Tuesday Janurary 20th my good friend Brian Morgante was on a journey with one of his band mates. Tyler works at a full service gas station during the day and at a snow resort in Erie Pennsylvania during the nights. After being stuck in the freezing weather (one week had temperatures at a high in the single digits (fahrenheit) and lows around -10 degrees Tyler SNAPPED and decided he was taking all of his vacation time to travel the south for a week. Brian is the guy in the middle below:
I was blessed enough to have them meet me in North Carolina on their last day. Brian and I hadn’t seen each other in more than three years, since touring in our old bands. After hours of catching up I felt it on my heart that I should ride with them to Erie PA. I thought this was a strange thought and that I wouldn’t bring it up unless they did. About a solid hour later Brian and Tyler told me I should ride with them to Erie. This was something I couldn’t turn down.
After five hours I woke up and began packing for a journey that didn’t have an end date. Approximately ten hours from that point I was in Erie Pennsylvania. I must admit I had no idea how 15 degrees felt, but I loved it! There was a solid three feet of snow EVERYWHERE!
You can read more by jumping to the break. If you have made it this far here are some photos:
More photos after the bump
Erie is a very strange place. I was curious about how people keep their homes warm when temperatures drop to below 10 degrees! I also noted that there didn’t seem to be any homeless. Andrew the new guitarist in Brian’s band mentioned that the communities are so small that everyone knows someone and if one loses their job, there is someone to take them in. I found that to be a very interesting point in today’ world.
Tyler turned out feeling like a brother I had been separated from birth (very similar to how I felt about Brian when I first met him) and I had a blast. I spent about a week living at Brian’s house. His parents welcomed me into their warm home and fed me each day. It is wonderful being able to feel God’s grace as well as his protection.
In cause you were curious about how the people keep their homes warm when gas is so expensive, then you have found the RIGHT paragraph. Brian’s folks seemed to have the best plan. They had natural gas, but that was only to be used for emergencies. Houses in Erie are designed with more insulation than standard homes. This particular home also had a wood furnace in the basement. Every two or so hours Brian’s dad would head downstairs and put more wood on the fire. During the nights this duty would be postponed but their house was always warm!
My first night in Erie we arrived to a show where Brian had an acoustic set. I met their friends Tony and Cassie. They had a very interesting story. Tony has an acoustic project he is working on and you can find the clothing that he and his girlfriend Cassie make by clicking this Link Tony’s music project can be found by clicking this LINK. After the set I met Brian’s family including his sister.
My days consisted of talking with Brian and the changes we saw were happening with the Church and how we could imagine the crash of Tele-Evangelists (which by the way will be a glorious day, or night), eating, talking to Brian’s mom, playing Super Mario RPG on his SNES and going out with Tyler to hang out with whoever was on our schedule.
During the outings I met their friend Matt who owns the house where they practiced. He has a solo project and he commissioned me to take some photos for him. You can find those photos two posts earlier than this one. I feel quite happy about the way they turned out!
Sorry there aren’t more photos. I didn’t actually worry too much about taking any. I was mostly focused on living and praying and seeing the direction I was led to go in.
I am going to put the photos before the break though. If you spot the photo of the woman jogging, just know that it was definitely below 25 degrees fahrenheit at that moment, and that I don’t know how her legs could take it…
