, my cab company is the only one in town. So, I go back to the pay phone and start trying to get ahold of this cab company.

Alas!

“The NEXTEL customer you are trying to reach is unavailable at this time.” :mad:

I try the number of a friend of mine (who actually got on the bus) to try to get ahold of anyone in the group so I could explain my predicament. His phone is switched off because, as I learned just a few minutes ago, he didn’t have his charger with him. Luckily, I have the number of the hotel we’re staying at. Perhaps someone is over there!

I call the front desk for the second time (the first was to get an address so I could tell the phantom cabbie where to take me to) and leave a message with the group. As it turned out, I had just missed them. They left not five minutes before to go over for the concert. By now, it’s about 7:40.

So, I call all areound the area asking for any cabbie that would listen if they could help me out. All of them were, for some reason, closed on a Saturday night at about 8:00.

Then, (finally), a turn of fortune! One of the clerks at the gas station offers me a ride to my hotel after she gets off of her shift. Unfortunately, her shift ended at 8:00, the same time as when the concert is supposed to begin. But I really didn’t care about making the concert at that point. I just wanted a place to sleep and rest.

So, she gets off at 8:00, and we get gas, and she drives me to my hotel, about 25 minutes away. It’s now about 8:35, when she drops me off at the hotel, I give her the twenty five bucks I would’ve spent anyway and thank her profusely. I get into the hotel, check in with the front desk, and get into my room. Everyone else arrives at the hotel at about 12:15 after a “night on the town.” :rolleyes:

So, to sum things up, I waste about 75 bucks on transportation and waste an entire day of valuable homework time only to miss my concert two states away by a margin of half an hour. I sleep there, and we drive back, only to sing at our auditorium today at 3:00.

Thus is the story of my weekend. :mad:

2

So are you going to fail the course and lose your scholarship?

3

Ahhh Lewisburg. Prettiest town that houses a federal prison.

4

Shibb, no I won’t. The director said that I more than displayed my dedication to the group.

Update! I just found out why I didn’t wake up. My alarm clock decided to break that morning. The alarm no longer works. :dubious:

5

Wow. You are dedicated. I’m impressed. :slight_smile:

6

Wow. That blows. It’s too bad, too, you missed an opportunity to say something really cool like “Cabbie, if you get me there in twenty minutes, there’s an extra tenner in it for ya!!!” And then you could have arrived just in the nick of time, performed beautifully at the concert, pimped your solo, and got the girl to boot. All down the tubes because of one irresponsible cab company. Sorry man.

7

Central PA has taxis? There’s something I never knew growing up there.

And one day, Soup, you’ll have to go back and explore Bucknell, the most charming and sylvian of the nine colleges and universities I’ve been part of. Glad to hear you made it back to GW in one piece, though.

8

As someone who spent a few years stranded in the wilds of PA (in Williamsport, a beautiful part of the state, but one that is very far from any/all civilization), I sympathise, and am very impressed with your tenacity. You escaped alive, and that is indeed something to be proud of.

I once had a misadventure in Milford, PA (initiated by the meeting of a very large deer and my very small Mazda). I ended up having to hitchhike to Port Jervis, NY to find the nearest town in which I could rent a car, forget about finding a taxi!

9

You know, I didn’t know they had Taxis in Sunbury either… when I lived in Central PA, everybody had a car, and if you wanted to get somewhere, you took your car, because there was no other way. So anyway, the next time you find yourself in a predicament like that, try hitchhiking,you probably would have had better luck.
Oh, and the moral of the story is “get a car”.

10

It may not be possible (or feasible for Soupo) to maintain a car at GWU, jacobsta.

11

Well, I’m glad you got a chance to see Sunbury, Soup! :wink:

As someone who has had a lot of experience with rural Penna on my trips north and south – including excursions to Boiling Springs, Wilbur, and Dorrance (vile), I can only sympathize.

It’s a beautiful state in a lot of places. But trying to get anywhere in that state is an exercise in futility.

Did I mention that it has what I believe is the only two-lane two-digit Interstate in the nation: I-83, which narrows to a single lane in each direction where it leaves Route 22 (or is it 322) to head north to I-81 on the southeast corner of Harrisburg? Have I told you about the Pennsylvania Turnpike concessionaire who doesn’t believe the U.S. issues $50 bills? – but he can’t boil water without burning it either. Have I mentioned that they have been working on I-81 around Scranton since 1988 to my certain knowledge – and still haven’t finished it? Are you aware that it’s impossible to read the signs on U.S. 30 west of Pittsburgh in the rain – my wife and I are still trying to figure out what are the real names of the towns we read as “Ketchup Corners” and “Mustardville” (on the same sign; we decided it must be in Condiment County! ;))

12

Hey, bloody, hey! I grew up in Montgomery, PA, a mere seven miles from Williamsport! I can tell you there is a lot of stuff in Williamsport:

  1. The Little League World Series.
  2. The Hiawatha paddlewheel.
  3. Millionaires’ Row.
  4. Um…
  5. …that’s it.
13

Not any more, Polycarp. It was fixed about five years ago. However, The On-Ramp of Death (at New Cumberland) still remains on I-83. Without a question, the single most dangerous spot on any American highway.

14

I-83 leaves 322 to go to Harrisburg.

And Big_Norse is just a wuss. “Stranded in the wilds,” indeed. :stuck_out_tongue:

15

Wait, wait, so Sunbury is an actual place? And here all these years I thought Weis Markets was claiming to have their headquarters in a non-existant town for tax purposes. Never met anyone who grew up there… never met anyone who has even been there… <dramatic chord> …until NOW.

16

Technically, the Little League World Series is in South Williamsport (apparently the two towns have had some sort of feud about it).

Yep, I’m a wuss. If I truly belonged out in those wilds I would have had my rifle at the ready and had venison for dinner, instead of a totaled car! It’s times like that that remind me that I’m a city girl, and should damn well stay in the city!

17

Sunbury, I believe, is the current residence of Euell Gibbons.
It pales in comparison to its sophisticated neighbor, Shamokin!