Family and Friends: Feeling Lucky

September 9 to September 27, 2002

Pictures at the bottom

Although it was painful to leave the warmth and hospitality of my new sister-in-law, Michelle, and her wonderful house, we finally did get out of town. It was so great to be able to spend time with her without rushing. We just got to be a part of Michelle and John's lives for a little while - something we pretty much did with Mike, Lori and David's niece's in Minneapolis, too. You rarely get to do this as an adult. There was no funeral, wedding, or hospital bedside event that usually bring people together. I think the time in Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and now Pennsylvania is making David and me realize (in yet another way) how lucky we are to be taking this trip. Time is so precious and being able to "waste" some of it is so rare. I got to teach Michelle about "Trading Spaces" and she took us to see two community plays ("Always, Patsy Cline" and "Charley’s Aunt").

However, every visit has to end, but we knew we had a lot of wonderful people to see ahead of us as well. It is a well known fact that David loves baseball. Although he has been disheartened by the recent owners and players acting like children, "Field of Dreams" is still a favorite movie and I have seen him well up over the famous lines. We headed to Dyersville, Iowa, where they filmed the movie. One interesting tourist note is that the field was actually owned by two different farmers. The farmer of left field tore up the baseball field when production ended and has since sold out to a corporation that runs a gift shop and the original owners have "gone fishing." The farmer on the right field still lives there and runs a souvenir stand and keeps up the grounds. The other bit of trivia I liked was about the corn fields. Do you remember the classic shot of the players appearing out of the cornfields? Well, the filming summer was a drought year and the corn wouldn't grow. Hollywood paid to irrigate all the corn and then, the corn grew TOO well. They ended up having to build little wooden platforms for the actors to stand on in the corn rows so that the actors didn't get dwarfed by the corn. I love mother nature! This is a link to a cool web site about the site (unfortunately, the cool web site is from the corporation. The link to the right field farmer's web site is here, but not as cool).

After our ball playing, it was off to a beautiful campsite in Wisconsin where David took some pictures of the Wisconsin River at sunrise. Yes, boys and girls, sunrise - the one in the morning! He dragged himself out of the RV after feeding Pluto when he saw this flame red in the sky. I slept through the entire thing! (We trade off in the mornings taking care of Pluto.) One of the shots is on the home page.

Then, it was an Eccentric America dream day: The House on the Rock. Not The Rock in the House,  but The House on the Rock. "Two and 1/4 miles of rare and amazing, collections, displays, and exhibits." The official web site has some information, but better info is provided here at www.roadsideamerica.com. The 80 foot wide carousel, the music machines (click for a recording), the vastness. WOW. We wandered for five hours and could have gone for six. We then went on to Madison, home of David's alma mater, University of Wisconsin. David enjoyed wandering down memory lane and took me on a few walking tours of campus. Although I will return the favor when we hit my alma mater, Williams College, it certainly won't take as long. Forty thousand students make for a lot of fraternities, dorm buildings, and off-campus housing. For those that care: (1) there is only one gyro shop now on State Street (Zorba's is no more), (2) the Terrace had a lot of grad students and older (undergrads don't get to drink much beer), (3) the ice cream is still great at Babcock Hall, and (4) The Onion is still free to all on campus in newspaper form with local ads. The place is still beautiful, but a little overwhelming to someone who went to college with 2000 students. We had a nice afternoon visiting with Mary, an old college friend and her delightful children Benjamin, Christopher, and Katherine (when she got home from kindergarten).

We had a good time at a Wisconsin / Northern Illinois football game - despite the Badgers barely pulling out a victory in the end. The stands were filled with red-and-white-clad people who all seemed to know each other - and we weren't sitting in the student section. David introduced me to the charming tradition of 5th Quarter, where the band stays on the field after the game to perform and the crowd sings and dances along. We polka'd and sang "Varsity" right along with the red and white tide. After the game, we finally departed and ended his trip down memory lane.

It was my birthday.  It was my birthday. David showed again what a wonderful, thoughtful, amazing man he is with lots of “stuff” to make life more fun.  My favorite, which we are still experimenting with, is a CD radio.  I’m not sure I really want to know what truckers say to each other, but it is kind of fun to play with. We also made a full dinner and a cake together.  Thanks David!

Chicago is a great town, the 3rd largest in the nation, and I am sure we are going to get some flack from people for avoiding it on this trip, but we are a bit midwest-ed out, so we drove direct from Madison through to Michigan, skirting the edge of this great city. We wanted to get on with our journey and start making progress to the fall colors in New England.

Michigan allowed us to visit with my old college friend, Orrin Murray and his oh-so-wonderful wife Tiffiany. They are both studying toward their PhD's at Ann Arbor. I was able to catch up with Orrin over lunch and then we all had a fabulous dinner at a funky local restaurant. Orrin (who describes himself as New Yorker by birth, Northern Californian by reputation) is a bit of food snob and he picked a great restaurant. It was so nice to sit on the sidewalk and enjoy the warm evening and the great conversations. Again, feeling lucky to have time.

Onto Ohio where we visited Lara and Chris David (both formerly of the Bay Area) in Toledo. Lara is an ex-roommate and college friend of David's. They also took us to a GREAT restaurant with Middle Eastern food. This seems to be a trend - our friends know how to pick restaurants. The trend continued in Cleveland, where we went to dinner with Trina, a college friend of David's, and her husband Shawn. And finally, a true example of the luxury of time, we spent a sweet afternoon with one of my mother's best friends during my high school years, Betty. We met her neighbors, her dog Annie, and just hung out for an afternoon.

Roller Coasters! Thrills! Adrenaline! Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio has been named "Best Amusement Park in the World" for four consecutive years by Amusement Today. It is also the second oldest amusement park in the country. That is impressive so we thought we had better verify before we left Ohio. We went on a giga-coaster that has 3 world records, tallest (310 feet), fastest (93 mph) and biggest drop (300 feet). We rode 6 coasters (steel and wooden) and had a blast! Pluto had to spend the day in a kennel, but he appears to have forgiven us now. I love roller coasters!

We are writing this in Washington, Pennsylvania which is near Pittsburgh. We are spending a week with my cousins, Elsie and Al. More on that later, suffice it to say - I'm feeling lucky.

David Pitching at the Field of Dreams House on The Rock - Creature Close-up of a musical instrument at House on the Rock Garden at House on the Rock Infinity Room - House on the Rock Roadside Art UW Madison Terrace