All in the Family

Day 44:

For the first time on my trip, I will spending a second night in the same campground which means I had a lot of time today to think, reflect, read, write and enjoy.  As I was thinking about my life and what was important I concluded that no matter how much you have, no matter how much you accomplish and no matter where you go or what you see, everything in life comes down to one simple thing – family.

I stayed with many of my friends and their families during my travels and that only solidified my conclusion.

I have been blessed when it comes to family.  I have two amazing children that both inspire and intrigue me.  Sophia is smart, dedicated, focused, argumentative, funny and most importantly respectful.  Eli is competitive, emotional, athletic, intuitive, thoughtful, gentle, and like Sophia, incredibly respectful.  Being away from them for six weeks has made me appreciate them now more than ever and my anticipation in seeing them tomorrow is frankly overwhelming.

Additionally, I was thinking about my brothers and sisters and the role I play within our family.  I’m definitely not the smartest; that would be Gary.  I’m surely not the most caring; that would Natalie.  I’m surely not the most creative; that would be DeAnne.  I’m certainly not the most positive; that would be Ruben.  I’m definitely not the most appreciative; that would be Lori.  I’m not the most accomplished; that would be John and I can honestly say, I’m not the most interesting; that would be Elaine.  Then who am I and what role do I play? 

After lots of rain, crackers, tuna and oh yes, beer, I concluded that I’m a little of each one of them.  When we speak, which is quite often, we really listen to each other.  We learn from each other.  We are inspired by each other.  But most importantly, we never take each other for granted.  Because after all, life comes down to one thing – FAMILY!

Every Day is a Saturday



Biking in Yellowstone

Where the buffalo roam

I’m really not sure what I expected when I started planning my trip across the country.  I wasn’t sure if being away from the kids, my business and my typical day-to-day activities would be too great of pull to allow me to enjoy my trip or quite possibly, lure me back to NY, before my allotted timeframe (which most of my staff thought would happen). 

One thing I do know is that I was hoping to embrace each and every day with one simple perspective…today is Saturday.  We all know that in our everyday lives, we all live for the weekend and in particular Saturday. 

Just me and my chair

Smoke on the water

Saturdays are for fun, entertainment, housework, family time and anything else that each of us truly enjoys.  Thus, that philosophy drove my daily existence while I was on the road.  If I wanted to stop and have a beer at lunch, I did.  If I wanted to drive all day, just because I was in the mood to drive, I did.  If I wanted to take the slowest route from point A to B, just to look at the scenery, I did, because afterall, everyday was Saturday.

Late night blogging

Lunch for one

I told myself that this is a trip of a lifetime and to be sure to take in and enjoy the good, the bad and the ugly.  The good being when I was able to connect with long-time friends and spend quality time with them and their families.  The bad, being the rain and cold weather that followed me through just about 90% of my trip.  And the ugly, being some of the lonely days I had when I was sitting in a campground with nobody else around (like now), eating soup and longing for a conversation. 

Through it all, I said to myself, life is good, because today is Saturday.



 

The Shortest Route to Paris

Day 38-40



Wall mural in Quebec City

I know that many people place going to Europe, and particularly Paris at the top of their bucket list.  Though I have been there multiple times and yes it is amazing, I must say, French Canada is not a bad second choice.  The Province of Quebec  has done an amazing job at retaining its French culture and heritage (though many Canadians may think of them as being problematic because of their constant urgings to secede from Canada and become their own sovereign country).  French continues to be the official language of the province, most schools only teach in French, people do business and communicate on a daily basis in French and all signs and billboards are solely in French.  Thus, Montreal and Quebec City have the same vibe as a scaled version of Paris. 


Street concert and festival

Black beauty!

I was fortunate enough to be in Montreal this past weekend, at the same time as the Canadian Grand Prix, which the locals refer to as the kick-off of summer.  Though, I didn’t attend the race, exposure to it was everywhere.  There was an amazing street festival with a variety of different cars, demonstrations and street concert.  Every luxury or sports car brand was there…Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche – a car lover’s dream.  Also, many of the booths had official Formula 1 cars, which were pretty incredible to see and also to imagine racing down the straightaway going 200+ MPH, then screeching to halt to take a hairpin turn, then back to 200 MPH!!  Given that I have now dabbled around Grand Prix races (I was in Monaco two years ago at the same time as the Grand Prix was taking place), I probably should make a point to actually going to one. 

Blown glass exhibit
art museum

Old Montreal is very much like Paris, with lots of cafes, galleries, museums, an amazing hillside park  called Mont Royal and of course tourist shops.  The cobble stoned streets are so much fun to just wander around.  

Cubans are legal in Montreal

However, my favorite city was Quebec City, which is very much like a European walled-city, with The Hotel Le Chateau Frontenac at the center overlooking the St. Lawrence River.  The Hotel was built in the 1893 and is must-see when visiting.  I spent the three days in Montreal and Quebec City wandering through art galleries (I bought a great piece for my home in San Diego), sipping wine, smoking cigars, visiting museums and trail running in the park.

For those of you who haven’t been to French Canada (particularly you Northeasterners, since it is a drive-able distance), I would encourage you visit…it’s a heck of a lot closer than Paris!   

Blue 3



Sue's Canadian See-Through

Day 36-37

I feel quite fortunate that over the course of my six-week adventure I have been able to visit some of Canada’s greatest cities (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City).  Though each has been amazing, what really made my visit to Toronto even more fantastic was the time I was able to spend with Sue McLean.  Sue is another of my friends from UWP, though when we travelled she was on staff, making her slightly more important, with slightly more power and slightly more money than the rest of us (she got paid to travel).

Sue’s job during the years was our Sound Mixer and though she was good at her job, she didn’t recognize my vocal talents and would always place me in the back of the performers, on the highest riser and typically on the Blue 3 microphone, which meant she knew where I was and could easily turn that microphone off from the mixing table, thus not allowing me to ruin the sound of the performance…but I’m not bitter or anything.

Dining room and backdoor
to the boat and lake

Kitchen and Loft

But anyways, I was able to visit Sue at her family cottage in a beautiful area just north of her hometown of Barrie, Ontario, called Gravenhurst.  Her A-frame style cabin sits right on an incredible lake where she has a dock with two Adirondack chairs that she calls her “happy place,” because she goes there mid-week to relax, refresh and just chill.  We had an amazing time, drank lots of wine, a few Canadian see-throughs, laughed about stupid stuff and went for a ride in her boat late in the evening, cruising along the glass-like water so smoothly it felt like we were flying.

Sue's boat and "happy place"

I can’t wait for the next Scum Crew reunion at Sue’s place.



Party Crasher

Jim & Kathy in front of Chateau Thomsen

I showed up in Minneapolis to see my best friends Jim and Kathy Thomsen, thinking we would have some quality time over dinner to catch up.  Little did I know that we were going to be on the party circuit of all party circuits. 


Jim Enjoying the Minnesota Sun



I have known Jim and Kathy for over 30 years, having travelled with both of them in UWP.  Jim and I have been best of friends forever and often talk about how we live very parallel lives.  We're both from large families, both from small towns, paid our way through college (we both went to SDSU -- me, San Diego State University and Jim, South Dakota State University), our birthdays are one day apart, we wear the same watches, drive the same car -- the similarities are frankly kinda freaky. 



Drinks on the Tee

Party Time

Though we only speak three or four times a year, it's like we just saw each other yesterday.  I have so much pride over the success Jim has experienced in business, where he has grown to the number 3 guy at a Fortune 500 company, and is considered a future CEO candidate.  However, all of that success has not changed him one bit.  He loves Kathy more today than he did 30+ years ago when he met her in Up With People, still loves a great glass of wine.  Enjoys a long run.  Loves to get philosophical and like, me attributes much of his personal growth to travelling in UWP. Thus getting to spend time with them and their friends was an absolute treat.
However, when I planned this trip I had no idea I would be hitting Minneapolis at the same time as graduation.  And I tell you what, you give Minnesotans a little sunshine and cocktail and they will surely throw a party.

You see their beautiful daughter Leah was graduating from high school and saying her goodbyes to all of her friends, before heading off to school at Pepperdine in the Fall.  This meant we hit the party circuit.  I have to tell you, the peeps in Minneapolis know how to throw parties.  Each was themed, had a life-sized stand-up figurine of the graduate in the colors of their future university, and had more alcohol than even I could consume.  Though I lost exact count, I'm thinking we went to at least six parties in two days.  Some were golf parties, lunch parties, brunch parties, afternoon parties, dinner parties or ping pong parties, but the best part was pretty much the same people were at all them, which meant by day two, I had a bunch of new friends who were sorta wondering if I had moved into the neighborhood.

It was so great to hang with Jim and Kathy and to share this incredibly important time of their daughter's life with a vagabond like me...

The Tourists

Day 26-31

Thought it wasn’t planned this way, Ruben ended up touring with me when we hit many of the country’s greatest treasures, including Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Yellowstone Park and Little Big Horn. What made his visit so memorable is that we are so similar in our desire to look, learn and then move on. Some people can spend hours, days, etc. at various sites, but Ruben and I were almost identical in when it was time to move on. Here are the highlights:



Ruben wanted to bring him
home as a pet

Little Big Horn, Montana: This is one of those historical tales that we all learn about in high school, but can’t remember the details. We’ve all heard of “Custer’s last stand’”etc. However, after touring this amazing site, I have to tell you Custer got his ass kicked because he was overconfident, gave the Indians no respect and frankly it is entirely questionable as to whether his attack should have happened in the first place. It’s an awesome tour that everyone should visit.


Blue water geyser

Yellowstone, Wyoming: There is so much to see here that we only scratched the surface. We saw Old Faithful, hundreds of geysers, incredible vistas, waterfalls, bison from 10 feet away, antelope and the best part, we were so early in the season, that there was very few people there making the experience even better. The weather was crazy as well. We had sunshine, rain, hail, fog and a smattering of snow. For those of you who have done Yosemite, Sequoia and Zion, this is probably the best because there is so much to see and it covers such a huge geographic space.

Sturgis, South Dakota: On the way to Mt. Rushmore we were able to stop in at Sturgis, which many of you know is the biker mecca of the world. Though the town looked like any other small town in America, it was funny to see how there was a huge bar on every street and street corner. Most of them shuttered till the biker rally which is a few months away. However, we did stop in for a couple of cold ones at the Knuckle Saloon, which was super cool.



Amazing, but still can't figure out
why Teddy was in included

Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota: This can only be described as amazing. When you drive around the hillside and see it in the distance it is frankly overwhelming. To think of the vision, fortitude and commitment to make a pile of granite rocks come to life and have so much history. Both Ruben and I were surprised by all that there was to see. We took the walking tour to see the monument from many different angles and then visited the Gutzon Borglum artist studio which was one of the highlights. Definitely a must see of American history.

Look closely and you can Crazy Horse's profile.  The hole is
the space below his extended arm and his horse's mane

Crazy Horse, South Dakota – Though this is very much a work in progress, the Crazy Horse monument was one of the best and frankly the most compelling. This monument was started in the 40s by Korczak Ziolkowski and commissioned by a Lakota Elder and the progress being made is significant now, compared to when it first started. The entire monument is being done through private funding and managed by Korczak’s wife and family (he died). The video describing what’s taking place and the overall tribute to Crazy Horse is pretty moving. Definitely worth seeing!

Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota – For over thirty years I have heard my best friend Jim Thomsen talk about the amazing Corn Palace located in his home town of Mitchell, South Dakota. You may be asking yourself “What the F is a corn palace?” I did the same. Well, given that I was driving from state line to state line and driving right through Mitchell, I figured I had no excuse, particularly because I was seeing Jim in a couple of days, and it would have been tough to explain how I had missed one of the world’s greatest treasures! To put it into words is difficult. The exterior of the Corn Palace (it’s an events center) is made entirely of corn, corn stocks and corn husks…I kid you not! To say it was hard for my eyes to believe what they were seeing would be an understatement…

We literally crammed about a month’s worth of touring into five days!

Everyone Needs a Brother Like Ruben



Ruben is Faithfully Old!

Besties

Though many people love and respect their brothers and sisters,. I am one of the fortunate few that not only does that, but also think of them as best friends.  All eight brothers and sisters go out of our way to see each other, speak to each other and relish in each other’s success.  Though we agree and disagree on many things, one thing that is never questioned is how my brother Ruben lives life like no other.  He's got the energy of a 14 year-old with the unquestioned desire to see everything, taste everything and experience everything.



Ruben caught one of those elusive Jackalopes

The continuous rain made
Ruben's head grow

This is why I say every person in the world needs a brother like Ruben. 



Here Ruben is trying to scare away the Grizzlies

You see Ruben has a great sense of humor, is a great listener, is incredibly intuitive and best of all, he’s the most positive person I have ever met.  When the chips are down, you want Ruben on your side (see Wyoming post).  As his younger brother I had it better than the others, in that pretty much everything I learned, I learned from Ruben.  Thus, having him come out for five days and travel with me was a true highlight.  We had lots of long talks about life, family, cars, business and one night when the scotch was really flowing we had some funny conversations about love!

The trip wouldn't have been the same with out him!









Whiteknuckling in Wyoming

I’m a person who loves driving.  I always have.  In fact, when I made the decision to take this trip, driving the 4,000+ miles was one of the most exciting parts about it.  That is until I hit Wyoming.

Now, I have been in this part of the country before, but not sure I could have ever prepared myself for the weather conditions I have faced.  A sampling:

Storm brewing in Montana

• Rain so hard you can’t see out the front window of Ringo
• Wind blowing so aggressively that you feel like Ringo is going to blow over, making it difficult to Snowing in Yellowstone Park which made sleeping in the Arctic-like conditions very challenging
• Hail in Yellowstone
• Bugs the size of small animals in South Dakota that covered the front of Ringo so badly that I had to pull into a gas station to clean the windshield in order to see the road ahead



Ringo covered with splattered bugs

Snow just outside Yellowstone

• Lightning storm in South Dakota/Minnesota that that was so dynamic it lit up the dark sky like a 4^th of July fireworks show

Rain storm in Wyoming

With all of the above being faced, nothing was worse than what I faced in Wyoming. 

My brother Ruben and I are driving out of Montana, through Wyoming and heading to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore.  We are in the heart of Northern Wyoming, it’s raining so hard that the wipers can’t keep up and the water build-up on the freeway is causing Ringo to hydroplane across the freeway, making steering feel almost impossible. 

But that’s not the worst of it!

During the rainstorm I’m doing back-to-back conference calls with my office in San Diego.  I hang up the phone and Ruben says let’s call Elaine, our sister to see how she’s doing (she had an accident at work).   As he’s in the middle of his conversation, my gas light comes on – reminding me that I need fuel.  I look at Ruben and yell – “Damn – we’re nearly out of gas in the middle of nowhere!!”  Now with all the conference calls going on, my brother talking with my sister, the rain, the hydroplaning – I forgot to see what our gas situation was (gas stations don’t litter the area like they do in Southern California).  In a panicked voice I said “Rub, search on your phone for the nearest gas station!”  Ruben is fumbling along trying to find something, I’m looking at the gas gauge trying to remember when we went through the last town and whether turning around made more sense than going forward.  I’m beginning to get very nervous that we are going to be sitting on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, in an incredible rain storm out of gas!! 

I’m white knuckling as we finally see a sign that says 16 miles to the nearest town.  Ruben says “how far can you go on Ringo with the gas light on?”  Seriously???  I have no freakin’ idea!  Ruben says “16 miles, no problem, otherwise they wouldn’t call it a warning light, they’d call it, a you’re f*cked light.” 

Now I’m not usually a guy that gets too stressed, but in this case I was super worried.  Ruben continues to assure me that we can make 16 miles no problem.  But I can't hear anything he's saying because all I can think about is running out of gas in pouring down rain in the middle of Wyoming! !When we finally see the off-ramp with a Conoco gas station at the base of it, you don’t know how relieved I was.  We gas up and Ruben looks at me and says, “I knew we’d make it, I wasn’t worried!”  I could have rung his neck!!

Bob

Day 23-25

Me and Bob

In life we meet many people.  Some have an impact in your life, some become good friends and some just acquaintances.  Then there’s Bob Kelly.  I met Bob when I travelled in Up with People more than 30 years ago.  He was our cast director, which meant he was the “top dog.”  Whatever he said, went!  Unlike, most persons in a position of power, Bob had the ability to make you feel good about the situation regardless of the circumstances.  Every person in our cast (approximately 120) had a personal relationship with him.  He was like a father-figure, though he was only a few years older than all the rest of us.  He was wise beyond his years. 

Dinner with Bob, Sheila, Ben, Laura and 92-year-old Susie

Bob's "See Through" Drink

Over the course of the year that I travelled with Bob he made a greater impact in my life than any other person other than my parents….and I’m sure all of my cast mates would say the same thing.  He’s travelled the world and has more stories than any person I have ever met.  As such, the opportunity to hang out with Bob, his wonderful wife Sheila and their soon-to-be high school graduate daughter Ada in their home town of Great Falls, Montana was too much to pass up.

Though I have kept in touch with Bob over the years and seen him regularly, it's never enough.

As a GF city commissioner Bob is versed on all things happening in town and everywhere we went I heard, “Hi Bob,” more times than I could count.  I started calling him Mayor Bob.  Over the course of two plus days, we did just about everything you could do in a town of 50K, including:

• Mountain biking tour of the city
• Enjoyed Sheila's great meals
• Met Ada's incredible and motivated friends who are readying for college
• Attended Great Falls High School State softball finals against Billings High School (GF Won!)
• Visited the grand opening of a community garden project
• Drank plenty of see-throughs (gin martinis)
• Ran his dog Anabelle
• Had Friday night dinner with is 92-year-old neighbor Susie (she had a see-through as well)
• Went to see Wylie Gustafson and his country band in concert (he’s well-known for singing the Yahoo yodel)
• Took a tour of a trout farm
• Learned what a Hutterite is (a religious that hails from Germany – look like Amish) and that they lived in his home for over a year, while he and his family lived in Costa Rica
• Had a couple of beers at world famous Sip ‘n Dip Tiki Bar at 2 o’clock in the afternoon
• Learned how bear spray works to prevent them from attacking you!!! 

And, if that's not enough, we talked about everything under the sun. Absolutely one of the best weekends I've had in a long time.  However, I'm not sure I have the energy for another visit with Bob in the near future.

"Facetiming" with Sophia

I was staying in a small town in Montana (I realize I have spent a lot of time in Montana) called Thompson Falls and I came across a very quaint state campground right on the river.  After a brief conversation with the camp hosts (they are seasonal hires who live in the campground in motor homes and usually average around 75 years old) regarding potential mountain biking spots and they recommended a 20 mile bike ride to reach an amazing water fall called Graves Falls.  Given the amount of time I have spent on a bike, I figured this ride would be relatively easy – though they neglected to say that the final five miles were uphill!  Ugh!

When I’m riding in the mountains, I often wonder if the residents worry as much about fires as I would, if I lived there.  On this particular ride, or half-way up the hill, I noticed that the entire side of the mountain was charred black.  I came across a guy walking his dog and stopped to ask what happened.  He said the fire happened about three weeks ago and lasted almost a week!  I was flabbergasted!  The devastation was overwhelming, particularly given all of the wildlife that must’ve lived there.

The ride was awesome and the falls fantastic!  However, one of the best parts of the ride was cruising downhill on the way back and “facetiming” Sophia about the ride, the fire and the falls.  As I was on the phone a couple of deer were on the side of the road looking at me.  I was able to reverse the camera so both she and Eli could see the deer.  Technology made it easy for both kids to really feel like they were on the road with me.  So cool!!