I woke on my own. It was bright out already. Uh-oh.
I got up and found my Mom. She denied agreeing to get me up early. I was sharp enough to be flattered … she wasn’t helping us rush away.
So I took it easy. Ben was still asleep, so I couldn’t pack up his stuff. So, I went out and ran a few useless errands – buying snacks and drinks and other stuff I could just have well done on the road.
When I got back, Mom was making breakfast for Ben – french toast. She pulled out all the stops and made eggs and bacon for both of us too. Ben wasn’t that hungry, so pig that I am, I ate everything.
Since we were running late, and it would be after 10, Mom ran over to Show Productions to pick up the digitized movies. Of course, they weren’t ready. Bob mailed them to me later.
I’m not sure when we were finally ready – 11:30 or so. We said our good-byes to my Mom, and to my parents’ house for the last 24 years (which she sold a few months later).
Ben, just before putting the truck in drive.
Dave, just before putting the truck in drive.
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I had no idea how this was going to go. Ben had never been on a road trip longer than 9 hours before (but he’d done well on all road trips). I’d never driven this far by myself – I’d done two trips of 1-2 thousand miles by myself, but Mary Jo was in another vehicle right by my side. And I was worried about the truck: when my brother and I had driven from Alabama to Utah in 1992, the truck had struggled in the mountains and we lost a lot of time. And I had a soft deadline – 6 days, or I’d have to cancel a class the next Thursday.
So, the plan was to make it as far as we could go. I was thinking that if we'd gotten up early, that we could get into Indiana and stop before dinner. If we were going to make that now, we'd need to drive a lot later into the evening.
I had bunch of activities in mind for Ben: touristy stuff to break up the monotony. I was keeping him in the dark about all these though: I didn’t want him pressuring me to go to some specific place if we needed to make up time.
The first side trip was Chautauqua Institution.
There was a period from when I was 7 to 13, when there were no kids on my street. As I get older, I tend to regard Chautauqua more as my home during that period: it was there that I had friends outside of school. So I thought it would be a neat place to share with Ben.
So we got off I-90 at Fredonia, headed up the valley to Casadega (which looks better than it did 35 years ago, over the hill to Stocton (which looks worse), over more hills to Hartfield through Mayville (both of which look the same), and down along the lake to Chautauqua.
When I was little, and going to Chautauqua was a long drive, passing this cemetery, and “the ball and square” meant we were almost there. Note the boy’s cool mirrored shades hanging on the handle.
We drove in the Main Gate, down Ramble Ave., Pratt Ave, and Root Ave, and parked by the Gleason - a good spot for a big truck that I'm still getting a feel for.
The Gleason – a guest house that my dad wanted to buy in the late 1960’s. He didn’t – my parents would have probably gotten a divorce if they’d taken on on that kind of business.
We went out and stood on the red footbridge across the ravine where I used to play. I remember when that footbridge went up, just after we bought our house in 1970. We climbed up through the ravine, and I showed Ben the deep pool where I'd throw rocks for big splashes (and he dropped a few in there), the spots where I'd try and build dams, and the skunk cabbage I slashed with a toy sword (I never made that mistake again). I took his to a spot that was loaded with trilobyte fossils in the 1970s, and it was picked clean! We did find a few fossils, but mostly of clams and mussels. Ben thought it was great, but of course, I was a little disappointed. But ... many years of going to fossil museums with our kids has taught me a thing or two, and I did find fossilized wave marks, which is not something I would have recognized as a kid. Some of those fossils decided they’d like to come with us.
Next we walked up Scott Drive. I showed him # 8 - the cottage of our friends the Gardners.
Here is # 10, the cottage my parents owned from 1970 to 1983. And of all things ... it was open and there was someone there. I knocked, and a plumber answered; he was turning on the water for the summer. I asked if I could poke around and take a few pictures, and he said yes.
Looking from the dining room back towards the front door, with Ben in the living room.
Looking the other way from the front door into the dining room.
A second floor bedroom. I used to be able to change bedrooms all the time here when I was a kid, but I didn’t choose this one often. When we’d have big family parties, this is where Stannards would sleep.
Ben in the kitchen.
This was Bob’s bedroom, up until he stopped going with us around 1974. I used to sleep in here quite a bit too.
This was my bedroom.
We walked back to the truck, and drove up Morris Ave, and around Bestor Plaza.
We parked by The Bookstore, and went in. This was one of the highlights of our trip: tons of cool stuff to browse through, and gifts to buy for Mary Jo and Hope. I was surprised at the number of politically conservative books they had on display ... they didn't have any back in the Reagan era. We spent about an hour there, and bought a couple of big bags of loot.
Looking from the Bell Tower back towards Miller Park.
Looking up the hill from University Beach.
University Beach – I swam there every day when the water was warm.
Looking across the park towards University Beach.
It was easy to return the way we came, so we went back down Morris Ave. and on down Lakeshore Drive past University Beach. Then up through the newer homes in the north end, past the Packard Mansion, and back Pratt Ave. past the nursery school. We kept going on to where Pratt ends near the Amphitheater. I mentioned it to Ben, but it wasn't going to be easy to park there, so I turned around. He never did see the inside of it.
I took a swan dive off that fountain – for no reason – when I was three.
Then back to the plaza again, and down Miller Ave. to Lakeshore Ave. and parked by the Bell Tower. There used to be a mod 60's style park for kids there - it's been recently removed. We walked around what used to be the College Club, and checked out the deep water in the anchorage. Then we went over towards the Bell Tower. There was a man throwing a ball with 2 Labradors, and Ben played with them a bit.
Just to the west of the Bell Tower, looking east.On the tip of the point in front of the Bell Tower, looking west.
From the Bell Tower, looking in the direction of the Palestine Park.
Then we walked over to the Palestine Park. If you've never seen this, it's a scale model of the locations mentioned in the bible, sitting on about an acre of land. It was built to help teach geography to sunday school teachers. Like all kids, ben thought this was neat, and ran all over it, checking out the little cities.
Jerusalem
Jacob’s Well – I blew up a firecracker inside a banana stuffed in there once.
Bethlehem
Ben by the Sea of Gallilee
Then we walked down to the lake. Ben has heard of skipping rocks, and this is a prime spot for good skipping stones. He tried, but couldn't get the touch. I skipped a few, but I sensed that he was getting frustrated, so I pushed us onwards.
Back in the truck, we drove south along the lake. All the way down past the girls and boys clubs. Then we turned around, and went back towards the Hall of Philosophy.
Girls club
They've spiffed up the High School Club.
Looking down the red brick walk from the Hall of Philosophy
The arc of the red brick walk across the back of the Hall of Philosophy, going towards Alumni Hall.
The arc of the red brick walk across the back of the Hall of Philosophy, going towards the Hall of Christ.
We'd spent almost 3 hours there, so it was definitely time to get a move on. So I pulled out the Main Gate, and drove southeast to catch the interstate.
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It was getting late in the afternoon, and I really hadn't thought through our next potential stop - the U.S.S. Niagara in Erie Harbor. Again, Ben was in the dark about this. It was 5:30 by the time we got to Erie, and there were no signs directing us where to get off. I finally stopped at a gas station for snacks. There I found out that it was 10 miles behind us, and had probably closed at 5. I kept my mouth shut, and didn't tell Ben.
We forged on, and stopped for gas in Kirtland, Ohio. By the time we got to Cleveland it was drizzling. As we progressed west through the city, the rain got heavier, until we were in a full-fledged summer thunderstorm in late rush-hour traffic. Of all things ... Ben slept through it.
So, I bagged another potential stop. I didn't want to get tied to a plan, but I thought that if I stopped in Cleveland, I'd call up Dave and Melinda Uschold and see if they wanted to meet for an hour. But ... Ben was crashed hard, and we were running late, so I kept driving.
The rain continued to get worse as we headed west. Finally, around 7 PM, I figured I may as well just stop for dinner, and maybe it will blow away. So we pulled into a rest area. Kudos to Ohio - they have awesome rest areas on the turnpike. We got food from different places in the food court, I got a coffee, and we sat down.
I'd wanted to get a lot further today - perhaps into Indiana. But, it seemed like a good time to ask Ben how he felt: stop now or drive some more. He was pretty neutral, but was looking forward to a hotel pool, so we bagged it for the day. We got back on I-80/90, and drove to the next exit with a decent motel sign, and stopped for the night in Milan, Ohio.
The hotel was nice, but the parking lot smelled from the agribusiness across the road.
Sunset on Day 1 … we were trying to get a photo of some pretty birds in the marsh beyond the parking lot.
Ben with his new loot from the Chautauqua Bookstore.
The cool thing about moving with a truck that has a lot of empty space in it, and empty boxes waiting to be used, is that you can put everything you need for one night in a couple of boxes by the door of truck. So, we opened up the truck, grabbed an armload, and made it inside in one trip. Ben adopted the job of closing the big door on the truck, setting the latch, and locking it.
The first hotel room of a road trip is always a bit crazy, so our stuff got scattered quickly. We went to the pool, which was warm, and empty. We went back in around 9:30. I broke out the copy of Settlers of Catan I'd bought last week, and we played for a while. We had fun, but we quickly realized it was a game for more than 2 people. We packed it up and went to bed around 11.
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