Day 20: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we did a filmed recording session for Earthquaker Devices, and we drove to Syracuse, New York.
I arrived for the last few minutes of the breakfast buffet at the Hilton in Akron, Ohio, where I caused the head buffet manager to have to retrieve some of the foods he had already begun packing away. Ignoring his crochety temperament, I served up a bowl of granola which I topped with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and yoghurt.
The Earthquaker session was just up the road from our hotel, so we packed the van and headed over after breakfast. We deployed in a large room that was filled with vintage amps and drums, and several different camera rigs for the film crew. Once all the microphones were in place it didn’t take long to get a useable take for each of the two songs we were recording and we moved on to talking about guitar pedals, the real reason we were there.
Jonathan is cross examined about the contents of his pedal board.
Our final task for the day was to drive to Syracuse, right in the middle of Upstate New York. We were clear of Cleveland by 4pm and made our way along the edge of Lake Erie on the i90 which by now had separated from its transcontinental freeway rival, the i80.
This route lies astride the very fringes of the Corn Belt with the counties in this region producing only between 1-5 million bushels of corn per year – a far cry from the 20 million plus bushels you see in the highly productive counties in Iowa and Illinois. As we passed by the Harpersfield, OH, we passed under the Route 534/i90 overpass bridge and saw the American flag display, a project of Harpersfield Town trustee Raymond Gruber Jr that ‘honours military personnel and promotes patriotism within the community and state’. The project cost $2400 and uses cable ties and grommets to attach the 46 flags to the bridge fence.
The 23 flags on the western side of the Route 534/i90 overpass bridge.
Entering Pennsylvania and New York the landscape began to transform with both trees and buildings showing their age. Barns were still painted in the faded red colour of dried blood, a tradition that began when farmers used to add animal blood or ferrous oxide to the milk paint they used to protect their buildings.
Waiting for a table in Buffalo, NY.
We stopped in Buffalo, NY, for dinner at a diner where we experienced the phenomenon of being intimidated into ordering drinks by a scary waitress. The sun was just setting as we continued east for the final part of the drive. The highways in upstate New York felt like they were coming apart and sitting in the back of the van we were jostled around constantly. A pleasant distraction was found though in the the bright orange colour of the waning gibbous moon that was hanging low in the sky.
The waning gibbous moon captured by the sensor on my iphone se
At 11pm we pulled into a Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton and another long travel day was complete.