What's the matter, peanut butter?

My Holy Week Road Trip
Saturday, March 26, 2005

Here are the details of the recent roadtrip that I took. It took us more than 400 kms as of the time when Pallo left and accompanied Erma to Cavite.

March 23
Run 1: Quezon City to Malolos
The Fellowship met at Jollibee Philcoa, we were waiting for the others, as they were waiting for Yhan in Tandang Sora. Apparently, Yhan misunderstood the instructions given to her and in fact was waiting at McDo Philcoa. We left at around 9 after a little drama. We first visited United Doctors. Leaving at around eleven in the evening we reach Malolos, taking the Northern Luzon Expressway and stayed at Libet's house.

March 24
At Libet's house, we ate. Feasted in fact. We ate when we arrived, and we ate again when we left, we had our breakfast there.

Run 2: Malolos to San Miguel
We left Malolos at 9:30, Scoobs and Punx planning on going back to Manila but we convinced them to the opposite, in short they stayed. From Malolos, our next destination would be Sandy's house in Bongabon, Nueva Ecija. We passed by the towns of Plaridel, Baliuag, San Ildefonso, San Miguel in Bulacan. We stopped by Mabel's house in San Miguel.

Run 3: San Miguel to Bongabon
At lunch, we continued the journey to Bongabon. We passed by Gapan, San Leonardo, Sta. Rosa, Cabanatuan City, Palayan City, and finally Bongabon. We stayed until 3, after convincing Sandy and Erma to join us.

Run 4: Bongabon to San Fernando
At 3, we resumed the trip after taking a breather. Sandy, said her goodbyes to her parents and again we were on our way. I fell asleep during the trip, only to wake up at a gas station around San Leonardo where we took a detour, inquiring on how to get to San Fernando from there. We took a left turn, eventually ending up in Jaen. After Jaen came, San Antonio, San Isidro, Cabiao (all in Nueva Ecija). Crossing the Nueva Ecija-Pampanga border, finally convinced me that we weren't lost that we were going the right direction. It was also a relief to see the Sierra Madre Buses, reassuring again that we didn't take that left turn at Albaquerque. We managed to see Mt. Arayat as close as possible, from the town of Arayat, we proceed to Sta. Ana, Mexico, ultimately reaching my house here in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. I originally planned on reaching San Simon first, I had to scrap the idea when we reached Mexico, I thought we would reach San Simon first before reaching Mexico. We had dinner at my house. Good thing Ate Riza cooked something, and so we ate. Resting for a few minutes afterwards, and me taking a bath. We proceed to Subic town.

Run 5: San Fernando to Subic
After receiving instructions from my father, and the map he drew for this trip, we all went back to the car rarin' to go to Subic and dip in the South China Sea. The towns we passed during the trip were Bacolor, Guagua, Lubao all in Pampanga, crossing the border into Bataan, passing by Dinalupihan, and then into Zambales inside SBMA, finally reaching Subic town after taking the Kalaklan exit. On a personal note we passed by a tunnel. SBMA was a revelation, it was Eastwood-ish. We went to Driftwood beach, and the fellow went for a dip, I stayed in the car, took a nap to re-energize myself. I have stayed up late for the past week, and the week after going out night after night.

March 25
Run 6: Subic to San Fernando
We got lost, somewhat, missing the route we took inside SBMA, and so we went back to San Fernando via the Olongapo-San Fernando-Gapan Road, all the way from Olongapo City to the City of San Fernando. Again we go lost in Guagua, going right of left going from Lubao to Guagua. We passed by the town of Guagua. I asked for directions at the PUV terminal, and after a couple of minutes driving, we were back on the OSG, ultimately reaching our house, where everybody went to sleep. Except for Pallo and Erma, they went to Cavite.

Run 7: San Fernando to San Simon
This is sort of the last leg of our trip. We had to change vehicles as Pallo already went home. This time it was my father who drove for us. This is one of the times were I really wished I knew how to drive. Oh well, gotta learn as soon as possible. From our house we took the McArthur Hiway passing by the city proper where we saw a number of flagellants. We missed the crucifixion in Cutud by the way. We passed by Sto Tomas, a little bit of Minalin, and then reached San Simon. We had lunch at my aunt's house where they served fish and chicken, and bananas and nangka for dessert. We saw two movies and had halo-halo before leaving.

Run 8: san Fernando to Malolos to Quezon City
My father drove my fellows to the FX terminal where they boarded a van bound for Cubao. And that concludes our road trip.

More than 400 kilometers, tons of food, five provinces and more than 30 towns and cities, and the 11 fellows who made the trip succesful, and to our gracious hosts most of all. So where do we go next?

Our route:


Map courtesy of www.wcorridor.com

Ah I could still remember the time we stopped by at that Shell station just before entering Bataan on our way down from Subic. Pallo told me he fell asleep! My goodness. I'm so grateful that we were still in one piece. Ah great times indeed :)

posted at 5:00 AM
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