VISITS WITH FRIENDS AND RELLIES

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

August 10-14: Visiting Scott Swan, Gale’s younger brother, who recently moved back to the family homestead after 30 years in Laguna Niguel, California.  Quite a change in lifestyle - Man about Town in SoCal to sleepy little Dixon, whose claim to fame is being the boyhood home of Ronald Reagan.  

Sleeping in a regular bed.  Taking lots of showers.  Endlessly watching the Olympics, which I confess is an every four-year addiction.  Michael Phelps’ grand exit, Simone Biles grand entrance, Katie Ledecky smashing her own world record, the first golf in 112 years, women’s beach volleyball, Usain Bolt.  The list goes on and on.  Great stuff!

We did take a break from the tube on Saturday to visit the Carroll County Fair in tiny Milledgeville, Illinois.  If you want a slice of summertime small town Americana, this is it.  Kids’ pedal tractor pull, dunk the cop with a well-thrown ball, 4-H competitions of every imaginable sort, hula hoop and bubblegum blowing contests, barrel racing with your horse, funnel cakes, cotton candy, tilt-a-whirl and all the usual midway rides and games.  Antique tractors that went all the way back to 1956!  What does that make me?  A very fun afternoon of everything that really hasn’t changed much since I was a kid, at least what I can remember at my pre-antique age.

GALE LOOKING FOR A USED VEHICLE
AT THE CARROLL COUNTY FAIR

I squeezed in one round of golf at Emerald Hills Golf Course in nearby Sterling, Illinois.  Much to my surprise, the course was both green and had a perceptible rise in the land that in this flat farm country could almost be called a mountain.  The only thing I couldn’t figure out was whether hitting into the immediately adjacent corn fields was a one or two-stroke penalty.  Into the soybean fields was definitely a one-shotter.  Actually, the course was very nice and I enjoyed myself completely, especially when Scott and his girlfriend showed up for refreshment at the 19th hole.

Overall, this was a really nice visit and a wonderful way to decompress after four months and 18,000 miles(!) on the road with Albie.

August 15:  After attending to some last minute details and saying adios, we departed for western New York to visit friends from Florida, Matt and Lora Heyden, who have a summer house there, or “camp” as it is called locally.  To get there, however, the rest of Illinois, including Chicago, Indiana and Ohio stretch large in front of us across the canvas of America.

DEEP FRIED

MORE DEEP FIRED

GALE AND FRIEND

August 16: I can only think of one highlight for the journey - we passed by The Recreational Vehicle/Motor Home Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. We didn’t stop, but promised Albie that someday we would come back so she could visit the stars of her universe.  After stopping for the night somewhere in Ohio, we forged on to the little town of Boston, New York to see Matt and Lora.   Set up in the hills about 25 miles south of Buffalo, we found the air cool and damp, the scenery beautiful and their home lovely, overlooking a bird-filled forest and pond.  We had a second full day here to spend at the Erie County Fair, the largest in New York State.  Far removed from the bubble gum blowing contest at the small Illinois fair, this place was HUGE! and had every conceivable ride and form of greasy, sugar coated “food” imaginable.  There were some good bands playing rock ‘n’ roll, Italian tunes, chamber music and country.  A juggling, joking, unicycle-riding, wise-cracking performer was very funny and entertaining.  Of course there were the mandatory animal exhibits, including cows giving birth on premises!  Matt and Lora are regular hotshot ballroom dancers and they put on quite a show at one of the bandstands.  Much fun and eight hours later, we were exhausted.  

MATT AND LORA CUTTING A RUG

JANET AND BEAU ON BOAT

OLD MAN AND THE SEA

August 18:  Time to get the show on the road again, but we had only a two-hour drive through the hills of southwestern New York to reach our next destination.  We were visiting Janet and Beau Hanford, just southeast of Rochester, New York.  Only a scant 51 years ago, Janet and I had graduated from Gorton High School in Yonkers, New York, and had known each other since kindergarten, so this was a wonderful opportunity to catch up.  She and Beau have a boat on nearby Canandaigua Lake, one of the famous Finger Lakes, and they were kind enough to take us out on the lake for the afternoon.  Relaxing under the sun, with a light breeze ruffling the water’s surface, we couldn’t have had a better time.  I even jumped into the lake for a minute, despite the chilly 78˚ temp, much too cold for my Florida blood.

GALE, SAM, JANET, BEAU

August 19:  Took our time getting going this morning, but eventually headed east.  Traveling through upstate New York, it’s hard not to be taken in by the history of the USA that has occurred all along the Erie Canal (you know, “I’ve got a mule, her name is Sal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal” - even Bruce Springsteen recorded it)) and the Mohawk Valley.  From long before the Revolutionary War through the present, this region has played a huge role in the development and success of our country.  Growing up in New York, study of this history was an important and fascinating part of my education and much of it came back to me as we traveled.  Every large city is associated with industrial developments - Rochester (Kodak and IBM), Syracuse (Carrier), Utica (General Electric) and Albany (corruption).  Can’t beat it with a stick.

VIN, EAMON, BECKY

Continuing on into western Massachusetts through the rolling Berkshire Mountains, home of Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant, we eventually made it to Grafton, MA to visit my daughter Becky, her husband Vin and their one year old son Eamon.  Three months earlier in our epic journey, we had the great pleasure of visiting my granddaughters Bonnie and Eloise in Portland, Oregon and now Eamon is the star.  Not to be subjective, but it is so much fun to VISIT my grandchildren I can barely stand it.  What a thrill!

August 20-24:  More visiting, had a great time.  Here in the Blackstone River Valley, much of America’s Industrial Revolution began, with the abundant flowing water powering mills large and small.  This was not all  on the plus side of the column, as the heavily polluted, dammed up rivers forever altered the landscape, ending the existence of Atlantic salmon in these waters and causing untold disease among the people who lived here and labored in the factories.  To celebrate this heritage, we played Blackstone National Golf Course, a fine hilly layout cast among the regrown forests of New England.  We also saw “Kubo and the Two Strings”, a fantastic incredible wonderful animated film from the Laika Studio, in Portland, Oregon.  My daughter-in-law Alice Bird, was the Art Director and my son, Matt, is the Executive Director of Acquisitions and Development (i.e., finding projects for future films).  THIS IS NOT A MOVIE JUST FOR CHILDREN!  In fact, I wouldn’t take a child to it under 12 years old and I would strongly recommend it for every adult.  It is a story of life, growth, humor, pain and love, told with unfailing artistry and compassion .  Doesn’t get much better than that.

JANE AND ME

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August 25-31:  We sadly said goodbye to the wee one and drove along quiet New England back roads, lined with old stone walls from 150 years previous, when almost all of southern New England was denuded of trees and converted to rocky, mostly infertile slopes for farming and dairy production.  The forests have come back, along with bears, birds and other inhabitants, which include a great deal of suburban sprawl.  Wandering along these overhanging leafy avenues was very peaceful and eventually brought us to Storrs, Connecticut, home of the UCONN Huskies and my sister, Jane Fried and Donna Fairfield.  We spent a couple of days here, enjoying their company and catching up.  

RACHEL AND TOM

TOM ON THE TRACK

Next stop was Lime Rock, Connecticut, to watch the race car driving of Tom Venturino, the boyfriend of Gale’s daughter, Rachel.  We weren’t sure if we would have a chance to see Rachel on this trip, so this was quite a bonus.  In addition to being a CPA, she has become an invaluable member of Tom’s pit crew and even helped him build the race car he drives.  We got to park Albie overnight right in the “paddock” with all the other race cars and their crews and spent two days watching cars zoom around the mile and a half track.  This at times required the use of earplugs.  Mufflers are not part of racing equipment and the mini-racers sounded like an extremely loud swarm of angry bees.  These racers are all amateurs, but their work on the cars is anything but.  Just try listening to the conversation of this group of mechanical engineers while they argue about the various mathematic equations and adjustments that will make their cars run a tenth of a second faster.  These are kids with really fast toys and they love tinkering with them endlessly, right up to race time, to achieve the highest performance levels.  Much fun to watch.  I even got to be the staff photographer for the day, a new experience for me.

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From Lime Rock, we returned to Rochester, for a one-night stand (including golf) with Janet and Beau, before continuing on to Kitchener, Ontario, where Albie was born (Am I getting to anthropomorphic here?).  The factory wanted us there promptly when they opened, so we parked and slept in their parking lot, where they conveniently had a plug on the outside wall for us to hook up, electrically speaking.  That way we could nuke some popcorn, which we did.  The following morning, Monday, we left Albie in their care AND they provided us with a Nissan Rogue for the duration of the repairs.  Despite it being only 10:00 AM, we repaired to a swank hotel in nearby Waterloo for a couple of nights of R&R.  A round of golf at beautiful Deer Ridge Golf Club found its way into the activity list, as did a dinner trip to the cute little town of St. Jacobs, a Mennonite community that rolled up its streets mostly by 3:00 PM and completely by 6:00 PM, leaving us one choice for dinner and some peeking in closed shop windows.  

ALL WE WANT IN LIFE IS TO GET A HEAD
ST. JACOBS, ONTARIO

By Wednesday morning, Albie was ready for pickup.  We went through the checklist and what they hadn’t done, they did on the spot.  What they had done was most impressive - new refrigerator and freezer, new motor for the sliding side step, new major valve for the hot water system, all new latches throughout, electrical repairs, and on and on.  Total charges, even for the stuff we had wrecked by driving the RV through hell and back - $0!  We couldn’t believe it.  We are customers for life.

Next stop this afternoon - Albie needs new feet.  The front tire were worn dangerously down to the cord and the rears weren’t much better.  So now we’re at the tire shop, breathing rubber fumes and waiting for the finish when we can bolt outtahere and head north to Georgian Bay.