DAY 1: New Jersey to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania #fiveexplore #roadtripusa2020 #travellingduringcovid19

Friday 17th July 2020

We set off from New Jersey on a damp, grey Friday morning. Bundling a tired family into the car, the smell of wet grass waved us farewell.

The enormity of what we had in front of us set in – two cool boxes, five suit cases, two swimming bags, inflatable boats and beds, food, activity bags, four different laptops, tablets, DVD players, three children and two adults, all packed into a car for the next three weeks. The car mileage reading was just short of 10000 miles. By the end of this trip it would read 15000 miles. The length of the journey was similar to a long-haul flight. On top of this we also really wanted to avoid catching COVID-19.

The first part of the drive was familiar– the I-78 stretching into Pennsylvania. This was initially a repeat of our trip to Niagara last year, but then we diverted into a surprising fairytale of winding roads and green hills. The Pennsylvania sign told us to “pursue your happiness”. I think I will thank you.

The first stop was Hershey. As we diverted into what initially seemed like a quaint, small American town, we realized we had reached the heart of the American dream – CANDY! (along with beer, BBQ, movies, hot dogs and sports). We initially saw a twin pair of brick chimneys with the word Hershey on each of them. Then suddenly, arching rollercoasters loomed over us like playful dragons circling the town, appearing into view and then disappearing again. Everything opened up into a confused dream-like fusion of Disney World and the largest chocolate store in America.

Our first taste of COVID hit us as the promise of free entry was caveated with yellow tape, masked workers, temperature checks and (some) social distancing. We took the girls on a ride to understand how chocolate was made. That part was great (as due to social distancing we had 4 carts all to ourselves) and then we preceded to let our daughters loose on an over-sized candy shop. Every chocolate was basically made of milk, sugar and cocoa beans with various twists such as birthday cake and apple pie flavour (-yuk)! Alaina bought a Barbie, Zaria a jumper and Lyra an oversized chocolate pick 'n' mix with a small Hershey cup to make sure she reached her $15 spending limit. Predictable.

Lyra, our middle child, named after Phillip Pullman’s literary character, was our greatest quandary. She was incapable of saying anything quietly, openly voiced her disapproval of anything that didn’t involve doing exactly what she wanted, suffered from car sickness, hated long journeys and utilized her razor sharp humour to express her disgust. She watched the sat nav like a hawk, pointing out if any part of the drive was taking longer than advertised (like a tennis player challenging an umpire). Even when we cheerfully announced, “Only 10 minutes left!” this would be met with a "Harrumph", advising us this was barely tolerable. It felt a bit like achieving a C- at school.

On the first day Lyra announced, “I hate time!” The rest of the family launched into the philosophical and physical consequences of not having any time, but Lyra insisted it was better that time ceased to exist than be stuck in a car.

Once we left Hershey, Pennsylvania was stunning – an endless vista of tunnels and hills, starting with the Blue Mountains. This also stimulated an avalanche of questions from our daughters about unlikely impending disasters – “What happens if the mountain crumbles on us while we are driving through the tunnel? What happens if a bison tries to bite our car when we are driving around Yellowstone?” and so on. The answer is mostly: “We would die,” or “That will never happen.”

I had been to Pittsburgh twice before and never thought much of it. How wrong I was. As we approached from the east, a picturesque city sat in the hills appeared, surrounded by steel bridges. I narrowly swerved around a confused ground hog in the road. In my rear view mirror I saw the next driver drive straight into the ground hog and hit him on the head, sending him into the side of the road like a spinning top. Roadkill. Clearly my polite British 'dodge the animal' approach was not considered effective here.

We arrived at our hotel and at first sight everything was very COVID friendly. Glass wall installed at reception and a friendly, masked receptionist (like a robber working at a poorly secured bank). However, as our stay progressed, we realized many people were flaunting the mask rules, gym rules, pool rules and basically anything that felt inconvenient. This was the beginning of a very clear realisation across the whole trip – most people wanted to get on with their lives and were only begrudgingly willing to forsake a small amount personal freedom to keep others safe. Our room smelt of smoke as apparently many people were smoking in rooms regardless of the rules (-even though all rooms were non-smoking). In the time of COVID anything goes.

We left the hotel to look at Grandview Overlook on Mount Washington. Lyra started moaning on the way there. I told her “Look, Daddy has been driving for several hours and he’s not moaning – We’re only asking you to come for a short while.”

Lyra quickly responded, “Well it was your choice to come on this trip Dad, not mine!” She had a point. I changed the subject.

The view of Pittsburgh was stunning, and you fully appreciate how many bridges there are surrounding the city. We also saw the steepest road in America, Canton Avenue. Despite at least half of the family expressing reservations, we drove up it. I thought the car would stall but we just about got there.

We returned weary back to the hotel and lay our heads to rest listening to a cacophony of YouTube, Roblox, iPads and lullabies.

In addition to this daily blog, you can check out our Instagram feed for more photos and short posts documenting our 2020 road trip @fiveexplore