Reality Bites

I spent the past 3 weeks blogging about our adventure - the fun we had, the sites we saw and the (vast amounts of) food we ate. It was all lighthearted and funny. However, today reality set in, on so many levels.

Debbie spent most of the day in the kitchen making 64 pieces of gefilte fish for the upcoming New Year (the house has the smell and I have the heartburn from the smell to prove it). Ethan and Brian spent a good part of the day doing the summer homework they needed to complete (nothing like the last minute). Amanda got in her last licks of excessive TV watching. And I resumed my weekly trips to Whole Foods, with extra stops at Bed, Bath & Beyond and Waldbaum's for gefilte fish-related items. We also spent part of the evening organizing the kids' backpacks for the first day of school tomorrow and figuring out what clothes fit for the holidays.

But the biggest slap in the reality face came early this afternoon when Marc called me from the ballfield to tell me that Lou Messina, someone I had coached against at Merillon (and who had at one point coached both of the boys) had passed away. Evidently, he had a stroke last week, was doing better, but then something happened and he passed away today. It was quite a shock to me, as while I didn't really know Lou off the field, on the field I liked him a lot. He was always positive, and was very involved with his two boys, who were both a year or so younger than our boys.

We told the boys this evening about Lou, and they were both sad to hear the news. Brian immediately went onto the Merillon web site, but then we got busy with the organizing and we didn't talk any more about it. That is, until we tucked Brian into bed and he began to cry. I asked what was wrong and he didn't want to talk about it, saying it would make him sad to talk about it. We asked if it was about Lou, and he said yes. I think it was as much about Lou himself as it was about the idea of losing one of us. We sat with him for a while, then he started to close his eyes. Debbie had to go check on Amanda for something, and I asked Brian if he wanted me to lie with him. He did. So, for the next 30+ minutes I stayed with him, until he was almost asleep. I hadn't done that since he was a baby, but he needed it.

This is just another reason why we have to live life to the fullest. You never know when reality will come bite you in the ass.

R.I.P. Lou. We will all miss you.

Day 20 - Home At Last

Well, we are home. We left Philly around 10:45 this morning, and got home a little after 1:00 this afternoon. It was an amazing, enjoyable trip. We are all quite tired and glad to be home, but it was all worth it. The kids already are talking about not waiting for Brian's bar mitzvah to do another trip like this one. While there were some moments of frustration, the kids overall were excellent on the trip. They made it through the many hours in the car with few, if any, problems. We had the routine down to a science by the end, including the way the car was packed and unpacked, where everyone sat, and how the Mobile Command Center was set up. It was surprisingly efficient.

Now it is back to reality, and a blog-free lifestyle, at least until the next adventure. Thanks to anyone that read this along the way. It really was just meant to be a way for me to get the events of each day down in writing before they were forgotten and blurred with events from other days. But I enjoyed writing it.

'Til we blog again.

The Trip - By The Numbers

Here is a quick summary of key figures from the trip:

• 20 - Days away
• 3,310.8 - Miles driven
• 1,642 - Pictures taken
• 12 - States visited or passed through (NY, NJ, PA, WV, OH, KY, TN, MO, AR, IA, IL, IN)
• 11 - States Brian and Amanda were awake in (they slept through all of WV)
• 10 - Hotels we stayed in
• 62 - Hours the kids (read: Ethan) watched movies
• 80 - Clocked speed I was driving when pulled over by OH State Trooper (only got a warning)
• 70 - Maximum speed I drove the rest of the time in OH
• 2 - Toilets clogged
• 1 - Toilets clogged so badly the hotel had to give us the key to the vacant room next door
• 36 - Cheeseburgers eaten by Amanda
• 1 - New holidays created (Solderkkah)
• 45 - Minutes in line for Dragster ride in Cedar Point
• 120 - MPH the Dragster ride achieved in about 2 seconds
• 17 - Total seconds for the Dragster ride
• 4 - Halls of Fame visited (Country Music, Rock 'n Roll, College Football, Pro Football)
• 3 - Halls of Fame we were all glad we visited (Rock 'n Roll, College Football, Pro Football)
• 460 - Orders processed for More Than Paper
• 219 - Times either Debbie or I said to the kids "Stop it!" "Please stop it" or "C'mon Guys!"
• 25 - Tropicana Juicy Rewards points used to save money at musuems and tours
• 1 - Truly Gluten-free meal eaten by Debbie (Jimmy John's in South Bend)
• 3 - Colleges visited (Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Penn)
• 1 - Colleges that we visited that our kids will attend (Penn)
• 2 - Trips to Staples to buy more toner
• 694 - Pit stops taken while driving
• 694 - Times Amanda went with me to the bathroom during a pit stop
• 2 - Great Neck friends ran into at Penn
• 1 - Restaurant where they threw rolls to you from 30+ feet away
• 7,985,125 - Calories I consumed during trip
• 7,985,125 - Coincidentally, also my current cholesterol level
• 2 - Major League baseball games attended (Pittsburgh, Cleveland)
• 2 - Minor League baseball games attended (Harrisburg, Williamsport)
• 4 - Home teams that played like Minor League Teams (Harrisburg, Williamsport, Pittsburgh, Cleveland)
• 5 - People who enjoyed the trip, but are glad to be home

Day 19 - The Final Day

After 18 days of traveling half of the country, today was the last day away from home. We spent most of the day at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. And when I say most, I mean we got there around 10:30 and left when the place closed at 5:00. Debbie and I spent 4 years of our lives in Philly, and neither of us had ever been there except for a Phi Sig formal in 1990. The kids loved it there. There were so many hands-on exhibits, dealing with things like the Earth (where you could do your own weather report), Electricity, Trains, Planes, Sports, Gravity, etc. There was also a planetarium, which turned out to be an excellent place for a nap.








When we were all done at the museum, we (stunningly) went to the gift shop to buy some of the most unnecessary items, then headed back to the hotel. One of the nice things about staying at an Embassy Suites, in addition to the large rooms and made to order breakfasts, is that they have a complimentary happy hour from 5-7 daily. So we stopped at the bar for some drinks and snacks.

Then it was off to the Penn campus. First stop was the Penn Bookstore. I have to be honest. The new book store (although I guess it's not so new anymore) is a nice Barnes & Noble, but I still prefer the old book store on Locust Walk. That was a true college book store. Anyway, we all bought Penn clothing, and then took a short walk on Locust Walk. I had to drop the book store haul in the car while the others headed to the button. I entered Locust Walk at 37th Street, and the button is around 34th or 35th Street. Maybe it's my age, or maybe it's the fetus I have growing in my uterus, but that walk seemed a lot longer today than it did 25 years ago.



After walking up to take the obligatory photo with Ben Franklin, we drove up to 41st and Walnut for Lee's Hoagies. I couldn't find a spot right near Lee's, so we ended up parking on 40th Street right near the McDonald's. In our time at Penn, this was not an area that I would park my car, or feel comfortable walking around with my kids. But today the place is terrific. There are a ton of new restaurants and stores, and there are Penn Police on every corner, and sometimes between corners also. We talked to one of them, and they are there 24/7. As a parent of 3 future Penn students (because I know my kids are reading this blog), it would make me feel very comfortable when they live at 219 S. 41st Street (Apt. D) in a few years.

And now for the food orgy portion of the blog. Lee's Hoagies was a tradition for Debbie and me when we were at Penn. Most of the time I got a tuna hoagie with lettuce and provolone, sometimes with onions and/or hot peppers. In a nod to my age, and the daily Prilosec I take, I eschewed the onions and/or hot peppers. I think the "Jan" hoagies were better (more tuna, more mayo in the tuna), but it was still very good. The kids seemed to enjoy them also, and got a kick out of seeing Debbie (and Auntie Allison) in some sorority composites on the wall.



Before heading back to South Street for a repeat performance at the yogurt store we went to last night, we decided to stroll down 40th Street to see if Smoke's was still there (it was) and what else was there. As we passed some people sitting at a Mexican restaurant (located where Uni-Mart used to be), Debbie did a double take and spun around. It was friends from Great Neck who also went to Penn (10 years older) and were moving in their daughter. Small world.

We then headed to South Street for more yogurt (once again a big hit) and headed back to the hotel for the final night away from home. Nothing scheduled tomorrow other than driving home, and back to reality, and weeks and weeks of cereal for dinner.

Day 18 - Back In Philly

The day started out in glorious Williamsport, PA. We had decided to visit the Little League Museum, which is located next to the fields where they played the Little League World Series last week.


However, when we got to the museum around 11:00 the sign on the door said "Closed" even though their hours were from 10-5. Evidently, this is not busy season, so there were only two people scheduled to work the museum today, and one was going to be late and the other had a class to teach. The sign said they would be back at noon, so we instead when to check out the field. Turns out, there are actually 6 fields on the complex. It looked like 3 were used for games, and maybe the others were for practices. We were not allowed on the fields, which truly disappointed the boys, but I ended up jumping the fence and going on the main field thanks to an errant throw by one of the boys (name withheld to protect the innocent).

At around 11:30 we headed back up the museum to wait until noon, but we were in luck and the museum was open. It's not a large museum, and if they hadn't had an area where you could throw, hit and run we probably would have been done in about 15 minutes. After (AGAIN) buying stuff we don't need, we headed to a restaurant near the museum for a surprisingly good lunch. When done with lunch, we set up the "Mobile Command Center" for the 2.5 hour drive to Philly (ended up being a 3.5 hour drive thanks to traffic in the Philly area).

We settled into the hotel (Embassy Suites in the Museum part of town), we had a very difficult decision to make - which cheesesteak place would we go to for dinner? We were not heading to the Penn campus tonight, so Abner's was not on the table. However, we (or I) wasn't sure if we should go to Geno's, Pat's or Jim's. I consulted the handy Roadfood book, and opted for Pat's, the home of the original cheesesteak. I had been to Pat's before, but Debbie had not, and had no idea what the place was like. When I parked the car around the corner from Pat's she asked if the kids had their sweatshirts, assuming we were going to be dining in some air conditioned room. She had no idea that Pat's is a glorified food stand, where you walk up, order in "Soup Nazi" terms ("Wiz wit" - for those uninformed with the lingo of the Philly cheesesteak, that would get you a cheeseteak with cheese wiz and onions), and sit at a park bench to enjoy the food.




Here is what I went with (mushroom wiz with):



And the rest of the family:


Hungry yet? We finished dinner and decided to head to South Street to walk around and get some dessert. I found a spot around 3rd and South Street, and it was right in front of a Haagen Dazs. The kids wanted to just go there, but we insisted on trying to find something or someplace that we could not get at home. Wise decision, as we found the 2nd best dessert idea on the trip (nothing can beat the pie place). This was a frozen yogurt place called Phileo Yogurt where it is self serve with a bunch of flavors. You can fill your cup with as much or as little as you want, and put whatever toppings you want on it. You pay by the weight of your cup (I think it was $0.49/ounce). Debbie loved it, as she was able to make the perfect combination of yogurt and nuts, and the kids loved it as well.

We left South Street and headed back to the hotel, first driving around the Front Street/Penn's Landing area. Not really sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but we will end up at some point at the Penn campus. Also, because we haven't spent enough nights in hotels, we have very likely decided to extend the trip by one more night, so we can spend the entire day in Philly and not have to drive home late.

Day 17 - Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Today was a long day. We started out by driving from Cleveland to Canton to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Before we headed out, we had to make a pit stop at Staples to pick up another toner for the printer - second one this trip. More Than Paper has been busy, to say the least. You would think that people would have known that the Jewish New Year was early this year, and planned ahead and bought their cards last month. But no, they must have been busy doing other things because we have been swamped this week. Today was the first relatively quiet day in over a week. I guess we can't complain, as all of those last minute charlies are paying for our overeating.

Due to the itinerary for the day (HOF then drive 4+ hours to Williamsport, PA to try and catch another minor league game), the hope was to get on the road to Canton (only about an hour away from Cleveland) by 10, stay a few hours at most then hit the road. We weren't bad leaving Cleveland, for us anyway, and we finally got on the road around 10:30. We made it to the Hall around 11:30 and went in to check it out.

Frankly, I thought the boys would be more interested than they were. Brian had some interest, but Ethan really didn't. I guess it's because they are only 10 & 13, and the players they have watched are either not yet eligible for the Hall or still playing. I enjoyed it, as I went back as far as the 70s for players that I had watched, and knew a lot of the older players as well. Debbie, who hates football, at least on TV, actually seemed to enjoy it, as she was asking questions ("Is the football the one that isn't round?" - just kidding, she asked questions about the World Football League and American Football League as they had a whole exhibit about the various other pro leagues over the years). We also sat in on a brief history of the helmet over the years, which I thought was interesting.





For some reason Amanda got a kick out of the Hall of Fame busts that had mustaches, and insisted on taking a whole bunch of pictures with busts of mustached players. She was especially fond of one relatively recent induction class where every player had a mustache.



After the troops got restless, and we purchased more crap, I mean souvenirs, we stopped at Wendy's for lunch (told you the food-fun had ended) and got on the road to Williamsport. It was this journey that brought to life the fears of long trips in the car, as there was an almost constant (unpleasant) aroma filling the air in the car, emanating from the back seats(s). My guess is that the food choices at Wendy's didn't help matters. I can't say for sure who the culprit(s) was, but I kind of think it was a total team effort.

The game was scheduled to start at 7:00, and thanks (or no thanks) to a 30 minute crawl on I-80 in PA when the road went from 2 lanes to 1 because of roadwork (although the westbound side also was one lane and was moving fine), we got to the ballpark right as the game was starting. This was a Single A game between the Williamsport Crosscutters (Phillies) and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Indians). The general admission tickets cost $5.50 ($4.50 for the kids) and we found seats on the 3rd base side about 10 rows from the field. Love minor league baseball. The ballpark is very nice, and calls itself Historic Bowman Field.



On this trip we have now been to 2 Major League games, one Double A game and one Single A game. Obviously, the quality of the games has reflected the level of league we were watching. But what I realized tonight was not only are the players more polished at the upper levels of baseball, but so are the fans. I was completely unaware that (how do I put this nicely?) the IQ of the fans matched the baseball IQ of the players. The boys watched a lot of the Little League World Series that just wrapped up here in Williamsport, and from the fan shots they showed throughout the games it is clear that they did not let any of these fans into those games. My guess is that they had a 24-hour-day Dukes of Hazzard marathon going on somewhere in town to keep them busy for the 2 weeks or so the tournament was on.

To say this crowd was scary is an understatement. To give you a sense of what we I'm talking about, this was on one of the fan's cars as we exited, and I think summed it up for all of them:



There was a man that sat two rows in front of us that looked like he had swallowed an inner tube. To be fair, he definitely had issues, as he had a chant for every situation ("H-R, H-R, H-R, H-R, H-R!" for a batter he wanted to hit a home run, "If you're happy and you know it call strike 3" when a batter on the other team had 2 strikes, etc.). And it was constant. I really can't do it justice without video, or at least a picture, but that would not have been right. Funny, but not right.

We left after the top of the 8th inning and went to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow we might try and go to the ball field where they play the Little League World Series and we saw a sign for the Little League Museum, so we might try that also. Then we will head to Philly for the last stop of the trip.

Day 16 - Rock 'n Ball

Today Cleveland Rocked. [having issues with uploading pictures tonight so only text tonight]

I had purchased very expensive tickets ($6 each) for the Indians game vs. the White Sox at noon, so that was the first stop of the day. We were running a little late, so we took the hotel's complimentary minivan to the game. I think the driver watched the In-Laws too many times, because what should have been a left turn from the hotel and then straight down the road a few blocks turned into a serpentine route. I think the hotel must pay this guy by the turn.

We got to the game just as it was starting, and it was in fact the first game for Manny Ramirez as a member of the White Sox. It was another really hot day, so we were concerned that we would be baking in the sun all day. But as luck had it, our seats were in the mezzanine level under an overhang. So, while it was still toasty, we were at least shaded. Manny came to bat in the 2nd inning, and seemed to get a decent response from the fans. A little booing, a little cheering.

The boys were a little bummed that the seats we had did not have a good view of the scoreboard, so after the 3rd inning they moved up to the second row of the section, where they were much happier. Brian kept score the entire game, while Ethan tried to get the people on the field to throw him something (t-shirt, ball, etc.) between innings. His Yankee hat and Yankee shirt might not have helped his cause.

Progressive Field, where the Indians play, is a nice looking ballpark. It's too bad they stink now, because the place was very empty. I think the paid crowd was about 12,000, but I don't think there were that many people in the stands. The Indians seem to have the same hiring practice as Hooters, where they only hire people with certain characteristics. But unlike Hooters where they only hire young women who look good in a tight shirt and shorts, the Indians seem to only hire old men with no teeth. Seriously, I don't think we saw a single person that worked for the Indians that had all, or even most, of his teeth.

After the game (won by the White Sox), we headed to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. We got conflicted reports about how far a walk it was from the field to the hall so we weren't sure if we should walk or go get the car. We ended up going with the 3 out 5 theory that it was a 10-minute walk, which it kind of was.

The Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame is housed in an IM Pei glass triangle (does this guy know any other way to make a building?) on Lake Erie. I think Debbie and I enjoyed it, even though we are not huge music people. But we did know many of the people in the Hall, and the music was excellent. Amanda kind of liked it, helped by the 5 minute power nap she took while watching clips of all of the inductees from 2001-2010. Brian knew a lot of the older inductees from his study of Rock 'n Roll in school this past year. And Ethan would rather have been getting his braces tightened than be there. Since there was no "recent" music from "recent" acts, he got bored after about 2 minutes. But we made him walk the entire Hall, and maybe some of it soaked in.

After getting a ride back to the hotel, we went to the restaurant that is right next to the hotel (I think the food fun may have ended). The service took way longer than it should have for a restaurant that had 12 people in it, and then we headed up to the room to do the nightly work.

Tomorrow is shaping up as a long day. We will head to the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, then drive to Williamsport.