I apologize in advance, but I don't get along with the LJ Cut technology and as a result I'm gonna picture spam you....


We saw this on the way home yesterday.  It is located in Atlas, Illinois (sah-loot!).  The sign has been there for years and years in pretty much its current condition.  Makes me laugh/smile every time I drive past it.  Needed a photo of it. 





























I think matte finish prints and cheap frames will make this a fine Christmas gift, don't you?  It is, after all, Roadside America.

In a previous post, I mentioned our old friends Neil and Michelle.  Here is a photo of those two fine souls. 





























The Flamingo goodness is in the bag, in case you were interested.  It is still in there even if you're not interested.
The stunning backdrop is the Kroll's East parking lot. 

Another place we visited was Peninsula State Park where the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse is located in all its restored and tended glory.


























































I wish I'd brought the field of vision up and gotten less lawn in the shot.  It really looks wonky this way with the light up top being cut off like it is.  Of course, Elaine is in the picture, so you can't go wrong there.

And finally, just because I like trains. here's a Union Pacific locomotive.  Unfortunately, I can not find what sort of loco this is and I feel dumber than dirt as a result.  Anyone know? 





























This was taken at the Rochelle Railroad Park in Rochelle, Il.  Lots of trains go through there.

We had an absolutely wonderful time.  So many things to see and do, and we are just plain worn out, lemme tell you.  However, that's the thing about vacation, you get home pooped out.  But, it's a good sort of pooped out.

However, there was one fatality on the trip.  Thursday morning my iPhone died.  The bottom half of the touch screen quit working the way it was supposed to.  I could see it just fine, however the little swipe to unlock it would not work.  Nor would it work to answer the phone.  It powered on and off just fine and as a perfect example of a high tech gizmo working well in paperweight mode, it did just fine.  However, I want more than that out of my phone.  So, Dad found an AT&T store, I replaced my iPhone with an iPhone 3G for not a ton of money, they made it work and off we went.  Yay!

More yay on that:  Dad told me he'd heard a story about some guy in New York City who had an iPhone poop out on him.  He didn't want to spend the money to get it fixed (or something like that) so he found another iPhone that didn't work and made one that worked out of the parts of two that didn't.  Sort of like people used to do with Model T's way back when.  My Grandpa Stratton did that, as a matter of fact.  Only in his case, it was three flivvers to make one that ran.  But I ramble...

Dad's story got me to thinking.  Where on earth did they get broken iPhones to cobble together parts and what have you?  I Googled 'broken iphone' and found a place that will not only buy my iPhone that works great in paperweight mode, but will send me packing materials and not charge me postage.  The best part is that if they actually pay the quoted price, I upgraded for free. Yay me!

Other than the phone shooting craps, we found a neat bookstore in Green Bay where I found a book of poetry by Ferlinghetti, and a few A.A. Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner) novels I needed for my collection.  The bookstore is called The Reader's Loft.  It has great atmosphere and two cats that sleep there.  Elaine played with Bailey the cat while I looked at books.  Heck, we waited around for them to total up the books I'd brought in for trade.  I'd taken a box of books to the local book store to trade and they didn't take the westerns.  Not because they didn't want them, but they didn't have anyplace to put them.  I just left the box in the car, so they were with me.  I did okay on that as well.  :-)

Next door to that bookstore was a place that sold, get this, Frou-Frou Vinegar's, Frou-Frou Olive Oil's and TEA!  I bought me some Organic Jasmine Green Tea and these nifty disposable tea bags that I can put my loose tea in and make a cup.  Very spiffy.

We did some other running around and went for gyro's at a new place (I don't know how new, I don't live in West De Pere) near the St. Norbert's College campus.  The restaurant used to be a Subway and is now called something like "Gyro's and Stuff" but I can't remember.  Food was good and service was prompt.  I like what Elaine got and that was a thing called a Vegetarian Cheater's Gyro.  They put just three long strips of gyro meat on an otherwise loaded veggie gryo thingie.  The Greek fries were good, even if we didn't finish all of them.  Dad's wife, Mary just loves gyro's and now they know the place near their home is worth frequenting.  I'm glad of that.

Another thing I found out is that she has taken up the craft of Garage Sales.  I say craft because the idea of just going to buy other people's junk doesn't hold much interest for her, but finding things that are useful to her, for very little money does.  She's pretty good at it, as far as that goes.  I think she bought a power saw for my dad for very cheap.  Cheap is good.

Saturday afternoon, while Dad and I went to the National Railroad Museum, Elaine and Mary went rummage sale-ing.  They really enjoyed themselves.  Dad and I did as well.  Of course, there's just something about the Male Animal and trains...

Thursday evening, Elaine and I got the chance to catch up with a couple of my old friends from when I lived in Green Bay. Neil and Michelle.  I've known the two of them *cough, cough* years and played a small part in their wedding which was *harumph* years ago.  They have a small place up near Sturgeon Bay near Potawatomi State Park.  Neil has told me that there are pink flamingo's all over the place up there.  Leftover's from the previous owner of the small place.  They elected to not only keep them, but they have added to it.

We elected to help them with their American Kitsch by presenting them with a Pink Flamingo Ice Bucket and matching Pink Flamingo (plastic) Goblets.  Complete with Flamingo heads on the rims and feet at the base.  Kitschy is one way of describing them.  Neil laughed out loud, he got a real kick out of them, and Michelle liked them as well.  Seeing them was wonderful.  Best part about my friendship with those two is how they just accepted Elaine and made her comfortable and welcome when she met them *mutter, mutter* years ago for the first time.

Well, we did some other things and I'm sure I'll write about them later.  I just wanted to say how good a trip it was and how much fun we had.  It is also quite good to be home.

 

And my new lid.  Got it at a place called "Hat Head" in Fish Creek, WI.  Pretty clever, no?























Elaine is the pretty one wearing the gold shirt.

We spent some time today in Door County, WI.  Wonderful place.  Everyone should go there at least once.  And if you do, make sure you head to Ephraim, WI (The only dry community in the area...) and head to Wilson's Restaraunt and Ice Cream Parlor.  I got this today:























It was amazing...

That's a waffle cone of Chocolate Peanut Butter Explosion and Maple Nut Ice Cream.

That was dinner. 

Life is good.

I was thinking today about our upcoming trip to the Green Bay area around Labor Day to visit my Olde Man.  We haven't been up to visit them in almost 5 years.  Not because we don't love 'em or nothing, but we've managed to see them here, or elsewhere in the interim.   So, it'll be nice to go and see them.

That got me to thinking about our trip to Toledo over the Memorial Day weekend to visit The Olde Man's Mother, my Grandmother.  Our friends Pat and Sheila went with us.  Pat's back was acting up and he was uncomfortable most of the time, and while he didn't complain, we all knew he was suffering.  Sometimes verbal cue's aren't needed...

On one day of our trip, we left Toledo (and Grandma) and ventured off to Frankenmuth, MI.  It's an old German community, with a strong Bavarian feel to the town.  And one of the places we went in Frankenmuth was Bronner's.  It was Christmas in May at Bronner's.  Of course, it is Christmas at Bronner's year round.  They sell Christmas decorations year round. 

It is an enormous place.  Takes several hours to see most everything and there is a lot to see.  Tons of stuff.  Stuff you will never see at the Gates of Hell (Wally World) or the local mall.  Themes from around the world, trees, Santa's from all over, music, books, lights, and most everything else you can think of and a lot of stuff you can't.

Being a Christmas store, they play Christmas music in the place year round.  I had to laugh as I walked past an employee, wearing her Christmas colored apron and singing along with Brenda Lee.  I told her to "Sing out!"  She blushed and said she couldn't do that, and I told her I had heard her just fine.  I don't believe she realized that she had been singing that loud.

I asked her, "Don't you ever get tired of these songs?  Especially at Christmas time?"  Her answer was, "No.  I guess it takes a special type to work here year round."  And I would agree.   After some more looking around, picking out a few new baubles for the tree, we left.  And left the magic and wonder of Christmas to Memorial Day just by walking through a door.  It was kind of an odd experience.

After Bronner's, we ambled off to Zehnder's of Frankenmuth for lunch.  Fried Chicken is what they are famous for and for good reason.  It's not a heavy, crunchy crust ala The Colonel, but more a seasoned (and salty) flour batter that was more of a coating than a crust.  The other item that Zehnder's is well known for is Mother's Dressing, served with the aforementioned fried chicken.  Fabulous stuff and the prices weren't bad.  As big as Bronner's is, they need places as large as Zehnder's. They serve over a million plates of food annually.  Not bad for a small town joint.

Pat has had his back operated on and is already feeling better.  Still recovering, but doing a whole heap better.  For which I am grateful.  Next is Elaine who should be getting her back worked on sometime in the next few months...

OMG!!! We are having a great time. Wish all of you were here!!! See you soon!

Back from our trip soon.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

It's quiet around the house.  The cats are dozing, which isn't unusual.  They do that a lot these days.  The night before a trip here is always quiet.  The bags are mostly packed, the to-do list is on constant repeat because something always pops up (Damn!  need toothpaste!), most of the "stuff" is in the car, and Elaine is asleep.  Or trying to...

And I sit and wonder what tomorrow will bring.  An all day drive, trying to remember distances/time between familiar landmarks.  Yet, not familiar enough that I can recall with clarity how long it takes to get from one place to the next.  And the idea of "cheating" and looking at Google Maps just somehow...feels...wrong. 

Just miles and miles and miles of U.S. Interstate Highways...

I remember traveling when I was younger and taking more 2 lane highways...there was so much more to see.  Took longer, but it seemed the trip went faster.

Anyway, we're off tomorrow for a few days.  And the house is quiet.  And I can't forget the toothpaste...

Regular readers will recall that last July, I had the pleasure of regaling you with the first, epic, TITANIC meeting between Baseball Boy (that would be me) and Dr. Botany and his loyal sidekick, The Sprout.  (If you haven't read about this Marvel-ous Event, I suggest you do so....)

Tom Lammers and his Undergraduate Intern something or other, Laura K. are in St. Louis, MO again, hanging out at the Missouri Botanical Gardens doing research, labelling, indexing, indentifying and other nefarious and scientific plant type stuff.   Given the close proximity of St. Louis and Central Missouri, Dr. Botany and The Sprout traveled here for a visit.  

We visited for a couple of hours, talking about plant stuff, travel stuff, comic stuff, painting stuff, and stuff stuff.  Turns out The Sprout has a neat part time gig being a corpse for Murder Parties.  Gets paid, fed and bumped off.  Only to rise again.  That probably explains why she loves Zombie Movies so much.  She identifies with them.

As an added bonus, Friend Eric came from Kansas City to join in the festivities.  Thus, we had three members in good standing of the oft-mentioned KirbyKomics Yahoo Group (and it's a bunch of Yahoo's in the group, lemme tell ya!).  I dunno if it counts as an official meeting or anything, but it sure as heck was fun.

After talking about all the "stuff" and making silly and funny remarks about our 17 pound cat (poor, Stoopid Polly), we loaded up in the Baseball-Mobile (or Mini-van, whatever suits you) and headed to HuHot for lunch.  Elaine went in her car as she had errands to run after lunch.  It was going on 2:00 pm (in the afternoon even!) and the place was pretty well packed.  After a short wait, we hit the line, hit it hard and enjoyed.  Mongolian Grill is so much fun, and so tasty....

After we bid Elaine adieu (sniff), we again piled into the Battle Wagon and headed to the Capital of the State of Missouri (Jefferson City) to The Antiquarium.  It's a comic shop and used book store that is one of those really neat, offbeat whacky places everyone should visit if given the chance.  Everybody except Eric bought something to read.  Tom went in looking for comics that he was looking for and found old Science books and such.  We spent close to an hour just looking around and talking with the owner.

After that, we headed to another landmark in Jeff City and that's Central Dairy.  It's an old ice cream parlor.  Green porcelain covered cinder blocks, wooden booths and more ice cream flavors than you can shake a dipper at.  The beauty of the place is that Central Dairy doesn't run this place to turn a huge profit.  A pint container of handipped ice cream is around $3 or so.  It's like 4 scoops of whatever you want.  Me?  I get strawberry cheesecake on the bottom and top it off with chocolate.  Woo Hoo! 

As it is never really too cold for ice cream, this seemed like the thing to do.  Even with the time that Eric had spent in Columbia, he'd never been to Central Dairy, so that was a treat for him as well.  Tom and Laura enjoyed it, and I always do.

Silliness aside, it was a terrific afternoon spent yakking about silly things that we all enjoy.  I look forward to more such fun adventures!

I like to eat.  Take a look at any picture of me taken in the past 15 years and you'll notice that my waist has been expanding.  Food is something I enjoy.  A lot.  Probably too much, to be honest...

We returned from a trip to Canada to see family and to attend the installation service of my cousin, the Reverend Robert Bugbee,  as President of the Lutheran Church of Canada this past Sunday.  I'll write more about that later.

Right now, I wanna talk about food.  Food I ate whilst I was gone away from home and the comforts of said home stomping grounds.  I tried many new things, including Rouladen, Curried Goat and Wiener schnitzel (and no, they weren't using Schnauzer...).  I would not hesitate to eat any of them again.  My aunt fixed up the Rouladen and used us as guinea pigs.  I'll be her culinary Guinea Pig any ol' day...

That is a picture of my wonderful Aunt Vi, and her Rouladen.  Needless to say, we had a marvelous meal.  Another surprise was her cooked carrots.  I've never liked cooked carrots, as I've always  preferred them raw.  However, she did something sneaky good with them, such as cooking them in chicken broth with a touch of sugar.  Yum.  Gotta try that at home.  Actually, gonna try that at home...

As good as the meal was, being able to sit down to dinner with my Aunt, her husband, my Dad and his wife, Grandma Stratton and my own wonderful wife, that was the best.  Hands down, the best.  Even though I've managed at various points in my life to do my darndest to mess up my family relationships, that they still love and forgive me is amazing. 

The night before we had this marvelous dining experience, three of us (Grandma, Elaine and I) trundled off to Al Smith's in Toledo.  I like the place as the food is basic, and always good.  But they have this desert that is simply to die for.  I mean, it is that good.  I shied away from bread pudding for years because the crap they labled as such in the school cafeteria was of the consistency of rubber and were I ever to actually try to eat road kill, I'm fairly certain that this is what it would taste like.  Al Smith's Bread Pudding is something altogether different.  It requires a small dinner in front of it, because they serve it to you in a soup bowl.  Or a salad bowl, or a bowl large enough to go swimming in.  As you can see from the photo, it's ginourmously huge.
I mean, we're not talking any wimpy serving sizes here now are we kids?  No sirree, this is desert for the healthy appettite.  And I do believe they slip some actual whiskey in the sauce that is drizzled (poured?) over it.  All I know is that when I'm done, I have this warm glow...and want to take a nap.
And the other noteworthy culinary adventure entailed trying out a new fast food place on the way up north.  This stop in Indiana was at a place called Skyline Chili.  I'd seen the signs, heard some comments from I forget where, so decided with the consent of my wife, to give it a whirl.  While I enjoyed the food, I thought it was rather expensive and not worth a return visit.  However, I did note that they used a LOT of cheese on the items I ordered.  Which was a Chili 4 Way (on the left) and Coney's (on the other left).  There really is food under the cheese.  One last note about Skyline Chili...if the waitress offers you a bib?  Take one and use it....

























So, I like food.  Thanks to my sister, I have developed a liking for taking pictures of my food.  I try not to wear my food, but sometimes it happens.

Oh yeah, never forget to Try the Veal!

The recent trip to New York brought some things to mind I'd never really thought about.  In no particular order, these are some of notions that crossed not only my mind, but my wife's as well.

• Could easily give up driving.  Mass Transit in NYC is amazing.
• Did we see the "real" New York" or just the touristy part?  How to see the NYC that New Yorkers see?
• So much walking
• Egg Creams are no big deal.
• Onions in tomato sauce?  On a hot dog?  Don't knock it till you try it
• Everyone needs to try a knish.  They are potato-ee love
• A Halal food vendor taught me to say "Hurry" in Arabic.  I promptly forget it
• We were told not to look up, or we'd be branded as tourists.  How could we not? So many beautiful buildings.  I guess you get so accustomed to seeing them, they become commonplace.
• Too many buildings with scaffolding around them or in them.

The hurry scurry pace seemed to be less than I'd been lead to believe.  It didn't seem as chaotic or as overwhelming as I would have expected.  As I said earlier, I felt comfortable there in ways I never have here.  Maybe it's the ability to disappear in a sea of people.  To be above it all at the top of the Empire State Building and yet as inconsequential to those on the street as they are to people up there.

Going to Central Park was something wonderful.  As many people as there were there, still the place exuded peace.   We watched a bit of a league softball game on one of the diamonds.  Very relaxing.  Plenty of people just lolling in the grass, or the sun.  Young ladies in bikini's sunbathing, with young men trying hard to look like they aren't looking.  Right in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world. 

The wall that separates people, that they put up in order to not become inundated with everything around them, comes down quickly when spoken to.  We talked to all sorts of people on the subway.  In fact, we were only blown off once in five days.  I asked a guy in a security guard uniform if he could answer a question.  He didn't stop walking as he said, "I don't know anything.  It's how I stay alive" grinned like a jackal and kept on walking.  We just laughed at his idiocy.

Once, we were lost in Brooklyn.  Well, we knew where we were, but not how to get back to Manhattan other than walking back across the Brooklyn Bridge, or the Manhattan Bridge.  We wanted a subway station is what we wanted.  We'd already walked to Brooklyn and walking back didn't suit our tired legs, or blistered feet.  So, I asked this guy whose job was to sit at the end of a driveway and watch people drive past which way to the subway.  He spoke not one word of conversational English.  Still, he recognized subway.  So, he smiled (and he had a terrific smile), said "Subway" and pointed in the direction of a building on the other side of several others.  I nodded, said "thanks" and we headed off in that general direction.  We had little confidence that we would actually find anything, but by golly there was a seedy subway station.  We went down into the bowels of Brooklyn, decided which train we needed to take and made it back to Manhattan.  Actually, we ended up at Grand Central Station (where I took a picture of the sign to Track 29.  If you have to ask, you are too young...) and eventually to where we wanted to go.  Which, as I recall, was someplace to eat.

I've got scads of pictures.  I took close to 500 photos.  Digital Photography is a wonderful thing.  This is the only photo I've actually uploaded anywhere.


I hope to upload some more in the coming days, just to show some of the interesting things we saw.

Rain.  Last Thursday, as it has so many days this year, it rained.  Loading a car for vacation in the rain is a new experience for me.  Now that I've done it, I don't care to do it again.  I'm not one much for seeing omens in things, so the rain was a mere annoyance.  However, coupled with the slow service at the bank, it could have been seen as a warning of sorts.  The poor schlub at the bank, I sort of felt sorry for him.  He didn't know how to do things like load a gift card, and when he found the procedure instructions, they'd been changed again.  If I hadn't been in a hurry, it would have been amusing.

With the rain, and the delay at the bank, we were in danger of being late to the airport.  That's a 2 hour drive (at least) from our place, and Kansas City International Airport is out in the middle of nowhere.  And I never quite remember how to get there, so that added to the stress level.   Upon arrival, leaving the car in long term parking and getting checked in, we found out that the plane was delayed about an hour so the rushing around was all for naught.  To make matters scarier, we misheard an announcement that "our" flight was delayed for another 2 hours.  Turned out to be a false alarm, which was refreshing.  Before this turns into a step by slogging step account of our recent trip, I only mention these events to illustrate how things can start out in less than stellar fashion and rapidly rise from there.

So, we did a lot of walking in New York.  Our first night there, I ended up with a couple of blisters.  Probably more a function of worn out socks (they ended up getting tossed) and shoes not being tight enough more than anything else.  Still, it made walking the next day a little trickier.  We stayed in an older hotel that had pretty small rooms, nice sized private bath, that was located right off 5th Avenue.  We were 6 blocks from the Empire State Building in one direction and just a few blocks from the Flatiron Building in the other.  Nicely located for most everything we wanted to do.

Rather than go over each one individually today, I'll just leave you with some of my impressions of the city.  Such as the mix of smells.  They ranged from aftershave to exhaust, to perfume trails and sex, food from vendors and garbage piled on the sidewalk waiting for collection.  The smells of culture were everywhere, and you could experience them just be walking.  It was interesting to me to watch people congregating on the sidewalk, outside of a small pub or club, drinks in hand, with piles of trash nearby studiously being ignored and accepted as part of the landscape.  The things you get used to, I suppose.

I've got to say that New Yorkers get a bad rap.  Seriously.  By and large, everyone we met from the city was unfailingly polite, very helpful and downright nice.  We needed help on the subway?  We got it.  We needed directions somewhere?  Not a problem.  Even the fans at both NY ballparks were pleasant to talk to and joke with.  The cranky, jaded, cynical New Yorker would probably be known as the town crank in a smaller town, patted on his head and sent on his way.  People are people pretty much wherever you go, in my experience.

Lombardi's for pizza; ESPNZone for sports food and a terrific waitress; the Lexington Candy Shop Luncheonette for awful service and an egg cream; Big Daddy's Diner for expensive diner food and wonderful service (free refills!); Halal Food from a street vendor who taught me how to say "Hurry" in Arabic, which I promptly forgot within 3 blocks; hot dogs in Central Park; Brooklyn Bagel Cafe on 5th Avenue for breakfast twice; and on and on. 

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge; The Metropolitation Museum of Art; Central Park; a boat ride in the East River to see the Waterfalls of New York City; The Empire State Building, Yankees Stadium; Times Square; Shea Stadium; walking up Park Avenue; St. Patrick's Cathredral and so many other things that we saw and did.  An amazing trip for a couple of Mid-Westerners.

It was easy for me to see why people love New York.  There was a sense of life and vitatlity that I've not felt elsewhere (sorry Chicago) and there really is always something to do.  That's why I am so bone tired.  We tried to do as many of those things as we could in a short time.  We can't wait to go back.

The best part was being with my wife, pretty much alone for the entire time.  It was a great vacation for the two of us.