October 8 - 10, 2024 - Lafe and Faith's Odyssey

Bad Plugs and Battlefields

The next morning, we watched a beautiful sunrise over the marshes before meandering back to the highway to head up the coast once again. We were planning on spending the day similar to the last: stopping at various thrift and other stores as we continued north. We started off the morning this way, but we didn’t get far before the van started misfiring again, identical to the symptoms that we had just after leaving Charleston. Frustrated, we paused at an AutoZone and got the check engine codes that confirmed our suspicion: cylinders 1 and 2 were misfiring. This was extremely strange as ignition coils are not supposed to go bad in succession, so we took this report to the nearest Firestone and informed them of the issue. It’s a good thing we took the report, as the misfiring went away when we drove to the shop and the technicians couldn’t get the van to reproduce that behavior. After looking into the issue more deeply, they determined that the previous Firestone had put in the wrong kind of spark plugs. So, we waited (I worked, Faith explored) while they installed the correct components. Sure enough, that solved the issue and, thankfully, they didn’t charge us for the service. If you ever need car work done in Mt. Pleasant, SC, avoid the Firestone, they demonstrated incompetence on every level from initially checking out our vehicle, making us wait an extra day to get serviced, accidentally not replacing our oil cap, and installing incorrect components. This had cost us most of our free time, so we kept driving north, through Dover, Wilmington, and into western Philadelphia to the home of good family friends. We made it to Ed and Dana’s just before dinner time and hung out, chatted, and had a fantastic meal of smoked chicken thighs. Night fell, and we stayed up for a while longer before calling it a day and heading to sleep.

We all had to work the next day, so we parted ways to each attend to our vocations. Around lunch time, Ed took us out to a superb little Italian deli and market a few blocks away and gave us a short tour of the historic neighborhoods around their home. After lunch, we got crackin’ again until dinner time rolled around and Dana and their kids returned from work and school. For supper, we got Philly cheesesteaks from a fantastic hole-in-the-wall restaurant and ate them with a healthy side of conversation. Once again, we talked well into the night before making our way to bed.

The next morning, I took a shower and worked for a bit before we bid our hosts a fond farewell and hit the road east to Gettysburg, PA. We got there a few hours later and poked around the (surprisingly) incredibly touristy town before driving to the battlefield visitor center and arriving just before it closed. Since we have an America the Beautiful pass, we can get into every National Park for free and get discounts on a lot of tours or other related things. The Gettysburg Museum is not free, so I figured we could wander up to the entrance desk and ask if there was any discount for pass holders. He said there wasn’t, so I thanked him and began wandering back towards the entrance; I wasn’t going to pay for a museum that I’d only be at for 30 minutes. The moment after I turned my back on him, we came over and said, “The museum is almost closed, why don’t you just go in for free.” “We would love to! Thank you very much”, I replied, and we happily waltzed into the museum. One could spend hours in the museum seeing everything, so we had to make a pretty quick pass to get through in time. It was very well done and a place I would strongly recommend to anyone even remotely interested in Civil War history. As the museum closed, we snagged a park map and spent the rest of the remaining daylight driving through the battlefield past monument after monument erected to commemorate those who fought and died there. Gettysburg is a beautiful area, and it’s hard to fathom tens of thousands of soldiers waging war amongst the hills, forests, and fields. The sun set, and I still had a few hours of work to do, so we found a strip mall in town where I could work and Faith could explore a bit. Per usual, Faith brought back some amazing deals, and we decided to find a place to sleep for the night. The eastern US has very little federal or state land compared to the western US, but we managed to spy a game preserve just north of town and found a very secluded parking area in the woods. It was a chilly night, but we stayed warm in our cozy little home.