Ugh. So we're in Pennsylvania again today. Maxy was told at the last minute last week to cover McCain's townhall meeting here this afternoon, then go out campaigning with some unions supporting Obama tomorrow.
So chauffeur Soph is back in the state that boasts Lebanon and very unfriendly people.
Things have only been made worse by the TERRIBLE satnav system we got from Avis (come back, Polly - all is forgiven!) that has taken us down many wrong turnings and given us directions in all the wrong order.
But we enjoyed listening to the new Coldplay album on the way here. I really really like the title track - I like that the idea they're going for, with the revolutionaries and overturned king.
It was only about a three hour drive to get to Pipersville, where McCain was speaking. Max - being the glamorous journalist that he is - changed into one of his many suits in a car park just down the road, then I dropped him off amidst a sea of protesters, who I should imagine he'd quite like to've joined. There was something quite moving about all those passionate people, especially the old man I saw as I drove off, who was trying to hold both his zimmer frame and a 'bring the troops home' poster.
It was quite nice to have the car to myself on the hour's drive to our hotel along the mercifully straightforward route. I played music very loud and sang even louder and enjoyed the distinctly Dorset-like country roads I was zooming along - it was really pretty.
I drove through Bethlehem, which I can exclusively reveal is far nicer than Lebanon. There are sliiiightly tastless signs all over the town, encouraging visitors to 'follow the stars t
o Bethlehem's attractions', like the trauma hospital (eh?!) and a kind of flat iron building with a barrel on it, called Ye Olde Ale House.
There's also a Nazareth nearby - home of Pennsylvania NASCAR - and a Harrow.
I suspect all these places might've been nicer than where our hotel is. It's a Hilton Garden Inn (after all, Pennsylvania does them so very well!) and it's basically on a motorway. From our window, I can see a delightful truck depot and a furniture outlet store and there is nothing else around apart from a very busy motorway. Oh, and a Waffle House and a Red Robin diner. Anyways, it's basically a tarmac wilderness.
I fell asleep soon after getting to the hotel. Either because of the 4+ hours driving I'd just done, or because of the episode of 'King of Queens' I was watching. Either way, it wasn't long until I was back on the pretty country roads, this time singing loudly to stay awake.
Just to remind me that I wasn't *actually* in Dorset, a beaver ran across the road in front of my car and I saw a field of bison! They were gone by the time I drove back past it (for the third time...), so Max thinks I made the whole thing up and am quite mad.
The townhall meeting went very well for both Maxy and McCain and Max got everything 
that he needed. He was starving when I picked him up, so we headed straight to the delightful Red Robin diner for fat food when we got back to the hotel. However, it seems they are no strangers to the Extremely Hungry Traveller there, as we were defeated by a massive pile of onion rings and couldn't make it through our main course. We felt quite ill afterwards.
But fortunately Max had the fuel he needed to get his article done and in fact had written most of it in longhand while he was waiting for me to collect him. He was jonesing for a beer, but was told by the front desk that it's against the law in Pennsylvania to deliver alcohol to hotel rooms. Someone had better tell the Hilton Garden Inn in Harrisburg...
We've cunningly brought our laptop and speakers with us, so weren't deprived of our now traditional pre-bedtime West Wing, which let us forget for a moment that we are surrounded by motorways and truck depots. Max still hasn't managed to firm anything up for tomorrow, with the pro-Obama union people, so who knows where we'll be going next?! It's almost exciting, but let's remember that wherever we go, we'll still be in Pennsylvania...
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