Parade part 1

The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series. Even almost a week later it still hasn't sunk in yet. As I watched the game Wednesday night, I realized that I was witnessing something that I never had before, a collective exhale. People from the greater Philadelphia area don't just watch the eagles or the phillies, they live day to day week to week through the games. You walk around Philadelphia on a Monday after a big Eagles division win and the city feels lighter. Everyone is smiling and all of the negadelphia or whatever you want to call it is gone. However when they lose, its like walking around a funeral. The collective depression can be unbearable. This all leads me to the journey I took on Friday morning to go to the Phillies championship parade and my experiences there.
Friday morning I went to the Exton PA, train station with my longtime friend and fellow die hard philly sports fan Gaji Balakaneshan. Gaji and I have been through many of the ups and downs of the Eagles, Sixers, Phillies and Flyers. As we came upon this suburban wasteland of excited children skipping school, parents cutting out of work and people just trying to get to work, we realized together that today was different. 500 people made two vertical lines onto the entrances of the train platform. This was clearly not a group that had done a lot of traveling by train. Gaji and I both quickly realized that the only option was to hop the fence and get on the actual platform which we did. We were planning on taking an 8:30 train which should get us into Center City by 10:30 giving us two hours to find a spot for the debauchery that was about to occur. At 8:45 a train zoomed by us on the platform. It seemed weird to me but not that weird, after all there were at least 500 people around us and that number was growing fast. Soon a train stopped on the other side of the tracks. People began to ask the conductor if they could jump on and loop back towards Philly. The conductor said no. People began running underneath the tracks and heading to the other side, thinking they could pull a fast one on the next train. Trains began zooming by going both directions. At this point Gaji and I began to realize that this might be a hopeless cause. We had befriended a guy who had many of the same ideas as us and we decided together to figure out some kind of alternative way into the city. It was at this point that Exton PA turned into a war zone. People started getting sloppy, pounding beers and were getting restless. Off in the distance a train bound for Lancaster PA, was fast approaching. People began running across the tracks, hoping the dividing fence and running in front of the fast approaching Amtrak train. Guys got stuck in the fence and for a few seconds it looked like I was going to witness certain death. Everyone thankfully made it across, but it was clearly time to leave. Gaji and I left and grabbed a ride with our new friend John and headed towards the bus stop which was not too far away.
We arrived at the park and ride for the bus and were walking towards the bank, to get some change, when i saw a car suddenly stop and the driver got out and said, "Hey guys. You going to the parade?" It was Obinna Nwosu, someone neither Gaji nor I had seen in over five years, but we had gone to high school with him. He joined our group as we headed towards the bank. As soon as we left the bank the bus was there, so we ran across traffic and got right in front of it. The bus driver clearly saw us but chose not to pick us up even though it would not have been a problem at all. I had the bright idea of driving as fast as possible to the next bus stop, which was near a friends house. We drove as fast as possible and left the car by my friends house. We sprinted as fast as possible to the bus stop, but alas the bus was gone. Standing on the side of the road I began to wonder if the parade was in cards for me today. SEPTA had shut down all regional rail service to prepare for the crowds leaving. The whole city was shut down and it seemed impossible to get there. Driving was out of the question due to the lack of parking anywhere. Suddenly I heard "Prolow what the fuck are you doing on the side of the road?" IT was Travis and Mark, two friends from high school heading towards the airport, to park and catch the last train running into center city from the airport. I sat on Gaji and John's laps and we were off to the airport. 35 minutes later i was on a train heading towards the heart of the biggest parade/party of my life.