East coast blackout, part 2

We did manage to finally get Syracuse and rest for one day.
The second day we were taken to a state park/beach. My friend's sister and her kids had taken us, and we were all sitting, talking just enjoying the afternoon, when the strangest thing happened.
Here in the Midwest, we are programmed to hear the beeping-warning beep beep sound, and know it is some form of a weather alert. I looked around and realized that all the beeps were coming from all the radios, scattered around the beach. Everyone lounging under an umbrella, or bbq'ing had a radio on. The beebing alert sound was followed by news reports and silence. I mean REAL silence. Quiet like I've never heard before. At this point, the entire park was dead quiet. Everyone was listening to the radio reports. Then a hundred cell phones went off. So very creepy. I grabbed my own cell phone and called back home. I find it strange that I was in the middle of history, and had to call back to the Midwest to get details. I learnt that there was a power outage, that kept growing, and they didn't know what had caused it,
My only thought was terrorists, and that I had just driven all night, to let my kids die. And die in a place they had never been before, and a place that I had no idea where anything was, or how to get to anywhere.

At this point, everyone just stood up, began to gather their belongings and start walking back to the parking lot. We noticed that water was puddling in places, but it didn't occur to me till later, that the reason was because the sump pumps weren't working, because there was no power.
About this time, a loud, rumbling was heard. I froze. What the hell was that? We weren't from those parts, and I had never heard that sound before. My friends sister informed me causally that was the sound of F16 fighter jets taking off from a nearby air force base, and heading to NYC probably. Which was only something like two hundred miles away. Just A few minutes by fighter jet though.. All the radio stations were saying the same thing, no power, possible terrorist attack. The coolest thing was, and still is, is that people in upper New York, kept calm. No fighting, no panicking, it was totally twilight zone moment for us.

We found out as we were sitting in the truck in the parking lot that five jets had gone to patrol the east coast while two would be on continuous circling around Syracuse. And they were.
As we found our way out and back towards home, all the traffic lights were out, four way stops became the norm, and people were all very calm.
It became apparent though, that not everywhere was without power. You could go 15 blocks with nothing, then on one street corner a 7/11 would have power. The huge Carousel mall had power, but the zoo did not. It was hit or miss.

We got back to their house, no electricity. We began helping to pull out what we needed to cook in the freezer so it wouldn't ruin if the power was out for any length of time. The grill would work, and their stove worked. So, that wasn't an issue. The kids gathered all the candles they could find, they set the table, before it got dark, and we just did what we could to make due.
About this time, someone had a bright idea to go and see if anything in the neighborhood store or gas station that had power so we could get some ice. I said I would go, and my two daughters went too. We left, began driving around, and promptly got lost. We three had never driven anywhere alone in this town. Smart idea.
We were wandering, and came upon a gas station, mini mart that was open with a generator. I was shocked that he wasn't gouging prices, nope, everything was either normal price, or on sale. What a saint. We picked up bags of ice, pop, and beer. Then tried to find our little red riding hood asses home.

About an hour later my friends son called and asked where we were.
"uh, I'm not sure. I see a Chinese take out place. Ohio, hookers" He laughed "OH you ARE on the wrong side of town." He someone talked us back to the "right" side of the city, and we were back home again. Dinner was on the table and everyone was sitting down, when my friend came home from work, her business was on that did have power so every senior citizen in the city came for dinner.
She said when she walked in, all she smelt was a combination of widely different smells from boysenberry, to pine, to strawberry to blueberry tart. All the different candles scents that were burning at once.

We sat talking when the ceiling fan started to twirl. We were browning back up. Yeah, the air was back on. We had power. It was almost too bad, there was something very relaxing about sitting, eating and talking with no background noise. Such simple things, things we don"t do enough.
Once we sat watching all the thousands of people walking across the bridge somewhere in New York, and all the finger pointing had begun, the maps began showing all the states without power, or partial power. New York, blamed Canada. Canada blamed Ohio, Ohio said screw all you people, we had nothing to do with this mess.
I felt eyes looking at me.
"Um, weren't you just in like, all those states the other night?" They asked looking at me, and back at the tv.
"Listen, I had nothing to do with it. My bet is on the unabomber drug dude. He looked like he had enough c4 in that back pack to do some major damage." I could tell they didn't believe me. Just trying to deflect the blame. Pretty much the same way as Canada was.

East coast blackout...

Part One.

I was in Syracuse, New York, when the lights went out, and it all went to crap. But beyond popular belief, I had nothing to do with it. Yeah, I was in pretty much every state that was affected forty eight hours before, but that was just a coincidence. I had NOTHING to do with it. I pinky swear.

I had driven with my three kids the day before. (A twelve hour drive, which took twenty hours. I suppose we weren’t supposed to see the Canadian boarder twice, thrice?) We saw parts of OHIO, except they wouldn’t let us in Cleveland. Who knew they had a dress code? An entire City with a dress code, I was impressed.
Honestly, we tried. But, the highway we were on suddenly came to an end with a huge dug out letter X in the middle of it. Guess Major Daily has larger plans than Chicago huh?
We saw Detroit and 8 mile road, at four in the morning. WAAAY wrong place to be at that time. One gas station, only spoke Korean, they pointed us in the direction we should be heading, or best they understood us. . The next was two really cool gay men, who pointed out that if we had passports or birth certificates, they could get us to Syracuse in about four hours, going through Canada. Darn it, I didn’t think to bring passports and birth certificates…WASN’T LEAVING THE COUNTRY, JUST GOING TO SYRACUSE. Err. Back towards Ohio.
The next stop was just off 8 mile road, where a gentle old black man, offered his help. He was sweeping the front of his gas station, and brought us out a map, showed us where we were, where we were heading, and exactly which way to get there. Only problem was in the middle of him highlighting our map…the local drug dealer showed up. Honest to Pete. It is five in the morning, and this guy walks up, out of know where, wearing headphones, dark glasses, a Unabomber hoodie and backpack, He walks up to the old black man, and my Daughter Deanna. When all of a sudden old black man, looks up, sees’s Unabomber drug dealer and SCREAMS…GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE…NOW!! To his credit, young black Unabomber dude, just turned and walked off. Wow! I kept looking for Emimen and Rabbit to walk out of the quickie mart. And all the help old black man gave us only cost nine dollars. He said he wanted to buy a burrito. A nine dollar burrito? But, at that point, I would have given him just about anything to get us where we were going.
Deanna kept complaining about the nine dollar burrito for an hour as we followed the map out of Michigan to the letter, the old man knew his maps that was for sure. . I was hysterical by this time, and kept laughing. I told her to shut up, or I was selling her to recoup my nine bucks to the first Polygamist I came across. They were always looking for more wives. She asked what a Polygamist was? I laughed harder.

. Oh, did I mention leaving the first exit out of Unabomber dudes territory, we overshot our exit on the major highway and I just put the truck in reverse, and backed up the highway about twenty feet? No? Well I did. I’d have enough of that town. No other cars were out at that time anyhow. Tough beans, I wasn’t gonna go down one more road to turn around and end up in Mexico, via Michigan.

Once we were in Pennsylvania, (gotta give it up to Pennsylvania for there rest stops though, fantastic. Clean, clean and sparkling clean. Never saw cleaner rest stops.
I was pretty certain we might make it now, and quizzed daughter on what she was looking for. “We stay on this road. We stay on this road till it changes from 80 to 90. Just 80/90 nothing else. You got that? Yeah? 80/90 nothing else.) I went to sleep. I woke up hours later and asked where we were? Were we in New York State yet? No? Ok, just stay on 80/90. And we should be seeing Buffalo soon.
I woke a few hours later. Where are we? Pennsylvania? How the hell could we still be in Pennsylvania? I looked at a road sign. 87. WHERE THE HELL ARE WE? AND WHY DID THAT SIGN SAY 87?!?!
As God is my witness her response was…”I was on 80 and it was going so well, I just thought I’d stay on it when it changed to that other number.” I sat staring at her dump struck. “You thought you’d just stay on the new road?” OMG. We were so far into the state we were seeing signs for NEW JERSEY. Ok, maybe not that far. But we did see all of the Pocono’s. Lovely, but about eight hours out of our way.
We ended up in Wilkes Bar around two pm. We should have been in Syracuse at nine am.
We finally did get there by four. Ragged, tired, and looking like something out of ROAD TRIP TO HELL.
Our trek had taken us from Illinois, through Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Canada, Ohio, Canada, Pennsylvania, Canada, New Jersey (almost) New York, almost back to Canada. I swear we saw the same bunch of people swimming their way towards the border all night long. I bet they reached a new life before we were out of Michigan/ Ohio. And they had found jobs and housing, before we were out of Pennsylvania.