July 22 - Was kind of tired after the three day drive, so
I didn't really get going until the afternoon. Finally, we got out
and went to the Philadelphia Art Museum. I was extrememly suprised at
their Impressionistic collection; there were fully 9 paintings that I
recocnized. Good museum. We ate dinner, and then went to the game.
Well, remember the rain I drove the on the 21st? Evidently, it had
rained the game out that night, so they were making it up with a
double-header today. We arrived in the seventh inning of the first
game. Philly beat San Diego 4-2, but I didn't see any of the runs.
Between games, they had a Philadelphia celebrity home run contest,
and we got to see 7 foot, 6 inch Philadelphia 76er center try to
swing a toothpick that would be a bat for you or me. The second game
had three rain delays, shades of Wrigley. When it was finally over at
1:54, San Diego had pounded Philly 8-3. Gwynn went 7-9 in the
double-header. Scary.
July 21 - Finally got to Philadelphia through some serious
rain. Reached my friend Andrew Stern's condo about 8:30. Andy did not
have a good week; there was lot's of flooding in the Philly area
early in the week, and Andy lost his car in it. He had been spending
the week taking care of it. After we got all of my stuff out of my
car, Andy realized that his watch was missing, so we tried to go find
it. However, the eleveator had other ideas. It decided not to stop
anywhere. It would go all of the way up, and then all of the way
down. We finally stopped it close to the first floor, and pushed the
doors open, released the emergency catch, and got out. Excitement in
Philly.
July 20 - Made Bristol, TN. On the way, heard disturbing
news. Parts of the roof of the Kingdome fell into the stands before
anybody had shown up to the game, and they still don't know if they
are going to play there anymore this year. I will have to call the
Mariners and check what they are going to do about the game before I
set out for Seattle from Toronto. The drive was beatiful but
dull.
Route - I-59 North to I-24. I-24 East to I-75. I-75 North to I-40.
I-40 East to I-81. I-81 North to Bristol.
July 19 - You know, going east again was a difficult thing
for me to do. But I set out for Philadelphia. I got out in the
afternoon, and made Hattiesburg, MI. More exciting highways.
Route - I-10 East to I-12. I-12 East to I-59. I-59 North to
Hattiesburg.
I did drive by a couple of old haunts on the way out of town.
July 18 - Stayed at Mom's a little more, and we talked and
listened to music some more, and did crosswords. The article in the
Chronicle appeared, and I was fairly pleased with it, even if I am
only from the San Jose area, and not San Jose. I left to meet Dad at
his place in Clear Lake City. When we both had arrived, a message for
me from Matt was on his machine. Channel 13 wanted to interview me at
the game, so I called and set it up. We got to the game before
anybody else in our group. Our group ended up being me, Dad, Krista
and Bob, Matt, Brian, Chuck, and Jason Stevens. Jason was funny; he
grew up in Italy, so at first, he didn't seem to know what was going
on. He seemed to catch on quickly, however. The Astrodome has changed
a little; the tacky light bulb scoreboard which lit up when the
Astros hit a home run is gone, and seats replace it. I miss them.
However, they have a lot more banners around the top. I guess
they did a good job; I just miss the light bulbs and the rainbow
stripes on the uniforms. The game was great, but it wasn't at first.
St. Louis got out to an 11-0 lead in the second inning. But the
Astros scored 11 runs in the sixth and won 15-12. Was the biggest
comeback in National League history. YEAH! GO ASTROS! I think
everybody at the game had a good time, and I am sorry Randy, the
eternal Cardinals fan, missed the game. Channel 13 came and
interviewed me during the eleven run inning. People taped the news,
but since they were showing the game on ABC, the news was delayed.
I taped the interview directly off of the news when it repeated
at 1:45, but the sound didn't come through very well. Oh, well. And
Marvin Zindler had just left for Florida to check out conditions in
the refugee camps, and I didn't get him. A true Houston experience
missed. I decided not to try and get a Gallery Furniture commercial,
though.
July 17 - Went to Galveston with Matt, Chuck and Amy. Ah,
to soak in the warm waters of the Gulf. It may be murky, but I do
miss the warmth. Basically, went in the water, messed around on the
beach and talked to people. Susan (I think that's her name; see
above) and a guy named Oz showed up later. Brian and Denise showed up
even later. Had to leave about 4:30, so that I could meet up with my
mother. Mom lives in one of the apartment complexes that Rice
students live in, Brompton Court. As a matter of fact, while I was
walking back to her apartment, I saw a guy that used to live next
door to me at Hanszen, Keith Goodnight. I could not attract his
attention, but I didn't really know him. Mom made me good food, and
we talked and listened to music. She seems to be doing better than
she has in years; I think Krista getting her life together has helped
Mom immensely.
July 16 - When I was living here before, I was a member of
the Houston Starfleet Battles Playtest Group, and I wanted to go to
the meeting, but they were all bummed because a member, Paul Cramer,
had been screwed at Origins, so no playtest meeting. Instead, I got
to accompany Brian on his stereo quest. Brian is getting a nice
system; video outings should be at his place from now on. (You're
welcome, Brian.) Met up with Matt again, and we went to Pico's for
dinner. (Yum) Went to see Arnold's new movie, True Lies. Silly movie,
but great action scenes. After the movie, we went to House of Guys
and chatted for a while. Met somebody else, who is also an undergrad
at Rice. I think her name was Susan, but I wouldn't swear it. I was
always terrible with names. Just like old times. Went to Matt's, and
went to sleep.
July 15 - Finally contacted the reporter, Carol Rust, from
the Houston Chronicle. Went downtown and met her, and we did the
photo shoot. She asked me some questions, and went off to write the
story. I found Matt Cohen, who got the story going in the first
place, and he gave me a tour of the Chronicle, including all of the
neat old and new computer hardware they have. We ate at Treebeard's,
which is a good Cajun lunch place. Good food. I then got in touch
with Brian Donnell. I went back to Krista's and got my stuff, and
made my way to Brian's. Brian's apartment is nice; he lives in the
second floor of a duplex with hardwood floors and a good layout. He
put a ping-pong table in the dining room, which is really cool. I
really liked this place. Brian was having trouble with his burglar
alarm; it was quite amusing.
Matt and Chuck Kuffner came over, and we went to eat at Pappa's out
on the Southwest Freeway. I seemed to be the only one who had been
there, and I thought I was losing my mind, because as we were driving
down the feeder road, it kept not being there. But it was, and my
Houston memory was vindicated. Had wonderful shrimp. Chuck and Matt
invited some friends to meet us, and they showed up about an hour
later. Amy Hemphill is an undergrad at Rice, and Denise Krause is a
single mother who is just starting college for the first time. We
chatted for a while, and then went to see Forest Gump. What a
wonderful, wonderful movie. I went back to Brian's and went to
sleep.
July 14 - Set out on the second day of my journey to
Houston. Decided to go through New Orleans because it had been a
long, long time. Nice looking city despite the rain. The drive was
not very exciting otherwise. Found my sister's house when I got to
Houston about 7:30. My sister and her husband, Krista and Bob Bartel,
live near Hobby Airport in Southwest Houston. Bob runs the Houston
Youth Hostel. He is a neat guy. I am not sure who he works for. He
likes to fix up his house himself. He absolutely is in love with
Krista, and a nice guy to boot. This is a refreshing change for
Krista. For her part, Krista is recovering from some surgery, so she
is still kind of taking life gingerly. She has had it rough;
I am glad that her life seems to be taking shape.
July 13 - Set out for Houston. Went back roads for a while
until the sun went down. Bought some oranges at a road side stand.
Excitement. Stopped and stayed at a motel in Gulfport, Mississippi.
If you ever have to stay anywhere near the Mississippi River or the
Gulf Coast in the south, make advanced reservations. The casinos make
finding places hard. The place I stayed at was quite overpriced
because of it. When I logged in, Matt had left me a message to call a
reporter from the Houston Chronicle who worked for a friend of his. I
couldn't get hold of her. Sigh. Went to bed.
Route - US 192 West to US 27. US 27 North to US 27 Alt. US 27 Alt
North to US 98. US 98 West to Florida 87. Florida 87 North to I-10.
I-10 West to Biloxi-Gulfport.
July 12 - Went to Epcot Center. I've been told that if you
have been to Disneyland in Anaheim that the Magic Kingdom in Orlando
was about the same. Epcot was kind of a disappointment. I guess I was
expecting more substance or more rides. Instead, there were a few
rides with some sketchy science and history, mostly told from a white
American/European slant to it. I was quite annoyed with the ride that
goes up into the ball. It was supposed to be a history of progress
kind of thing. When they were talking about writing, they did not
mention cuneiform and the Assyrians/Babylonians/Sumerians who used it
(I forgot who developed it) at all. They acted as if a writing system
was impossible without an alphabet and did not mention the Chinese at
all. When they did mention Islam, it was if they were merely
caretakers of all of the precious Greek and Roman knowledge while the
West figured out how to get itself back on track after the collapse
of Rome. Did you know that Rome burned down? AAGH!
The Innoventions booths were just displays for various computer
companies, and you had to pay to play the VR games! Journey Into
Imagination was kind of trippy and weird; I would not have wanted to
be on drugs seeing this ride. The Living Sea was ok, but mainly
because they had a display with live manatees! Cool! They were great;
I watched them for quite a while. The Land boatride was ok, lot's of
biosphere-type agricultural research going on. I liked this ride the
best. I made my way over to the Canadaland area. They ran a
reasonably (I guess) cool 360 degree movie about Canada. Sigh. Since
the rest of the park was all country areas, and it was raining, and I
wanted to see the All-Star game on TV anyway, I decided to leave and
get dinner. One thing: all the Brazilian teenagers in the world were
there. They all were in groups wearing extremely bright identical
tight tee-shirts. They would sing and dance as they went from ride to
ride.
The All-Star Game was very cool. The NL won 8-7 in 10 innings.
July 11 - Made my way up the coast via the beaches and
over to Kissimmee. I cannot believe how many motels there are
here. Lots and lots and miles and miles. Signs in English, Spanish,
Japanese, German. Nice area of the country though.
Route - US 1 to US 192. US 192 West to Kissimmee. Sometimes I went
down Florida A1A instead, but it parallels US 1 most of the way up
the coast.
Drive north approximately on US 1 on way out of town.
July 10 - I went to school at the University of Miami for
one year as a music major. When I finally got out of the room after
lots of sleep, I went down to U of M and looked around. There are a
lot more trees than there used to be, and as a result, the campus
looks a lot better. In addition, they appear to have more money than
they used to, and a lot of things have been remodeled and repainted.
And they have a commuter train station now. A lot better place. The
music school has a new building. My sax teacher is still there, but
being Sunday, was not in his office. I was running out of time, so I
made my way to Joe Robbie Stadium for the Marlins game. Did you know
there are no markings as to where this place is from I-95? I didn't.
Took a little to find, but got there ok. The place is actually nice,
which I was not expecting from a teal-and-orange colored stadium. The
place is primarily a football stadium which provisions for baseball.
Despite that, baseball works ok in it. It is octagonal, so most of
the seats face the field. They blocked off the upper deck with tarps.
They have a large, teal, hand-operated scoreboard which is really
neat. The giant TV is in right, right where the sun shine on it. They
could have put it on the other side. Oh, well. Minor problem. I sat
in the club level. This is unique to this place. The restrooms and
restaurants are enclosed and carpeted, with lounge chairs liberally
distributed throughout. The seat are outside, but like Disney and
AstroWorld, they try to air-condition them anyway. They also have
waiters and food delivered, but you are expected to tip. The parking
lot is weird. They have strips of concrete, which you drive on, and
strips of grass, which you park on. I wondered how many people got
stuck in mud. They did not let me take my video camera inside.
Florida beat Colorado 6-4 when pinch-hitter Mario Diaz hit a
bases-loaded triple.
July 9 - Time to go to Miami. Well, there were floods in
Georgia around Macon, and I-75 was closed. So I had to go around.
Took an awful long time to get to Miami. Was impressed with Florida's
Turnpike, after being on the Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana and the New Jersey turnpikes. The road was in great shape
(they don't get snow, make sense), and the service areas were
unbelievably clean. Anyway, got to Miami about 2:30. The motel I was
staying in was just down the road from Miami International Airport,
and the neighborhood was not the best. It was right by a closed
MacDonald's, and four women dressed in very little with very high
heels and way too much makeup were just getting out of their car and
started walking down the street. Some of the parking lot of the motel
was blocked off, so I had to snake around to get to the lobby and my
room. It was a nice motel despite the people with entirely too loud
stereos going down the street around the place.
Route - I-20 East to US 441. US 441 South to US 319. US 319 South to
Georgia 107. Georgia 107 West to I-75. I-75 South to Florida's
Turnpike. Florida's Turnpike South to Miami.
July 8 - Slept late. Met more of Andrea's cousins. We then went
to the Circuit City to get my stuff installed. The mall that this
particular CC was in was really, really lame. One very bad record
store, one pathetic book store, and nothing much else. Andrea and I
milled around and mostly talked until the stereo was finally
installed. We made our way downtown, and went to the Coca-Cola
Pavilion downtown. A true monument to capitalism. We went to the
Underground, which is a large mall under downtown. Found some food,
and found a better record store. Went to the game. We were running a
little late, but the game was rain-delayed 25 minutes, so I didn't
miss anything. Andrea had got her ticket later, so our seats were far
apart, but she found me later, and we sat together because of
no-shows. It only took two hours for Bob Tewksbery to shut out Greg
Maddux and the Braves as St. Louis won 2-0. (Another note for
baseball fans: Maddux lost four times in 1994. I saw two of them).
Atlanta Fulton County Stadium is going to be replaced for the
Olympics, and that's probably a good thing. It's yet another boring,
circular, multi-purpose stadium. They had a fire there a couple of
years ago. Lightning had struck the satellite dish that received
out-of-town scores, so that scoreboard just sat dark. The colors are
hideous, an awful light blue and a dark red. I don't mind the
tomahawk chop, but they never got it really going for my video. Darn.
Getting out was pretty awful, as downtown Atlanta is a maze and not
designed very well.
July 7 - Time to drive to Atlanta. The drive was pretty
smooth; however, I ran into a snag in Chattanooga. There was a series
of major accidents on Interstate 24 right before the intersection of
Interstate 75. I moved about 3/4 of a mile over about 90 minutes. I
finally got off at a city street, snaked my way downtown, and got
back on the freeway. I got back on the first exit after the major
accident, and they were busy cleaning sand off of the freeway and
righting a semi. I could not figure out why I seemd to be the only
person who got off of the freeway and went through town.
Anyway, finally got to Atlanta. Andrea Terrill had contacted her
cousin Clark and his family, and that is where I was staying. Clark
and Suzan have two kids and a dog, so the house is kind of frenetic
most of the time. The family had just returned from a long trip to
New Orleans, and everybody's nerves were kind of frazzled. Suzan
offered to cook some dinner for me and Andrea, but I thought it would
just be easier on everybody if Andrea and I just went out. We found a
good Italian place, and ate and caught up with life. When we got
back, I was put up on the couch. However, because the kids would be
up at 6, they moved me to the five-year old's bed about then so I
could sleep.
Route - I-64 East to I-57. I-57 South to I-24. I-24 East to I-75.
I-75 South to Atlanta.
July 6 - Called the Acura dealer in town. He said that to
replace the radio/tape player was about an $800 job. So I went to
circuit City instead and got a CD changer, tape player, and replaced
my blown speakers in back (which would have been even more at the
Acura place). However, all of the Circuit City installation centers
in St. Louis were closed on Wednesday. (Why you ask? Why is the sky
blue? Why is the grass green? Why does it cost $800 for the factory
replacement in the first place?) So I stuffed the stuff into my trunk
and made an appointment in Atlanta for the only center that had a
slot available. I also got my oil changed and got my scoresheets
copied at Kinko's (ooh, aah). The Frueh's got home, and we went to
the game. Actually, we went to a brew-pub called the Taproom first.
Nice place, good lager. Evidently, they had real trouble opening
because Anheuser-Busch didn't want them to, and good ol' A-B controls
a lot of St. Louis.
Got to the stadium in time for the starting line-ups. Another
cookie-cutter, circular sixties multi-purpose thing. It does have
little arches over each section in the upper deck, and they each have
a little light under them. Also, the view of downtown and the Gateway
Arch from behind home plate is quite spectacular. When the sun in
shining, the stadium is extremely, overwhelmingly red. They take this
cardinal red stuff seriously. Their caps are so red one has trouble
seeing the edges when framed against the Astroturf. Its hurts the
eyes. This was the first time I got to see the Astros
(GO ASTROS!) on this trip, and I was not disappointed. Houston
won 7-6. Drabek was uncharacteristically rough to start, giving up
five runs. However, Sutcliffe also gave up 5 runs (this was NOT
unexpected), and it was left up to the bullpen. Houston's was better.
Cool. The Frueh's were great hosts, a lot of fun at the ballpark, and
have a great pool. It was nice being able to take a dip at 11 PM,
something not possible in Northern California because it is too cold.
It has been annoyingly hot all summer, however.
July 5 - Drove to St. Louis. On the way, my car radio
became possessed. It would randomly change stations every one or two
seconds, and it thought that there was a tape in the player once when
there wasn't. It did this several times, and I finally had to give up
and turn it off.
Grr.
Got to St. Louis and realized that I hadn't ever called for
directions to Rich Frueh's father's house. What's worse, it didn't
seem that I had the number. Fortunately, Rich's father was listed,
and I got hold of him fine. Arrived, finished watching the
Cardinals-Astros game on TV, and went to bed.
Route - US 41 South to I-55. I-55 South to St. Louis.
July 4 - Found out that the game I was going to in Wrigley
Field had turned into a double-header since a game had been rained
out the last time Colorado had been through. Cool.
Wrigley is the best park in the National League, and I think it's
cool, but there are several parks in the AL that I like better. I
miss the big-screen TV. The park is clean, and has that old park
charm, and the ivy and the buildings across the street with the
people on the rooves are really cool.
The first game went fast, and while was watching it, I was listening
to the USA-Brazil World Cup game in the radio. Too bad about the USA,
but they did great just to get there.
The second game got underway, but in the seventh inning there was a
rain delay. This is when I really miss the big-screen TV. They got
back underway again, and went into extra-innings. There was another
rain delay in the 14th inning, this time sixty-nine minutes. They got
back underway, but they had thrown two pitches when the rain started
again. They played through until the Rockies had scored two in the
top of the fifteenth, and stated the bottom of the 15th, but then
again, they stopped playing. They had another fifty-two minute delay,
and finally, they played out the fifteenth inning. The first game
started at 12:06 PM, the second game was over at 10:15. Longest day
of baseball I have ever been through. Don't think I want that to
happen much to me anymore.
First game score: Chicago 4, Colorado 3 on a two run single by
Derrick May in the bottom of the 9th off of Bruce Ruffin.
Second game score: Colorado 4, Chicago 2, 15 innings, 3 hours plus of
rain delays.
Found my way back home and showed David the videos that I had made so
far.
July 3 - Once again into the maelstrom. Back to Chicago to
pick up the Cubs. I am very tired of Ohio and Indiana and Southeast
Chicago. I thought I would be clever and not get stuck on the torn up
freeways of Chicago, so I took Lakeshore Drive through the city.
Mistake. Chicago was having its Fourth of July fireworks show, and
there were a million and a half people lining the parks and streets
of Lake Michigan. Took quite a while to get through this mess.
Got back to David Raitt's and Valerie Tardiff's place about 8:30.
There was a significant chance that they wouldn't be, but I could use
their apartment anyway. Isn't that cool? Aren't they wonderful
people? But they were indeed home; there were dirty dishes on the
dining table and the day's World Cup results had been written in on
the chart on the fridge. Watched TV until they got back from
Wilmette's fireworks show. Chatted for a while and went to bed.
Route - I-279 North to I-79. I-79 North to US-19. US-19 North to
I-76. I-76 West to I-80. I-80 West to I-80-90. I-80-90 West to I-90.
I-90 West to US 41. US 41 North to Wilmette.
July 2 - John and I went to lunch in an area not unlike
the Village in Houston or downtown Los Gatos or University Village in
Seattle. Lots of little shops with lots of college students running
around. The rest of the afternoon, I took care of some paperwork and
then I went to the game.
Three Rivers Stadium is one of the cookie-cutter, circular stadiums
from the sixties, and it was very familiar. The game was delayed half
an hour by rain, but once it started, it didn't rain any more.
Cincinnati clobbered Pittsburgh 8-1. It wasn't pretty.
Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07020PIT1994.htm
July 1 - Well, if I had looked at the map before I stayed
an extra night in Boston, I would have realized that it is a 12 hour
drive to Pittsburgh. The game started a 7:05. I realized that I
wasn't going to make it early, but I lucked out. This is one place in
my schedule that had an extra day in it anyway, so I decided to just
go to the game on Saturday. Not much to say about this day other than
I drove to Pittsburgh. I do hate the interstates in Pennsylvania;
they are in terrible shape and under construction and have low speed
limits and aggressive cops. Ugh.
Pittsburgh is is a beautiful place; it is situated where two rivers
combine to form the Ohio River, and it is in the valleys of these
rivers that the town lays. There are lots of hills and rivers all
over the place. The view as you go exit the tunnel into downtown is
fantastic.
I found John Greiner's house. He is living with a couple of other CMU
grad students. It's a typical bachelor house; messy but not
unsanitary, lots of college-type furniture, computer in the dining
room, etc. They seem like pretty swell guys, and we watched TV until
everybody went to bed.
Route - I-95 South to I-78. I-78 West to I-76. I-76 West to the I-70
split. I-70 West to I-79. I-79 North to I-279. I-279 North to
Pittsburgh.
June 30 - I decided to stay an extra day in Concord and
drive to the stadium in Pittsburgh. (I found out later that this was
a miscalculation). I went to Walden Pond, which is quite near
Richard's house. I finally met Richard's wife, Kathleen, when she got
home from work. She brought home a man I hadn't seen in 15 years,
Jack Sieber. Jack, Richard and I all went to junior high together,
and we are all now programmers. Jack looks quite a bit different; he
used to look like a red-headed Roy Orbison, now he just looks like
another tall, long-haired programmer-type. We all had good pizza for
dinner, and talked until fairly late.
June 29 - Got up and talked with Leslie some more until it
was time to leave. Drove to the Alewife T station in Concord and took
the T to Fenway Park. I like Fenway. It's nice and cozy, and the
seats all face home. It's kind of strangely shaped, but that is a
characteristic of these old places. The 37' wall in left is really
cool. It was raining all of the way to the T station, but it had
stopped for the game, and everything started on time. Leslie and
Chuck met me at the game.
The Yankees beat Boston 4-3 in ten innings with home runs by Danny
Tartabull and Jim Leyritz of NY. After the game, Leslie, Chuck and I
were walking out of the stadium and were passed by Jim Kaat and Sean
McDonough (I believe that is his name) of ESPN (in their snappy blue
TV jackets) and one of the guys that does SportsCenter. Ooh, ahh. My
brush with fame for the trip.
Leslie, Chuck and I said our goodbyes at the Park St. Station, and I
drove to Richard Wells' house. Richard and I talked to very late. He
and I went to junior high together, and we both went to Rice. We
talked and talked about what each other was doing and about the huge
number of people that we both knew in school.
Route to Concord from Providence - I-95 North to Massachusetts 128.
Massachusetts 128 to Massachusetts 2. Massachusetts 2 to Concord.
Game log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06290BOS1994.htm
June 28 - Got up at 5 to take Anna to the airport, and got
on the road. The Customs guy for the US didn't even ask me my name.
After about two hours on the road, I realized that I still hadn't
really caught up on sleep, so I pulled over in a rest area and slept
for a couple of hours.
Got into Providence about 4 and went to Leslie Baker's house. We
talked for a while, and then Margo Ballou showed up, and soon after,
Leslie's husband, Chuck Halfen got home. Leslie cooked some
spaghetti, and we ate, and talked to all hours of the morning.
Route - Quebec 133 South to Vermont. Quebec 133 becomes I-89. I-89
South to I-93. I-93 South to I-495 around Boston. I-495 South to
I-95. I-95 South to I-195. I-195 East to city streets.
June 27 - Had a wonderful day. We got up and took the Metro
to the Botanical Gardens and Insectarium. We went through Insectarium
quite thoroughly. Neat place. Started by this famous Quebecois
entomologist whose name escapes me now. After that, we walked through
some of the botanical gardens, but it was raining, so we skipped out
before we got through all of it.
We then went to Basilique Notre-Dame, the oldest cathedral in
Montreal. Anna wasn't used to seeing snow scenes or teepees in the
stained glass. The alter has what looks like a miniature cathedral
standing on it with statues of Christ and various saints. Like a lot
of the rest of the artwork, it was very three dimensional. There was
a smaller chapel behind the alter with a really cool cruxifiction
scene on it. I can't really describe it very well though.
We left and walked back to the hotel through Old Montreal, a section
of town that is very much like waterfront towns in Europe. Lots of
closer together brick buildings on brick streets.
After gathering strength and food, we went to the game. Le Stade Olympique is a silly place. They build this place with a retractable
roof. However, the way it retracts is almost unbelievable. The roof
is a large tarp with cables connected to several points. There is a
tower where the cables are connected to a winch, and they retract the
roof by pulling it up to the tower. They had the 76 Olympics here,
but the retractable roof wasn't ready until 1985. What a hack.The
stadium also has many seats which don't face the field at all.
Another bizarre place.
The game was great. Atlanta and Montreal were playing, and Atlanta
came into the game with a 2.5 game lead on Montreal. 45000 people
showed up. It was the largest crowd in six years. Ken Hill faced Greg
Maddux, and the pitching matchup lived up to its billing. It was 2-2
until the eighth, when Montreal scored 5 runs, including a big,
three-rum home run by Cliff Floyd. (Note for baseball fans: this
was Greg Maddux' last loss on the road until early in the 1996
season).
"ONTARIO - LAND-D-D OF-F-F DARKNESS-S-S!!!" (Note
the echoes)
Seems he has never driven across Oklahoma in the daylight, and there
is nothing to see there at night. Ontario is real dull at night also.
They were having fireworks in Sudbury, which was cool. All I remember
about Ottawa was that the freeway was built into a trench that ran
the length of the city, and as a result, nothing in Ottawa was
visible from the freeway. The freeway starts in Ottawa; before that
the road is just a two-lane highway with a 90 km/h speed limit. After
years cursing US Interstates because they are so incredibly dull, I
found myself wishing for one that crossed Ontario. It would have
helped had it not been raining through most of this drive.
The sun started glowing on the horizon through the clouds about
three. It finally came up about 4:45. I crossed into Quebec about
5:00, and reached Dorval airport about 6. I bought a book and read it
to stay awake until Anna arrived.
Anna's plane was on time, and I met her outside the customs gate. We
found our hotel, and checked in. The Queen Elizabeth was great; we
got really good rates for a first-class hotel. We slept most of the
day. We got out that evening, and went walking around. We decided to
go see The Lion King, and then went back and ordered room service.
Good food, not expensive. Did I mention that I liked this hotel?
Route - I-35W North to I-35. I-35 North to US 8. US 8 East to US 2.
US 2 East to Michigan 77. Michigan 77 North to Michigan 28. Michigan
28 East to I-75. I-75 North to Sault-Ste. Marie. Ontario 17 East to
Ontario 417. Ontario 417 becomes Quebec 40. Quebec 40 East to
Montreal.
June 25 - Now it was time for the worst drive. When I
originally planned this trip, I allowed two days to get between
Minneapolis and Montreal, which is reasonable. However, my wife and I
decided that she would meet me in Montreal, and the only way we could
schedule it had her arriving at Dorval airport at 9 AM on June 26.
This meant I had about 25 hours to drive 20. I left St. Paul
about 9 AM. I reached Sault Ste-Marie about 7. Canadian Customs went
through my car completely, and it took forever. They opened every bag
and asked me about 50 questions before they let me through. I got
back on the road to cross Ontario.
June 24 - Got up and wrote status reports while watching
World Cup on TV. Decided to get some Canadian money before the game.
Tried to find the American Express office in downtown St. Paul, but
it was gone, and the phone had been disconnected. Got money from a
bank.
Made my way to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. I call it the
Metrobubble, since the roof is inflatable and held up by air
pressure.
HHH has no parking to itself, so when you park, you get reamed by the
local parking lots. The stadium is an extremely bizarre place. I grew
up with indoor baseball and turf, so that did not bother me. The
stadium is just strange. It's basically a square, and on three sides,
they have normal seats, but in right field, they have retractable
folding layers of football seats, and they cover a lot of them with
this large plastic tarp, what is commonly known as the Hefty bag.
Balls that hit this thing die and fall straight down to the turf.
In addition to the stadium weirdness, it was Minnesota Dairy Night,
and they gave us cheese graters as promotional items. They had Miss
Minnesota Dairy, and all during the game, they were putting factoids
about the Minnesota Dairy industry up on the scoreboard. Sigh.
Minnesota won 4-1 on a well-pitched game by everybody's favorite
retread, Jim Deshaies.
June 23 - Drove to St. Paul from Cincinnati. There is no
good way through or around Chicago right now. I 90-94 through
downtown is being rebuilt, and is a mess. They are working on the
Illinois Tollway (I-294) a lot. So this was kind of aggravating. It
also rained most of the day. While in Ohio and Indiana, I didn't
care, since there is nothing to see anyway, but I like Northern
Illinois and Wisconsin, so I was glad when the rain finally went
away. I also should have checked the map; I could have saved an hour
or two by going up I-90 from Chicago instead of I-94. Oh, well.
Got here about 9.
Route - I-74 West to I-465 in Indianapolis. I-465 North-West to I-65.
I-65 North to I-80-94. I-94 West to I-294. I-294 North to I-94 in
Wisconsin. I-94 West to St. Paul.
June 22 - I got up and drove to Cincinnati. You know, I am
tired of the O. J. Simpson story. I normally enjoy sports talk radio
shows, but that's all they ever talk about. Sigh.
The place I stayed was nice enough, but I don't know about the
neighborhood. I really don't like Cincinnati much. I almost went here
for college, but I'm glad I didn't.
I got to the stadium. This, along with Oakland-Alameda, Veteran's,
Three Rivers, Busch and the Astrodome, is one of the cookie-cutter
circular multi-purpose stadiums built in the sixties or early
seventies. It's better than Milwaukee. However, it's kind of dull.
Both the Bengals and the Reds want a new place to play, but how is
this small place going to pay for it?
However, this place is baseball happy. Lots and lots and lots of red
baseball caps everywhere. Cincinnati is the team to beat currently in
the NL Central, since Houston is doing the usual and getting pummeled
by Colorado. Sigh.
During the game, USA beat Columbia in the World Cup prelims.
Unbelievable. The Rockets played Game 7 tonight, and they were
leading when the game was over.
The game was great. Cincinnati scored once in the first. San
Fransisco answered with a run in the top of the second, but Cincy
scored another in the bottom of the second. Barry Bonds led of the
fourth with a solo home run, and the game was tied. The Reds scored a
run in the bottom of the eight, and brought on the closer, Jeff
Brantley. Matt Williams blasted a home run in the top of the ninth to
tie it again. The bottom of the ninth went like this:
Monteleone pitching. Boone fouled to catcher. Dorsett doubled to
left. Walton ran for Dorsett Howard announced as pinch-hitter for
Brantley. Hickerson came in to pitch. Brumfield hit for Howard.
Brumfield walked. Sanders hit a fly ball to center; Walton went to
third. Beck came in to pitch. Larkin hit a single to right, Walton
scored. Reds won 4-3.
The Rockets weren't on the radio in the car. Grr. Got back to the
room. The local NBC affiliate decided not to broadcast the NBA
finals. Unbelievable. So I found a station on the radio through the
static, and listened to the last minute.
ROCKETS WIN!
Now, you must understand. The concept of a championship to a sport
fan who grew up in Houston is foreign. The Oilers have been to the
playoffs thirteen times, but they have only two very early AFL
championships from 1960 and 1961 to show for it. The Astros have been
to the NLCS twice and played very well, but lost. The Rockets lost
twice to Larry Byrd and the Celtics in the NBA Finals. UH went to the
Final Four and lost. I was honestly expecting the Knicks to open up a
thirty point lead and coast to the win.
But the Rockets won.
WE WIN! WE WIN!
You will have to forgive me.
Route - Michigan 20 East to I-75. I-75 South to Cincinnati.
Game Log - https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B06220CIN1994.htm
I actually have some video clips from the game. They let me take in the camera, and I managed to get this tape digitized.
June 21 - I decided to stay another day here and drive to
Cincinnati and only stay one night. So today, I played clarinet and
bass clarinet with Kennen. It was a struggle to play Kennen's bass
clarinet. He uses much harder reeds, and some of the keys are in
weird places. Still we had a good time. After we got tired, we talked
some more.
Kennen is trying to get a position at a college, so he was extremely
interested in my clarinet choir tapes, as he might have to do one. We
listened to most of them over the time of my visit.
That evening we went to a picnic concert at CMU. The group wasn't
that good, but we had a good time anyway. Kaylee loved it. There was
grass and there were dogs and there were people. It was the solstice,
so the sun was still up when we left at 9. We went back and talked
some more. We then remembered that Kennen had wanted to install
ClarisWorks on his SE, but he only has low density disks. After
working around that problem, we realized that he has System 6.0.1,
and of course, ClarisWorks requires 6.0.4. Sigh. In addition,
FileMaker's About Box crashes. Sigh. Oh, well.
June 20 - Joanna works as a professor of flute at Central
Michigan University. She took me to her studio, loaned me flute and
gave me some pointers. I think she really helped. She gave me some
embouchure pointers, and helped me with some articulation problems I
am having. This was great.
We went back, and I took a nap. We went out for Chinese food, and
went back to the apartment. Kennen and Joanna wanted some video
footage of Kaylee, so we took some. We talked a while and went to
bed.
