AKRON TRIP, 1998
THURSDAY, 7/16/98: Bed 1AM, 3-3:26AM dream-write, then do Actualism session to 4:26! Up at 8:55AM, take $296.53 and return with $105.42, so I spent $191.11 WITHOUT Visa charges and Charles-shares. Bag weighs 20 pounds when I leave and I forget to weigh it when I return. Leave home 10:40AM, buy baking soda deodorant, into Newark train 11:15, to bus 11:40, to Alamo rental 12:10PM, long line. Hot. 12:25 to South Carolina license 332AWK. Odometer 13,360. To Knoebals at 3:40PM at odometer 13,515. "Lunch" in Alamo restaurant, liver and onions for $11, and it POURS rain. Out at 5:15 when it stops, ride Phoenix at $1.40 and both ride on Antique Autos $1.80 and I'm alone on Ferris Wheel for $1 and Flying Scooters for 704, a total of $4.90, leaving me a 104 ticket as a souvenir for the booklet I bought for $4.50. Leave at 7:45 and drive to Northumberland for Joseph Priestley's house (1796-1804), then to Lewisburg and HAPPEN to turn right into a Day's INN for $63 and tax for AARP discount. Walk town. Dine at Perkin's Family (jammed) Restaurant and watch TV to brushing teeth to 12:15AM. TIRED!
FRIDAY, 7/17/98: Up at 9:30AM! [No notes taken and I have trouble REMEMBERING!] Large breakfast somewhere. Guess we get to major route and drive PAST correct Cleveland exit and get to downtown at 5:40 to find that the Rock-and-Roll Museum closed at 5:30. Have an awful quickie bite-lunch of chili (horrible) in basement of Sheraton ("Oh, are you here for Joyce??") where I parked my car for $13 just to get it out of the WAY so we could walk around to find a cheaper hotel than their $149 cheapest. Pass the Convention Center to find Joyce Meyer Ministries going strong at 7PM and go in to listen for about an hour before we're tired, then out and Charles panics at the drunks around the central fountain. The Top-of-the-Town restaurant, which used to be in the Lakeside tower, not in the taller Key Tower in which we ask directions, has closed. Charles wants to ask the price in the Marriott, and it's "only" $129, so he takes it primarily because it offers FREE on-site parking. We return to the Sheraton, retrieve the car, take out the bags, and commit the car to the Valet to get to the room to shower and relax a bit before going down to the restaurant, where I have a FABULOUS filet mignon and he has a decent pasta. Out to wander town, particularly the Hotel Renaissance in the Tower Complex, and then back to fall exhausted into bed.
SATURDAY, 7/18/98: Wake about 8:30 and down to the great free breakfast for a small line at 9:15 and overeat and get to the Rock-and-Roll Museum about 10:15 for a small crowd which builds up: watch the "Overview" standing in the three-screen seatless cinema, then the "This Is Rock" sitting in the seated theater where it shows continually. The Hall of Fame is only signatures, the views over the lake are impressive, the escalators confusing, and the air conditioning doesn't cool enough in the 95E heat of the Cleveland mid-summer. Out about 2 to the Science Museum next door, where Charles doesn't like the participation demanded, saying again and again we should leave, which I insist shouldn't take THAT long, and we watch the final "rope-rescue" between playing games and trying experiments, and leave about 4:30 to get TOTALLY lost leaving town, crossing Shaker Heights three times, asking directions twice, but finally fall into route 8 that leads us to the Holiday Inn (I'd FORGOTTEN the confirmation number and even HOTEL-NAME in my calendar-drawer: should have put it with my TRAVEL stuff early enough to remember to TAKE it; I'd thought it was a branch of the MARRIOT in Hudson, but finally the operator suggested it might be another chain, and when she said "Holiday Inn" I figured it was THAT, and the telephone book listed it as ON Route 8) we NEVER would have found had we driven into HUDSON itself (which was the historically beautifully architected town Charles wanted us to tour a bit when we were last here two YEARS ago!). Manage to get in about 5:50PM, totally frazzled, but manage to shower and get dressed by 6:30 and find the proper suite for our 45th-year St. Mary's High School reunion, and Loretta Miragliotta is plump and pleasingly pushy, her husband fat and red-faced, and Anna Grace is SHORTER than I remember her being, but still the same personality, and Pat Leiby has come out of his silence and manages time-shares in Florida, and Frank Mungo is plump and non-recognizable until "aftershock" memory puts him at present and him in the past in ONE acceptable picture. BUT most of the conversation is awkward: what do I SAY to Willian Wehner, Tom Montavon (who hardly speaks to us, probably because we weren't at mass). John Crano and his wife were killed in Florida in January when their car hit another car, and I pay $10 for the class picture, and I leave as soon as I reasonably can, to sit in the room and watch TV and read my magazines until Charles returns about 11PM and we get to sleep fast.
SUNDAY, 7/19/98: Don't attend the 9:30 breakfast in the hotel with the group, but pack and get out and breakfast at Bruegger's Bagels 10:40-11, and leave Charles off at 11:18AM. Take East (silly!) Avenue to route 77, then BACK around through Akron, to Ohio Turnpike (for $2) and off at Sandusky at 12:55PM to a DOWNPOUR that stops by 1:15 and I stop at Ponderosa Steakhouse to take a HUGE shit. I park three rows PAST 28A at 1:40PM and onto Raptor line at 1:50. On at 2:35: VERY smooth: it LOOKS worse than it IS. Blue Streak (old long wood) on line at 2:45 (1964, 78' high, tallest THEN, oldest at Cedar Point), on at 2:57, only ONE real hill, and it's BUMPY! On Iron Dragon (1987) line at 3:10 (iron, small SUSPENDED cars) and on at 3:15. Tame, like a Runaway Train. Off at 3:20, 3:30 lunch of roast beef sandwich and lemonade at $7.80 and walk LOVELY Frontierland-treed area, onto Mean Streak line at 4:14, in SHADE, on 4:30, for FOUR-MINUTE ride, TOO LONG and bumpy!! Onto Gemini (twin wooden coaster with METAL CLAMP-RAILS) line at 4:40, on at 4:44, ULTRA smooth. At 1978 WAS the longest, fastest, tallest. Onto Magnum XL line at 4:55: Loud music, HOT sun! On at 5:32, about 3.5 minute ride---HIGH and VERY bumpy, almost like they WANTED it to feel jostly! Two HIGH hills, lots of TUNNELS. I'm really SICK and I'm TIRED! 5:45PM to Soak City from curiosity, but it's all PAY for tickets! Leave, $3 Slice for a QUART which goes down easily while I watch Mantis (a standing coaster just like in Gurnee which I don't need) and the Power Tower (truly sickening: random ups and downs with other three-facing towers zipping PAST you!) and the somewhat sexy guys (though none so great as the JFK Jr. lookalike, but BETTER, in a cutoff T-shirt with a sexy-looking male friend), and only Corkscrew line at 5:56, on ride at 5:58, hit leg under front seat, off at 6PM, MORE tired. Home? 7:07PM, on my way out, I get on the "Disaster Transport" line and OUT at 7:37 (it's a dark BOBSLED ride from the past) to a bit of RAIN. ONTO Spiral at 7:40, at 285' the tallest ride in the park, 59 rides in park (I ride EIGHT coasters and the Spiral), and out at 7:45 darkening to 7:57 RAIN again and lightning. 9:30 off at WRONG exit. But back on 303 to 91. 9:40 motel 8 is full, but "Maybe Comfort Inn is OK." Pass "Palms" and single is $55, then $50, a DUMP! Get pills and Long John Silver is closed so back to Perkins Family AGAIN jammed, "peaches and cream" muffin for waiting on my $5.49 hoagie after salad. Done at 11:10 and STUFFED back to air conditioned dump to catch up on this and get to SLEEP at 11:30 after repairing drapery.
MONDAY, 7/20/98: Wake at 6:30, then 7:30, up at 8:40 to turn off air conditioner and shit. Shower, do teeth and pack to 9:45. Go EAST from hotel, around THREE times, and to Charles at 10:30. He phones from parking lot and Inventure is open. There from 11:15-2:30, good exhibits, games, and lunch, and out to Route 77 and 80 west to Pennsylvania. North to Mercer and make way to VeiwPoint about 6:30 PM and to Warren at 7:30. Peachtree Restaurant is closed, but get to Penn-Laurel Inn at 8PM and room is $45! Dinner of veal and hot fudge sundae to 9:30, walk railroad bridge and Crescent Park and Three Flags that becomes four with Indian flag (forgot walk through Savoy Lake/Pond earlier) and bed tired at 11:15PM, air conditioner too cold!
TUESDAY, 7/21/98: Wake at 6:50AM and up at 7:05 and dress and look at maps and breakfast at 8AM. STILL in room at 8:55---it's RAINING out! Leave around 9:45 and at 10:55 in to Lumber Museum (Charles dropping $40 that I have to get back to him). 11:55 down to saw mill, leave 12:40 when it threatens rain again. Dine in Wellsboro Hotel to 2:30, Charles taken by slender butt of blond waiter. TIRED about 4PM, but ANOTHER to stop for, until gas at 5:50 past Carbondale, bound for New York STATE. 6:45 over Roebling Bridge (1848) and drive 206, 6, 621, 635, and MANY others to find that NEWTON has NO motels, but follow 206 South and get $63 adequate Pakistani room at last, JUST as it gets TOTALLY dark and Charles is refusing EVERYTHING, ALWAYS saying that the room and the food will be AWFUL. Watch AMC's "Angry Red Planet" to 12, then to bed, too exhausted to see end of dreadful film.
WEDNESDAY, 7/22/98: Up at 7:30, to shower and put on CLEAN shirt to 8:10, figure way back and pack to 8:25, Charles still in bathroom. Mileage 14661 Wednesday night, minus 13360 is 1301 miles for trip. Harvest Restaurant last night and Village Inn for accommodations. Byram Diner breakfast at 8:50 to avoid rush-hour traffic clogging the highways. Charles wants to see Oldwick, so we drive around and around and finally find a tiny sign directing us to it, and he demands to stop at 11, saying we don't have to be back RIGHT at 12:18 since we'll only get back our $9 liability if we do, and he walks around looking at mediocre houses while I stand and swelter in shade. Back in car when Tewksbury Inn isn't even OPEN at 11:30AM, and we manage to find the highway 22 that the directions say we'd END UP on, so we just continue on that, getting gas at 12:25PM for $4.90 to fill the tank, and sign out at 12:38 at 14754 miles, all data neatly inscribed on my Visa bill. Take Alamo bus to Monorail terminal to Terminal A for Newark bus to Path to subway to home. Leave Alamo 1PM, Charles owes me $3 (and I figure out ALL the bills and find that I spent $637.76 for the six-full-days of trip, or $106.29/day. I spent $10 + $8.40 + $9.60 + $4.90 for gas, or $32.90, and we spent something like $67 and $135 and $99 and $45 and $68 for our shared hotels, and other amounts on food, but we've come out AS CLOSE AS NEEDS BE to even), and 1:15 to Terminal A bus stop. On bus at 1:25, off bus at 1:50, PATH train leaves at 1:53, to WTC at 2:15 and home at 2:40, room VERY hot! I have five phone messages, talk to Sara from Scribner from 2:50-3:20, Rebecca (who gave the job to a book-formatter, so I might get the Zora Neale Hurston book eventually) from Garland from 3:20-3:25, and 3:25-4:10 to Pope. Marj calls at 5:05 to say that I've gotten no calls, we chat briefly, and I'm tired enough to start watching TV tapes and see first 4 hours of "The Stand" which I saw the first hour of in 1994 and remember NOTHING of, and then jerk off so assiduously that I edemize my circumcision-remnant before bed at 12:30AM.
THURSDAY, 7/23/98: Did the puzzle last night, finished the Times by about 10AM, find that the milk has gone sour from last week (made tuna casserole last night, heating MORE my kitchen, letting the air conditioner on ALL NIGHT), and force myself out to renew my gym for the last FULL-PRICE two years, over 11/99, and by 3/01 I'll qualify for a HEAVY senior reduction. Buy groceries and pick up the laundry which sits until the next day, phone around to find that Michael will go to "Faust" with me tomorrow night, leave word with Sherryl who doesn't call back as of now, and called Arnold to find he's leaving for three weeks and I'll have to go over tomorrow morning to pick up videos. Watch more TV, make popcorn, unpack a bit, leaving lots for tomorrow.
FRIDAY, 7/24/98: Up at 8AM to check Juno (they're SENDING book I want) and MAS, not much. Played a couple hours of games yesterday to waste time. Got through putting more and more stuff away today, finding OAT discount slips to put in one place, balancing checkbook, calling BUG for credit, finishing up to date at 2:40PM today, got to get to gym and meet Michael for 6PM dinner.