5/31- A Ride With Stacey

Stacey was all smiles as she rolled up to grab us, with Lucy, her dog, rustling about in the back seat. Freshly fed from the diner we loaded up and set off down Route 23 toward Delta, Ohio where Todd's sister, Shelly lived. Stace had taken Saturday off as well in anticipation of the trip, and set up to have one more day off on the return end of the trip to recoup at her house. As far as we were concerned we had until Monday night to get there, Tuesday morning at the latest.

I was most excited about the beginning part of this trek. It turned out that Route 23 that we were leaving out of Hillsdale on went straight into Oneonta, NY, the town in which I was born in. It seemed incredibly fitting on this backtracking through my past that the last brief stop over on the way west would be in the town I spent my first year alive. It put a nice bow, as Todd would say, on the way I had rolled back in time by the way I had ended up doing all my re-visiting; from Bill and Laura in DC who were post-college friends, to New York and those SVA years stomping grounds, on up to Mass where my developing years were spent from 1 until 18.

Stacey refused to drive on interstates citing the beauty it neglects, and we were 100% in agreement with her. Navigating 23 we passed through some tragically beautiful towns, like Hudson, NY with their boarded up 1920's era buildings, and crossing over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge over the Hudson River to a mountainside restaurant off the Catskills boasting a five state view on a clear day. Not long after dark we came upon the town sign entering Oneonta. Literally as we were passing the sign my Mom called.

It was perfect timing. Since we'd moved away from that town when I was only 16 months old my knowledge of its layout was limited. We often visited over the following few years, so I knew it somewhat, but even that came to a close by the time I was about 8. I hadn't been back since then. Everything, once we navigated our way to downtown, still held an abstract familiarity that conjured up long dormant memories from that time.

Mom guided us to our first stop, Fox Hospital. The big claim to fame there was that Paul Reubens was born there, aka Pee Wee Herman. I sputtered that one out to Todd and Stacey along with the notion that I hadn't stood in that parking lot in, most likely, 33 years, a month, and ten days. Being raised Christian Scientists, I doubt I would have returned before then. It was also the same parking lot that my pregnant mother sat in the car at 11:30pm on the night of the 19th while my Dad tried soothing her with hymns because she insisted on not going in the hospital until midnight so they didn't get charged for two days. I was born around 4am on the 20th, which she remembers because not long afterward she watched the sun rise. Awww.

From there we drove down Main St. passing through the old buildings that still stood. It reminded me of the town in Its A Wonderful Life, with George Bailey running around after Mr. Potter. I wanted to see the first house I lived in, but had no clue as to where it was. I was hoping something would stand out to me and jog my memory, but we got to the other side with no luck. Todd and Stacey needed a grocery store, so while they went in to one by the highway I called my Mom back and finally got a good chat in with her along with directions to the old house. After about forty-five minutes we were back in the car trying it again, this time with success.

Driving up Chestnut St. we passed my old church that looked like it was probably exactly the same, but looked completely different. Passed the old theatre I saw Adventures in Babysitting at, and on up by Hartwick College where my parents went to college and met. Soon we were turning down this tiny little side lane looking at the first house I ever lived in. The beginning of my 34 dwellings in life. I got a picture of that, and one of the street sign, then made our way out of town.

Not long after leaving town we happened across another really funky experience. Off the side of the road was a fully functioning drive through theatre playing the new Star Trek. All of us got all excited, and Stacey declared she'd never even seen a drive through before, much less been to one. That sealed it, we U-turned about and pulled in for the show. Everything was dark, and no one came up to us as we entered so we couldn't figure out if we were supposed to pay or not. After some half assed looking about, we were easily convinced that they were no longer charging so we found a spot to park at and dialed into the audio for the show. We'd only missed about fifteen minutes as well, so we had lucked out completely for a really cool treat.

Once the show was done it was about 1am. We'd never really figured out what the camping arrangement was going to be, but we had always figured that Todd and I would likely be much more awake than Stacey since she'd have woken up earlier in theory, so we'd planned that one of us would take over driving while she slept for a bit. I slid into driver mode and Stace conked out in the back. It was dark anyway as well, so we figured we'd cover some ground on the interstate to give us more back road dilly dallying time Sunday.

What ended up happening was that I drove about an hour and a half to Elmira, NY on the Interstate then turned off again to make for some nice back country scenery through Pennsylvania the next day. It was about 3am by the time we got into Penn down that nice back road we'd spotted on the map and I pulled in to a fishing pull off figuring that would be a nice suitable place to sleep. Stacey had woken up by then, and I wasn't tired by any stretch, so as we started pulling out packs to make up a little camp we all slowly concluded that we didn't really want to stop driving then. The sunrise wasn't too far ahead of us and that would be sort of nice to see, and there was a park a little ways further down the road the might be nice to camp out at.

We all piled back in and I kept on driving. Todd and Stacey rotated spots, so now she sat up front keeping me company and Todd sacked out in the back with Lucy. It was nice to get some one on one time with Stace. As we drove over the rolling hills, and pastures started opening up under the dawning sky, we had more time to really catch up on what each other were like these days contrasting them to the days we knew each other before. After a couple hours we were treated to a beautiful sunrise emerging between the Poconos behind us.

Allegheny State Park was the park we'd been eyeballing before as a place to stay at. A little after 7am we reached that area and Todd began rousing for coffee from the back seat. Pulling into a gas station on the eastern edge of the park we oriented ourselves and found out a bit about the camping costs and arrangements within its boundaries, then loaded up on snacks and coffee before heading in. We ended up landing ourselves by a lake for breakfast by quarter to 8. Stacey had wisely brought some cantaloupe which she split with us while Lucy sprinted from one patch of grass to the next sniffing everything.

Stacey took over driving from there again and I took my turn in the back nodding off against the window. I don't know that I ever fully fell asleep, but it was one of those hazy half lidded gazes over the passing scenery out the window as we sped to the Ohio border. Right on the border was a church we pulled into and took an hour spreading ourselves out on its front lawn. I was awake after that as we made our way toward Cleveland.

The church brought about another Chinese Firedrill as I switched to the front seat, Todd took over driving, and Stacey returned to the back. She really wanted to see Lake Eerie, or the ocean as she called it, so we made our way slightly north to Ashtabula and spent some time exploring the town and beach there. Cleveland followed, and on to the Toledo area which was our ultimate destination.

Delta is one of those towns with probably less than ten streets in it, and only one main one, about 20 miles west of Toledo. As previously mentioned this was where Todd's new found sister, Shelly, lived, whom we'd be staying with, but I had a few destinations of my own for the area. My good friend Ang back in Denver grew up east of Toledo in a town called Curtis that I still can't find on a map, and to my shock another friend, Loreli, who I've mentioned a few times here, also grew up by Toledo. She had called as well when we were going through Oneonta asking about where I was and what I was doing and it turns out she's not only from the Toledo area as well, but from right there in that minute little town of Delta. Strange odds on that one.

This Ohio/Michigan trip, however, I viewed as Todd's end of the "life" tour we were doing. Mine obviously being the East Coast that he'd just endured, I figured I'd ride along for his end and if it worked out to see either of those spots for Ang and Loreli I would arrange it then. Either way, a lot showed up on our horizon as we finished our trek west and passed into the land of Toledo that evening. I had found my way back into the driver's seat by the time we pulled into Shelly's driveway around 6:30pm.

It was interesting to witness the first physical meeting of a brother and sister. Todd handed me his camera telling me to act as photographer for the event, something I really don't want the responsibility for, and so with subtle fanfare they met and had their first hug. I snapped a picture of that and one of them together then quickly gave the camera back to Todd, keenly aware that he snaps of far more pictures than I tend to, and that I as long as I held both cameras I was subject to accusation of missing a good moment. Not for me.

Stacey and I had a good parting hug as well. She had decided not to stay the night, but to trek back to upstate New York where she'd found a retreat she wanted a whole day at. This would allow her to have a leisurely return on her own as well, rather than being pressed into highways from a time crunch. With another hug goodbye she drove off her and Lucy, and Todd and I were welcomed into his sister, Shelly's, house.

Click here for Todd's perspective.