After my journey through Dayton, Ohio; I was accompanied by Justin Clark and Blake Green for a wonderful drive to Philadelphia, PA. We began our journey around 11:00PM EST on Wednesday night and arrived in Philly around 8:00AM EST the next day. I drove throughout the night with the assistance of conversation from Justin and Blake. Once we arrived in Philly we were met by an extraordinary amount of traffic on the interstate and made it to Chap and Maura Ambroses’ home in the Italian district of Philadelphia about 9:30AM EST.

After arriving, I took a shower and tried to wake the guys. They were passed out on the floor and sofa of Chap’s apartment because they had been driving since early the day before. Once they met me in Dayton, Ohio; we immediately piled into my truck with Chap’s drum kit and set out on our road trip. I called Chap to get an idea as to what I should do with my day. Chap informed me that there was a rally at 1:30PM that he was going to attend. I found the topic interesting so I decided I would meet him at City Hall during this rally and attend.

I walked from the corner of Broad and Jackson; exactly one block to Broad and Snyder where i board a subway train and rode to Walnut street. I got off the train and set out on foot to walk the district and shop a little. I found myself getting cold from the misty rain that was falling and decided to sneak into Starbucks across from the Cole Haan store to do a little home work.

I stayed at the Starbucks for about a hour and a half until my studies were done and then I decided to start walking the six or so blocks to city hall. It was a fun walk. The sun wasn’t shining and there were a lot of people walking the streets. If you’ve never been to Philadelphia; it is very similar to New York City’s streets in Manhattan but not as crowded.

I arrived at Love Park in front of City Hall and saw a protest or strike going on against the increased property tax taking place in a specific area of town. I phoned Chap to find out when he would be arriving and he said he’d be there shortly. I stood out in the modestly chilly weather with my hoody over my head trying to stay warm and dry.

Chap arrived and we listened to the rally. The rally was between the two mayor candidates for the city and covered the topic of homelessness in the city. Appearantly, homelessness is a big issue in Philadelphia; as well as crime, poverty and violence in general. I was blown away by the discussions taking place between the attending viewers of the speeches and the candidates. One candidate really stood out. I forget his name but he was definitely the majority’s favorite at the event.

Project H.O.M.E. was the organization that setup the rally and they’re huge supporters of the efforts to reduce the homeless issue in the city. Chap introduced me to a few of the associates he has at the organization and explained their mission as well as the background behind a few of the individuals. Project Home: Vote for Homes has more information surrounding the topic of the candidates debate.

A little sidenote: I’m currently sitting on the bench in front of my home and my neighbors dog is in the front of their lawn barking at me like crazy! It is one of those little chihuahua dogs and I am starting to find myself wanting to punt it across their drive way! Why won’t this thing just stop barking at me already. it is beginning to act like I am even the smallest amount discouraged or influenced by its silly behavior. However, I am honestly surprise at the amount of noise this guy can make.

Carrying on! After the debate, Blake and Justin ended up meeting Chap and I in the park and we walked to the market. The market was pretty exciting. I glanced around at numerous vendors that were selling goods. There seems to be a large distributiom of free trade goods there. Most of the foods and grocerys sold at the market were from various local farmers in the area.

After we ate lunch in the market we listened to Chap’s friend play piano for a bit and picked up a bushel of apples for Maura. The apples were spotted and a little under-par from what the four of us were accustomed to seeing. It was not until after we spoke with one of the dairy farmers in the market that we learned the apples were of normal proportion and quality for organic fruits. So, if you ever buy organic apples from a market and they have bruises and spots on them; it isn’t because they’re necessarily bad; it is because the farmers are not allowed to use pesticides and various other chemicals on the fruits being grown to fight against defects.

After the market, we decided to foot it to Trader Joe’s, about ten blocks from where we were. We were headed there in hopes of finding corn syrup and sugar for Maura so she could make caramel apples. Once we arrived on the back side of the store we were met by a large hill with about a two foot drop off at the bottom of it. Next to the hill was a construction site that had a nice set of wooden steps going down the hill, but you had to walk through the hard-hat zone to reach the bottom. Justin Clark and I decided this was going to be the best route to make it down safely; Chap and Blake decided to take the hill on foot. After Chap nearly reached the bottom of the hill he slipped and fell backwards on to his back.

Normally, falling down on your backside wouldn’t be so bad; except this time Chap had an enormous bag-pack full of apples on his back. I’m pretty sure the apples were crushed during this clumsy fall. Justin Clark posted a video of this hilarious event on his facebook page. I would link to it here but I think you have to be his friend in order to view it.

Skipping around a bit

Maybe later I will go into extreme detail about the entire weekend spent in Philly, but for now I am going to skip to the meat and potatoes of the journey.

Chap and Maura got married a few months back and had planned this lovely party for all of us to attend. We had a post-bachelor party for Chap on Friday evening at Dave and Busters. We played pool, shuffle board and talked amongst little groups of friends until everyone was drunk and marry. After that we ended up going to breakfast at Melrose Diner near Chap’s house.

The next evening we had a post-rehearsal type dinner that Chap’s parents put on. We all learned some ballroom dancing techniques and had quite a bit of fun. Following the dancing, dinner and socialization we set out to Silks for a night of drinking and dancing. Blake, Ryan, Katie and myself went to Jim’s at 4th and South Street to munch on some late night steak sandwiches after our venture at the bar.

Sunday afternoon was the official wedding party for Chap and Maura. It was great to see almost all of our friends in attendance. There were a few people who couldn’t make it for various reasons; most unknown to me, however for the most part everyone was there. It has to be a great feeling to know people care about you; especially when they will travel from across the country to come visit you at all costs.

Josh rented a Polaroid 600SE camera and acquired some 665 film with negatives and the like and snapped some hilarious photographs of the event. He set-up a makeship photo booth outside the location and we all got to take turns being goofy and having our photograph taken. We did portraits, solo shots, and huge group photographs. Josh has some extraordinary talents. You can view the photoset on Josh’s flickr stream.

Josh also photographed and filmed the wedding day for Chap and Maura. Josh trailed in the bed of a pickup that was being driven by his girlfriend Murphy while Chap and Maura rode their bicycle through downtown Philadelphia at sunrise on the day they decided to get married. You can get all the great moments of their wedding on Josh Goleman’s Website.

After the dinner and event; we packed it in for the night and decided to head back on our road trip to Dayton so Blake could pick-up his jeep. Justin Clark and I decided to drive back home; straight through with only stops for gas and a single meal. The trip was nice, but towards the end I started hallucinating and Justin had to drive.

In conclusion, the road trip was a lot of fun and it was great getting to see everyone and meet a few new people. I had never really experienced Philadelphia before; so it was a great eye opener to see another major city in the US. I’ve been to most major cities in our lovely country but there is plenty more I want to visit. I am glad I had the opportunity to visit it as well as be shown around by Chap.

Congratulations Chap and Maura!

THE END!