Life in the Fast Lane (Not!)

Since I was finally able to upload some photos, I decided to post again. I know I've already bored you with the reunion, and as I said earlier I had departed Ohio in the wee hours of the morning heading for my home town of KC. However I left out a few details. Well, here's the rest of the story:

I left home with the anticipation of a fun filled, relaxing drive, with the top down. That almost happened! About five miles from home I encountered my first sure sign of summer, Orange Barrels! Yep, a detour before the engine had even warmed up! It didn't take long though and I was back up and running at the limit. It was a nice day, the sun was up and the temperature was warm. I was able to cruise with the top down for about 6 hrs, before the clouds had built to a point where I decided it was time to put the top up. I was just outside St. Louis and figured I was at about the 1/2 way point. How wrong can you get?!

St. Louis Sucks! (Sorry Pablo) OK, maybe not the people, or even the city, but the traffic certainly does. I hit construction that detours me onto another road that is under construction, that detours me to a third road, that eventually puts me back onto the first road. By eventually, I mean 2 hours later, and I'm finally on the other side of St. louis!

I had mentioned that I hit a storm. This happened about 2 hours later. Here's a photo that I snapped just before I had to pull over and sit it out!

I eventually did make my destination, 14hrs later, and step out of the car glad to have made it.






My folks live on about 7.5-8 acres, and their neighbor is a turf farmer. It's sort of like living on a golf course, but without the golf balls coming into your yard, or through your windows. Here's a couple of photos so that you can get a feel for the surroundings:















It's peacful and quiet, although every now and then you get these sustained winds of 30-40mph and you're forced to seek the sheltor of the indoors. While hanging out one morning I was able to snap this shot of a humming bird:















For those of you who have kids, you may remember them bringing home a little seedling on Earthday that you are requested to plant. Well at the time our son brought one home, we were living in an apartment and didn't have anywhere to plant it. So, we kept it alive until we could take it to his Grandparents house where we could put it in the ground. Well surprise, it survived! Check out the pine tree in the distance.


Actually it's not much of a surprise! My parents, being the super Grandparents that they are (they were pretty darn good parents too!), protected and nurtured that tree as if it were their Grandson himself.







Speaking of Grandson's, that's one of the main reasons I made this trip! Oh sure, there was the reunion, visiting my parents, visiting friends, and the road trip itself, but come on I've got to be honest I love my grandson!



Little Thunder: "Nice ride Grampa, where we headed?"










I'm pretty much done with the first half of my road trip. I start my trek back home on Saturday morning. I'll be stopping a couple of time along the way, to visit friends and family, and to break up the trip into a couple of shorter drives. If anything interesting happens on the way back home, I'll be sure to let you know (and I'll try to get a photo!).

Just one final note: Today is my birthday, and beleive it our not eventhough I'm out of town on vacation, I have to call in on a phone conference in a few minutes. Oh well, it pays the bills, and funds most of the trips that get the nice photos for most of my posts!

Oh, since it is my birthday take a guess at how old I am!
Here's some clues: I just attended my 30th high school reunion, but I was actually slightly younger than my classmates. I remember watching the first man in space, and going from black and white (actually more like green and white) to color tv.
Good luck and have fun!

30 Years, Where did the time go?

Well, I headed out on the road Thursday morning. Hoping for good weather, leaving Cincinnati for my KC destination, and I wasn't disappointed! The sun was out for about half of my trip, but I hit a pretty good storm about 1/2 way between St. Louis and KC. The winds rocked my little car pretty good, and the rain was so heavy that I was forced to pull over and wait it out. Once it cleared I was back on the road again.

I rested up on Thursday night at my Mom and Dad's and then headed to the hotel on Friday. I knew that we would be out late for the reunion and I didn't want to wake the folks. Plus the events were happening at Westport on Friday and out near Bonner Springs on Saturday, both are about 30-45 min from my folks. I was forced to pack lite due to the limited trunk space, if you can call it that, that the roadster has. I got to the room and pulled my somewhat wrinkled clothes from the bag, and proceeded to get ready for the first night's event.

We were down at a bar/restaurant called Californo's, in Westport. The weather was perfect, and so was the location. We had a pretty good turn out too. Out of the 563 students (549 actual diploma recipients the day of graduation) about 300 showed up. It was fun to see everyone again. So many of the faces were familiar, but not all of the names rang a bell. It was a great evening, and I was able to drop the top for the ride back to the hotel when the night was over.

Saturday night took us to Dave and Busters. This was a huge complex, sort of an adult arcade. We had a few drinks and told a few stories, shared some good laughs too! We got so carried away that I didn't even use my game card. Oh well, we have one in Cincinnati so I'll just have to go there sometime to use it. I was able to snap a few picture of the old gang. I probably knew about 20 of the 500+ students. I'm not going to post any of the photos here, I'll send them on to the reunion committee so they can post them on the official web site. Besides, this is probably boring enough for the rest of you!

Well, I'm back at my Mom and Dad's now and recovered from the celebrations. I'll have some more memories of my friends, and a few new phone numbers to call next time I'm in town. Who knows, maybe we won't wait 30 years to meet up again!

Road Trip

Well it looks like summer is upon us, with the official 1st day coming up this Wednesday. I'm taking a few days off and heading back west to my home town, good old Kansas City. I'm hoping that the weather will cooperate and that I can take the back roads with the top down. It's about a 10 hour drive on the interstate, 12hr if I tke the back roads. I'm not in a hurry, so the back roads it is!

This time I'll actually be able to make it to my high school reunion. It's the 30th one, and I haven't been able to make it back to any of the prior one's. It should be fun to see everyone again, after so long. Unfortunately my wife doesn't have enough vacation time, so I'll be going alone. The traveling will be nice, I don't mind driving by myself and actually kind of enjoy it, but I sure wish she could join me for the get together with my old friends.

I'm sure that the next three days are going to take longer than normal to pass. I'll load up the car on Wednesday evening and be ready to leave at first light on Thursday. I'll have to go through the old check list: Shorts "check", t-shirts "check", tooth brush "check", pictures of the wife, children, and grandson to show off at the reunion "check, check, and double check!".

It should be a good trip. If anything interesting happens along the way, I'll try to capture it and get it out for you to read!

Tropical Depression hits Truman Reservoir

The following story is true. It happened to me about 24 years ago, while I was still a young man and was able to recover. I was inspired to write about it after reading a post about clam farming during an approaching storm by my good friend FC. The event came back to me clear as a bell while reading FC's post!



I had just purchased my new Catalina 22' sail boat, and was anxious to get her into the water and set sail. It was Memorial Day weekend and I was planning to stay on the boat the entire time. I put her into the water early in the morning and set sail. The Catalina is set up so that a single person can sail it, especially with a roller furling on the jib. Of course, mine was on order and hadn't arrived yet. Besides, I knew that my friends were bringing their boat down later and I was going to meet up with them near the dam. So off I sailed, from Sterrit Creek Marina out past the dam, alone!

I had sailed for about three hours, with a fantastic straight line wind and no gusts. That's when I looked to the northwest, and saw the pitch black skies just beyond the tree line on the shore. Now there was nothing in the weather reports that morning, and I was about 5 miles from the trees that the storm was behind, so I thought "Ok, I've got time to get the sails down and motor back in", so that was my plan.

I pointed into the wind, which had calmed somewhat, and lashed the tiller so that I could go up on the forward deck to drop the jib. As I mentioned earlier the roller furling would have been nice right about now! I get to the jib and get it about half way down, when I feel a gust of wind hit. I look up and think: "No way!", the sky above me is black and the storm is upon me! The next gust of wind fills the jib and lifts me about 2 ft off the deck of the boat. I was much thinner and lighter then, I would be used as ballast on a ship nowadays. The wind slacks and I hurriedly race to drop the sail and lash it. Too late, the wind hits again, only stronger. It tries to lift me again, but luckily my foot catches on the forward hatch hinge and holds me to the boat. I always sail barefoot because I use my feet to help hold lines, sort of like an extra pair of hands. Lightnin says I have prehensile toes! However, this gust also fills the main sail and knocks me down. A knock down is when the ship rolls so far to one side that the sail hits the water, something I would have rather not ever see on my 22 footer. I'm holding onto the jib with all of my strength, staring straight at the water and thinking "Well life's been good, but I guess when it's time to go...." when the wind slacks again and the boat rights. I get the jib down and lashed just as the pouring rain starts.

At this point I'm being tossed around like a cork in the lake, but I see a speed boat flying towards me heading back to the marina. I yell to them to grab my bow line and pull me directly into the wind. They understandably look at me like I'm insane, so I quickly explain that the main sail will flutter rather than fill and I would be able to drop and lash it. They do as I ask and I get the sail down and lashed and the toss the line back to me and head in as fast as they could.

I now head back to the cockpit and drop the outboard into the water. I crank on all 4.5 hp of the Johnson, and try to head back to the marina . Now you need to understand that the waves are now more like swell than I have ever seen on a lake so my motor is actually coming out of the water with each crest, and I'm saying to myself "I gotta get a bigger motor!". The wind is now blasting straight out of the North, and I'm getting pelted with rain you know, the big thunderstorm sized drops, but at least the situation is somewhat under control. I'm not moving any closer to the marina, but I'm floating top side up, and staying in one place.

The storm eventually passes and I finally make it back to the marina, where I find my friends under cover waiting for the storm to pass so that they could launch their boat. They help me tie up, help me off of the boat, and then see my foot. "Holy cow, you'd better get that looked at!" one of them said. I looked down at my foot, and for the first time felt the massive pain. The hatch hinge had ripped the skin off of the top of my big toe and had bunched it up against my toe nail. At the time it happened, that was the least of my worries! They also told me that they had let the water patrol know that I was out there and probably was in need of assistance. To which the water patrol officer stated, "There's no way I'm going out there in this. Once it calms down I'll head out!" I remember waving to him on my way back in, as he went past me to see if anyone else still needed help.

I later found out that this freak storm that came out of the Northwest, not the Southwest like normal, was traveling at 60mph and was throwing wind out at over 70mph! I never thought that I'd ever see a tropical storm on Truman Reservoir!

Miltenberg, Bavaria, Deutschland (The missing Post)

Ah, nothing like a nice drive through scenic Bavaria!

Me playing Tour guide: "If you look to your left you'll see vineyards, just below the tree line"
"And if you look to your right,.......What the?!, are we in Georgia? Check out the red clay!"

This was one of the few construction areas that we had to drive through! It really is a nice scenic drive. As usual, the pictures will never do it justice.
















This is Miltenberg! It was so beautiful, nestled between the Main (pronounced Mine) river and the mountains.

grammar Lesson Alert: The suffix -berg, as in Miltenberg, refers to the mountain. -burg, as in Rothenburg, refers to the town.

Miltenberg was a wonderful town, er ah, mountain village!






This was a shot of the bridge crossing the Main, and an excursion vessel passing underneath. That should help to give a bit of scale to the photo.

Even though it was raining off and on that day, it was still fun to walk through the streets and just admire the architecture.





















Of course you didn't think that we could go all day without nourishment. We stopped by the Faust Brewery, for a light snack and some adult refreshment. We all decided the best strategy was to try the sampler of beers. All were good, but I preferred the Dunkle.

Interesting to note that Faust was the first German brewery to expand over to the US. If you search very hard you can still find the original name of their import, but of course it was purchased some years ago by the larger breweries.


Think you know which beer it was, or do you give up?

Schlitz!
That's right, Schlitz beer was actually a product of the Faust Brewery! Their export lager, the original Schlitz, is still on tap at the brewery. It's a good one, and I recommend that you try it to see what American beers used to be, that's of course if you're ever in Miltenberg! They also had some excellent pretzels and Weiss Wurst (white sausage, sort of like a Brat), that went very well with the beers.

Well, I've been back for a couple of weeks now and the jet lag has worn off. Time to get back to tending to my hops so that I can try to brew up some of my own!

If you ever get the chance to tour through Europe, and especially Bavaria, Germany, please take it. I'm sure you'll never forget it!