Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

The reason there was no blog last night was because we didn’t get  in till 11:30 p.m. after an epic 16 hour drive from Eastern Tennessee, and tonight’s is going to be swift and to the point because it’s almost ten, we’ve been out seeing and doing stuff all day, and we are all ready to turn in and let unconsciousness wash over us, and be rejuvenated for another day.  Kind of amazing how sleep works.

We got rather a late start, but first thing in the morning I met my nephew’s wife and my two grand-nephews for  the first time.  Meeting new people is always exciting.  Meeting new people who are family and therefore will have a link with you for the rest of both your lives, if you’re lucky, is a momentous occasion.

Then, we went to breakfast at a diner in Indianola and I had the privilege of ordering French Toast, a great American dish that is nothing at all like smaženky, thank you very much.  Then Venessa dropped off Quentin (the older boy) at his grandmother’s house, because he’s going on vacation with them for a week, and we waited for her in a parking lot for a long, hot time.  Then we went into Des Moines.  With the exception of the house I  grew up in being completely gone and replaced with a patch of grass, contiguous  with the patch of grass replacing the house next door, the neighborhood looked very much the same.  The tree in front of the house was much bigger, though…like 20 years bigger.

Then we went up to the Iowa State Capitol, very difficult to keep little Mike away from all the stairs, did a tour of downtown and the river, walked through a statue park that was not there before, drove past Gray’s Lake, then out to a mall  on  the West Side which hadn’t existed before (in a neighborhood which had not existed before, Jordan Creek) and then over to my cousin Peggy’s house, where we sat and talked and caught up on family news for hours.  Beautiful place, we saw two foxes and a deer right in their back yard.

Until tomorrow, good night.

The last time I was in Knoxville, Tennessee, I spent three days in the county jail for the crime of hitch-hiking on the interstate.  Well, actually, for the crime of being a scruffy looking hippie dude hitch-hiking on the interstate.  It probably also had to do with the fact that it was 1972 and I was heading down to Florida for the demonstrations at the Republican National convention, and word had gone out to all of the highway patrols throughout the southern states to intercept any scruffy looking hippie types headed for Florida.  I eventually made it down anyway, in time to get myself arrested for demonstrating and spend a couple days in jail in Florida.
Today, watching my daughter play in the hotel pool on this lovely afternoon, I thought about this.  Now, I am back in Knoxville, staying at a nice hotel – well, it’s a Sleep  Inn but that’s plenty luxurious enough for me, they have a pool and a complimentary breakfast and the rooms are pretty much the same as they are at the Hilton or Marriott, they all have beds.  I am here with my  lovely wife and two brilliant children, and we arrived in a car that talks to us, just like in ‘My Mother the Car’ or ‘Knight Rider.’
My life is pretty good.
Tomorrow, we’re going to try to drive all the way to Iowa, but we’ll see.  If it takes us another day, it takes another day.

We are at about the  halfway point  in our vacation and starting to run into time constraints.  We may  have only  two days  in Iowa, which is not really enough, which we could stretch to 3 if  we’re going to do one day just solid driving  and that, of course, has to be left  up to the driver, who is Helena.  I haven’t had a license for years.

Today,  however, was exactly what we  needed, a day of relaxation on the beach.  We didn’t have to hurry to get there, we didn’t have to hurry to get home.  I was the first one awake this morning, which is not unusual, that’s common at home as well.  I considered going out for an early morning walk because I  love that time of day when nobody else is awake and you are alone with the birds and the air is cool, but it wasn’t actually that early.  It was about 6:30.  I considered brewing up a pot of coffee, but the coffee shop next door  was just opening and I thought that might seem rude, or at least stand – offish, as the owners of the bnb also manage the coffee shop, so I went over and ordered a coffee and they gave it to me for free because we’re sleeping here.  So, when the rest of the fam woke up we went over there and had breakfast.  Good business on their part, eh?  But, the chocolate chip cookie was wonderful, and everybody  else was satisfied, too.

The lady asked where we were going today and we said Emerald Isle, because we’d checked a map and it looked like the closest beach and she said “Oh, if you’re going to Emerald Isle you should go to Fort Macon,” which I heard as Fort Meghan, but that didn’t matter, once we got close enough my mistake was obvious.

There were signs on the way to the beach that said “No swimming, no wading, no surfing” and I was seriously bummed, what kind of a beach is that?  Also, the view was of land on the other side, so it was more of a bay than the ocean.  So, we decided to get back in  the car and find a better beach, and we asked the guy in the gift shop and he told us we’d just gone a little too far, just a mile back up the road, still in the state park, there was a proper ocean beach, and it was wonderfully sandy and the water was warm and there were even waves, but not big ones, which  is O.K., we’re a family  with kids, not adventure seeking surfer types.

Hung out for hours and now I’m sunburned, but it truly was a wonderful day.

We woke up this morning and pretty much reached an immediate family consensus on a change of plans.  We decided to forego the National Air and Space Museum, and any other Smithsonian (which is kind of a shame, especially as they’re free, and if we had more time I’d love to do them) and hit the road immediately.

It turned out to be the right choice, I’d say, because if we hadn’t, we’d have shlepped into town here around 9 p.m. , but as it is we got in with plenty of  daylight left, found our new Airbnb home with no  hassle, and had a couple of hours to explore the hidden gem that is Washington, North Carolina.  I say ‘hidden gem’ largely because I was previously unaware of its existence, but it is a very nice place.

They call it ‘the original Washington’ because they adopted the name in 1776 (It was previously something like ‘Forks of the Tar’ or something ugly  like that) and it did, indeed play a role in the American revolution as larger ports, like Charleston, were blockaded by the British.  So, it was sort  of a smuggler’s cove.  Outside of that, though, the  local tendency to refer to it as a ‘historic town’ seems to be because it’s been here a long time.

We took a walk along the boardwalk, which has reeds next to the shore, then a field of water lilies, then more turtles than I’ve ever seen in my life, and when you lean over the rail to get a better look at the turtles, you see there are quite a few fish in there as well.  On the outer side, there is the marina, where a lot of fancy yachts are docked on the Pamlico river, which actually seems to be kind of a bay, and leads right out to  the Atlantic.

Walked into town with the intent of doing grocery shopping and coming home and making dinner, but there was no grocery store.  Found a nice restaurant, though, and everybody was happy with their meal.

Tomorrow, the beach.

Had a very nice breakfast at our hotel in Baltimore and hit the road by about  9 a.m.  Traffic was a bit heavy but not insanely heavy, not New York heavy.  Got into D.C., parked near our Air B and B (parking also is not as nuts as in New York, where wherever there is a free parking space, it is suddenly not a free parking space, it’s like trying to be the 7th caller to a radio station to get free tickets to a concert), walked to the Metro station (we would have just parked there if we’d known  how far it was, and headed into town.

People here have been outrageously co-operative in friendly.  Guy approached me in the Metro and tried to beg 50cents, a guy who worked at the station came over and chased him away, like in a how dare you pull that shit in my station kind of way.  This evening, we went out for dinner, the kids wanted Pizza Hut and we got there and realized it was only take away, and as we were walking away and a girl leaned out of her car and said “Are you looking for a Pizza Hut where you can sit down?” and directed us to one.  We are pretty much the only white faces in a black neighborhood, and everybody has been nice  as pie.

Took the train to L’Enfant Plaza, on the map it looks like it’s easy to get to the mall from  there but, with the exception of the mall itself, this is not a pedestrian friendly city.  Fences everywhere, too.  There is a chain link fence right across the middle of the reflecting pool!

The highlight of the day, an amazingly cool coincidence, was when we ran into my niece, Michelle, who was out jogging with her friend.  We know she’d be in D.C. at the same time we were but it was just a flying visit for both of us and we didn’t think we’d meet up but there they were, right outside the Smithsonian.  So, we went to lunch with them at the buffet in the American Indian History Museum.  Then we finally made it to the mall and had a nice walk along it, saw the Lincoln Memorial, then walked over to the White House and then we were done.  It was time to check into our room, but when I say done, I mean done in.  It was a blazing hot day and we are all a bit burnt.