David Murphy bought this black Volvo so that he could surf the Hamptons during the summer of 08. After that he went to Bali. He lent it to me so that I could go to PA to work for the Obama campaign. Its a big car and it was hard to park in Harlem. I ended up bringing it to the Bronx and leaving it on my Aunt Margaret's street. There is no alternate parking up there and she could see it from her front porch.
Driving out to PA from Harlem was easy. Once I got over the GWB I was already on I-95 S. Merging onto I-80 W to PA was a piece of cake. After that it was 117 miles on the same road. Highways really are designed for the most incompetent among us. Even me, a New Yorker who gets behind the wheel maybe 5 times a year can handle it.
I left at mid afternoon and already there were long shadows on the highway. But the sky was a bright blue and the sun still had some summer heat to offer. I opened up the roof. By mid New Jersey the road was dense with trees at the height of their rainbow display.
I turned the dial on the radio and found WFMU coming in strong. The DJ was spinning obscure 60s psychedelia groups. For more than an hour everything was great. Then I approached the Delaware Water Gap. The topography changed. The temperature dropped. FMU sputtered and disintegrated. I turned the dial to the left and Christian rock group on "The Word FM" was thrashing out the lyric:
He shall be named.
He shall be named.
I turned the dial to the right and some old man was crowing about Honest Abe Lincoln walking 200 miles in the snow to return a penny and George Washington chopping down a cherry tree and then owning up to it and how now nobody talks about that anymore because Satan is running everything.
Then I stumbled upon the clear beacon of an NPR affiliate. There was hope.
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