A Trip to Remember

Car trouble nearly cut a cross-country trip short for photography teacher Kris Wood

  The headlights flickered on and off, and though it was was warm in the comfort of his car he couldn’t help but feel a chill crawl down his spine. After all, it was around 9 p.m. and was too dark to see any more of the winding road ahead. Kris Wood felt calm though, especially when he turned to see Robert Laliberte behind the wheel.

  The two of them were traveling by car across the country; stopping in big cities to see baseball games as they worked their way back to Arizona from the east coast. They had just been in Cooperstown, New York, checking out the Baseball Hall of Fame.

  “I’d seen [the hall of fame] before but Laliberte hadn’t, so we agreed to check it out again.” Wood said.

  The headlights started malfunctioning as they drove through the mountainous roads of central New York on their way to Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

  The trip began when the two flew into Washington, D.C. and stayed with Laliberte’s sister in Purcellville, Virginia. She picked the two up from the airport and there they stayed for the night and next day.

  They would then travel to Pennsylvania, where Wood was able to watch a baseball game and later stayed to watch fireworks.

  “Our nation’s first capital was Philadelphia, and I got to be there on the Fourth of July.” Colors lit up the sky in the depths of night, and made an unforgettable experience.

  After Philadelphia, they traveled to Cooperstown, and from there back to Pennsylvania, and stayed a night a little outside of Pottsville. “We got to go to a place called Yuengling, it’s literally the oldest brewery in America,” he said.

  They went back and forth, jumping to DC to watch a baseball game and them back to Virginia for a 5 to 6 days, then once more to Pennsylvania.

  “We went to an insane asylum, and it was absolutely incredible!” Wood said. “And we watched another game that night. We went to Cincinnati (Ohio) and watched,” yet another game there.”

  Kentucky was next up on the list as the two made their way to the west side of the states. They stayed in Louisville for a night and made there way to Missouri, where Wood “ate the best barbeque” of his life. “Laliberte held up a bone, and the meat literally fell right off of it. So good.”

  After eating at the same place one more time in the morning, they headed over to Kansas City and watched a game. One more stop, they arrived at Denver, Colorado, and from there headed back to Arizona.

  About two hours outside of Colorado, a sudden pop made them jump, and Wood pulled over to see that the car had unfortunately broken down. Luckily, Wood’s father was able to come to the rescue and give them the part they needed to get the car going again.

  Once they had dealt with that they finally made it back to Arizona, having seen nine baseball games in total. Wood was content and the adventure was worth the months of planning and large cost.

  “I was excited, I was super excited. I don’t get to travel much back east so I’m very, very glad that I went.”

  In the end, the trip came together to make one incredibly memory that Wood won’t forget any time soon.