Pittsburgh Morning

(Written Monday)

This morning in Pittsburgh, Reed and I went in search of good coffee near our hotel, which was in a neighborhood called Southside. It was grungy but had lots of beautiful old buildings and row houses from the 1800s. The coffee shop was very early-90s: lots of vintage couches, lamps, painted walls. But unfortunately, the food didn’t look much newer. There were some soggy looking, Saran Wrapped pizza bagels which made everything else there seem equally unappetizing. There was just one woman working there and she was very strange. Her speech was very soft and incomprehensible (all I could make out was when she was ringing us up and said she couldn’t see in her left eye). She was very tall and gangly with tattoos covering most of her body, and a clumsy gait that Reed and I could not figure out if it was due to disability or drug use. Then a middle aged guy in very dirty lederhosen came in (I shit you not). Reed said the place should be called The Aftermath. We took one sip of our coffees and then promptly threw them out in the trash can outside. Then we went to Starbucks across the street. Once we had our delicious corporate coffees, we went back to the hotel and met up with Bobby. We checked out and then drove about 5 hours from Pittsburgh to Toronto. It feels very nice to be away from U.S. soil even if it’s just for a day. No MAGA hats in sight. We have tonight off- woohoo!