Michael & Li

Fin...

2005-11-19T22:09:00.000-08:00

Some people have said we need closure on this thing, so here goes:
Our last day in California was a dream, hanging out and shopping and eating in Santa Cruz Proper. Picked up gifts for some folks back home, another great meal, at an organic place called "Fresh" something-or-other. It was nice to see Greta and her mom spending some quality time together. I must say, Greta and Larry showed us a great time- consummate hosts. As I write this, Lisa's mother, brother Marty and daughter Ingrid are out at the opera in SF. Lucky them...
Greta drove us to the airport on Monday night, we flew Song airlines, great airline. Leather seats, TV's, and there were, literally 12 people on the plane, so we both stretched out for some sleep. I think I got more than Li...
When we got to Boston, we picked up our rental car and I took Li to Tufts Dental School, where she sat in the chair and got worked on for almost 9 hours. Yikes.
We spent the night at the apartment of our good friend James Cennamo, a cartoonist and comic, in Arlington, next to Cambridge. We had a quick Italian dinner, then to a little movie theatre to see "Good Night and Good Luck", George Clooney's movie about Murrow and McCarthy. Just as I was deciding I was disappointed in the film (ask me and I'll tell you why), the film broke and we were told the show was over for the night. OooooK.
Next morning, another quick visit to the dentist for Li, then drive to the Cape via Stoughton, where the new IKEA has just opened. Glorioski! Last boat on the HY-LINE was cancelled, for a staff party (dammit!), so we were stuck with the Steamship Authority's notoriously unreliable fast boat, the Flying Cloud (Dying Clod). Sure as shootin', it sucked up a lobster pot into a jet halfway over, and we bounced and bobbed awhile, till the line was freed and we were on our way. Home. At last.
It felt like we'd been gone a year. The house needed to be cleaned, set right , winterized and prepared for the holiday season customers that would be arriving in a couple of weeks. Still decompressing tonight (Saturday, 11/19). All in all we had a fantastic trip. Blues and BBQ and Elvis in Memphis, Sean and Cirque du Soleil in Tulsa, vast open spaces and good vibes in New Mexico and Arizona, goodbye to mom as she heads for a new life in Hawaii, a wonderful time with Anne Meara in LA, Aimee Mann, Aaron and Siobhan and Finnuala, and the still emotional experience of seeing Greta do what she does. And those are just a few of the highlights. If you get the itch to drive across the country, we'd recommend it. Just watch out for that interstate highway coffee...

Closing thoughts and observations:
You can buy a house that doesn't suck for twenty grand in Tulsa Oklahoma. That's a little bit more than the new furnace that just was installed in the Inn...
Something cool is going on in Tulsa, by the way. We might go back and check it out some time...
It was nice to get back to the Island and have someone else pump the gas into the car for a change...
There's a whole lotta Jesus and "Patriotism" out there in flyover country...but there's plenty of NPR, too...
This country is drunk on WalMarts, Targets, Home Depots, etc. Every few miles along the interstate, all across the country, stands an oasis for the weary traveller, consisting of the same Days Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Best Western, Super 8, Motel 6, Stuckey's (or Denny's), Cracker Barrel, McD's, Burger King, KFC, Sonic Burger, etc. Sometimes you have the sensation of driving around in huge circles, passing the same interchanges over and over...
There's PLENTY of room out there for LOTS of people. Just need to get water to 'em...
Contrary to the feelings of effete Eastern snobism in the very fiber of my being, I must admit, California does not suck. In fact it is quite nice, and I'd like to go back sometime. Like maybe for Greta and Larry's wedding next Memorial Day Weekend. Yeah, and maybe we could drive there...

See ya.................................................

11/12 & 13...End of the Line...San Francisco

2005-11-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

Didn't get a chance to post last night, so here are Saturday and Sunday-
Awoke Saturday morning to the sound and sight of the Pacific surf out our window. This is Greta and Larry's front yard:
Larry makes great coffee, too. Greta got up to San Francisco early in the morning for a math exam. Did we mention that in addition to singing in the SF Opera, she is starting medical school? No flies on her...By the time we got to the city, where Larry and Greta have a beautiful apartment, Greta was napping, gathering strength for the evening's performance. Larry was good enough to show Lisa and I around the neighborhood, which included a stroll through Haight-Ashbury, somewhat of a pilgrimage to Mecca for an old hippie like myself. Here are me & Li at the corner of Haight & Ashbury:
After another of the best damn Mexican meals I've ever had, we walked through Golden Gate Park, a world-class beauty, and the weather was sunny and warm, mid-November. Yeah, we could do this...
We ended up at the deYoung Museum in the park, which had just undergone a huge renovation. It is sort of the SF version of the Metropolitan. Two wings of the building came together at an unusual angle, and I got stuck in the corner where they met:
I know, pretty disturbing, huh?
We walked back to the apartment, put on our evening clothes, and went to meet a bunch of Larry's friends for dinner before the show. The restaurant was one of those big, silly-expensive, trying way too hard to be trendy, OK food, terrible, snotty service, $10 glasses of wine type places, but we survived, and met some nice folks. Then to the Opera.
Going to the Opera, mostly, is just a really cool way to see talented people do art in a big place full of people who really dig it. There is also a whole cultural protocol that one can get caught up in, and dig that part of it, too. We pretty much like to partake of the former and observe the latter, though we do like getting dressed up like grown-ups, shouting 'bravo' or 'brava', and a glass of champagne at intermission. The whole art experience was so good, and sustaining. The singers were talented, and a Beethoven opera is a rare thing. He only wrote one... That was all great. But I have to say that seeing our Greta up there singing and looking like a million bucks, on the stage of the San Francisco Opera ( a very important opera house), in front of what surely seemed like thousands of patrons, in an historic venue such as this, was so moving, and breathtaking. Many are called, very few are chosen at all, still fewer reach this level in their chosen field. Our hats are off and our hearts are full of admiration for what she has achieved...
We also got to see our Finnish friend, who we had had still another superlative Mexican dinner with the night before, play the bad guy up there, and sing his head off. What fun...
Here we are walking across the back of the stage after the performance:
Li also got a chance to see Christa, Greta's aunt and Lisa's ex-sister-in-law. She really loves her a lot, and the feeling seemed mutual. They hadn't seen each other in quite awhile, and I had never met her, though I felt like I knew her, having heard so much about her. It was a real pleasure seeing them get caught up with one another:
Apres-show, we repaired to a nice jazz club across the street and just put an exclamation point on what was a remarkable day...

SUNDAY...
Sleep late, nice. Then off to brunch with the folks we had had dinner and drinks with last night. We went to a famous vegetarian restaurant for brunch, called Greens. Perhaps you have their cookbook? The food was pretty good, and our table looked out at the harbor and the Golden Gate Bridge. Forgot the camera. Just take my word for it. It was lovely.
Then, it was time to do the ceremonial handing over of the Subaru to Amanda. The car had 4,400 miles of grunge on it (yes we had driven 4400 miles since Hyannis), soo I first went to what turned out to be the best car wash I'd ever seen, then went over to Amanda's. It was great to see her and her fella Scott, and Lisa and Greta went shopping, then met us over there for some nice wine and cheese. Here's Li handing over the keys to Amanda, who is so looking forward to shedding her new BMW for an 8 year old Subaru wagon, let me tell you...
Amanda is holding her sister Melissa's dog Wolfgang. After spending some time with him, there may be a terrier in our future. Good dog!
It was emotionally easier to let go of the Subaru than I had thought, though it served us well on the road...
We packed up and headed back toward Santa Cruz with Greta, Larry had gone on ahead earlier. We were so looking forward to dinner with our good friends Aaron and Siobhan, who had moved out here from Nantucket a number of years ago. We were particularly excited to see their daughter Finnuala, who had been born since they left, and we had never met. She did not disappoint:
Aaron and Siobhan treated us to a great homecooked meal in their lovely home on a redwood-festooned mountainside outside of Santa Cruz. Then, Greta drove us home, and all are now in bed asleep, save your faithful correspondent.
Tomorrow night, we board a red-eye to Boston at 10:45 pm, arrive in Boston at 7:40 am, and Li has a dental appointment at Tufts at 9:30. Bing, bam, boom...just like that. We'll let you know what we get up to tomorrow before we leave...

11/11 Made it to Santa Cruz...Almost there!

2005-11-11T22:17:00.000-08:00

Woke up at that huge modern hotel in Hollywood. This is the view out the window. I swear that white slash at the top of the hill is the Hollywood sign...
had a great brunch with mom before we hit the road. She chose the restaurant, which was unusual and had delicious food- John O'Groats on Pico. By the time we got on the highway, it was after noon. We took the 5 up, which is less interesting, but faster. Drive, drive, drive, and we got to Watsonville, where we met Greta and Larry at a very unusual Mexican restaurant. With them was one of the singers from the opera and his wife. They are from Finland, and had come down from SF to visit Greta and Larry. Good food and company, and drive back to Santa Cruz. It's really great to see Greta and Mom together
and with Larry

and their lovely dog Coco

Tomorrow, San Francisco!...

11/10 LA All Day!

2005-11-11T01:04:00.000-08:00

What a full day in LA... I feel like we spent the whole day in restaurants. First thing, we walked to a Starbucks near the hotel. LA is not, um, a walking town, and we almost got killed trying to ambulate 2 blocks. We did get our coffee, though. Then, breakfast with mom at Mel's, a place on Sunset fashioned after the drive-in in American Graffiti. Nice breakfast! Then, took mom home and headed to the Chateau Marmont for lunch with Anne Meara. Anne and her husband Jerry Stiller are our neighbors and good friends in Nantucket, and it was a treat to see Anne out here. Jerry was at the studio working on King of Queens, so we didn't see him. Their son, Ben Stiller, was there when we arrived, lunching with an associate. It was nice to see him, and he joined us for a bit after his meeting ended. Nice...Lunch was leisurely, 2 1/2 hours, and the Chateau Marmont is a special place. There were definitely some beautiful people there, and it is very discreet. We did, however, manage to get a couple of snaps while we were there:

One really interesting thing about LA- the "look". Wherever you go, people check you out, and you them, with a brief but thorough look, determining the answer to the question "Is this 'somebody?'. It is a palpable thing, and kind of funny, and easy when one is, in fact, 'nobody'.
After lunch, we met my mom at Paramount Studios. My mom worked there for quite a few years, before her boss moved over to Fox and took her with him. She loved working on the Paramount lot, a very historic movie studio, and driving through these gates every day:

Mom got us a drive-on pass, and we walked around the studio, checking out films and TV shows being shot...
After that, dinner (seeing a pattern here?) with mom at the French Quarter on Santa Monica. Good dinner, then, yes, we made it into tonight's Aimee Mann show at Largo, where we met and chatted with a nice young Angelino couple. Stellar show, too.
Then back to our new hotel, the Renaissance, a huge modern hotel in the heart of Hollywood, around the corner from Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and with a view of the Hollywood sign out of our 16th floor window. And all cheap through priceline, too!
Now to bed. Probably off to Santa Cruz and Greta tomorrow.
We'll let you know...

11/9 Sedona to...LA

2005-11-09T23:52:00.000-08:00

We took no photos today...a very focussed driving day. As soon as we got 15 miles south of Sedona, the red rocks disappeared. Drove south to Phoenix, then west on 10 to LA. My mom lives right off the 10 (they say "the" 10 here), so as soon as we hit 10 in Phoenix, it was autopilot. The only thing we saw of note on the drive was the most massive windfarm I have ever seen, in Palm Springs. It was many square miles, and hundreds of windmills, all turning and generating power. Massive, and very impressive, and encouraging.
My mom lives in West LA, and is leaving to move to Maui in Hawaii next Tuesday, after living in LA since 1977 (same year I moved to Nantucket). Her house is almost empty, because of the move, so Li and I are staying at the Best Western by her apartment. Very comfortable, but sold out tomorrow. We need to move for tomorrow night, and will probably stay over on Sunset tomorrow.
Talked to Anne Meara, we're having lunch with her tomorrow at the Chateau Marmont. Don't know if Jerry will be there, as he is taping his show "King of Queens" on Friday. Hope to see him.
Tonight we had dinner at the Cat & the Fiddle, an English pub that my mom likes over near Paramount, where she used to work, in West Hollywood. After that, a real stroke of luck. This is what happened:
Li and I are big fans of a singer/songwriter named Aimee Mann. If you don't know who she is, she did the music in the film "Magnolia", and that film was inspired by her music. You should give her a listen. We loved her music way before that, even going back to her days in 'til Tuesday.
Anyway, it is fairly common knowledge that she plays at a small club near my mom's old place, on Fairfax, called "Largo", sometimes, when she is here. (She lives out here) Every time I come to LA, I go there to see if she's playing. Never caught it right yet. Li and I almost saw Jon Brion there once, but couldn't get in.
Tonight, we pulled up and Li went up to see who was playing. It was early and there were a few people there. This was before we went to the pub. Li couldn't find any signs, then asked a woman standing near the door. She came back to the car and said "Aimee Mann is playing tonight. Dinner is sold out, come back later" So we did, and got in. Great seats, small club, great sound, great show. And mom was there to boot.
And she's playing again tomorrow night. Dinner's sold out again, but we'll give it a shot...
What luck!
Also, it hasn't rained once the whole trip, until we got to LA...but it never rains in Southern California!

11/8 Sedona all day...

2005-11-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

Woke up in Sedona. Out of the front of our room is a deck, and sitting on the deck we have the most beautiful view. I have to say, we have had much the same vibe arriving here as we did those years ago when we first disembarked on Nantucket.... We're right on the main drag in Uptown Sedona- shops, cafes, etc. We had a great cup of coffee (finally), window shopping, then did the laundry at the hotel across the street. While the clothes were drying, we had breakfast at a Mexican restaurant called Oaxaca. Great Mexican-flavored food. Then, the hotelier gave us a map, and talked us through a nice driving tour, which we set out on. The first stop was a chapel built into the red rocks. Here's a link to some info about it: http://sedona-attractions.10-best.info/sedonachapel.html
and some pictures of us there:

Most of the rest of the day, we drove around, touring, seeing the sights. We did find a sort of New Age superstore, the Crystal Castle. Li was in heaven. They even had a section in the bookstore section on 'Conspiracy Theories'. I had to drag Li away. As today was my One Year Anniversary of quitting smoking, Li took me out to a lovely place called the Cowboy Club, where I dined on buffalo.
A very satisfying non-travel day, indeed.

This time tomorrow, we will be in Los Angeles, the city of angels. Seriously.
Oh, did I mention that it is beautiful here?
The view out the back of the hotel:

While walking along Oak Creek this afternoon, we wondered aloud whether the people here ever got totally sick of that red/pink/coral color of everything out here, the way we get sick of grey shingles. Then we realised that we don't GET sick of the grey shingles, so that answered that.....

11/7 Sedona, at last...

2005-11-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

I think that it's fair to say that Sedona is the place we are most looking forward to visiting, but I'm getting ahead of myself...
We slept a little bit this morning, had the free breakfast at the motel in Grants, and hit the road about 10. The drive from Grants to Sedona would take about 4 1/2 hours. No sweat. Early arrival, a little exploring. Then we took a good look at the map. A look at the Grand Canyon was definitely doable, so we decided to go for it. Then I noticed that we could get off of 40 and drive through Hopi and Navajo reservations, about 200 miles worth. It was out of the way, but what a great opportunity to see the country. Let me tell you, there is a whole lot of country out there. So much of the time we were on a 2-lane road with literally nothing in sight but mountains. And the Painted Desert, which is aptly named. Herewith, some photos:

The colors were remarkable, and, of course, my cheesey digicam doesn't do them justice.

Here is Li at the Grand Canyon. Some things are simply indescribable, and the Grand Canyon is such a thing.

This place really seems to put a lot of things into perspective, physically and otherwise...

We headed south, down from the south rim of the canyon. All of the topography is stunning. There is a smaller canyon, riven by the Little Colorado river, that is beautiful, and right by the Grand Canyon.

The reservation and canyon side trip took many extra hours, but was well worth it. As we got into Flagstaff, we got our NPR fix. It seemed so suburban and normal, after our afternoon. As the sun set, we headed further south from Flagstaff, cut onto 89A, down, down, down into canyons to Sedona. It was dark, but we could feel the beauty. We had no reservations, and stopped at a motel right on the main drag, purely for it's name, The Matterhorn Motel. It promised, "Best rooms, best rates, best views. And free wireless high-speed internet."

Got into the room, got some Tecate beer and settled in to watch my New England Patriots get their lunch and dinner chowed by the hated Peyton Manning and the Indy Colts. Ouch!

Well, at least tomorrow morning I'll wake up to the red rocks gleaming out our window, coffee on the deck, and some exploring to do.

Excelsior! (?)

11/6 Part Deux...

2005-11-07T21:26:00.000-08:00

Well, when we left off, we had been to the Murrah Memorial in Oklahoma City. When we left, we passed a big windfarm...they were actually pretty graceful and attractive, especially when you thought about what they were doing...

(You can click on a photo and see it bigger...)

Next, as promised, we stopped into Clinton, OK. Our friend Gordon had seen that our route passed this way, and asked us to take a picture of the Denny's or something in Clinton, as his grandfather came from there. We did stop, and took these:

Most of our route since Memphis has followed parallel with the historic Route 66. Clinton had one of many "Historic Route 66" museums that we've seen...

Clinton looked a lot like what I imagined a small western town to look like...it was late Sunday morning and the streets were empty and the very many churches were full. Had a nice ding from Amanda, she who will receive the car in San Francisco. Thanks Amanda! We're looking forward to seeing you.

We ended up being on the road for 13 hours, and made it to Grants, New Mexico. Li drove for a few hours, while I played with the GPS and watched the movie "The Blackboard Jungle", with Glenn Ford and a very young Sidney Poitier. On arrival in Grants, really tired, and not much to do but eat then sleep.

Tomorrow, to Sedona, Arizona....

See you there!

Blogger.com problems...

2005-11-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

The Blogger website seems to be having problems, and everything is excruciatingly slow, so will upload the rest of 11/6 when we get to Sedona.
Love to Brad & Abby, who posted a comment. Hi to Jamie Lebish, who sent an email. We feel like we've got you along with us when we hear from you!

11/6...Made it to Grants, New Mexico....

2005-11-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

And boy are we tired! This was the long driving day of the trip. We had originally planned to stop in Santa Fe for the night. Due to the long drive, and the fact that this was just a sleepover stop, we drove straight on 40, not doing the spur to the north for Santa Fe. I wanted to get as far west as possible, hopefully to Albuquerque, to make tomorrow's drive to Sedona that much shorter. We're spending 2 days in Sedona, so the more time there, the better.
We did get on the road at 6:55 this morning, which was great. Oklahoma City was only about 100 miles away, and we decided to take Kate Splaine's advice and stop at the Murrah Building Memorial. It was really worth it, and very moving. It's hard to believe that it has been 10 years since McVeigh blew up the Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 innocent people.
We arrived at 9:00 am on a Sunday, and there were very few, if any, people there. It was the same time of day as the bombing, and a beautiful sunny day. There are 2 big black walls at either end, one says 9:01, and the other 9:03. I asked the guard there what that meant, and he explained that the bombing happened at 9:02, so the first wall represented the moment before the blast, and the second represented the moment after, when everything was changed.
Here's a link to the memorial website: http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/ .
This was a very moving time. Here are some shots:

These are the chairs representing each victim. Many of them are small...
This was a really nice security guy who filled us in on a lot of details...

11/5 Still in Tulsa...

2005-11-05T21:17:00.000-08:00

Non-travel day today, which is very nice. Slept late, went exploring around Tulsa with Sean. Tulsa is actually a very nice town. We went to a section called Utica Square, which was like a big outdoor mall, but nice, with lots of trees turning, shops, and a Starbuck's.
Let's talk about coffee on the road, especially in the South. Forget getting a good cup of coffee on the road. I guess our standards have changed, but most of the time I'd give anything for a Dunkin' Donuts or Starbuck's. Lisa and I had a nice swim in the indoor/outdoor hotel pool this afternoon. 78 degrees and sunny on the 5th of November. Nice.
After Sean's matinee show, we took him out to the Super Target to do some shopping. This was a real culture shock. Living on Nantucket, Hyannis and the Cape Cod Mall are a big deal. This Super Target was in an area that was wall to wall big boxes, chains, chain restaurants, etc. The area was many square MILES big, and packed full of Americans consuming. It gave us pause, even as we were doing our share of consuming. Definitely gave us a philosophical and renewed appreciation for Nantucket life.
Tonight, we saw the Cirque Dreams show, thanks to Sean. It was stupendous, of course, and very much appreciated by the Tulsa sold-out crowd.
This is a picture of Sean and the Stage Manager Betsy:

Here, Sean and I are watching some of the performers warming up:

Tomorrow, we get up really early (I hope) and hit the road. It will theoretically be the longest driving day of the trip. We're probably going to head straight through to Albequerque, bypassing Santa Fe, to save a little time, and give us more time in Sedona. Kate Splaine says we should see the Murrah bombing memorial in Oklahoma City, and we want to get a photo of Clinton, OK, for our frien Gordon, who's forbears came from there.
We'll let you know how it all comes out...

Thoughts and observations:

Gas in Tulsa is $2.05 a gallon...
Jesus radio is all over. I love listening to it, but it gives Li indigestion.
I love Jesus as much as the next guy, and I can't help but think that He thinks that all of this fuss is pretty funny, and ironic...
Between Jesus radio and Hate/Limbaugh talk radio, it's a wonder anything reasonable ever happens in this country. Or does it anymore?

11/4 Tulsa...

2005-11-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

Today we drove from Memphis to Tulsa, Oklahoma. When we were first planning our trip, we figured out that our friend Sean would be here in Tulsa this week with Cirque du Soleil...
A little background: our very close friend Sean is the company manager for a touring show that is part of the Cirque du Soleil family. This show is called "Cirque Dreams", and features acrobats, gymnasts and physical artists, singers, etc. Sean's job includes taking care of the cast and crew, facilitating travel and lodging, load-outs and load-ins, contracts, dealing with the promoters, venues, press, etc., as well as doing the money part, collecting from venues and promoters and paying per diems and expenses...It is a big job. He previously did this job for Twyla Tharp. He's also done contract work for the Tribeca film Festival, as well as working for Baz Luhrman for a few years. He's good at what he does, and gets to work in show business.
He's also one of our best friends, and the prospect of meeting up with him here was too good to miss. I was thinking as we drove into town, I had always imagined us rendezvous-ing with Sean in Paris, or Auckland, or Hong Kong, or Anguilla, or something. Here we were, meeting up in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Lisa nor I had ever been to Oklahoma. It was eye-opening driving through Arkansas, which took up most of our driving day. As soon as we left Memphis and went over the Mississippi River into Arkansas, everything was different. Clearly, this was a poor state, and it was pretty, well, shabby, infrastructure-wise. We drove to Little Rock, in the center of the state, bounced up NW, over the Oklahoma state line, where things got palpably better at the state line. A ways into Oklahoma, we turned north onto the Muskogee Expressway, which brought us to Tulsa, which rose up out of the wide open space like Oz...
We met up with Sean at the hotel, where he and the Cirque folks were staying. There was a mix-up with the reservation, and Sean made it happen that we were moved to a large executive room on the 14th floor with wine and cheese.
I told you he was good at his job!
Here are Sean and Li, with Tulsa out the window, and our welcome from the hotel.

Tomorrow, a day of rest and hanging out with Sean, then see the show in the evening. Then, Sunday morning, further West...

11/3 Memphis

2005-11-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

Today we had a whole day to spend in Memphis. One thing that we really wanted to do was visit Graceland. This is a complicated thing, in a way. We are musicians, and have a feeling for Elvis Presley's place in musical history. There is just no way to get around his contribution to American culture and art. On the other hand, I never had much respect for Elvis, the man. Like Rush Limbaugh, he railed against the drug culture and it's influence while wallowing in his own abusive and addictive behavior. In Elvis' case, he even offered to become an undercover narc in the entertainment industry for Nixon's FBI. He dissed the Beatles a lot, too, and clearly was unfit to tie their shoes, artistically...
Having said that, the visit to Graceland was remarkable in it's humbling effect. First, it was so clear that this was a guy who came up from nothing. Seeing his house, which was quite humble, especially by Nantucket standards, indicated a man who had no frame of reference for his own lifestyle but what he knew, which was simple and, well, tacky. There seemed to be no pretense to the "opulence" of it all. We saw his cars, and his planes, and his outfits, and all, and there was something grudgingly real about it all, after a lifetime of looking down my nose at it all. Like I said, humbling. Here are some Graceland photos:

We were more effected than we had planned to be. Then, we went to Sun Studio...
Sun Studio was the little recording service where Elvis walked in and spent 3 dollars to cut a one-take, one-off record for his mother for her birthday. The rest, as they say....
What I hadn't known was the rest of the story. The people who had recorded there- Carl Perkins, Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. And we got a great tour through an exhibit by guys who truly understood what they were doing. And then, to be in the room. The studio is a single, unremarkable room. Scruffy, dingy, unremarkable. But when we thought of the people who had been there, and what they had done, we were really blown away. This place is a goddam cathedral, a temple in the history of rock and roll, and if you open yourself up to appreciating it, it is a truly transcendent experience. Go to their website to get more: www.sunstudio.com.
Here are a couple of shots in the place, ground zero...

That stop really made the day. We got back to the hotel and walked over to the Gibson Guitar factory, right around the corner. We missed the last tour, but played some nice guitars. After that, we jumped onto a trolley, not knowing where we'd end up. These trolleys go around in a big loop, and turned out to be a delightful way to ride around and see the city, and ride along the Mississippi River.

Then, back to Beale St. for great walking around, drinks, blues, and great food- tamales, fried green tomatos and the best ribs ever.
Now to bed. A fairly short 6 or so hour drive to Tulsa tomorrow to catch up with our Sean...

11/2 Tennessee...

2005-11-02T19:48:00.000-08:00

Writing this part from the road. Lisa’s driving for a while, for the first time. She doesn’t like the big trucks on the highway.
I’ve got the GPS plugged into the laptop, and I’m watching us move along Route 40, halfway between Nashville and Memphis. Called the Heartbreak Hotel, they have plenty of rooms for tonight and tomorrow, but we’ll head to Beale St. to see if we can get a room there. Better, I think, to stay in town and travel out to Graceland than the other way around. I also just called the machine at Safe Harbor, got the messages and returned a couple of business calls. If I’d only gotten the wireless phone card for the laptop, I could be rteturning emails and doing bookings. But hey, I’m on vacation.
We decided to forgo a stop in Nashville for an earlier arrival in Memphis.
More later…

Back with ya, from the Holiday Inn Downtown, 3 blocks from Beale St..
Li wanted me to post this photo, as the leaf colors have been vibrant and beautiful:

Li had her first experience with that great southern dish 'biscuits and gravy' at breakfast this AM. I love it and it fills a hole, but not for everyone. White gravy with sausage bits poured over biscuits...
Basically drove an hour to the Tennessee line, then the entire length of the state. Past Knoxville, past Nashville, as I explained earlier. Li drove a couple of hours between Nashville and Memphis, I drove the last hour. While she drove, I caught up on some work, then watched the film "12 Angry Men" on the laptop. What a great way to relax and recharge to drive again. I just can't nap in a moving car...
The day was another 72 degree, sunny wonder, and the scenery was beautiful, again.
We got into Memphis by 4:30. I drove to the city center, fired up the GPS, and found our way to Beale. The third hotel we tried had rooms. Memphis is a small city, and very caught up, as many cities are, in it's redevelopment. The FedEx Center is right at Beale St., and the Grizzlies are playing Shaq and the Heat tonight, so lots of folks around.
We had some drinks. You can, of course, walk around the streets with your drink down there, and we did.
.
The drink of choice seems to be the:

Heard some great music, ate some BBQ, and back to the hotel for a snooze. Busy day tomorrow. No travel, but visits to Graceland and the Gibson guitar factory (I always thought it was in Kalamazoo...).

Tuesday 11/1 Virginia

2005-11-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Atkins, Virginia. About 50 miles from the Tennessee line, I think. It was a beautiful travel day. Great weather, smooth traffic. We headed out of Elmwood Park, NJ, at 6:59 am, right on schedule. It was so good of Marty and Joanne to have us.
I was still thinking, this morning, about our experience in the Village last night. It really was a scary time for 40 or 50 minutes. Being in a huge sea of people, all crushing together...you could feel a palpable vibe that people were really tense, and when you looked each other in the eye, it was really apparent. If anyone had chosen to freak out, the whole situation would have gotten really out of hand in very short order, and people would have been hurt, or worse. Hope not to go through that again. Anyway, a beautiful sunny day to drive. Garden State to 78 West, into Pennsylvania. Picked up 81 South, through a few miles of Maryland, a few more of West Virginia, then south to Atkins, with a side trip to Lynchburg(!?!). We were making really good time, so we were looking for a good side stop. As we went through the Delaware Gap, Jersey into Pennsylvania, I noticed a traffic jam going the other way. I try not to speak aloud of such things, fearful of drawing such luck to myself, but had to exclaim aloud after it was still a parking lot over there TWENTY MILES LATER. Yikes! The Crayola Experience and Factory presented itself at this point, but it was still early, and the map indicated that we would pass close by to Hershey, PA, so....
We stopped in Hershey. This was amazing. You really can smell the chocolate as you approach the town. It seems like the Chocolate stuff takes up literally half the town. There is a big theme park, stadium, factory tour and experience, hockey rink...amazing. We went in and took the tour, which was, to my disappointment, not of a factory at all, but a faux-Disney thing. You get in a little car, and ride through an exhibit that shows how the chocolate is made. Not a real cocoa nut in the place. They even pump in chocolate smell. What the hell, it was all free, not very crowded, and had a Hershey-themed mall of candy stores, apparrel, etc. Clinically clean and expensive. Total time spent, 30 minutes. (Our photos didn't come out there) Actually, one did, speaking of clean:

I'm afraid we had a bad photo day. We'll make up for it tomorrow...
We headed south from Hershey determined to make the other side of Roanoke, VA (home town of Cary Hazelgrove and Andy Bullington) by nighttime. It seemed as though we had mountains on either side of us the whole way down the Appalachian spine. When it became apparent that we were ahead of schedule, we decided to take a side trip to Lynchburg, VA, where I had lived with my family from 1959-1963, age 1-5. The drive through the mountains on 501 down to Lynchburg was really curvy, up in the mountains, and beautiful.
My dad was a young executive at GE there, and we lived in a rental while he and mom built their first house, a modest brick, with carport and picture window view of the Blue Ridge mountains. This is the house now:

The cliches are true. This is the second childhood home that I've revisited years later, and, yes, everything seems so small... This house had no trees or vegetation to speak of when I last lived there, uh, oh yeah, FORTY-TWO years ago. Lynchburg was memorable to me for a few things. For me, that long ago period in my life is a very gauzy memory, but some things really stick out. My parents were northeastern liberals in a very racist, backward (to us anyway) place. My parents had black friends and socialized with them. I remember running home crying because a friend called me "nigger-lover". I vividly remember my mom's friend leaving her kids to play at our house. A friend of mine ran up to me and said "There's a colored girl in your carport!". These were terms that I was not familiar with, carport, and colored.
"What?", I said.
"There's a colored girl in your carport!"
Then, of course, I had a vision in my head of a young girl with rainbow colored stripes all over her.
I can still see that vision.
We ran to the carport, and there she was. I turned to the idiot and said "That's no colored girl, that's just Cece...". I was so disappointed.
True story.
The other true story is that, on my fifth birthday, the priest at our Episcopal church, and the head deacon, came to our house to ask us not to come to the church anymore because we insisted on socializing with colored people..
Needless to say, my family was not cut out for Lynchburg life in the late fifties/early sixties. Dad would get a job with Xerox in Rochester, NY. We would move there in the autumn of '63, and while mom and dad were in Rochester getting us a house, I was in Elmira, NY. On November 22, I was there alone with my grandmother, who ran out into the yard and wept to her 5 year old grandson that the president had been shot, because I was the only other person at home with her....
Lynchburg left a nasty taste in our mouths, so it was cathartic to return...The other cool thing about our Lynchburg visit was that I got to use the cool GPS and software that Marty gave me yesterday. We drove to the center of Lynchburg, fired up the laptop, plugged in the GPS/USB unit. The program found us on the map, I entered the address of my childhood home, and the computer gave me directions from the spot where we sat.
Amazing.
Now I'm trying to book us a nice room in Memphis for the next two nights. I thought I'd be a hotshot and book my hotels online from the road. Now it seems like every nice hotel in Memphis is booked the next two nights.
I'll let you know how we make out....

Thoughts and observations:
A hungry traveller on the Interstate will not want for pancakes or waffles...
James Dobson and Focus on the Family are scary, and way too popular...

Gas prices: (regular unleaded)
Bethel PA- 2.16
Lexington VA- 2.29
Lynchburg- 2.05

Cigarettes (not that I care anymore. Next Tuesday is my 1 year anniversary, no smoking. 30 years, 2 packs a day.):
Bethel, PA- 4.11

Lynchburg- Generics- 2.15
Marlboros- 3.19

Don't touch that dial!
Memphis in the meantime...

M & L

Hi Tech...

2005-10-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

Brother-in-law Marty saw me looking at my road atlas (hard copy analog version) on his living room floor, and gave me Microsoft Streets & Trips with GPS Locator. It has a GPS unit that plugs into a USB port and works with the software, knowing where you are at all times!
Looking forward to this new toy...I mean tool.

Monday 10/31 New Jersey

2005-10-31T22:11:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful day for a drive...
We took the 7:45 fast boat. Up real early, no chance of missing this one. Plus we had to make breakfast for our guests at the inn. Driving was great, sunny, not much traffic. We stopped very briefly in Westport, Connecticut, Michael's home town. Took a picture of the old homestead:

When we lived there, you could see the whole house from the street. It's been 30 years, and you can't see the house for the trees. Makes you think...

We stopped at BJ's in Hyannis and bought a whole lot of industrial-sized groceries for Ingrid. Being a college student, she needs all the help she can get. We were meeting her at Brooklyn College, a place that I had never been. We Mapquested the destination, and it showed a completely different route than I would have taken. We said we'd meet her at a particular place at 3pm, and pulled up in the exact spot at the exact time. Unbelievable...
After we unloaded the groceries, we headed for Manhattan, where we would meet up with Lisa's brother Marty and his wife Joanne.
We ended up at a Mexican restaurant at 7th Ave. and Bleeker called the Caliente Cab Company. Stupendous and huge frozen Margaritas. We got there first and had a drink:

After Marty and Joanne arrived, we had dinner, then walked over toward 6th Ave. for the world famous Halloween Parade. I've gotta say, the last time I saw this event was 1979, and it was a fun little time for all. The whole evening, people walked by in full Halloween regalia. Our favorite was a guy who walked past our table. He was dressed in a pancho, and was screaming into a microphone that said "Fox News", as he sprayed himself with water... a stand-up hurricane report.
There were tens of thousands of people at this thing and we were at ground zero.. As we walked closer to the parade, and further into the crowd, it became increasingly apparent to everyone that it was too crowded, but by the time everyone realised it, it was too late, and we were in a surging crowd. Some folks started to freak out a little, and we finally found a space near a spike-topped fence where there was room to stand and breathe. We did this, but soon the crowd started closing in. It was a strange feeling. If you've ever been in this situation, then you know what I mean when I say that it was scary. At this point, some people decided that they wanted to go over the spiked fence, which completely surrounded a closed-in yard. I helped a few people over the fence, and as we were about to go, we realised that the crowd was thinning out a bit. We had gotten separated from Marty and Joanne, so we called them and headed back to meet them. Ingrid and her two friends had gone over the fence. We said bye to them and they were off to cab back to Brooklyn. One bummer- Ingrid had her phone picked in the crush...ouch.
Back to Jersey through the Lincoln tunnel. Li's nephew Pat was working at the Shoprite in Hasbrouk Heights, and, it being Halloween, he was in costume.

We think that he looks like a MUCH taller version of his cousin Maura Wendelken...Last we heard, he was running second in the employee costume competition.
Up early tomorrow, and off to somewhere in southwestern Virginia for the night.

Thoughts:

The iPod is possibly the greatest travel invention ever. We have a little transmitter on ours that plays through the car stereo wirelessly. Amazing. Between that and the phone, it's like traveling from home...
We've had our fill of fast food already. After one day. Nantucketers...
So far the vessel is getting about 25 miles to the gallon. I don't know why that matters, but it does.
More anon....

Oooooh Noooooo!

2005-10-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

Wellllll, things got off to rather an inauspicious (sp?) start. You know how we set the clocks back last night and got an extra hour's sleep? Well, I did set my clock back, but got 2 extra hours because I FORGOT TO SET THE ALARM. Soooo, as I arrived at the ferry at 6:32 am, to find the boat 20 yards off the dock and going, I had that sinking feeling many of us Islanders have felt once or twice, and dread. I wanted to get a photo of the boat, just off the dock, sailing into the beautiful sunrise, but I was too busy banging my head on the steering wheel and, umm, praying. Yeah, praying. Loudly. So this was T-minus one day and counting. The object was to get Maddie's dresser from a storage unit full of furniture in Marlborough, put it in the vessel, drive the vessel back to the Cape and have it fully serviced at the Jiffy Lube. Now, in order to make it back Sunday night and finish packing, etc., it was: put the car on the noon boat, fast boat over, rent a car, drive to Marlborough, get dresser. (Had to call Maddie to describe it. She was good enough to say that maybe we were having all of our bad luck at the beginning of the trip!) Then, back to drive off the Subaru (saving $25.00 drive-off charge), take Subaru to the good folks at Jiffy Lube:

I went the extra 2 bucks for the Bosch Wiper Blades, for Amanda, in case of the unlikely event of precipitation in the San Francisco area...or Tahoe.

Parked the Subaru at the boat- $10.00 per calendar day. Took the last boat over, getting the first boat back. Parking-$20.00. It's a wonder anyone visits the island...

Talked to Sean today, hotel is set in Tulsa. He's with the Cirque in Ft. Wayne, Indiana tonight. Luckeee!

Anne Meara says they'll be in LA when we're there! Hope we can do lunch. We miss 'em.

We're off on the 7:45 fast boat in the morning. Objective: Brooklyn, Halloween Parade and dinner in the Village, and to Jersey to spend the night. We'll let you know how it goes...

The Route...

2005-10-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

Feedback...

2005-10-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

You can leave comments for us under each post, or email us at the ***Email us*** link.
If there is someplace you think we should go or something you think we should see, let us know!
I'll post a map of our route soon...

Next-to-last-supper....

2005-10-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we hit the road day after tomorrow. Michael will take the car off tomorrow to pick up a table in Wayland to deliver to Maddie in SF. Also, oil change, general check-up for the Subaru. Then, fast boat back to the island Sunday night, leaving the car in Hyannis, ready to go, finish packing, and we both fast boat off Monday morning, 7:45, and off we go...

This is dinner. Our friends Jasmine and her grandmother Mary are with us from England, on the left. Then, Adele, Aidan and Li. Li's homemade mushroom soup for dinner...
Clocks get set back tonight, so an extra hour of sleep before the 6:30 boat. Yessss....

Looking forward to

2005-10-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

going to the Halloween Parade in the Village on Monday. Followed by dinner with Ingrid, Marty and Joanne.

This photo is from a past Parade...

Ride for Finn...

2005-10-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

Finnuala's going to have to come visit Nantucket to ride in the thing!

Not the vessel...

2005-10-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

This is the car we're not driving to San Francisco...

The vessel...

2005-10-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

This is the car we're driving to San Francisco...

Stay tuned...

2005-10-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

We leave Nantucket Monday, October 31st (Halloween!). Our itinerary will take us to:
Brooklyn (dinner with Ingrid),
New Jersey to stay with Marty and Joanne and Patrick (and Bandit),
Roanoke or thereabouts for a sleepover on the highway,
Memphis for Graceland and Beale St.,
Tulsa to see Sean and go to the Cirque du Soleil,
Santa Fe to chill,
Sedona for crystals and reconnaissance,
LA to see my mom Shannon (she's moving to Maui on the 15th...),
and on to San Francisco and points thereabouts to see Greta sing in Fidelio at the SFO,
and to deliver the Subaru to Amanda,
and see Aaron and Siobhan and Finuala,
and get to know Larry a little better.
Then we red-eye back to Boston the night of the 14th,
back on the island the 15th, weather permitting.
A whirlwind....stay tuned...

2005-10-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

A shout out to our beloved Sean, from his beloved Zsa Zsa...
Walkies!
We'll see Sean and the Cirque du Soleil in Tulsa soon.....

First post...

2005-10-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Our best friends David and Charlotte (with Zsa Zsa) and Li send kisses to Joy at Moor Edge...