Chapter Text
The whole trip was planned in between Yami exploring the maze inside the puzzle so as to not tip him off to it. Why this whole thing even began was because of one of Jounouchi’s dumb jokes, specifically about Yami’s unfortunate luck of never seeing a waterfall before and how falling into one is not ideal for anyone ever.
Mapping out the drive time and stopovers was the first step in the process and it’s quite a bit of country to traverse for a 5 day trip for one National Park alone.
The route crosses the Bituminous Coal Fields of Pennsylvania, an extensive surface and underground mining region with some rather rough historical events casting a dull shadow over that section of Appalachia.
The first somewhat out of the way suggestion came from Anzu “Maybe doing an underground mine tour would be an interesting thing for Yami specifically since he’s so unfamiliar with it all” Jounouchi was quick to answer back, “maybe we shouldn’t since you know money and all” as mine tours aren’t usually that cheap and they are pretty sparse throughout Appalachia anyway.
Honda was the third to add to the convention, more jokingly than anything else, “Jounouchi why are you the one complaining about money, when did this happen dude”, the reaction Jounouchi gave him was one of annoyance which honestly wasn’t that surprising to anyone.
The drive time from New York City was worked out to be a good 7 hours and 30 minutes so stopping overnight was a necessity. The chosen city was Pittsburgh mainly for its interesting history, city layout, and the industrial style bridges crisscrossing the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers.
The main hotel would be located close to Lake Erie since it will be within the city of Cleveland, a good 30 minutes north from the National Park if traffic was playing it nice for the day.
After a good week of planning everything was set and ready to go, this included Anzu’s car which was an oldish dark grey 2001 Pontiac Aztek as it’s all she really needs to get around New York City. Yugi mainly sticks with public transport along with Honda and Jounouchi, as they really don’t need a car for anything other than trips like the one planned but Anzu was very excited to offer anyway.
It took a good 45 minutes to pack the suitcases as it had to be done in between Yami actually acknowledging the outside world which wasn’t all that often in the first place anyway. After that a half hour was spent getting everything in the car, specifically making enough room for everyone.
With the sun rising on a warm summer day with temperatures expected to exceed 70 they were off and headed to Ohio.
Yugi had the right side passenger seat while Honda and Jounouchi took the back seats as preference really wasn’t sought after as much as the front seat which was reserved for Yami in the beginning.
It didn’t take long for the boys in the back to start getting bored, “Hey look a another building”, “yeah no shit dumbass it’s New York what exactly are you trying to say Jounouchi” Honda was yet again trying to make sense of Jounouchi’s jokes which really only made sense to him in the first place. He points out things that are common and acts like it’s a rarity and does it all with a very surprised face, it’s more annoying than funny at least to Honda.
In the front Yugi and Anzu were chatting about how Yami might react to this as it’s extremely hard to gauge since he’s not as talkative as Yugi and the others would like but that’s also highly expected based on his situation.