24 Hour RoadTrip: Philadelphia

This experiment in psychogeography, led by the trio of Scott Knowles, Calvin Johnson and Kurt Braunohler, brought our rag-tag crew of roadtrippers to the far reaches of Philadelphia. The trip started out innocently enough at 11 a.m. on Saturday, with a chance to play tour-guide at City Hall. Our impromptu experts taught us about Philadelphia's former glory as an oil town, about how pay toilets really work, and what it was like when the Harlem Globetrotters showed up for a game atop the Wannamaker's. Once our group of 15 had finished our fun at City Hall, we moved north for a bit, passing through a filming of Cold Case, up to a donut shop on North Broad. Our mission at this location was simple: redesign the shop. Armed with cray-pas and paper, and to the sounds of Bollywood music in the background, we set to work. Our creations were then posted on the outer wall of the shop, for a quick crit. Passersby were quite amused. The local favorite seemed to be the fountain of coffee, though some were concerned about the scalding.

At about one o'clock, we decided to take what would be the first of many forms of transportation, the automobile. Our friends at PhillyCarShare were more than happy to help us out with the wheels. A few hassle-free minutes later and we were well on our way to our next destination. And what a destination it was. After only a few wrong turns, our convoy descended upon the historic Fort Mifflin, as above us, airplanes descended on Philadelphia International. The fort, where the Schuylkill hits the Delaware, provided many an unexpected pleasure. Not only was the view amazing, with all those boats and airplanes, we also learned about history and saw a musket get fired! With time on our PhillyCarShare reservation winding down and our hungers growing, we took the trip north to the Reading Terminal Market and dropped off the cars in their pods. An hour or so later, with our bellies full, we took a walk north to Girard Street to ride the number 15 trolley. The old machines were quite the ride and we took them until we hit Fairmont Park.

As Scott Knowles passed the captain hat over to Kurt Braunohler, he recited this imporomptu poem:

“We've been to Fort Miflin
Under the planes
We've been to the Reading
The Terminal of Trains
and bad fried fish

We've ridden the trolley
That plies old Girard
We've walked of the Fairmount
The finish was hard

And Now at the Finish
My tenure I cry
And looking about I see
Eyes, not one dry - or is that because of the treatment plant?

To Kurt the new captain
And all of you here
We've got 16 more hours
Drink up - and let's clear”

Our tour guide thought it would be cool to truly understand the boundaries of our city, so we walked from 44th and Girard St. up Belmont Avenue until we hit the city limits at City Avenue. This jaunt in the park led to a walk up Belmont Avenue, past the Reservoir, to the bar at the Hilton. Our thirsts then quenched, we continued on our route to the place where people go to drink, Manayunk. Crossing over I - 76 was quite the adventure, as we dodged oncoming traffic to find a overgrown pathway leading us over train tracks and onto the outskirts of Kelly Drive. From there we trekked our way over to the Manayunk Brewery and Restaurant for some drinks and snacks as we geared up for Pretzel Park! Pretzel Park, aptly named after the shape of the playground, was one of the highlights of the trip as 18 or so roadtrippers jumped on swings, slides and monkey bars...

The crew then took transportation form number 3 (or 4 if you count walking). The Septa regional rail got us all downtown, where we transfered to the Broad Street Line to take us to our 10 p.m. meeting place, South Philly's own Cantina Los Caballitos, down on Passyunk. A few hours later, with our pitchers of margaritas empty, we went-went to the next place, a classy little joint known as the Dolphin Tavern The beer was cheap and the entertainment behind the bar was definitely worth seeing. After playing pool and generally amusing ourselves, the lights came on and we bought a couple of six-packs for the road. Our drinking had caused us to work up an appetite and so we headed back up Passyunk, past Rita's, to the glowing lights of Pats for some early morning greasy goodness. It was around that time that we commandeered a playground and swung and raced and generally enjoyed ourselves until the changing of the guard occurred at three, and our third guide would take the lead. Craving more authentic Philadelphia food, we headed up to Washington Avenue in search of warm pretzels. We were dismayed to find that the place was closed on Sunday morning. We quickly decided on a visit to another Philadelphia institution, Wawa. Hoagies then firmly in hand, we followed our primeval urges and headed towards the water.

The Delaware River is quite peaceful at 4 in the morning, in fact so peaceful that one of our guides decided to go for a early-morning swim. While no shock to us by this point, it still startled and amused the other groups who were also down by the river. In order to help us resist sleep, our captain put us to work constructing masterpieces out of the multitudes of Tastykakes he had purchased at the last stop. The objective was simple: build the tallest tower out of Tastykakes. The three teams each went their own ways in design, with one creating a tower (over one giant pixie stick tall), one creating a small mountain of debris, and the third spending too much time in research and development and then having to rush construction. Our contest done and our mess cleaned up, we struck out towards the Ben Franklin Bridge with the hope of watching the sun rise from atop its glorious span. Unfortunately, we only made it as far as Penn's Landing when the skies above Camden began to glow crimson. Our group of 14, down from upwards of 20 earlier that night, marveled at Apollo's glory as we pushed each other around in a pram found along the way. Our Bollywood soundtrack still played on as we contemplated the journey we had taken and how much was yet to come.

Our thoughts were interrupted by the rumblings of the first 42 bus of the morning. We realized that taking the bus would complete our transit bingo card, and so we moved over twenty feet to the bus stop and waited for the next one. The driver did not seem happy to have such a large group waiting for him, but always the consummate professional, he took us to our next stop, Rittenhouse Square. The early morning Rittenhouse crowd consists of indigents, people with dogs, and the occasional father with restless child. Needless to say, no one paid much heed to our calisthenics session, not even our own crowd, who were more happy to lay a spell on the grass. This lull made us realize that we needed a snack, and so we traipsed over to Little Pete's for some coffee and light breakfast, and to use the much needed facilities. Our 9 a.m. appointment at Paine's Park was drawing near. Having already lavished so much attention on the Delaware River, we decided to take a stroll up the Schuylkill, a nice leisurely stroll. This brought us to the park, in the shadow of the Art Museum, still somewhat ahead of schedule. Delirium was setting in as we plopped ourselves down on the grass. We had been traveling for 22 hours already and were ready to rest. Games of frisbee and Uno kept us entertained until the food arrived, courtesy of the very lovely people at the Paine's Park Project. The coffee, fruit, and pastries were well received by our group of once again 15, as was the brief introduction to the future site of Philadelphia's next skatepark. The park's proximity to the famous steps of Rocky prompted our captain to suggest a run to the top. As our 24 hours were up, we shot him down and went home to bed.

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