Under the Boardwalk..........

Travelling without a car is such a luxury in the NYC metropolitan region. Leaving Brooklyn on Thursday at around 12:30PM (I had breakfast with Peter and then went back to his place to read the paper while he went off to work) and walked four blocks to the subway station. I waited five minutes for a 2/3 train which took me directly to Penn Station. A $10.05 (why the extra nickel??) NJ Transit train ticket and a wait of 15 minutes, I was on my way back to my beloved state of New Jersey. An hour later, Jim J (a former Lville colleague) picked me up at the newly finished Hamilton train station and I was at my destination. Total travel time? Two and a half hours. Much better than the Baltimore to Washington journey of earlier in the week.

Jim and I played golf at the Lville course. Now you have to realize that one of the foundation of my friendship with Jim is sports and gambling. Since we are fairly even in golfing ability, the game was to beat the other person on a hole so the loser had to carry the golf bag on the next hole. This theme will continue. I will report that I was off my game (I carried on 6 holes) and had some bad luck (none of the six holes were par 3's).

That evening, I went to my dear friend Tim A. home (he's traded up homes since I last saw him here in NJ in 1998) where I had dinner with his friends Elvin and Patrick. Tim and I have a history and he always makes me laugh. I slept at Tim's house.

In the morning, I went to visit another friend in Doylestown, PA. I tried being smart and taking the back roads from Princeton to Doylestown but ended up getting lost a couple of times and the actual distance between the two places is much farther than I though.

The afternoon was spent "down the shore" as Jim and I fed our gambling itches and went to Atlantic City. We arrived around 2PM, played Spanish 21 (a alternative form of Blackjack) and I won money immediately. Unfortunately, if I win money to quick, the itch to play has not been fully dealt with so I continue to play. Alas, by the time Jim and I walked away, I was only up $25, having at one point been up at least $150. I started with $100.

Jim and I then went down to the beach, stuck our feet in the sand and also waded in the Atlantic Ocean. The New Jersey shore is gorgeous and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise. Jim and I returned to the tables for a second round of Spanish 21. We gave ourselves a time limit and when we walked away, Jim won $5 and I won $55. Not too shabby.

On the way home, Jim and I continued our betting ways but making proposition bets. An example, would the next car that passed us be driven by a male or a female? Will the next overpass have a street name that begun with the letter A-L or M-Z. You get the picture.

I HEART New York

If you ask me to try and describe NYC, my personally held stereotype of this city is one of being overcrowded, unmanagably large and overwhelming. But everytime I come here, these adjectives are completely dispelled. The city is completely walkable, the overwhelming aspect is actually a chance for discovery and there are all these nooks and crannies of privacy and quiet in the city that appear seemingly out of no where.

Transportation in and out of the city, is also quite easy. I took the train up from DC and it took three hours and dropped me off right in Manhattan at Penn Station. From there, I took a cab up to 61st and Madison to have lunch with my dear friend Jennifer C.

Insert picture of Ernie and Jennifer here (it is MIA because my camera is testing my will and not focusing, instead giving me pictures of blobs the resemble my friends and I)

I'll be giving you a meal by meal description of my two days in NYC. Jennifer and I had sushi at a restaurant in Midtown. Jennifer and I met 14 (yes 14) summers ago on the famed "Love Boat". Afterwards, I went to her office to hang with her and met a person who works in her office that at one time worked for Enron. I got one of his cards, it might be worth something on Ebay someday.

I spent the afternoon in midtown and down in the West Village. I then met up with a former Lawrenceville student, Marta HB.

Insert picture of Marta here

She is starting her masters at NYU and has just moved into a great little place on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village. We walked over to the East Village to Little India (East 6th Street, thank you Nora B) for food. Marta is a "starving" graduate student and so I felt like a Dad taking his little girl out to eat. On our way home, I channelled Sue Chen, as I saw some discarded chairs on the sidewalk and picked them up and brought them to Marta's apartment for the entire collection of Marta's furniture is an air mattress.

This morning, Marta and I walked out into the Village looking for something to eat. The great thing about NYC is that even though we really didn't know what we wanted, we knew that if we pointed ourselved in the right direction, we would find something. And there it was, Tartine, a French Bakery, and there was breakfast.

Marta and I went our separate ways and I met up with Jose (the missing member of the Sex and the City group I am friends with). Jose moved to NYC back in April and is loving it, and making the requisite adjustments. Lunch was eaten at a small hole in the wall Cuban restaurant on 8th Avenue. Remember, conversation topics between SATC members is to remain amongst members, but let's just say some dishing was going ON. Afterwards, Jose and I talked our way into getting a tour at the new Chelsea Piers gym by claiming we were transplants to NYC and were looking for a gym. I think the woman who gave us the tour say through our rouse. Afterwards, we walked along the Hudson River and watched the "scenery" go by and sat along the benches. The entire day has been done on foot, no wheeled transportation as of yet. I think this is why I don't really see many obese people in NYC, everyone walks.

Right now, I am on Canal Street, awaiting my friend Ian M. who is going to take me to his favorite Vietnamese Restaurant. Following dinner, I will trek to Brooklyn Heights and stay with my Cornell friend Peter S.

Granted, I am seeing friends back to back to back and therefore being entertained constantly, but the city itself is invigorating and fascinating. I heart NYC..........

Movie, Museum and Food

What other way is there to spend an afternoon with friends in DC? After arising on this national day off, we dined on blueberry muffins (whipped up easily as only Leah can do) continuing the fresh blueberry theme of the weekend. Soon the dishes were done and a plan for the afternoon was concocted. My friend Charles E., a one-of-a kind sort himself, joined us.

Leah and Rich (alas, no Charles and yes, still having camera issues

Stop 1 was an afternoon matinee to see Napoleon Dynamite. I must qualify that this movie was reviewed favorably on NPR so I take full responsibility for selecting this flick. Perhaps one of my three mates liked the film, but I again agreed with Roger Ebert and gave it a low mark. I think there is an element of me being so trained by the structure of a movie that I expect there to be an introduction and some event to happen to send the movie into its main plot line. Here in Napoleon Dynamite, I just kept waiting for something to happen, and it never did. One thing, however, is that there were so many memorable scenes in the movie that I, and the other three, kept bringing up that it must have affected me in some way. This is NOT a traditional movie, but I think it might become one of those cult classics.

After the movie, we moved down to Chinatown and had a late lunch at Full Kee. This was a full meeting of math club. Of course you know I am a member. Charles is a founding member of Math Club. Rich is a lawyer who majored in Math and Leah used to teach Math with me at Lawrenceville and has a PHD in Statistics. You know we talked Math, most importantly the Central Limit Theorem. I have to admit that the three of them nailed me on my decision NOT to see Fahrenheit 911. Charles hypothesizes that I am doing it for contrarian reasons. Leah says I'm succumbing to "willful naievete". It hits home, so I will not yet go on record in this blog with my "supposed reasons". This is to be continued.

The last stop of the day (minus Charles) was a trip to the International Spy Museum. For those of you who visit or live in the DC area, it's an interesting place, but ultimately kind of disappointing. First off, skip the special exhibit on terrorism. It's kitchy and lame. As for the main museum area, it starts off with SO much potential. There is this place where you take on an identity and you think you are going to follow this theme through the entire museum. After the first room, it gets completely dropped. As for the rest of the museum, there are some great things, but also some information overload. The museum is worth a visit, but not something to build the day around if you are visiting.

Lastly, I've always said the DC Metro and the BART are essentially the same. Rich has helped me change my mind on that. BART brings people from around the Bay Area into SF and dumps them there. Here in DC, the Metro goes to most parts of the city and you can hop on and off easily within the district itself. DC's Metro is much better designed than BART.

A DC 4th of July

Fireworks over the mall

Homemade blueberry pie for dessert made with freshly picked blueberries

CP: New industry term......."BLOGGABLE MOMENT"

Unbelievable!!!! Simply Unbelievable!!!

I am not a man to use exclamation points, but if you read this entry, you will understand the reason for the excessive use of exclamation points I used in the title. Ok, here goes....

After leaving Boston, I drove to Lawrenceville to meet up and stay the night with my friend Jim. On Sunday the 4th of July, he and I got up early and swam with his swim team in Philadelphia at a long course outdoor pool. Except for the green color of the water and the excessive amounts of chlorine, it was a refreshing swim.

After lunch, Jim and I drove to suburban Baltimore to pick up Raymonde and Erin, two former Lawrenceville teachers, and then drive to DC to see the fireworks. Due to various circumstances, Ray, Erin and Jim decided to stay in Baltimore instead of trekking to DC. During our conversation, I mentioned that my car was in South Bend being fixed. It turns out that Erin and Ray will be in South Bend next weekend to visit Erin's parents. I was planning on driving to South Bend on Sunday July 11th and staying in the motel 6 that night and waiting it out. Now, it looks like I will be dining with Erin's family and having people I know to hang with in South Bend. Unbelievable #1.

But it gets SO much more unbelievable. Because the three were not going to DC, they drove me to Baltimore's Penn Station so I could catch a train to DC. I got on the AMTRAK and it should have taken me about an hour to get to Washington's Union Station and then from there I would get to my friends' Leah and Rich's apartment to watch the fireworks from the roof of their building. All great plans go awry. The train gets to it's first stop, the BWI rail station. We sat there for five minutes and then the conductor told us that due to a substation power outage down the line it would be at least two hours until the train would start moving. WHAAATTTTT!!!

The train riders, including me, all poured off the train and started forming groups to share cabs to different points in the DC metro area. I got into a group but then things start to get weird with this pushy guy and I kind of moved away from that group and got into my zen mode again and thought to myself "it will all work out." Unfortunately, there are NO cabs at the rail station. Instead, we had to get on the shuttle bus to take us to the airport itself and from there we would catch cabs.

At the airport, as we are all getting off the bus, I look over and see

My friend Nora B. 
Yes, it is Nora, my friend who lives in the DC area. She was on my same train coming down from New York City. We hugged and I learned that she had called her boyfriend and he was coming up from Virginia to pick her up. It was decided that they would drop me off at a metro station and I would continue my journey from there. It was going to take Matt, her boyfriend at least an hour to get to us, so we got something to eat and caught up on our lives in the year since I've seen her.

Unbelievable!!!! If the train had not stopped, I would never have known that a dear college friend of mine was on the same train I was on. Now she was bailing me out of an unfortunate situation.

We got me to the New Carrollton Station and I eventually made it to Leah and Rich's around 8:30PM. That gave me about 45 minutes to spare in order to catch the fireworks.

UNBELIEVABLE!

Camping in Boston Harbor

The Exeter conference wrapped up on Friday morning and I drove down to Boston to meet my friend from college, Jeff O. I parked the car at the Riverside T stop (information for you Boston lovers) and took the T to Government Center and met Jeff. We camped on Lovell's Island in the Boston Harbor National Park Area. These glacial drumlins are small islands (ranging in size from less than and acre to a couple hundred of acres) that have been preserved as a national park area in which camping is allowed.

Jeff and I took a boat from Long Wharf to George's Island, the most built up of the islands in the harbor. From there we took a smaller interisland shuttle boat to Lovell's Island. During the early 1900's these islands were used by the military, as forts and gunsights were built to protect Boston from attack during the Spanish-American War as well as WWI. Since then, they have fallen out of service, but you can still see the remnants of these structures on the islands. We were about five miles away from downtown, but could see and hear the flights coming in and out of Logan Airport as well as see the fireworks that were being set off in the town of Hull.

The Boston Skyline as seen from our campsite

The early evening moon

Jeffrey O.  you've been caught sleeping on the job

Ernie and Jeff

After a night's sleep on what turned out to be mighty hard-packed sand, Jeff and I took the boat back to Boston. We ate in Boston's North End, which is now quite accessible given the freeway is underground due to the infamous Big Dig. After a great Italian lunch we had dessert at Mike's Pastry's. Order online and have fresh cannoli shipped to you. Yum.

It was a great way to spend a night in Boston with a dear friend. Lastly, here are three memorable topics of conversations revolved around three main topics. 1) alternative voting methods to plurality voting, 2) the death penalty and 3) how we both tend not to tell our mother's very much about our lives and why. But Mom, you have to admit that this blog is keeping you updated, huh?

We proved that Pi is irrational!!

The highlight of today was in our two hour history of mathematics seminar when at the end it culminated in our proof that Pi is irrefutibly an irrational number!

Irrational, but well-rounded

We had to learn about how to work with continuous fractions and then do the proof by contradicting the definition of a rational number. We also proved that the number "e" is also irrational.

I've really enjoyed sleeping in the same bed for the past five nights, here is my home away from home this week.

Lamont Hall, Phillips Exeter Academy

Ok, now for a bit of Ernie Chen weirdness. This story starts with the fact that our seminars take place in the new Phelps Science Center here on campus. You all know that I have the world's smallest bladder so I see the inside of many bathrooms. So, here is what I saw. I figured out two of the patterns, can anyone help me out with the other two? Remember, these are the tile patterns in a science building.

Ground Floor

Main Floor

Second Floor

Third Floor

Ok, people, email me at echensf@hotmail.com with your guesses.

Rants and raves

1) Drivers in New Hampshire ACTUALLY follow the speed limit. What's the deal with that?
2) The pool here is awesome. I've been swimming every afternoon.
3) Exeter is one of the premiere prep schools in the nation and they have NO WIRELESS internet. Grumble....
4) Exeter is completely a PC campus. LOSERS.
5) The PC's they have don't have CD burners. Sheesh.
6) The weather has been perfect. 70's and no humidity. It rained once, while we were all sleeping.
7) There is another conference on campus as well. English teachers. They are much better looking and groomed.
8) The tech people have blocked all chatting software. TYRANTS.
9) I'm a quarter of the way through my trip. It's been great so far, let's hope it continues.

So you want to know about what I'm learning?

Each participant here takes two seminars. There are, however, three seminar periods in a day and I lucked out and have the first seminar period (8-10AM) free. So, Ernie Chen is sleeping in. There are, however, one hour talks that happen throughout the day and I have attended a couple of those.

At 10:30AM-12:30PM, I am in a seminar learning ways to use simulations in Statistics to make it more accessible to students. It is turning out that you can basically design an entire Statistics course around M&M's. Chi-squared is obvious, but one can aolso simulate an exponential regression by shaking a bunch of M&M's up and then removing those that aren't showing M's. We are also being exposed to the power of "Fathom", which is an amazing statistical software package. Today, I actually was able to understand the Central Limit Theorem for the first time. Let's just say that last year when I taught it, I was not exactly in complete command of the idea.

From 1:30PM-3:30PM, I am in a course touching some of the history of Math. This is the HEIGHT of geekdom. There are 13 of us in the class, but it's myself and three others that are totally grooving with the instructor. It's like our own personal seminar. Do I feel bad that the other's aren't keeping up? NO!!!!!!! I'm having way too much fun.

We started with the Babylonians and their numbering system. We moved onto Thales, the father of modern Geometry, and tackled the problem of quadrature of a polygon. Chris Davies if you are reading this, because we teach this, I totally rocked this in class. I had to shut myself up so I wouldn't look like a smartass. We then talked about the 3 problems that were unsolvable by classical mathematical antiquity.

1) Quadrature of a Circle
2) Trisecting and arbitrary angle
3) Doubling the volume of a cube

Well, with a bit of modern technology, we can create the following

The Cissoid

which allowed us to solve #3. And,

The Conchoid

which allowed us to solve #2. For those of you who want to see the proof, I'll show you.

Today, we worked with Archimedes and his method for deriving the formula for the volume of a sphere, using the concept of Moments. We also derived a way to find every single pythagorean triple using the rational points on a unit circle. (Davies, I have cool stuff for you).

Yeah, yeah, I drone on, but having the geektime of my life.

Zooperstars

The conference gives us a night off from Math and a group of about 35 of us took the option of getting on a bus and travelling an hour north on I-95 and going to Portland, ME to watch the Portland Sea Dogs (AA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox) take on the Norwich Navigators (AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants). The game had its moments, but the highlight for all of us who attended was the in between inning entertainment. I have come to realize that minor league baseball games are hidden gems of American entertainment. For $7 the baseball was good, but watching things such as two men try to catch plastic lobsters in tandem in a lobster pot with the lobsters being hurled from 30 feet away with lacrosse sticks was nearly the height of low brow entertainment. There was another contest in which two kids were trying to get as many cans from one barrel to another. We watched a young girl, not as fast a runner as the boy against whom she was competing, get more cans across by using the ingenuity of dumping the cans into her shirt and carrying twice as many cans at a time as the boy did in his hands. The women of our group as well as the women in the stands were chanting girl power by the end. It was not a great time to be a male.

The HIGHLIGHT, however, was the special appearance of the Zooperstars.. Between the first and second inning is when it all began. I'll let my pictures tell you the entire story.

"Ichiroach Suzuki" dancing with "Harry Canary"

"Shark McGwire" in a danceoff with a Norwich Navigator player.

Navigator player gets it ON!

"Shark's" turn.

They aren't hugging in good sportsmanship here.

"Ichiroach" tangoing with "Tiger Woodchuck"

But the best was the following, hands down.

"Roger Clamens" chases down and swallows up a little kid.

"Clamens" spits up unedible parts of little boy.

I have to report that the hometown Sea Dogs lost to the Navigators 6-2 to remain in last place in the Eastern League's Northern Division. I implore anyone who has a chance to see the Zooperstars to make a special journey to whatever location they are playing. I'm still laughing at the hijinx!

Math Club

I am now at the Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics, Science and Technology. I will be here through Friday morning July 2nd. I am taking a course on teaching Statistics using simulations and hands-on projects and also a course on the History of Mathematics. MATH CLUB!

I have run into a couple of my former colleagues from The Lawrenceville School. It is great to see Nancy Thomas and Miranda Christofferson (sp?). John Jamison, from my Lakeside years, is also here teaching a seminar.

Off to geekdom..........

A weekend in Vermont

Friday evening, after dinner with Andy and his kids in Albany, I got into the car and drove east, across the bottom part of Vermont and up the Connecticut River (I-91) to visit my dear friend (and high school advisor) Anne S. and her husband David).

By the way, I finished White Teeth somewhere in Ohio and although I did enjoy the book was ultimately very disappointed by the ending. If anyone would like to discuss it, let me know. My current book on tape is the new David Sedaris book. It is quite funny, but I wish there were more stories about his living in Paris and stories about him and Hugh, his partner. I've had enough about his family.

Here's a montage of my weekend in Vermont.

 

 

 

 

Stephens Home (with my grandma rental car blocking the view)

The porch on which we sat and chatted for hours

The view from the porch

View from rear of the house

We did a great deal of catching up, talking about politics (mostly debating whether or not to see Fahrenheit 911 and we both we not see it), the Zantop killings and reading. One treat was that a friend of mine from Seattle (and also a friend of Anne and Dave's) came up from southern Vermont to have lunch with us on Saturday afternoon. Jenny K. and I worked together for a summer in Seattle and also attended the Klingenstein program for teachers in the summer of 1997. She worked for many years at Lakeside but now teaches at The Putney School, in Putney, VT. In the time since I have seen her last, she got married to Randy S. and is now three months pregnant with her first child. After lunch, we all took a walk. Probably some of the first exercise I have done in days.

Randy, Anne, Dave, Kayla (the Smith's dog) and Jenny

In addition, on Saturday night, we all went to a going away party for the farm manager of The Mountain School (the school Anne headed for many years) who is going on sabbatical. I met up with many people I know from the school and it was the first time many of them had seen me since my accident.

I try to make it up to Vermont to have some peace and quiet every year. I always am sad to leave.

I once did some questionable things with this guy....

After Cooperstown, I drove an hour and a half east to a suburb of Albany called Niskayuna, NY. I met up with a friend of mine from college who I had not seen since probably 1994. Andy V., a fellow Geology major, and I spent many hours in Snee Hall on the Cornell University campus. We probably spent more hours in bars and out in the great outdoors doing geological field work, but also just sitting around doing nothing and other things.

I'm pretty much a straight arrow and was in college too. Andy was one of the people who got me to do things I never would have done. Now look at him..........

Emma(4), Jack(10 months), Andy and Anna(6) V. (wife Johna not pictured)

I guess I find it amazing how great a father Andy is. I mean if these children ever want to know what their father was like in college, they should come and find me and he'll have to pay me off to not tell stories. Andy is now the father of three. When I knew Andy in college, he was living with a bunch of guys in a rundown apartment on Eddy Street in Ithaca and now he lives on a tree lined street near a country club in suburban Albany. How far he has come. I guess if I think about it, so have I, eh? I'm still shaking my head at the thought. But I'm am also sitting here thinking how WONDERFUL it is to see people that we have in our lives morph into new people (and better). Andy works as a project manager for an environmental consulting firm in the Albany area and is actually using the Geology training that he got in his career.

ANOTHER OBSERVATION
Mike and Michelle have just had their first child. Andy and Johna are on their third. It is QUITE amazing, and ultimately funny, the difference in which they handle their newborn children. With Mike and Michelle, everything is sterilized, every moment is caught on camera. Food is specially prepared and probably organic. There is a strict schedule and everyone has their duty. The baby is the focus of almost every moment of their lives. In contrast, Jack (Andy's 10 month old) is simply another child. Baby cries? Oh, wait a couple minutes and see if he shuts up. Sterilize bottles? Are you kidding? Diaper need changing? Do it right on the floor. Food? Pick a jar out of the pantry and get to it. Andy's girls are 4 and 6, and their baby brother is like a toy. Jack gets no special treatment. Mike and Michelle, this is what is going to happen to you when you get around to having #3 or #4......

Cooperstown, NY

After visiting Mike and Michelle in Ithaca, NY, I drove east on Friday June 25th and stopped in at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. The museum itself is actually rather small and the displays are somewhat overwhelming in terms of the density of items per square inch. I love the fact that they have displayed the items in a chronological order and that the pathway of the museum is linear (meaning you follow one path and don't have to go back and forth between different displays, yes this is the mathematician in me), but just having so many things to try to look at in a case was too much for me.

For those of you who have never been to the hall, the first floor has a hall in which the plaque of each member of the hall is placed on the wall. It is said that .1% of all players who have made it into the major leagues actually get elected to the hall of fame. This year only two players are to be inducted, Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor. Two, that's it two.

In this main hall are statues of two of the greatest old school players, the Babe and Ted Williams. At first look, you have no idea that these statues are carved completely from a block of wood. Totally amazing.

The Babe

On the second floor, the displays are about great players, eras and "dynasties" during the history of major league play. One of my favorite players (although not a hall member, yet) is John Olerud. Olerud started his career with the Toronto Blue Jays and subsequently played for the New York Mets and now plays for my beloved (but at this moment horrendous) Seattle Mariners. Olerud is in the hall as part of the Toronto early 90's teams that for the first time ever, took the World Series trophy north of the border.

A young John Olerud

The third floor of the hall concentrates on the different records and the history of the world series. For $8.50 (with a AAA discount) it was definately a great way to spend and afternoon.

Images from a day in the life......

Lunch at The famed Moosewood Restaurant

Nap at the Cornell Plantations

Mint Chocolate Chip shake at the Cornell Dairy Bar

Dinner time for Raymond Louis B.n as fed by parents Mike and Michelle

Vegetables and Fruits

Being on the road, one tends to be sedentary and eat CRAP. I pulled into Mike and Michelle's having realized that I hadn't eaten anything resembling a piece of something grown from the soil in probably three or four days. That BLT with fries I had at the reststop in Ohio was not sitting real well.

Michelle fixed me a small salad and a nectarine. It's as if my body was craving something healthy. I immediately felt better; I can't believe it was that tangible. I need to make a decision to eat better from here on.

Back on the road again.....What?

Stephen (we all know who he is now), quoted to me on the phone that to have the parts for the car expedited an to the dealership by Thursday the 24th would cost $420. At first, I was fine with it. However, I realized as I was going to sleep that I probably could rent a car for that price. I checked around and found that I could rent a car for 19 days for $650. So that's what I have done.

My original plan was to return to Indiana on July 11th and take a weeklong woodworking class in a town about three hours south of South Bend. By expediting the parts and trying to get on the road by this Saturday the 26th, I was asking Stephen and his mechanics to build me a new engine in a day and a half. That was pushing it. So since I was coming back through Indiana, I decided to rent a car and drive around the East Coast in the rental car. By 11:30AM, I was on the road again. I'll see Stephen and my new engine/car on July 12th.

I drove all afternoon and into the early evening to arrive in Ithaca, NY. Home of my alma mater, Cornell University and my college friends Mike and Michelle.

It was a gorgeous day and and I was reminded of just how beautiful the Southern Tier of Upstate New York is. Most people when they drive through Upstate New York take I-90 (Thurway). Instead, a more scenic option is to take Route 17 (aka Interstate 86) through Jamestown and Corning.

The beauty of the Southern Tier

This area was one of the first frontiers in American history. It remains thickly settled, with many small towns dotting the well maintained countryside. It's off the beaten path, but certainly should not be forgotten.

An afternoon in South Bend, IN

After finishing up business with Stephen at the Subaru dealership, I hopped on the bike and went back and checked into the same Motel 6 room as the night before. On my way, I decided to get a haircut. New engine, new haircut, I saw the connection. Now most of you know that South Bend is the home of the famed University of Notre Dame. Here are some pictures:

The entrance to The University of Notre Dame


The dome on the central building on campus. This is probably why the Fighting Irish helmets are gold, eh?


I think this mural is painted on the side of the library.


Basketball and Indiana

Right on the edge of campus, literally a hop, skip and jump away from the library is the famed University of Notre Dame football stadium. One of my top five favorite movies, Rudy is a true story about a kid who's sole dream was to play for the Notre Dame football team. It also was filmed here on campus. The first time I watched it, I bawled. It's cheesy, but then again, I'm a sucker for cheese.

So much history.....


Hallowed grounds.....

From campus, I rode about five miles to get to the "big" mall that the woman at Motel 6 told me about. I was hoping to find a Starbucks or Borders to get onto the Internet. The mall was a BIG disappointment. I must say that in this vulnerable time of having my car meltdown and being alone in an unknown city, I was comforted by knowing that I was going to a mall. The greatest disappointment of the mall was the movie theater choices. The Passion of the Christ, New York Minute and Hellboy. I skipped the movie.

I rode back to the Motel 6 and saw that the Hampton Inn across the way was advertising high-speed internet in every room. I cleaned myself up after dinner and walked right into the lobby/bar and plopped down to do what I needed to do. I'm learning how to pilfer wireless internet.

It must be something about that summer solctice....

It was Monday June 21st, 2004. The longest day of this year 2004. I was driving east through Illinois and crossed into Indiana. I decided that instead of heading into Ohio and going south of Lake Erie, I would veer north, through Michigan and cross into Upstate NY via Niagara Falls. The best laid plans...........

About 6PM Eastern Time (Michigan is on Eastern time) I was about 15 miles into the State of Michigan, way down there in the SW corner. All of a sudden I heard the engine of my car clicking. I stepped on the gas and nothing happened. At this point, I knew that it was time for me to pull off to the side of the freeway and get some help. As I stopped the car, it started to smoke from the engine. Luckily, it stopped after about five minutes.

I called AAA and they sent a truck for me. I had found a Subaru dealership in Kalamazoo, MI, which was about 75 miles further east of where I was on I-94. In my great planning, I had purchased the AAA Plus membership, which gave the the right to be towed up to 100 miles at no charge. When Randy (of Randy's Auto Service) arrived about an hour and fifteen minutes later, I was still calm. In fact, I am quite proud of how calm I am still.

He told me that there was a Subaru dealership only 30 miles from where I broke down. The reason AAA didn't tell me over the phone is that this dealership was in Indiana. During my tow, Randy briefed me completely on the NASCAR race he went to the Saturday before and I now know all about a racer from South Bend, IN named Randy Newman. But, I digress.

I arrived at the Subaru dealership as it was closing. I packed a bag of things, pulled my bike off the top of the car and rode down the highway to the Motel 6. I was in for the night. This morning, I went back up and spent the majority of the day in the Subaru dealership.

There is good news and some bummer news. The good news first, how about that? The car, at the time of breakdown, had 58,800 miles and was just four years old. In addition, I had also had the 60,000 mile major checkup done on the car on June 4th, a mere three weeks ago. I brought all that paperwork with me. Turns out, there was either little or no coolant in the radiator and the engine overheated and burned up. Yup, it basically melted. The car has a 5 year, 60,000 mile warranty. And since I had all my maintenance records, I will pay NOTHING for the repairs. I'm basically getting a new engine built (essentially a new car) here in South Bend. We are all big fans of Mr. Stephen B. of Subaru of Michiana. He has been on my side the entire time and it took the better part of a day, but we are now on the road to getting my car back on the road. Because Stephen has to order parts, it will take a couple days to get to South Bend. I will pay for the expedited shipping as well as for a new timing belt. The parts will get here Thursday the 24th. (Happy Birthday, Mom!!). Hopefully, he and his mechanics can get me back on the road by Friday the 25th.

The bummer is that I will not get to see my friends Mike, Michelle and their new son, Ray, in Ithaca. I also will miss out on seeing my high school advisor Anne S. in Vermont. I will getting all the downtime, now, here in Indiana. It's going to be and Indiana summer, considering I'm going to be back 100 miles south of here in three weeks.

So, I'll check in with Stephen tomorrow morning and then rent a car and drive up to the resort areas around Saugatuck, MI, which is the Provincetown of the Midwest. I'll stay up there tomorrow night and then return sometime Thursday afternoon.

I am quite zen about this entire experience. I haven't gotten mad, there really is nothing to get mad about! Yes, I will admit, I did get a bit antsy today because I just wanted there to be answers and progress, but I was quite patient. In the end, I'm getting a new engine out of the experience and I get to see some of the sights around the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. I'm also biking all around the city of South Bend and thank god it's FLAT.

All in all, just part of the great crazy journey I have embarked on.

Choices, Choices, Choices

I reached the Nebraska/Iowa border and had choices to make. If I took the northern route, I would get to see the Field of Dreams baseball diamond in Dyersville, IA. If I took the central route, I could see the Bridges of Madison County. If I took the southern route, I could cross the Mississippi River at Fort Madison and go to Nauvoo, IL to see where Mormon church was founded. Who thought I would have such choices in the state of Iowa?

I caved and took I-80, the central route. It took me to Madison County, IA, which is just southeast of Des Moines.

Hogback Covered Bridge in Madison County, IA

John Wayne's birthplace in Winterset, IA. (Still having some problems with the camera)

I continued on I-80 to Iowa City, IA where I had a great dinner of sushi. Yes, good sushi can be found in Iowa. I found Iowa City to be beautiful and clean. I think that is the mark of most midwestern college towns. The scenery (in all facets if you know what I mean :) ) is spectacular as well. The University of Iowa is located in Iowa City and their mascot is the Jayhawk. All through town, there are statues of the Jayhawk dressed in different garb.

The University of Iowa Jayhawk dressed as a ???

There is a map that you can get to try and track down all the Jayhawk statues. I didn't have the time, though.