The Coldest Times

As a kid, I never remember being cold and I loved to be outside for hours sliding down our sidewalk, having snowball fights, building snowmen, sledding, and catching snowflakes on my tongue.  But as I grew older I found myself tolerating the cold more than enjoying it.  Looking back over my life, I find I have some memories of being so miserably cold I wanted to get them written down.  So here I go.

Back in college, my girlfriend lived six blocks from my parents’ house and one winter’s night found the outside temperature about 20 degrees below zero with a stiff wind to boot.  I wanted to visit my girlfriend that night and knew better than to start my Opel Kadett in that cold.  I bundled up as best I could and trudged through the snow and wind in what seemed to take forever.  It was the first time in my life I realized that this type of cold could kill you, and after a couple of blocks, I knew I had to make a potentially life-and-death decision on whether to turn back or forage on.  I decided to continue, and when I stepped into her house, I realized I’d never loved warmth more than that.  I know I walked back home a few hours later, but I don’t remember the trip back having quite the suspense.  

The only frozen memory not related to the weather was passing my first kidney stone.  I left for work that morning knowing something was off and an hour later I was driven to Miami Valley Hospital doubled over in pain, not knowing the source.  As the doctors tried to determine what was going on, I lay on a table alternating between freezing and sweating.  When I was cold, I shook uncontrollably as they layered blankets on top of me to try to warm me up, which never did the job.  Minutes later I was sweating profusely and they took the blankets off to cool me down.  All that sweat contributed to the next cycle of freezing, making it even worse.  It’s a miracle I didn’t break a tooth, that’s how hard my teeth were chattering.  When the stone finally passed, so did the pain and the temperature swings, and putting that freezing behind me was most appreciated. 

I’ve run a lot of miles in my life, about enough to circle the equator twice, and there were times I just wasn’t smart enough to stay inside.  The first extreme cold experience was running with my buddy Jim.  This particular day was bitterly cold, snowy, and windy.  We took off from the YMCA and headed north on the west side of the Great Miami River bike trail towards Helena Street.  There was nobody to be seen, not even driving cars, it was so nasty outside.  It turned bitterly cold when we started back south on the east side of the river with the wind blowing so hard it would knock our ankles together, a painful collision of bone on bone.  By the time we finally made it back to the YMCA, Jim’s mustache was solid white.  Fortunately for us, a trip to the steam room warmed us back up.

Back when I was dating Elaine, I convinced her to run with me on the Great Miami River bike trail on a day with single-digit temperatures and 20-mile-per-hour winds.  I told her the first half-mile would be cold but our bodies would warm up after that and we would be comfortable.  Perhaps it was blind love and wanting to spend time together that made us ignore just how nasty the weather was.  After that first half-mile, we were still freezing cold but persisted for another mile before heading back to the car.  By the time that run was done, our eyes, ears, lungs, feet, and about everything else were frozen.  It’s a miracle we didn’t have frostbite.  She thought I was hazing her and this was a test to see if she was worthy to marry.  It wasn’t, but she was, and to this day I count my blessings she didn’t dump me over this.

We’ve been to more football games than we can count and we’re greeted with splendid weather for most games, particularly in September and October.  But as the following four brutal memories over ten years will demonstrate, no game is exempt from Mother Nature’s ice-cold grip.  

We attended a Ball State Cardinals versus Miami Redhawks football game in Oxford, Ohio back on November 23, 2012, a unique game because Elaine’s sons were either coaching or on the football staff of each college, and one game we couldn’t miss.  Like many late-season football games, this was a frigid affair and we bundled as best we could against the brutal cold.  Late in the game, there was a chance it could go into overtime and that was flat-out scary.  Fortunately, that did not happen (Ball State won) and we didn’t have to choose a fight (stay in our seats) or flight (run to our car) scenario.  At the end of the game, it took about 15-20 minutes for the coaches to be available to chat for a moment, and we headed inside to get out of the wind and try to warm up a little.  That didn’t work, but we found a room where we could completely get out of the wind and waited, still freezing.  They finally showed up and after a nice chat, we made the hour drive back home, the heater blasting at its highest setting.  That helped some, but we were still shivering when we got home, but a half-hour in the hot tub finally vanquished the chills.

Ball State’s schedule in 2014 included an October 2nd game at West Point, New York to play the Army Black Knights.  The call went out to Elaine’s family to see who would like tickets and about thirty people decided to join us.  We flew into Stewart International Airport on Friday, grabbed our rental car, checked into our hotel, and spent a couple of hours on the most beautiful, sunny, mid-70s afternoon driving through the beautiful West Point campus.  But by the time the game started on Saturday, it was miserable, rainy, and cold.  We all had ponchos to attempt to keep us dry, but as the game progressed, we all got wetter and colder.  By halftime, over half of our group had left the misery for the Newburgh Brewing Company where we had a room for our group.  We lost more folks as the game moved into the fourth quarter and it looked more and more like Ball State would lose the game, which they did, 33-24.  By the end, only three of us remained.  Elaine’s 88-year-old mother Marge stayed to the bitter end because she wanted to talk to her grandson no matter what.  Of course, Elaine stayed with her mother and I stayed because I’m not stupid.  But after a couple of beers in the warm confines of the Newburgh Brewing Company, we put the loss and the chills behind us.

Of these stories, the least miserable was the October 26, 2019 game in Valparaiso, Indiana when the home team Crusaders played the Stetson Hatters.  It took us longer to get to northern Indiana than expected, and we didn’t get to the stadium until the end of the first quarter.  We had tickets waiting for us at Will Call, but the workers abandoned their post by then to seek a warmer climate.  We had to walk up to the attendant at the gate to explain the situation, and surprisingly, he let us into the stadium without tickets.  A guess he figured if we were nuts enough to want to watch the game in those conditions, we were likely telling the truth or simply felt sorry for us.  We cheered our team to a 19-10 victory, the only win of Valpo’s season.  It probably helped that Stetson is located in Deland, Florida, and ill-prepared for the wintry game that hit them in the face.

You would think by now we would have learned to avoid late-season football games. Still, when Elaine’s son’s Duke Blue Devils came to play the Pittsburgh Panthers (her family is from the ‘Burgh) on November 19, 2022, we decided to take the chance, and again, we got burned (actually quite the opposite).  We were again flanked by many family members on a sunny day with 30-degree temperatures and a wicked, bone-chilling 15-mile-per-hour wind that swirled through Acrisure Stadium.  I was so happy when halftime came so I could huddle inside the stadium and feel my toes again.  The second half was worse, concluding with Duke losing a close game by the score of 28-26. 

Remembering Shadow

I met Shadow the first time I went to Elaine’s house as we started dating.  A barking dog of fifty pounds greeted me and it was clear she wanted to chase off this stranger to protect her mommy.  For the most part dogs and cats like me and I have various stories of how I was told their pet would stay away only to have them unexpectedly make an appearance and sometimes even quickly accept me.  But Shadow was a tougher nut to crack and I finally won her over by keeping a box of Iams doggy biscuits in my trunk and bringing her a treat every time I made an appearance at the front door.  She would grab the biscuit and quickly retreat to munch it in a few seconds.  The way to her heart was through her stomach.

Shadow demanded two daily walks and our routine was Elaine would walk her in the morning before work and I got the evening shift.  The normal route was a 0.7-mile loop from our house to Renwood to Hollendale to Rose Bower to Marshall and back to Larriwood.  It was a combination of her stopping over and over to smell whatever dogs like to smell and using all her strength to make us walk even faster.  This stop-and-go was a good workout for us also and on most walks, we enjoyed it as much as her, except when the temperature dipped below freezing or thoughtless neighbors would not shovel their sidewalks.  

Shadow did like the snow and she would come in after needing a backyard potty break with her black fur covered in white snow.  The exception to her love of snow was the year we got two-and-half feet in February along with freezing temperatures that kept that pile around for weeks.  The snow was deeper than her legs were long so I shoveled a path from the backyard patio to the back fence and then halfway down that fence.  She didn’t quite get what I had done, so I had to put her on her leash and pull her down the path to get her familiar with it.  After a week I felt sorry for her so I shoveled again to create a loop around the backyard.  Shadow walked to her previous stopping point then turned around and came back.  Again I had to put her on her leash and drag her around the entire loop to get her to understand.  I wasn’t going to waste all that extra effort for nothing.

Like all dogs, Shadow didn’t like rabbits, squirrels, or any critter invading her territory.  On one beautiful spring day, I discovered a rabbit nest in the backyard and found about eight babies, each about two inches long, and no mother in sight.  Shadow tried to get close enough to eat the babies, but I sternly told her no and she complied.  Each time she was left outside she would slowly circle the nest getting closer with each pass thinking she could get close enough before I could chase her off.  But I would let her see the babies and sniff around, always careful to keep her far enough away.  One day I laid on the grass on my back and put the babies on my chest so Shadow could get a closer look and smell for a few minutes and then returned them to the nest.  Baby rabbits grow incredibly fast and after about two weeks they decided it was time to leave the nest and take off on their own.  When Shadow saw them make a beeline for the back fence, she went crazy.  All her little friends were leaving her behind.  She went so far as to try to leap the back fence at its low point, getting painfully caught halfway over, and making me rescue her.  For several days after she would patrol the backyard looking for her buddies she had come to love.  The neighbors didn’t appreciate that we had more rabbits lurking about, but the hawks did.

Shadow’s morning walk during the workweek wasn’t a problem, but try sleeping in on the weekend and she would whine at the bedroom door.  It started low and infrequent, building and building until you couldn’t ignore her.  We always kept the bedroom shut and we figured out that the whining was partially due to her being closed out.  So we started keeping the door open a few inches so she could see us and that delayed her “I need to go outside now” shining for maybe another half-hour, granting us some well-deserved minutes of slumber.

Shadow’s nickname was “fence-jumper” and I’m told when she was young she was quite the escape artist, clearing fences at ease.  Elaine and her young sons, usually at the most inconvenient times, would drive around the neighborhood to fetch her back.  I never experienced the “fence jumper”, but on a snowy day, I found out how devious she could be.  I was shoveling the driveway and sidewalks and let Shadow join me, off leech, figuring I could keep an eye on her and stop her if she tried anything.  At one moment she was sniffing through a snow pile and the next she was gone.  Panic grew inside me that I would never be forgiven, particularly after I was warned, if she was gone for good.  We looked all over the neighborhood to no avail.  Then she came trotting up the sidewalk with what I swore was a big grin on her face, acting like she had done nothing wrong.

She did not like loud noises and between Elaine’s screaming at football games and my shouting “BOOM!” when my team hit a three-pointer, she wanted to get away.  Shadow would make a beeline for the door and demand she be let out.  She could bark as loud as she wanted, but the humans had a limit.

Shadow spent a lot of her final days in the basement.  In retrospect, she probably wanted to be alone with her illness and that’s how she dealt with it.  One day we found her at the bottom of the stairs having a seizure.  I carried her up the stairs knowing the end was near.  Not wanting her pain to linger, we had her put down.  The crying goes away, but are memories of her are forever.

The Best of 2024

This is the fourteenth year that I’ve collected dozens of the best experiences throughout the year.  2024’s list contained thirty-five entries and as usual, there were ones that were certain top tens and a bunch that contended for the last few inclusions.  Elaine and I made a record fourteen trips in 2024, some to see the grandkids, others to watch football, visit family, or even learn some history.  As I tell people, we put “tired” in the word “retired”!  We start with one of America’s most scenic locations.

10.  Niagara Falls

Elaine’s son Brian and his wife Deborah moved from Indianapolis to Buffalo when he accepted the Safeties & Nickels coaching job at the University at Buffalo.  We made our second trip to Buffalo in September to watch his team play the University of Massachusetts, which resulted in a 34-3 win for the Bulls.  The day before we spent an hour on Goat Island with Deborah to see the spectacular Niagara Falls.  There are three falls, the largest being Horseshoe Falls which dumps about 2.5 billion gallons of water over its crest per hour, far more than the smaller American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the rainbows created by the mists were huge and stunning.  Next time we won’t forget our rain ponchos.  

9.  Little Big Town Concert

One of the few big-name country bands we hadn’t seen over the years is Little Big Town, who have hits including “Day Drinking”, “Better Man”, “Pontoon”, “Little White Church”, and “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”.  We quickly grabbed floor seats with Elaine's sister and brother-in-law when we saw they were playing at PPG Paints Arena in November with opening acts by Sugarland and The Castellows.  Little Big Town is comprised of the husband-and-wife duo of Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, and Phillip Sweet.  We drove down early, had beers at PreGame, saw the concert, and ducked out a bit early to avoid the rush.

8.  Las Vegas Bowl

The Texas A&M Aggies went 8-4 during their football season making them bowl-eligible in the first year of Elaine’s son Pat as their Special Teams Coordinator.  That game was the Las Vegas Bowl on December 27 at Allegiant Stadium.  We flew out on Christmas Eve, had dinner at The House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay hotel, and spent Christmas morning watching our grandkids, Griffin and Joey, open their presents.  We walked the Strip every day, had a nice dinner at the Rí Rá Irish Pub, and watched the sharks, rays, turtles, and other creatures of the sea at the Shark Reef Aquarium.  The football ended on a sad note, a last-minute 35-31 loss to the USC Trojans.

7.  Main Street in Williamsville

Williamsville is the village just north of Buffalo that Brian and Deborah moved to.  From their apartment, you can walk up through Glen Park and along Ellicott Creek as it falls over the Onondaga Escarpment, forming the 27-foot-high Glen Falls, to reach Main Street.  We ate and drank at many places along a half-mile stretch including Glen Park Tavern, Britesmith Brewing Company, Moor Pat (Tap Room spelled backward), Creekview Restaurant, and The Irishman Pub & Eatery.  During our July trip, bands play at a dozen or more venues creating a festive atmosphere.

6.  Silent Disco

In February, we went on a 7-day Caribbean Cruise, with stops in Nassau, Bahamas, Cozumel, Mexico, and Georgetown, Grand Cayman.  The journey to Fort Lauderdale was nerve-racking as detailed in the blog “At Least We Made It”, but after that things calmed down, and while the weather was cooler and rainier than we hoped, we had a good time with family and friends.  We spent a fair amount of time in the middle of the ship in an area known as the Martini Bar and one evening we were introduced to a Silent Disco.  Each participant received a pair of noise-canceling headphones that could play one of three channels, each blasting a different genre of music.  Imagine hundreds of people singing at the top of their lungs, unable to hear each other, and dancing together.  Each channel selection used a different color, so you could meet and mingle with people who shared your taste in music.  It was a total blast!

5.  Bear Creek Golf Club

We took a 16-day road trip from mid-September through the first week of October, something we had never attempted before.  We called it the History and Beach Tour and some other highlights are below, but we’ll start with golfing on Hilton Head Island at the Bear Creek Golf Club.  There are a lot of golf courses in Hilton Head, and most are pretty pricey and very nice.  We found a moderately priced course for our first round, but it was far from nice.  Our next choice, Bear Creek, was affordable, well-kept, and a good challenge.  They had a good driving range with all the balls you wanted to hit.  The course had tall pine trees, plenty of bunkers, left and right dog-leg fairways, and intimidating water hazards.  It was nice that we brought our golf clubs from home and did not have to rent unfamiliar equipment.  Tough and beautiful is a great combination for golf and we enjoyed playing those nine holes.

4.  Salsa Making and Salsa Dancing

Our one booked excursion during the Caribbean Cruise was on the Mexican island of Cozumel.  We started with a bus ride to a Mexican market to buy tomatoes, limes, and other ingredients before heading to Playa Mia to make our homemade guacamole and pico de gallo, making them as spicy as we liked.  We learned a few moves of traditional Mexican salsa dance and sipped a variety of alcoholic drinks before heading back to the ship for another day at sea.

3.  Touring Monticello 

Monticello was Thomas Jefferson’s primary plantation, located a few miles southeast of Charlottesville, Virginia.  Jefferson designed it to look smaller than its 11,000 square feet spanning three floors and a cellar.  We opted for the Behind-The-Scenes Tour, a 90-minute adventure that includes exploring the upper floors that are accessed by very narrow, steep staircases, and the cellar which contains the kitchen, smokehouse, icehouse, wine and beer cellars, and other storage areas.  We passed the small cemetery on the walk up to the house and found the grave of Jefferson.  His mother Jane, his wife Martha, daughters Martha and Maria, and other family and close friends are also buried there.  To make our journey shorter the next day, we drove from Monticello to a hotel south of Richmond, Virginia for the night.  We traveled to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina the next day and had a delightful time there with Byran and Diane Lebovitz before heading to Hilton Head.

2.  Touring Gettysburg

Gettysburg has been a bucket list item for quite a while and we planned our 16-day History and Beach Tour around finally getting there.  We started with a two-hour Battlefield Bus Tour, visiting numerous fields, monuments, and ridges. The three-day Battle of Gettysburg was fought between Union and Confederate forces between July 1 and July 3, 1863.  We visited Cemetery Ridge, Little Round Top, Culp’s Hill, and others. We learned how the battle unfolded and how the final day’s Pickett's Charge by the forces under General Robert E. Lee failed to break the Union lines at Cemetery Ridge, forcing them to retreat.  We toured the National Military Park Museum and an emotional late-afternoon walking tour of the National Cemetery where thousands of Union soldiers are buried.  

1.  The 38-23 Texas A&M win over LSU

We picked months in advance which Texas A&M football game would be our first at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, and it was the perfect choice.  We were among the 108,852 people who packed into the stadium to watch the 14th-ranked Aggies take on the 8th-ranked LSU Tigers.  Everything was first-rate, from parking in the coach's lot to entering through the Athletic Offices to the seats on the 47-yard line in the 17th row, the best I’ve ever had for this big a game.  LSU had a 17-7 half-time lead, but after the first series in the second half, the second-string quarterback, Marcel Reed took over the offense and he ran for three straight touchdowns giving the Aggies a lead they would never give up.  The place was so loud you had to scream in someone’s ear to be heard.   Final score: 38-23.  

At Least We Made It

What is it about getting to a cruise ship?  Two of the three cruises we’ve taken resulted in a long, stressful journey.  We learned not to fly the day of the cruise as we did in 2017 (https://lifeexperiences.paulishing.com/2017/01/catching-cruise-ship.html), so for 2024 we decided to be doubly safe and leave the house two days before, stay the night in Indianapolis the night before our direct flight and stay the night in Fort Lauderdale the night before the cruise.  Well, thank God we did because it was quite an adventure.  Let’s start with the drive on Friday.

We left around 3:00 pm for the Fairfield Inn & Suites at the Indianapolis Airport, a little over two-hour drive.  It was blowing snow in Ohio but the roads were clear enough and we made it to the Love’s Travel Stop at Exit 149 in Indiana in the typical one hour.  After getting back on I-70 westbound things took a major turn for the worse.  The snow in Indiana was much heavier and the roads started turning very slick.  In an instant, I saw at least a dozen cars that had slid off both sides of the highway and I began to slow down.  I was following a semi-tractor-trailer and the driver hit the brakes hard.  I slammed down on my brakes and pumped them once before I remembered they were anti-lock brakes then pushed the brake pedal to the floor.  With the semi now stopped all I could do was hope and pray I would do the same before hitting its backend, not that I would have hit it all that hard, but I figured at least a few thousand dollars of damages hard.  The chattering brakes stopped our Infiniti G37x with just a couple of feet to spare.  First crisis averted.

We followed that semi as it miraculously weaved its way through the accident scene and back to the open road.  A few dozen miles later, as the roads continued to worsen, we sought another route and Waze directed us to get off at an exit, head north about one-quarter mile and turn west on a County Road.  When we found that road there wasn’t a car on it, it was unplowed, and we smartly decided that being stuck on I-70 was a vastly better option than by ourselves on an unknown road.  We turned around and got back on I-70 westbound.  Several miles later the traffic began to slow down even more and shortly it was at a dead stop.  We sat there waiting to restart our journey and tried to determine what was going on.  We couldn’t find anything on the Internet to explain the situation but it had to be either a bad multi-car pileup or they simply had to close the road to plow and salt it.  It was frustrating to watch I-70 eastbound rolling right along while we were stuck.  After two hours I began an Internet search to find out how much gas a car uses when idling and turned up an estimate of one-half gallon per hour.  Thankfully I had filled the car up before we left even though it didn’t need it for the two-hundred-mile round trip.  I calculated we had until 4:00 am before we ran out of gas if we let it idle the entire time, which we obviously would not have done in favor of running the heater until it was very warm inside and turning the engine off until we started getting too chilled.  I also called the hotel to tell them we would be late and possibly very late but not give up our room.  Unfortunately, I reached a complete idiot who could not comprehend our situation.  

After two and one-half hours we were elated when traffic started moving again.  After a couple of miles, it was obvious that they had shut down the highway to clear it.  We continued our drive to the hotel at about 40-45 miles per hour, but other than a few slicker spots than others, made it safely to the hotel.  We had planned on a nice dinner near the hotel, but everything was closed down.  Fortunately, we packed a couple of submarine sandwiches that we planned to have on the plane Saturday, but that became our Friday night dinner.  After six and one-half hours the second crisis was behind us. 

We had a 12:10 pm departure time for our Southwest flight to Fort Lauderdale and since we now needed food we decided to get to the airport early.  The deal with the hotel included leaving our car there for five dollars per night and we rode their complimentary shuttle to the airport.  We arrived at the airport at 10:00 am, ate McDonald’s McMuffins for lunch then sat at the gate awaiting the boarding call.  We were among the last people to board the plane because I didn’t understand Southwest’s odd boarding process and figured we would be in separate middle seats for the two-hour trip.  We were totally surprised to find two aisle seats across from each other near the back of the plane and snatched those up.  The flight attendant went through the usual seat belt, air mask, leave the smoke detectors alone routine and we pulled away from the gate on time.  The third crisis began as we pulled back to the gate with the pilot informing us that there was a maintenance issue that had to be resolved.  Everyone deplaned and we sat at the gate waiting for more information.  And waited.  And waited some more.

After a three-hour delay, the airline is required to provide you compensation so we grabbed our $100 vouchers for a future flight.  At 3:30 pm they announced they had a different plane for us, much to everyone’s relief.  We boarded at 4:15 pm and this time we found seats together as the plane was not nearly as full.  After a half-hour wait the pilot informed us that all the banging noises we were hearing were because this plane was originally headed to Orlando and they had to transfer all that baggage to their new plane and get our luggage on board.  Oh great!  Now we have to worry that Southwest will screw that up and we’ll get to Florida and our four bags will not be there.  The last thing you want the night before a week-long cruise is scrambling to buy enough dress clothes, shirts, shorts, bathing suits, toiletries, and suitcases to make it seven days.  The fourth crisis had begun before the third one was over.

We finally lifted off at 5:05 pm, five hours late, but better late than never.  The flight attendant announces everyone gets a free drink and everyone cheers.  The flight is pretty smooth but they never turn off the fasten seatbelt sign, so everyone just ignores that and goes anyway.  We land at 7:34 pm and the third crisis is over.  We headed to baggage claim and started getting nervous when our bags were not showing up.  Finally, they announced our bags would be coming up at a different carousel.  After a few more minutes, our first bag appeared.  Then the second, the third, and finally the fourth.  The fourth, and thankfully last, crisis was averted.  

We grab the first cab we encounter and race to the AC Hotel Fort Lauderdale Airport to meet up with the four couples we’re cruising with.  We arrive at about 8:30 pm and while we’re at the registration desk, our dear friend Grace meets us with shots of whiskey.  Bless her heart.  

The only bump in the road Sunday was the weather.  It’s always fun to watch the ship leave port and the land fades away while standing on the deck with a cocktail in hand.  Rainy weather prevented that enjoyment, so we had to move the celebration to our favorite, the Martini Bar!

But at least we made it.

The Best of 2023

This is the thirteenth year of posting about the top ten experiences of the previous year and while it was usual that several very deserving ones were left on the chopping block, what makes 2023 special is the top five are not about some awesome concert, awesome dinner, or flying a helicopter.  They are all family-related events that made the year so great.  As usual, we start at number ten and work our way to the best of the best.

10.  Guest Bartenders

When George’s (the owner of Jorrge’s Restaurant and Cantina) wife had shoulder surgery it left him shorthanded and Elaine and I (and several others) volunteered to take a few nights running the bar while he waited tables.  That consisted mainly of pouring beers and margaritas, making an occasional Old Fashioned or frozen daiquiri, and running the cash register.  When we weren't slammed with orders, we talked with the bar folks, most of whom we knew.  It was great helping a friend in a pinch and giving our tips to the young kids who deliver food and clean up tables.

9.  Biltmore Tour 

We began our early September trip to North Carolina by taking a day to tour the mansion, gardens, and grounds at The Biltmore Estate in Asheville.  The tour is self-guided and the provided headset directs you around and activates its narrative when you get to the next room.  Huge dining rooms, libraries filled with thousands of books, majestic fireplaces, bedrooms so large they make their normal-sized beds look small, and huge handpainted religious rugs hanging on walls are just some of its many splendors.  Below ground, the basement is filled with kitchens, pantries, and the servants' quarters, and the floor below that workout rooms, a bowling alley, and the shell of an old swimming pool.  Outdoors, most of the gardens were past their prime yet still lovely, but the conservatory was overloaded with large, beautiful arrangements.  

8.  ain’t too proud 

Our friends Ralph and Kathy treated us in June to “ain’t too proud” at the Schuster Performing Arts Center, a musical about the life and times of the Motown group The Temptations.  Our seats were awesome situated in the middle of the eighth row.  “The Way You Do the Things You Do”, “In the Still of the Night”, “Shout”, “My Girl”, “Ain't Too Proud to Beg”, “If You Don't Know Me by Now”, “Just My Imagination”, and “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone” were just a few of the dozens of hits performed that evening.  The story of The Temptations, their successes and losses, and the number of members who came and went as the group changed over the years was all new to us.  This was a Broadway-quality production and a delightful evening.

7.  Dinner at Beachcomber

We spent another week in Clearwater Beach, Florida with Albert and Marilou (Elaine’s sister and brother-in-law) in late April, the third straight year we left the cold and dreariness of the Ohio winter.  As is Elaine and my tradition, we had an upscale dinner on the final night, this time at Beachcomber, located on the main drag that is Mandalay Avenue.  It was way more upscale than we thought it would be, a true fine dining experience.  Elaine had the surf-and-turf which she recalls to this day, and although I can’t remember mine (it was probably the sea scallops) I do recall it was also delicious.

6.  March Madness in Greensboro

This is the fourth trip to take in the first and second rounds of an NCAA basketball tournament and the trip to North Carolina also allowed us to see our grandson Griffin.  The Friday afternoon games at Greensboro Coliseum had Xavier topping Kennesaw State by five points and Pittsburgh easily defeating Iowa State by eighteen.  We opted to take in the evening games back at our hotel and we’re glad we did.  Rain and fog made it difficult to navigate back in the daylight and I don’t want to think how awful that would have been near midnight.  We watched the Kentucky and Kansas State from the comfort of our hotel.  Fortunately, the Sunday second-round games were scheduled in the early afternoon and we saw double-digit victories by Xavier and Kansas State.  Nothing gets us into the tournament more than immersing ourselves in the early rounds.

5.  Pat Gets Texas A&M Job

Two years after Elaine’s son Pat took the Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends coach at Duke and moved his family from Indiana to North Carolina, Duke’s Head Coach Mike Elko returned to Texas A&M as their Head Coach and offered Pat the Special Teams Coordinator job.  Getting a position like this at an SEC (Southeastern Conference) school is a huge step up and while once again the family has to move, we’re excited for them.  Driving to College Station, Texas would be over 1,000 miles, double the long enough trip to NC, but flying there, or to Houston or Austin and driving the rest, will result in about the same amount of travel time, still, they just seem that much further away, at least until the next promotion.

4. Josephine Rochelle Dougherty

Everyone says their newborn grandchild is the cutest thing in the world, but when our granddaughter Joey was born on August 29th, she put all others on notice.  She is simply adorable with her big eyes and adorable smile.  She’s one of those babies that sleep through anything including her brother’s big voice and one or more barking dogs.  We made a special trip down to North Carolina to see her and capture pictures of us while she was still so tiny, just over a week after she was born.  We made two more trips over the next two months to see her, marveling at how fast she was growing physically and in our hearts.

3.  Brian and Deborah Get Married

After a twenty-month engagement, Elaine’s son Brian and his fiance Deborah Klopfenstein exchanged vows in March at St. Charles Church in Kettering, Ohio.  We hosted the Rehearsal Dinner the evening before at a private dining room at Figlio’s where they did a splendid job serving our group of three dozen guests.  The reception was held in the Eichelberger Pavilion in Carillon Historical Park, a stunning venue at easily held their 160 guests.  Dinner was provided by Bernstein's Catering featuring charcuterie boards and entrees of slow-roasted short ribs, ricotta agnolotti, and herb-roasted chicken.  The evening concluded with speeches, toasts, and lots of dancing.  

2.  Mike and Leslie Get Married

My son Mike and his finance Leslie Harshman said “I do” in an outdoor ceremony in June at Hidden Valley Orchards in Lebanon, Ohio.  Mike and Leslie have known each other for over ten years, dated for seven, and he finally bought her a ring in 2021.  This was a small, casual but equally beautiful ceremony followed by food and drinks.  All four of our children are now happily married and we couldn’t be happier or more proud of each of them.

1.  15th Wedding Anniversary

We have a wedding anniversary every year (obviously) and I don’t put it on the list, but the 15th seemed so special that I wanted to make it even more so by making it the best of this year’s list.  Elaine and I had a great dinner at Jag’s in West Chester and spent the night at the nearby Marriott.  We have had a great and memorable fifteen years and I love her more now than when we said “I do” at Incarnation Church on January 5, 2008.  So even if our anniversary doesn’t make this list each year, our life together is always the best of the best.

 

The Best of 2022

I’m constantly amazed and grateful for all the cool experiences that come my way every year and 2022 was full of great memories.  Forty-three items made the list last year and culling them down to the top ten had its usual tough calls.  As usual, I’ll start at number 10 and work down the page to last year’s star.

10.  Watching Duke Beat Boston College at Cameron Indoor Stadium

Seeing a game at Cameron came off my Bucket List in 2018 and for reasons that will become clearer below, getting tickets to see Duke play should be easier.  But instead of seeing a non-conference, no-doubt, winter-break game, this one was against in-conference ACC opponent Boston College.  We sat way up in the rafters, but the stadium’s 9,300-seat capacity means there’s not a bad seat in the house.  Duke won a hard-fought game by a respectable sixteen points in the first year of Jon Scheyer being their head coach.

9.  Dinner at Kindred Spirits at The Inn at Cedar Falls

Last fall we stayed a couple of nights in a cabin at Hocking Hills, Ohio, courtesy of a gift we received from my daughter and son-in-law.  Very rustic and scenic with a hot tub that faced out to an empty forest, well except for the occasional deer and squirrel sighting.  The lodge at Hocking had been completely rebuilt after suffering a fire a few years ago.  We hiked a few of the more popular trails including Old Man’s Cave, Ash Cave, and Cedar Falls.  The highlight of the trip was our meal at Kindred Spirits, a restaurant that we only were able to make reservations for because it was off-season and we were willing to dine at 5:00 pm.  I had Sea Scallops in Brown Butter Sauce, Rainbow Carrots, and Wild Rice, which was my best meal of the year.

8.  Duke Beats Miami

In most years we see one football game for each of Elaine’s sons, but 2022 ended with three apiece.  We drove to Durham for Duke’s opening game, twice to Valparaiso, went to the Valparaiso game in Dayton, and to Pittsburgh to nearly freeze to death watching Duke play Pitt.  The highlight of the season was flying to Miami to watch Duke beat “The U” 45-21 on a beautiful sunny Florida day.  We preceded the game with a family tailgate party in one of the remote parking lots.  We spent a total of six days/five nights in Fort Lauderdale for our third Florida vacation of the year.

7.  A Week in Clearwater Beach, FL

The last week of April is a great time to hit the beach in Florida.  It’s past the Spring Break season, rates have just come down, and it’s less crowded and way easier to get into bars and restaurants.  But what made our vacation more special in 2022 was the week of perfect weather.  You always plan for at least one rainy day when spending a week, but for the most part, even the clouds stayed away.  Our routine is to sleep in, take a long walk or run, get cleaned up, and hit the beach, made really easy by being right on the beach.  A little sun, a light lunch, and more sun until the beer buds kick in.  Never gets old.

6.  Super Bowl Game at Jorrge’s

Our favorite restaurant, Jorrge’s, is closed on Sundays but with the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl, he threw a party for a group of his favorite customers for the game.  Everyone brought food in and Jorrge provided the drinks on the house.  It's not very often that you’re allowed to bring food into a restaurant much less drink a pitcher of complimentary margaritas and a few shots of tequila.  Neither one of us are Cincinnati Bengals fans, but we cheered along for three quarters before going home.  We know how the Bengals do in Super Bowl fourth quarters.

5.  Lunch at The Holly Inn in Pinehurst, NC

While visiting our grandson in April, we headed down to Pinehurst to see the area where I’ve played many rounds of golf over the years and to find a place to eat lunch.  The Holly Inn has an outdoor seating area where we could get a bite to eat and gaze around downtown.  We ordered a couple of Bloody Mary drinks and they brought out a bucket of fresh, hot, and salty potato chips.  These chips are addictive and while we’re happy to share a mini-size bag of chips from time to time, we continued snacking until none were left.  Amazing I still had room for the Hot Mess burger I had ordered.

4.  Pat Getting Duke Job

When my wife got off the phone and told me her son was going to be interviewed for the Special Teams Coordinator job at Duke University, I was stunned.  I’ve been a huge fan of Duke Basketball most of my adult life, visited the campus on several occasions, stayed and played golf at their Washington Duke hotel and a few years ago went to a basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.  It was unreal that he might have a chance to coach there.  After the interview, it took a couple of weeks before they officially signed him and they began their move from Indiana to North Carolina.  His first season ended with an 8-4 record plus a victory in the Military Bowl.

3.  Brian and Deborah Got Engaged on July 4th

We rented a house, the “Grace FitzPatrick”, in West Palm Beach, Florida for a week in July so we could attend a family celebration and have a week of family time.  Brian brought his girlfriend and secretly an engagement ring.  After a few days of trying to decide a good time and place, he opted for a stroll along a boardwalk where he walked her out a pier and proposed with the ocean in the background.  She couldn’t get “Yes!” out of her mouth fast enough as she smiled ear-to-ear.  I just told them congratulations and that “Independence” Day was an interesting choice for getting engaged.

2.  Cog Railway to Pikes Peak

I had last taken the ride up to Pikes Pike in the summer before my senior year in high school and was eager to do it again.  I didn’t know that the cog train and visitor centers had been shut down and completely redone, reopening just a few months earlier.  We bought tickets in advance and opted to pay a little extra for specific seats which allowed us to face forward during the ascent, which takes about a half-hour more than the return down the mountain.  The trip up delivered one stunning view after another with occasional animal sightings.  The summit is about 40 degrees colder than the base station with a stiff breeze making it even tougher to walk around in its thin air.  A minute into the descent, a pair of Air Force jets buzzed the mountain, giving us an oh-so-brief up-close view of their planes.  

1.  Chicago and Brian Wilson at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado

When friends of ours offered us some extra tickets they had to see the band Chicago and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys at the Red Rocks outdoor amphitheater outside Denver, Colorado, we jumped on it.  We made a five-day journey out of it with the concert being on the last night of the trip.  Heeding the guidance of people we talked to, we took an Uber to the venue which dropped us off at the top where we could easily walk down to our seats near the top.  The view was absolutely stunning with a wall of red rock to our left and downtown Denver in the distance.  The amphitheater is an acoustic wonder and even though we were a fair distance from the stage, the music was loud and crystal clear.  After the concert, we walked all the way down to exit the venue and walked another quarter-mile down to a waiting fleet of taxis that left Red Rocks without a wait.

The Best Of 2021

The continuation of the hopeless fight against the coronavirus once again limited vacation destinations, but that didn’t stop us from traveling to states that were open for fun.  Of the forty-nine experiences that were collected in 2021, over half of them involved restaurants with delicious food, beautiful vistas, or were just quirky, and the best five earned inclusion in this annual collection of memories.

10.  The Sage Room - Hilton Head, SC

You would never run across The Sage Room, except by accident, as it’s tucked on the backside of other businesses and you can’t even find it on Google Streetview.  Fortunately our friends Dan and Grace had been there before and they raved about the food.  The most upscale of the new restaurants of 2021 did not disappoint and after careful consideration of their outstanding menu, I selected their Sage Room Benedict, an 8 oz. filet, poached egg, smashed potatoes, haricot vert, and bearnaise sauce, a beef cheeks appetizer, and Creme Brûlée for dessert.  The cheeks are not some made-up term, it’s literally the cheeks of the cow, once a throw-away after-thought, now a trendy delight.

9.  Nashville, TN

To break up the trip down to Montgomery, AL to see the Christmas Day Camelia Bowl, we stayed a night in Nashville.  We started our afternoon by Uber’ing over to visit a friend at his clothing store, chatted a while, and asked where’s a good place for lunch.  He suggested Edley’s BBQ a few blocks up the street and it was at the top of the best barbeque places I’ve ever been.  The brisket sandwich was as large as it was delicious.  We Uber’d back to Broadway to the heart of country music paradise, first hitting AJ's Good Time Bar, named for country superstar Alan Jackson.  The band at AJ’s was playing familiar, well-known songs from yesteryear.  We moved on to Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row, lucked out getting a seat at the bar, and listened to the loud side of country hits.  

8.  Earl's Hideaway Lounge and Tiki Bar - Sebastian, FL

Earl’s is a biker bar, pure and simple.  Dozens of Harley-Davidsons are lined up side by side, many with their owners chatting about their paint job or custom pipes.  Inside are lots of TVs and outside there is a stage that features a string of bands playing favorites to the crowd and the braver souls that like to take to the dance floor.  But what’s most compelling are the people themselves and if you’re a people-watcher, it’s fun to just sit back and watch these happy people go at it.  

7.  Blue Hen Cafe - St. Augustine, FL

One of the benefits of traveling during the lowest of the non-peak season is being able to get into most restaurants as we did at Blue Hen Cafe.  It’s a tiny, locals place open six hours Wednesday through Sunday that usually has a long line of people waiting for a chance to enter.  We waited for perhaps five or ten minutes before being seated, ordered up a cup of coffee, and tried to decide what on their everything-looks-good menu to have.   My choice was a monster-sized sausage, cheese, and egg on a brioche bun that was over-the-top delicious.  

6.  Nokomo's Sunset Hut - Nokomis, FL

You know when you’re in a brand-new vacation place for three days and go to the same restaurant twice because you just have to before you leave, you have found that combination of great food and a good atmosphere that will demand you go back in the future.  Such was Nokomo's Sunset Hut which features two floors with plenty of bar and table seating.  It’s so big that multiple bands are playing in different parts of the restaurant at the same time.  Waiting for a table was going to take hours, so we took a chance, got a drink at the bar, and then stalked out people that looked like they were getting close to leaving.  This is Elaine’s specialty, spotting a likely couple and chatting them up.  They usually offer us their seats, sometimes letting us sit while they’re paying their bill.  Dinner was the best Grouper Tacos we’ve ever had with an unusual, but awesome, side of edamame and black-eyed peas salad.  We stopped for lunch on our way back to the West Palm Beach airport, enjoying an equally delightful meal at a peaceful corner table overlooking Robert’s Bay.

5.  Kayaking

During a trip to Vero Beach, we went kayaking with Elaine’s brother and sister-in-law in the Indian River.  We each selected a kayak, donned life preservers, and grabbed a two-headed paddle.  We carefully launched and made our way through an small access to the river, made a right turn, and headed north.  There was no one else around on this beautiful day as we slowly made our way, in no hurry at all.  Kayaking was a new experience to the ladies and it had been a while since I paddled, so tipping over was a reasonable concern.  To test the depth of the river, I stuck my paddle vertically into the water, and to my surprise, the river was only about three feet deep.  We were greeted by a dolphin that surfaced just a few feet away and the many fish that lept out of the water for whatever reason they do that.   It was an idyllic day filled with light winds, paddling dipping, and beautiful trees, plants, and flowers.   

4. Cytomegalovirus

I was a regular whole blood donor for many years when I worked downtown and the donation center was down the street.  During that time one of the blood center screeners mentioned I had good blood for babies, but never explained why.  I just figured they said that to everybody to entice them to give regularly.   I got out of the donation habit after I had a melanoma removed from my head which necessitated a five-year suspension from donating.  After getting COVID in December of 2020, I was eligible to donate convalescent plasma to assist hospitalized people and perhaps save a life.  That reestablished the habit of giving and early in 2021 I noticed that the donation form I took home had “CMV-” written at the top and highlighted in yellow.  An internet search quickly relieved that this term stood for Cytomegalovirus-Negative, which means I’m one of a small number of people that have never contracted this common virus.  Babies needing transfusions should only receive blood from donors, like me, who have not been exposed to CMV, so I’m really important to the most precious and vulnerable patients.  Now that I know this, I’ll keep donating every eight weeks for as long as I’m able.

3.  Jorrge's Restaurante Cantina

Jorrge’s was a place that was on our want-to-try list for a while, but it wasn’t until July 5th, when our usual haunts were closed did we go check it out, then it quickly became our number one place.  It has to be the friendliest place around, for example, people sitting at the bar will quickly offer to move around when there are a couple of single stools available and we need two together.  At first, we were surprised and thought maybe it was a one-time deal, but then it happened over and over, and of course, we join in the musical chairs whenever we can.  The golden margaritas are great and we typically split a small pitcher, which is good for two each.  Jorrge’s is famous for their “Flu Shot” and one or more usually land in front of us, along with occasional tequila or bourbon shots.  On top of that, the food is the best Mexican in town.  

2.  YouTubeTV

We had long complained about the cost of cable TV, the cable boxes that needed frequently replaced, and the overly complex remote control.  On top of that, we had another HDMI port with our streaming device requiring changing inputs and grabbing one or more other remotes.  That ended one evening when we were trying to watch a Pittsburgh Penguins game and found that channel, and only that one, was badly pixelated and unwatchable.  Searching for a quick solution, I started a free trial of YouTube TV and we watched the hockey game without issue.  A few days later we disconnected all the Spectrum gear and returned it, saving some money and more than a ton of aggravation.  The best part of this move was the consolidation of the many remotes into a single Fire TV remote, one that measures only 1.5 by 5.5 inches, and every button, except one, is used a lot.  We also now get our “TV” on our iPads, smartphones, and computers, bringing the total number of “TVs” in the house to at least nine.

1.  Basement Remodel

Over the last dozen years, we’ve updated everything in the house on the first and second floors, doing all the work ourselves except for the bathrooms and kitchen.  The last rooms to tackle were in the basement and we initially decided to contract it out.  But then we decided to keep the drop ceiling and just replace the tiles, and then decided to ditch new carpeting and install vinyl flooring.  At that point, it didn’t make much sense to use a contractor, as we knew, or could figure out with the help of YouTube, how to do it all and we could take our time.  Starting at the top, we removed all the old ceiling tiles, tied up all the tees that were drooping, cut holes for the can lights and registers, and installed the new tiles.  We painted the top of the walls French blue and replaced the outdated wood paneling on the lower half with white beadboard paneling.  The floors came last, replacing 30+-year-old carpeting with Carbon Gray vinyl flooring.  New carpeting on the stairs was the only part we had someone else do.   A new 65-inch 4K television, a console, and an area rug completed the transformation.