Long Live Rock

 

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

“I know it’s only rock and roll, but I like it.” And today we spent all day with it. We finally got to spend a day at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. We were there once before, but we only had a very short time. Today, we spent about 6 hours.

We arrived at around 11:15, and decided to go down to the lower level of the museum first to see the special Beatles “Let It Be” exhibit. I am not sure the entire set-up was “special”, or only the Beatles portion of it. We started out at a large display featuring all the musicians who had an early influence on rock, mostly blues singers and some early folk singers like Woody Guthrie. I could have spent an hour just at this part--with headphones, we could choose an early musical icon such as Muddy Waters, and then were presented with four songs by that artist. I was in the mood to hear them all! But there was so much to see and I was afraid I would run out of time! There was also a lot about the early artists who influenced the Beatles, such as Elvis, Little Richard, etc. I ended up skipping most of that, including Elvis (!) because we had seen a lot of that material presented in Memphis at the Museum of Rock and Soul.

I spent quite a bit of time absorbed by a display of photographs Baron Wolman, the first photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. His amazing portraits of rock stars were fascinating, and there was a video of interviews with him and others about his work. Then we entered a section which discussed the different cities which had produced influential styles in the R&R genre-- Liverpool, San Francisco, Detroit, etc. Different groups from each city were highlighted with memorabilia, costumes, etc. The historical retrospectives were very interesting to read. This was followed by more costumes and memorabilia of various artists in no particular order, as I recall. And then finally, these displays segued to the Rolling Stones, who had a large video section with snippets from their many years of concerts. And adjacent to them was the beginning of the Beatles information.

It began with a huge display of memorabilia to accompany the historical retrospective on the group’s development. My favorite item in that display was a few copies of The Howl, a mock newspaper John Lennon wrote and illustrated when he was in grammar school. It already had hi trademark style of humor, “Charles turned around... suddenly, quite suddenly, all of a sudden suddenly, he could see in the distance quite near ....”  Another excellent exhibit was a video which went progressively through each Beatle album, with snippets of comments from the Beatles about the particular songs or the album as a whole, and how it related to the development of their music.

Finally, we arrived at the Let It Be portion of the exhibit. Here there were four small “theaters”, each with a segment from the recent documentary about the recording of the Let It Be album. We sat there immersed in the conversations of the four Beatles about the compositions they were recording, and then the final playing of the music as they made it all come together. The videos were completely engrossing and we sat through each completely, and sometimes more than once. The final one was the concert on the roof at Apple Studios, with split screens showing the people on the street, the constables coming to keep everything under control, and people climbing out onto their roofs nearby to see and hear the Beatles playing. The music, of course, is just fantastic anyway, and the sound system and intimacy of the experience was fabulous.

By the time we left there, it was about 2:00 and we needed some sustenance, so marking our place in the exhibit, we exited and went upstairs to the cafe/snack bar. After a short break for lunch, we went back downstairs--by this time it was almost 3pm, and i realized we were STILL on the bottom floor of the museum! I was worrying we’d need to come back tomorrow to see the rest of the place.

We went in the “exit” side of the show, going back in time to see a Janis Joplin display and videos, read about the Doors and Jimi Hendrix, and listen to the video in a room about the Cleveland rock scene. Our last visit was to a small theater which had videos playing of songs that were sung during various R&R Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. The focus was still on the Beatles, and there were several of Paul and Ringo singing together (A Little Help from my Friends and I Saw Her Standing There.) But the best one was a group that (I think) was honoring George Harrison, playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps. They (including Tom Petty, George’s son Dhani Harrison, Prince, and several others whose names I am blanking on) honed musically very close to the original Beatles recording from the instrumental perspective, enhanced by Tom Petty’s vocals; his voice sounded very much like George’s. But the best part was the guitar solos at the end, recreating George’s incredible guitar work on the album. Prince stepped up suddenly and took over the solo, and he just SHREDDED it. It was totally incredible! It so happened that this number was where we entered the theater, and we listened to all the other musical numbers until that one came around, when we listened for a second time, with the exact same reaction. It was absolutely amazingly great.

Joe on Drums

We finally stumbled out of there, just saturated by the sound, and I was thinking that the rest of the museum had to be an anticlimax. It was now 3:30 and we’d only been on one floor! We took the escalators up to the 2nd floor (the first was the entry and cafeteria), and found “The Garage.” This was a hands-on studio experience for people who wanted to become rock musicians. We had the option of playing guitar, keyboard, or drums. Joey went into the drum booth (totally soundproofed) and played a few drum riffs for old time’s sake. Then he made me try out the keyboard. I played a C-chord with Aretha’s Chain of Fools recording. It was a very cute “tutorial”. 

We were about to leave that floor when one of the museum staff saw our hesitation and grabbed us. “Go over there to the theater-- it’s the last showing of our film on Hall inductees!” So we went into another theater and got tiny snippets of dozens of Hall of Fame concerts and honorees singing during the presentations. The last scene was--guess what-- Prince’s solo at the end of As My Guitar Gently Weeps. He got far more minutes than anyone else--at least a minute or two, and that was the finale! So I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought it was an incredible performance.

By this time, Joe was feeling kind of tired. So we went up to the 5th and 6th levels quickly. The 5th floor had a lot of costumes; I vaguely remembered it from our earlier visit years ago. The 6th level was interesting, though. It had four exhibits only, each one featuring a specific guitarist with a distinct style, and a video of him describing how he learned to play guitar that way, why he liked his particular approach, etc. We watched Keith Richards and Tom Morrelli, both of whom I love, and a third guy whose name i can’t remember, from Quicksilver Messenger Service in the 1960s. (The fourth was Eddie Van Halen; we heard his interview while we looked at the other three and read the materials.)
 

By this time, we had finished everything except the 3rd floor-- Pink Floyd’s The Wall. And since I don’t like Pink Floyd and their anti-Semitic front man Roger Waters, we skipped that and at 4:30, finally left the museum. We’d spent 5+ hours there, mostly on that one floor. And I would not mind going back and doing it all again.

The museum was great, but like any museum, can’t cover everything. The depth of material on soul music was much greater at the museums in Memphis, where that music was recorded, for instance. But we loved what we saw, and feel so lucky to have lived through this part of musical history. When we left the place, we sat for a little bit looking at the view of Lake Erie from a bench between the Rock Museum and the Science Museum next door. And then we drove back to Kent & Tom’s, where we had a casual dinner and ice cream for dessert. All in all, an excellent day.

Friends & Family

A view of the Arts Castle

 Monday-Tuesday, May 9-10, 2022

Monday was our day to spend with friends, Gary and Jan, who we have known since Joe’s medical residency in Chapel Hill. We had plans to go over to their house at noon for lunch. So we decided to run to Walgreens to pick up a few items we needed. That took up about 45 minutes, and then we got ourselves and Cassie together and walked over to their house, only about 4 blocks away.

The weather was absolutely glorious, and we ended up sitting outside on the deck almost all afternoon, chatting and catching up. Around 2:30, we went for a walk around the neighborhood, including a stop at the Arts Castle, a gorgeous large estate which has been made into an arts center offering classes in everything from painting to dance. Jan showed us around the inside of the building--she had been on the committee which had decided to buy it--while Gary waited outside with Cassie. Then we walked to the local park and sat on a bench for a while before heading back to their house.

We were all tired by then, and not really in the mood to go out for dinner--it turned out that they, like we, seldom eat out anyway. So we decided to order a pizza instead. Joe reminded me that we’d planned to pick up some Graeter’s Ice Cream, which is fantastic. So I drove with Gary to the Kroger where we bought several pints of Graeter’s, and then we got the pizza, and then drove back. After dinner (out on the deck again--the weather was still fantastic), we went inside and watched Jeopardy. After that, they walked us back “home” to our RV, renewing their acquaintance with Sarah and John before goodbye hugs. It was a very lovely day with old friends.

Today we got a late-morning start. We drove the two vehicles separately as far as the Walmart. Then Joe went into Walmart and Kroger to pick up a few items, including more Graeter’s and a new walkie talkie. Our old one seems to have stopped working. Meanwhile, I drove the Jeep back to the center of town and visited two small antique malls as well as stopping at the Goodwill Store on the way. I didn’t find any Roseville, but I bought 4 jigsaw puzzles for a combined total of $7.00. That was a score for me!

Stocked Up on Graeter's!

 

I went back to the RV, and Joe and I had some lunch, then hooked the Jeep back to the RV. We spent the next couple of hours driving up to Cleveland. We did make one stop on the way, at Sweeties Chocolates/Grandpa’s Cheese Barn. Gary had mentioned that Sweeties ice cream was really good too. So we picked up some cheese and crackers to bring with us to Kent & Tom (our “in-laws”, as well as a LOT of chocolate!

We got to Kent & Tom’s place in Kirtland, OH, outside of Cleveland, at about 6:30. We unhooked the Jeep and carefully backed the RV down their long driveway. Then we had a delicious dinner and chat, before Joe and I went “home” to our RV, only a few yards away.

Tomorrow’s plan: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

A Week with Friends and Family

Saturday, Aug 14-Friday, Aug 20, 2021 After we left Oak Island, we spent a lovely week visiting "at home" with various friends and family. As I wrote in my previous blog, we did a major shuffle of our belongings from house to Jeep to RV when we left our beach house. Then we drove down to Myrtle Beach, where our friends Howie and Lois have an oceanfront condo. We shlepped our two coolers up in the elevator to the 5th floor, where we filled up their refrigerator with leftovers from the beach and our RV foodstuffs. Then the four of us, somehow tired after our lovely beach vacation, just chilled out, reading on the balcony and napping. We had a totally delicious steak and salad dinner with a view of the ocean, and did absolutely nothing until we went to bed. Sunday was similar, but we did go swimming in the ocean. The water was a little bit cooler than it had been at Oak Island, but that may have been due to the rain which fell the afternoon before. Dinner this time was out on the balcony--pasta and scallops, YUM! And after dinner, we watched the movie Yesterday. All in all the two days were completely lovely. Although of course we adored spending a week with our kids and grandchildren, there's something very nice about just hanging out with old friends. Monday morning, we all packed up yet again. Joe and I planned to drive back to Oak Island again to pick up the RV, and then head for the mountains. But after some discussion, we decided that we would not try to get there that night. We knew from experience that our destination was pitch black at night, and we didn't think we'd get there before the sun went down. After looking at various routes, we decided that we'd simply go to Howie and Lois's house in Greensboro for the night to break up the drive, thereby extending our vacation with them. So saying "See you later!", Joe and I headed back to the RV. Our departure from the storage yard was delayed by the electrical connections between the Jeep and the RV. Both vehicles were fine, but the hookups were not working. Joe ended up spending almost 90 minutes completely rewiring the lights, getting soaked to the skin in a sudden torrential downpour of a rain shower. Once he was done, he changed his clothes and we left, without bothering to get lunch, despite the fact that it was now after noon. We drove for a while, and then I wanted to pull over for some lunch at a fast food place (I knew Joe was exhausted and I didn't want to take the time to make lunch and then clean up). We found a Hardee's with a large parking lot, but when Joe went in, they said it was "drive through only." We obviously couldn't drive through in the RV, so we left without eating. In the end, we never DID eat lunch. We did, however, miss our exit, and somehow we turned a 4 hour drive into a 6.5 hour drive. Not only that, but I had a mishap-- we stopped for gas, and I was going to walk Cassie. But she managed to pull me over when I was coming down the stairs, and I landed hard on the concrete. Fortunately, H&L were waiting for us with open arms, a delicious dinner, and a hot tub just waiting for our aching bodies. The next morning, we took off for Linville and our friend Margie's mountain cottage. We were extremely happy to get there in daylight, but as has been our luck so far with this vacation, just as we were unhooking the jeep, another torrential downpour soaked Joe to the skin once more. However, we did get the RV up to the cottage and situated on the flat driveway pad of a neighbor (Margie's driveway is too steep for us, as we discovered the hard way last fall.) We spent the rest of Momday and all day Tuesday visitng with Margie and Grace, and even seeing Margie's parents Dot and Ed (whose anniversary we were at in 2019.) We also saw Margie & Grace's daughter Eliana. We played bridge with Dot and Ed, ate barbeque, and generally just had a relaxing time despite the heavy rains the night we got there. Finally, we left Margie's house to drive to Joe's sister, Betsy, and her husband Sean in Hendersonville. We got there at about 3pm on Thursday, and have been hanging out with them since then. Today, Betsy had an appointment in town, so I went with her and then walked on the main street window shopping while she was busy. Meanwhile, back at the RV, Joe changed the oil and installed a new XM antenna on the roof (the old one was broken, so he ordered it while we were at the beach and had it sent to Betsy's house.) Then all four of us had lunch together, after which Sean went back to work and the three of us went to the Pinball Museum. We ended up buying "bracelets" allowing us to play the machines for as long as we wanted, and Betsy and I spent about an hour trying them all out (I still much prefer the 1970s vintage machines to the razzle-dazzle electronic machines from the 1990s.) Then we came back home, and I took a nap for the second day in a row. Tomorrow we head west to Chattanooga. I have reserved a place to stay for the next 3 nights through Boondockers Welcome, a program which matches RVers up with people willing to host them. This will be our first time using the group, and it looks like a very nice place to stay, very near downtown Chattanooga. So if all works out, we will get there in the late afternoon and have a launching pad to explore the city.

A Little Slice of Heaven

8/7/21-8/14/21 We got up on Saturday morning after a night of constant heavy rainstorms. The pounding on the roof of the RV woke us up several times. During those times, I kept hearing the sound of a cat meowing. I finally decided there must be a cat hiding under the RV or Jeep, because it didn't stop and was very close by. I felt awful--the parking lot was streaming with water all night. I was VERY glad we had decided not to seek out a campsite at the nearby Nature Center; it was reassuring to know that the parking lot would shed the water and we wouldn't have to deal with mud as well as with wetness. In the morning, it was still raining lightly. We knew we couldn't get into our beach house on Oak Island before 4:00pm. We were planning to drop Cassie at the "Bed & Biscuit" at about 3:00. But there was no real point in hanging around at the Walmart. So we packed up to leave. Joe went out to make sure everything was okay with the Jeep and prepare to move it, and suddenly he heard the cat meowing again. He opened the hood of the Jeep and there it was--perched uncomfortably in the engine compartment. He came to the RV and said, "Deb, we have a big problem." When I went outside, the cat (it was actually a kitten) had moved back, deeper into the engine toward the windshield of the car. I got a long dowel from the RV and tried to "poke" it toward the way out, but instead it went even deeper, and wedged itself underneath a piece of the hood adjacent to the windshield. In the end, Joe got out his tool kit and had to remove the piece of the Jeep that the kitten was stuck under. When he lifted it up, the poor little thing sat up, looked at me, and then hip-hopped across the engine to the edge, leaped to the ground, and ran like lightning across the parking lot. It headed for a cluster of bushes, and I would like to think there was SOME kind of shelter there, but I fear it was soaking wet there too. The poor thing couldn't have been comfortable in the engine, with absolutely no surface flat enough for it to curl up onto, and the entire area was soaking wet. It's probably a good thing it ran, or we'd have ended up wanting to keep it! After that, we proceeded with our expected itinerary: we drove to Oak Island and decided to head for the Lowes parking lot, which has a great ice cream place and a huge empty area where we had room to disconnect the Jeep from the RV. We had some lunch there, got ice cream, then unhooked and took the dog (with both vehicles) to the kennel, drove to the RV storage lot, transferred anything we wanted at the beach into the back of the Jeep (it was literally filled to the roof), and drove the Jeep to the rental house, leaving the RV in storage. This all took so long that although we were the first of our group to reach Oak Island, we were the last ones to get to our home for the week, C&E At the Sea. The week at the beach was fantastic. We had perfect weather, we loved spending time with our family and dear friends, Joe got to cook a lot, I managed not to overeat, the ocean was like a bathtub,

and everything was just wonderful. As usual, it was hard to leave, but we had to be out of the place by 9:00 on the following Saturday. So we reversed our procedure: we loaded up the Jeep with all our stuff and several coolers of food, drove to the RV, hastily unloaded the Jeep into the RV without any planning, then drove to pick up Cassie in the Jeep. Then, back to the RV, where we spent a little while reorganizing. We left almost everything in the RV, taking only the dog and things we needed for a 2-day stay, plus both coolers, still filled with food. And then, leaving the RV again, we drove from Oak Island to Myrtle Beach.

We Take a Break for Indulgence

Gallatin River along US 191

2019-09-05 Thursday

Today was, I think, a first for us— a day when we left our RV and spent the night in a fancy resort instead. It was all at the generous instigation of Joe’s sister Betsy and her husband Sean. For 15 years, they have been coming to a fabulous fishing-oriented resort in Montana on the Yellowstone River, and talking about it with great excitement, enthusiasm, and love. This year, it worked out perfectly for us to meet them here for dinner—a doubly perfect day because it was Sean’s birthday. Then they generously offered to put us up in the cabin next door to them, and their insistence and enthusiasm won us over. So our RV is out in the parking lot, and Joe, Cassie and I are cozily occupying a lovely cabin with an extraordinary view of the river and mountains right outside the back window of our room.

We left West Yellowstone this morning to start our remarkable day, but first we had to upload the blog, dump our waste tanks, revisit the post office, and eat some lunch when those other tasks took us way beyond noon. We didn’t even leave our campsite very early, despite other campers coming in who were eyeing our site eagerly. In the end, someone paid for our spot while we were still in it, and waited at the site until we left so her husband could pull their rig into it. We had had a good choice of empty sites when we arrived at noon on Monday, but the campground was full last night, and as I said, there was a push to grab sites today. I suspect the place will be full all weekend, too.

Joe and I, meanwhile, went to do our chores in town, and at about 1:30 or so we finally headed north on US 191 along the Montana/Wyoming border toward Bozeman, Montana. The drive was beautiful, with the road following the Gallatin River for a lot of the drive and even 20 miles or so inside Yellowstone, where the road cut into the park. The mountains were beautiful but it was really the river which was captivating.

We arrived at the Yellowstone Valley Lodge at about 5pm, after stopping in Bozeman at the CVS to pick up some prescriptions we had phoned in, and detached the Jeep from the RV so we could park the latter in the parking lot. Then we threw some overnight clothes and toiletries into the Jeep, and drove it to the front of our cabin. Betsy and Sean, meanwhile, returned from their day fishing just in time to greet us at the door to our side-by-side cabins. 

Yellowstone River from our cabin’s patio

I immediately understood why they love this place so much—the back patio of each cabin looks directly onto the Yellowstone River, only a dozen yards away, and the deeply colored mountains on the other side. The four of us spent some time visiting on the patio (Cassie enjoyed hanging outside there with us—there was even some grass for her to lie in) and then we all went to clean up before dinner. It was hard to leave that view, though!

Yellowstone River from our cabin’s patio

Dinner proved to be good enough to justify leaving the view behind. B&S have claimed for years that this is one of the best restaurants ever, and they were not kidding. First of all, the restaurant is basically outside, although there are glass walls in several places to cut any wind (there wasn’t any tonight) and to keep the temperature comfortable. Second, they seem to know the entire staff personally after all these years, and are treated like beloved family rather than tourists staying at the lodge. Third, the menu is totally unique and fascinating, and the food was prepared with real excellence. The service was personal and, because it was Sean’s birthday, they kept bringing us extras to celebrate the day. We were there for several hours, talking and laughing and enjoying all the little details. For example, Betsy had made sure to ask them to make iced tea, because she knows that’s what Joe likes to drink. She is amazingly thoughtful, and the staff was incredibly accommodating. This was just not your usual dining experience in any way, shape or form! It was a truly memorable evening for all of us.

And the good thing about it being so memorable is is— as before, I forgot to take any photos of the four of us!!! Tomorrow B&S are getting up early as usual to go fishing (I think they may be heading back down to Yellowstone, which is only about 50 miles south of here), but Joey and I will be getting up later than that, so we most likely won’t see them in the morning. We’ve been told that the breakfast is included with the meal, and that it is at the same level of fabulous as the dinner we just ate, so we are looking forward to that as well. And then we will have to return to the mundane world of our RV (not that we don’t love it, but the views aren’t as consistently stunning as those of our cabin) and head for Bozeman. 

A Postscript: A few days ago, I described visiting Steamboat Geyser, and that there were people sitting in chairs waiting for it to erupt. It is one of the largest geysers in the park, I’ve read. Anyway, I think that was on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday night, Joe and I heard a very loud roaring sound. It was like nothing we’d ever heard before, and we couldn’t figure it out. Joe kiddingly said, “Maybe Steamboat erupted and that’s what it was!” We both kind of laughed at that. But today, when we had some internet and phone connections, Joe looked it up— and it WAS Steamboat! We heard it all the way in our campsite, outside the park. It was probably about 20 miles or so as the crow flies. That was LOUD!!

Road to Raleigh And Beyond

Joe and Juniper at the party on Saturday night

2019-08-17/18 Saturday/Sunday

As anticipated, our day yesterday was as hectic as anticipated, and a little bit more. As we finished packing up the Jeep in the morning to pull out at 9:30 right on schedule, we discovered the Jeep battery was completely dead. We had to do a bit of scrambling with Beth’s fancy new keyless-entry, all plastic car, trying to find somewhere on the car’s frame to attach the jumper cables.  In the end, we were about 20 minutes past schedule when we said a very hasty goodbye to everyone and rushed off to collect our RV. Of course, the drive there seemed far longer than I remembered from the week before. Fortunately, we were able to get into the storage yard with only a brief delay due to flustered nerves, and the RV was ready to go in 5 minutes. The on-and-off rain showers which we’d already encountered (it rained all night and before 9:30 a.m. it was pretty rainy) fortunately held off for a little bit.

With the delay, I was worrying that we would miss the 11:00 a.m. cut-off time to pick up Cassie. We didn’t have time to transfer stuff out of the Jeep, and we couldn’t just leave the Jeep parked like we did a week ago and go in the RV, because we were afraid to turn off the Jeep in case the battery died again. We didn’t want to have to take the time to jump it. So we drove (separately) in BOTH vehicles to the kennel, apologized for filling up their meager parking area with our vehicles (and one of them left running), and collected Cassie and her belongings. She was all fluffy from the extra humidity, and very happy to see us! And, we were happy to see her too.

From there, we returned to the Lowe’s parking lot as planned. The transfer of our beach clothing, gear, and food (almost all staples— i.e. nothing to actually EAT) went quickly and smoothly—the rain seemed to have stopped. I decided to run into the Lowe’s and buy a few things to actually consume, i.e. coffee and half-and-half for Joe’s morning needs. I also grabbed a few items which were on my RV grocery list, including nosh, water, and yogurt. As I checked out and walked to the door, I discovered it was just starting to rain again—and between the door and the RV, the heavens opened up.

We decided to eat some lunch—we still had an hour on my planned schedule—while it rained, because we hadn’t yet hooked the Jeep up to the RV and didn’t want to do it in the rain. That was when we realized, I hadn’t bought any bread, and we had none— absolutely nothing—to make a sandwich. It was still pouring. There were no fast food places by the Lowe’s. So Joe took an umbrella and after asking what I wanted (some kind of baguette thing), he went to buy bread. I realized right after he left that I should have told him, “And grab a loaf of something for later,” and of course he didn’t think of that himself. So he returned with “exactly what you TOLD me to get!”, a baguette.

We made and ate lunch, by which time the rain had let up again. We then hooked up the Jeep, and, as it started to rain yet again, pulled out of our last Oak Island stop to head for Raleigh. We went through several more deluges, and it was frightfully hot and humid. Plus Cassie pitched a fit in the middle of the drive, and we had to stop in a pouring rain to walk her (it was a semi-false alarm... maybe it was just the thunder that worried her.) However, the skies cleared up around 4pm, and it was bright and sunny when we pulled into the NC State Fairgrounds Campground at 4:30,  and happily hooked up to electricity so we could run our AC in the clawing hot mugginess. By the time we’d unhooked the Jeep, walked the dog, paid for the site, and arranged ourselves, it was time to dress “up” (i wore a dress and Joe wore chinos and a nice shirt—NOT our usual camping attire).

We drove the Jeep to a local restaurant to meet up with Beth, Joe and Juniper, as well as a crowd of about 20 family members gathered to celebrate the 70th wedding anniversary of Dot and Ed. They and Joe’s parents were best buds from dental school on, and they moved to Dad’s little hometown of Highland Park after graduation. Their daughter Margie became my BFF about 50 years before the phrase “BFF” was invented (back when we were in kindergarten), and of course she and her brothers grew up with Joe and his siblings. She  invited us to the lovely celebration she threw for her parents. We got to see Margie’s two brothers, all the first cousins and their significant others, and catch up with everyone. 70 years is really something special, and it was an honor to be included.  We especially enjoyed exchanging RVing adventures and information with Margie’s younger brother, who with his wife was parked right next to us at the Fairgrounds in their own RV.

It was a long day, and when we got home at 10:30 or so, we quickly jumped into bed. We woke up on Sunday at about 8 a.m., maybe the best night’s sleep I had for days! It was nice being back in our own bed again. While we waited for Margie to call us, we unpacked more beach things and our clothes, walked the dog, and did some general planning. Joe messed around with the Jeep, and decided we need a new Jeep battery—it is going dead too easily (it was dead again when we arrived at the campground, but this time we had our small portable jumper handy.) Margie came by to get us at about 10:30, and we all went out for some brunch and to catch up a bit more. I can’t believe we forgot to take a photo of ourselves, both the night before and on Sunday morning. Huge oversight!

Around noon or so, we finally had to say goodbye. She took us back to the RV, we hugged goodbye, and Joe and I hooked the Jeep up, battened down all loose items, and found our way to I-40 west.

The rest of Sunday was just driving. We were hoping to get as far as Knoxville, TN, but by 9:00 it was already a long day and I was tired. We had difficulty deciding where to spend the night, because there were no legal free overnight places near Knoxville—Walmarts were “no overnight parking”, and even the interstate rest areas were two-hour parking only. We finally stopped at the last rest area on I-81 (we’d detoured off I-40 to avoid the steep mountain switchbacks through the Asheville area) before rejoining I-40, and decided to take a chance. I wasn’t even hungry (we’d had a hefty snack break at 5pm) and we hardly had any food other than staples. So we had cereal for dinner, walked the dog, and fell fully dressed onto our bed. We figured if anyone DID tell us we had to move, we’d look like we were “just napping” and overslept. But no one disturbed us all night, and I slept soundly until 8am again. Joe was up much earlier, but he too slept well until then. We got dressed, walked the dog, and hit the road by 9am Monday. 

Taking Care of Business

2019-08-08

Today was a very long and hot day, but all’s well that ends well, I guess. We started out in the morning along the NJ Turnpike. We both woke up very early, probably due to the noise of the trucks constantly pulling in and out within inches of us. But we did manage to get a little sleep— enough so Joe woke up ready to tackle the tire situation.

Giving it thought overnight, he had come to the conclusion that rather than continue re-inflating the problematic tire, we’d be better off just putting on the spare tire. That was safer and in the end, we’d still have to remove that funky tire to get it checked, so better not to drive on it in the meantime. We had to figure out WHERE to do this tire-change, however…. we were literally inches away from the truck parking slot next to us, and I didn’t want him sitting in the way of 18-wheelers coming in to park. Luckily, someone pulled out just ahead of us, leaving a beautiful curbside space away from most of the rest of the trucks. So we quickly moved our rig to that spot, giving Joe plenty of very safe room to work.

The next couple of hours were just your average “change a tire on your RV” type of experience. We have a compressor and power tools, and we did this last summer, so I knew we could manage. My job, as I’d learned last year, was to turn the crank to lower the spare tire. Joe did the heavier work, including the fight with the lug nuts holding the old tire to the RV. The tire guy had tightened them SO tightly that it was a real problem, but Joe finally prevailed. Luckily, although it was getting later in the morning and the sun was up, the RV cast a shadow on my fearless tire warrior. But he was literally drenched in perspiration when he was finished around 10:30.

We cleaned up and while he rested, I went and got him an iced coffee from the Starbucks in the rest area. Then I drove us to Newark, to Beth’s recommended tire store, and we handed over the leaky tire to be inspected. Meanwhile we made lunch plans with Beth and her visiting friend Rachel (seeing her was an added treat for us.) I also had the chance to walk Cassie in some grass, which she much appreciated.

The tire was returned to us after about an hour— turns out it was not a nail, but a broken valve stem which had been letting the air out. Grand total cost to fix all this aggravation was $31.00. 

We drove to the nearby Acme parking lot, so that we could leave the RV for a little while, and Beth, Rachel and the baby came to pick us up. We had a lovely lunch together at 3 Stones Pub, and after a quick swing by Beth’s house to pick up the case of wine, she drove Joe and me back to the RV. 

Just as we pulled out, we discovered some concern about our electric hook-up between the Jeep and the RV. In the end, we detached Joe’s adaptations to the system and went back to the basic hook-up so we could get going—it was already about 4pm by this time. After that, though, life went smoothly— we drove down I-95, turned off north of Baltimore to avoid going through the tunnels, and finally ended up stopping for the night at about 9pm, just over the scary high bridge which separates Maryland from Virginia. We overnighted in the Walmart parking lot, after tiredly eating dinner at Panera.

Family and Food

At Ithaca Falls

Monday/Tuesday, Sept. 3-4, 2018

We had a really nice visit with Ed, and the more "extended" family. On Monday morning, we drove into Ithaca to visit with Ed's daughter Elisha, her husband Theo, and their two boys, one of whom we met for the first time. He is only about 3 months old, and definitely cute! We also got to catch up with Elisha's mother, Lisa, and her husband, who were also visiting. We were good friends with Lisa in high school, but we've only seen her at family simchas (bat mitzvahs and weddings) for the past few decades, so it was nice to see her with a chance to just chat. It's hard to really "catch up" at a simcha (especially with the mother of the bride!) so we enjoyed seeing her-- usually I have to ask Elisha, "How's your mom?"

After a couple of hours, we left so the kids could maybe take naps, and went to have lunch. Ithaca has a ton of great looking restaurants, but some were not open on Monday. We ended up at Mexithacan for some very tasty Mexican food. It was REALLY hot, and by the time we got into the restaurant, I was melting. So I had a frozen margarita to cool off .

Ed in his garden

From there, we headed back to Ed's, but we stopped of to be tourists for just a few minutes at Ithaca Falls, one of the several wonderful waterfalls in the town. Joe and I had seen Buttermilk Falls when we were here in 2013, but I think we missed this one.

And then we went "home." Joe took a nap, I read my book, and eventually we made some pesto with the basil from Ed's wonderful garden and had dinner on his deck (which had finally cooled down once the sun was going in.)  And that was it for our evening.

This morning (Tuesday) we woke up early. Ed had to leave soon after 7a.m. to go to the Syracuse airport to meet a friend. So Joe and I got going early as well. We had a bit of a time maneuvering ourselves out of Ed's yard-- the driveway wraps around the house. We came in from one side and Ed thought we could drive right out on the other side. But we discovered when we tried it that to get out on that side, we'd have to take a corner of the house with us-- it was just too tight. So we did a "k-turn", in spades! The space was so tight, we went back and forth about a dozen times, one foot at a time, to reverse the RV and go back out the same way we came in.

"Sam" (the RV) between the garden and house-- tight quarters to turn around!

We decided we had one more day for vacation, and by gosh, we'd use it! So we headed for Chenango Valley State Park about 60 miles away. It turned out to be only a short drive further to Binghamton, NY, and a friend had most highly recommended that if we were anywhere nearby, we should go to his family's absolutely favorite restaurant, Little Venice. So we decided to try that for lunch. We drove to the restaurant, and they had thoughtfully left us a big curbside space right in front (otherwise I was concerned about the parking--so it worked perfectly.) Little Venice turned out to be a family owned "institution" in Binghamton since the 1940s, and it was DELICIOUS. Home made pasta cranked out to order, and a secret house sauce. We completely enjoyed our lunch. Ironically, the two restaurant lunches we had, yesterday and today, almost doubled our previous restaurant meals. In 35 days, we've eaten "out" exactly 5 times-- Mexican in Cody, WY, Thai in Lava Hot Springs, ID, Quaker Steak and Lube in Erie, PA, Mexican in Ithaca, and now Italian in Binghamton.

Other than that, the only stop we made today was at a roadside vegetable stand this morning, where we bought some sweet corn, tomatoes, and some fruit. Joe ate an apple right away for a snack, and said it was delicious. We had the corn at dinner, and it was great too! So that was definitely a good stop.

Once we had lunch, we drove back north a few miles to the park, got a nice spot (it is virtually empty here), and both of us took naps! And since then we've been hanging out, reading, blogging, and otherwise relaxing. This is a good way to spend our last day of vacation. Tomorrow, we will have to head back to Highland Park. I hear it is stinking hot. In our RV tonight, thank goodness we have electricity so the AC is going again. If the house is too hot, we may just hook ourselves up at home and stay in the RV. After all, HERE we have CENTRAL air!

We Love Lucy

Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018

Our trip is slowly winding down now. We slept very well in our casino parking lot, where it was quiet all night. A torrential thunderstorm came along at about 9:30 a.m., but other than that, and the thousand or so seagulls who also spent the morning in the parking lot with us (poop!), it was really a nice pause in the action.

We continued on our way just after 10:00, timing ourselves to arrive in Jamestown, NY just before 11:00, the opening time for the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz museum in the quaint little downtown there. We were lucky to find curbside parking just a couple of doors down from the museum. We enjoyed it very much, although we didn't love it as much as we loved the Wizard of Oz museum in Kansas. It was similar in idea-- a background of both Lucy and Desi's life, and the of The Lucy Show, and of their lives after they moved on from that point.

The Lucy Show started as a radio show called My Favorite Husband, which Lucille Balll starred in (Joey said he's heard most of the episodes on the Olde Time Radio station he listens to on Sirius Radio.) When they decided to make it into a TV show, she suggested her husband Desi Arnaz for the part. The sponsors were not wild about the idea, but eventually they gave in (no Desi, no Lucy!) and the show became the most popular show on television. Interestingly, Jamestown was Lucille Ball's home town. Desi actually came from a very prominent Cuban family--his mother was one of the heirs for Bacardi Rum (her father was one of the three founders) and his father was prominent in Cuban government before Batista took it over. The family owned a lot of property, including in southern California ("Ventura" is a family name.) Desi and Lucy divorced right after the show ended, and she went on to continue her career on television while he concentrated on production behind the scenes. They remained close ,and their company, DesiLu, produced many other hit shows.

We liked the museum, but thought they skimped on information about the actors who played Ethel and Fred Mertz-- they gave at least as much background on the writers and even on some of the people behind the scenes. They also didn't do enough to share the music from Desi's Cuban orchestra, which was quite successful in its own right before he became so involved in DesiLu. We would have liked more interview videos and things like that, and they really needed a small room where they played reruns of the various Lucy TV shows for people to watch (the Wizard of Oz museum continually runs the movie in the museum.) So we think the museum could have been "done" better in some ways, but we did enjoy the stop anyway.

We ran through another torrential downpour to get back to our RV when we left the museum--very glad to have found a parking space so close! We moved a few blocks to a park, to eat some lunch, and then hit the road in earnest to drive to Ed's house for the night. It was nice driving through New York for a change instead of Pennsylvania, although the scenery is similar. We did stop at one rest area and both of us took naps, before proceeding.

We arrived at Ed's, just outside Ithaca, NY, at about 6:30, and spent the rest of the evening just shmoozing. Ed made us a fabulous pizza with his own sauce and veggies from his expansive garden, super yummy! And that was pretty much our evening.

My impression of the Vitameatavegamin Commercial

A Lazy Saturday in Floyd

Saturday, August 25, 2012

We had a very relaxing and lazy day today, and it was lovely. We woke up to gray skies and it's actually been kind of cold! This is a small issue, since I did not take any jeans or warm pants for either Joe or myself when I packed clothes and left the RV. However, we made do, and I did a laundry today so we have clean clothes again. We hung out during the morning, reading and not doing much. Breakfast was yummy homemade bread and melted cheese on fresh tomatoes, and Ed threw another bread dough together to rise.

In the early afternoon one of Ed's acquaintances, as musician whose music he'd played for us last night, stopped by for a voice lesson. So Joe and I gave them some space, sitting outside in the back yard and enjoying the weather, which finally had warmed up. Roxy had a wonderful time out there. She chased one of Ed's kitties (not too fast, and the cat was the clear victor in the race) and she is fascinated by the three chickens! She keeps going around the fence, and every so often gets very excited and bounces around the edge, barking at them. Then she got the idea to try to lift the bottom of the fence, at which point we had to find a piece of firewood to hold it down. She is just too smart for her own (and the chickens' own) good!

At 3 the voice lesson ended, and after tasting the newly baked bread, we drove into town again for an errand. Then Joe, Eddie and Roxy settled down on a sidewalk bench to chat, while I visited the little shops full of fascinating and unnecessary items which are tempting, but I resisted. It seemed that Ed knew half the people strolling past, or running the shops. He and Joe shmoozed and chatted and I took their photo--two old codgers on a bench, watching the world go by!

After that, we drove back to Eddie's and waited for Amelia to join us. Then we all went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant with local foods and other tasty delights. We chatted with our waitress (another of Ed's friends), who is building a new house in the round, made with 20 panels measuring 8' wide by 9' high. She showed us the photos--it was very interesting. She was another transplantee from New Jersey, as was the guitarist (and also the guy we'd met this afternoon on the errand which brought us into town.) It seems there are a lot of folks down here from the Garden State.

After a great dinner, we came back home, and the guys played their instruments (Joey brought his ukelele with him, and Ed of course had his guitar) and we had a singalong, just like old times. And now, it's time for bed! We are having a great time, and relaxing, and not thinking much about Mo--at least, I'm not. We are enjoying our visit to Floyd.

Escape to Floyd, VA

Friday, August 24, 2012

We woke up this morning and just relaxed and hung out in the hotel room, although we packed up our stuff to leave at noon. When we called the Ford dealer, Tim told us it was “safe” for us to leave town, that Mo would not be done before Monday.  So we made our departure and hit the road for Floyd and Eddie’s home in the country.

Most of our trip was on the Interstate, and it seems that the road in WV from Charleston to the border with Virginia is the West Virginia Turnpike. And it cost more than the NJ Turnpike for the distance—craziness! We stopped at a rest stop for a picnic lunch, and again at the exit for Tamarack. This is a large facility showcasing West Virginia artists—sort of like a West Virginia version of Sugarloaf, my favorite craft show.

 Of course, we still had the Dog Problem. So Joey relaxed on a lawn under a shady tree with Roxy, while I went into the building. I found a few small things to buy, of course, but nothing too major (a copy of Arcadia Press’s “Jews of West Virginia” was the most unusual—I’ll donate it to the Historical Society when I’ve read it.)  But I did see a lot of beautiful things—especially the quilts, which were most gorgeous, and some funky metal sculptures which I really liked.

After that, we got serious about the drive, stopping only for a Virginia map when we crossed the state line. We drove through a torrential downpour just at the beginning of Virginia before the sky cleared up. It was 5pm before we got off I-81 and drove through the green countryside to Floyd.  It was hot and sunny when we got to Ed’s house, and we were quite happy to get here—it was a lot longer drive than the 3hrs 15 minutes that Google Maps told us! But we had a relaxing evening sitting in the back yard, meeting Ed's friend Amelia, and eating a yummy homemade pizza for dinner.  The onions and the tomatoes are, of course, from his garden.

After dinner we went into town to take in the Friday Night Floyd scene. Every Friday night, there is a kind of open bluegrass "happening", where people congregate, form small groups, and play bluegrass music. The place draws locals and tourists, who cruise up and down the street listing to the music and stopping by at the Floyd General Store for ice cream and indoor music. 

It is such a part of what makes Floyd a tourism destination that the town has built little niches along the sidewalk to accommodate the groups of musicians and their casual audiences, who wander from one group to the next. We stopped and heard some excellent music....

....as well as chatting with a lot of Eddie's friends and acquaintances--it seems that this is just the place to be and he saw a lot of folks he knew. We left there around 11pm or so--they were winding things up by then--and went back home. It was a late evening, but lots of fun. Happy as we were to be there, I think Roxy was the happiest—she got to run around in the yard, bark at the chickens, and forget about cars, leashes, and motel sounds for a little while.