Part VII. Its Tuesday, this must be Scranton

Originally Posted Saturday, August 02, 2008


Tuesday 22nd July…. What a guy

We arose and showered soon after 7 am. Nancy decided to go off for some girly-type pampering, which isn't my bag so I just stayed behind and typed up my blog, which I had only just finished by the time she returned from her pedicure. We slung our stuff into the car and by 11 am we were on our way to Scranton.

It was a beautiful journey, and the scenery very reminiscent to me of Wales. There is a lot of slate and sedimentary rock which forms the characteristically spectacular outcrops so common in the Poconos.

Scranton is a railway town, and does have a very Welsh feel to me somehow. The scenery, the slate, even the slightly out-of –the-world feel to the place made it seem familiar and friendly to me. The weather was a lot more British also LOL!. After we had checked into our hotel, we took a little wander around town and went to a record shop where I bought a System Of A Down CD, and we got a soda and headed back to the hotel. Nancy was a little tired after the drive and fancied a lie-down. Not wanting to be stuck in the room I decided to go out and I went to investigate the local shopping mall, (my first American Mall experience)
I'd just got to the stage where I had decided it was no different from at home, and was a bit cheesed off because I couldn't find anything fun to do when I bumped right into Steve Jay, right there in the Mall!

I said Hi! and smiled and I guess I must have looked familiar or something from Sunday night (though we had not met) and he said Hey! You're the British gal, right? You got a minute?....
(This is so cool I just know nobody is gonna believe me)

Anyway, introductions over, he said Lets get coffee, so we went to Starbucks and sat there for AGES just chatting like old friends. He reminisced about times past spent in England, and I talked about how I had come to America specifically to see the two gigs.

We talked about the world and politics and religion and science and books and generosity and friendship and selfishness and just about everything imaginable.
When we finally finished our coffees he said
You've gotta read this book…..

So, we went off in search of a bookshop. This does get pretty funny….

So, bookshop right? Could we find one? Steve was going up to everyone and asking. Two black guys in hoodies were lounging around on a bench and Steve said.. Let's ask them, they look like readers. It was at this point that I knew I was just gonna have to roll with what was gonna be a fairly surreal experience. No bookshop. After asking about five or six people we came to the conclusion that the nearest bookshop was Borders, in a place called Dickson City, out of town. It was actually funny to watch these people as they realized for the first time that they lived in a town with no bookshop… lol

So, we left the Mall and Steve jumped out into the road with his arm in the air and soon a cab appeared… not for us but for someone else, but the driver did order another for us. Soon we were on our way to Borders. It was a pretty long cab ride, just under $30, and Steve gave him extra to wait. We went in, only to discover, eventually that the book was not in stock, so Steve bought me another book entirely LOL. It's called "The Quark and the Jaguar" by Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel laureate physicist. I was pretty flattered Steve thought I was capable of reading theoretical Physics with any degree of understanding I must say, and I really do intend to give it a shot, even if it is just to get some idea of the points he was trying to explain.

The cabbie took us back to Scranton and there was a bit of a panic when Steve realized he couldn't find his cell phone. We went back to his hotel where he struggled for a bit to get an outside line in order to call the phone, but eventually it turned out he had left it on the counter in Borders and they sent it over pretty much straight away. It was a memorable afternoon. I found Nancy in the bar of our hotel and she was amazed at what had been going on while she was having a nap. I showed her my book though, which Steve had signed for me, so then she believed me.

Steve is an awesome guy and now he is a real life 100% genuine friend as well. Isn't that such a nice thing to be able to say?. Steve Jay…. What a guy!

Nancy and I rounded off the evening together in the bar of our hotel just giggling and being silly girls together about my crazy adventure. Came back up and blogged Monday.. and Tom ate it again, which is why I had to do it again just now… sigh… Tom you are a louse.


The book Steve wanted to buy me was this one