day 16: atlantic city, nj – philadelphia, md – baltimore, md – washington dc

we woke to the blare of our alarm to see the sky above the ocean just beginning to lighten. we turned the couch around to face the windows and m sat down to watch while r, with fifteen minutes left before sunrise, went in search of coffee. he came back with time to spare, and we curled up together, watching the sky pinken and flare as the red sun came up over the sea rim. m returned to her spot in bed shortly thereafter while r made his way down to the casino and fell victim, once again, to the star wars machine. learn to resist the dark side he will not.

we left atlantic city later in the morning, but not before making a trip to the boardwalk for some saltwater taffy. apparently, state law mandates that the parking structures charge a five dollar fee at every exit, but allow one one-time transfer to another casino. we took our transfer to the trump taj mahal and parked our car. the parking structure was filthy, and as we walked down the stairwell, we noted that the smell of urine was nearly neutralized by the pink ten-pound urinal cakes resting serenely on the floor of every landing.

we found the james’ saltwater taffy store and went in for some souvenirs for r’s dad, whose grandparents used to live in atlantic city. there was little traffic leaving the city, but a steady stream of cars moving in the opposite direction and siphoning off in tributaries to the various casinos.

we arrived in philadelphia a little after one, found a rather expensive parking structure and walked up the block to independence hall. eager to explore our revolutionary roots, we were more than a little disappointed to see that tours for the hall, which was chained off and heavily guarded, we already sold out for the entire day. we consoled ourselves by visiting the liberty bell. afterward, we grabbed two philly cheesesteaks from sonny’s (going on a local tip), and walked back to the park behind the hall to sit and eat our lunch in its presence.

a note on local fare: now that we have eaten deep-dish pizza in chicago, buffalo wings in buffalo, thin-crust pizza in new york, and philly cheesteaks in philadelphia, we have come to the conclusion that, with the exception of chicago, we tend to be disappointed. maybe it’s the hype, the bloated expectations, but our own john’s philly grille is far superior to anything we encountered in pennsylvania.

on our way to dc, we noted that our route had us skirting Baltimore, hometown of one of m’s longtime favorite authors, edgar allen poe. we decided, against r’s sister dana’s express advice, to drive into the city and visit the site. once a resident of baltimore, dana texted us some survival tips: ‘don’t leave the car. don’t pull up to a stoplight too close to car in front. keep doors locked. duck.’ on our way in m saw a car wearing a bumper sticker for the ravens football team and laughed: a major franchise named after a poem of poe’s…it’s too bad this city was so hostile to poe’s genius during his own lifetime. m wonders if he’d see the humor. r, on the other hand, had never recognized the origin of the team’s name. ‘poe’s not, like, baltimore’s favored son, is he?’ ‘well he damn well better be!’ m retorted, with perhaps a little too much vehemence. but really, poe, m would readily argue, is the cornerstone of american literature, not to mention a significant force in world literature (as evidenced by the plaque given by the french to commemorate poe’s work hanging on the wall opposite his tomb—those interested may also want to read mallarme’s poem ‘the tomb of edgar poe’). in the dark and dreary gravesite next to an old church, m sat awhile with edgar allen, trying to eschew the heavy presence of walt whitman (who’d had something to do with the moving of poe’s remains and the erecting of the monument). she left a pen on which she scratched a personal note upon the stone beneath his name.

on their way back to the car, m and r came across a bus stop bench proclaiming the supreme virtue of the city. we felt a certain amount of contradiction between dana’s adamant opposition and the bench’s apparent sincerity. perplexed, we took a picture and sent it along to her with a question mark.

r picked a hotel 6 for us just outside of dc in capitol heights. we had to show our ids to a security guard before we were allowed to enter the lobby. he advised us not to keep any valuables in our car overnight. the hotel clerk, as per state law, photocopied our licenses before giving us our room keys. as we unloaded our luggage into the room we decided to seek better accommodations for the following night. still, the night passed without incident, unless you include the really awful ‘chinese food’ from the local panda express…