Punks Not Dead

This past Sunday we finally got to get dessert at PUNKS ICE CREAM SHOPPE, in Baden, Pennsylvania. Every time we've gone up to visit Pittsburgh it's always been during the dead of winter, and Punks was always boarded up during their off-season. Ever since I first saw their sign, I've always imagined an ice cream parlour manned by mohawked, leather-clad-and-studded PUNK ROCK KIDS. Turns out that "Punk" is the name (or nickname?) of the middle-aged lady proprietor of the ice cream shoppe! Punk was busy running her shop solo when we got there, working her way through a steady line of customers:





I wanted to try the "PECAN BALL", but they had run out. Turns out that the pecan ball is their most popular item and we had gotten to Punks a little too late. My "plan-B" was a concoction simply called DIRT: chocolate vanilla swirled ice cream mixed with crumbled Oreo cookies, hot fudge, several Gummi Worms, topped off with home-made whipped cream and a couple of cherries:





Missy struggled with one of the Gummi Worms...the cold ice cream stiffened the candy a good bit:









On the way home yesterday, Missy's VW BUG broke down as we were driving through BECKLEY, WEST VIRGINIA. We were cruising down the 19, and I was driving...all of a sudden I noticed that the power steering went out and then the "check engine" light came on. I managed to get the car into the parking lot of a WAL-MART. The mechanics there couldn't help us repair the car, but they could tell us what was wrong: the serpentine belt was gone. Missy called TRIPLE A (don't leave home without it!) and the tow truck driver told her that he'd be there in about 30 minutes. The both of us nodded off while waiting in the car:





After about 45 minutes, the tow truck arrived. Missy and I sat in the air conditioned cab while the driver loaded the Beetle onto the flatbed. We admired the HEAVY METAL decor on the dashboard:



The driver took us to a garage located next to another Wal-Mart a couple miles down the road. The mechanics at the garage told us that the alternator gave out, causing the belt to fall off. Luckily, the alternator, which was replaced about a month ago, was still under warranty. We only had to pay for a new belt and labor. Missy and I patiently sat in the waiting room while the car was being worked on:





The whole ordeal set us back about 4 hours. We ended up getting back to Athens at exactly midnight last night...