Improvised Thanksgiving

It looked very much like winter today. Exhibit A ...

[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-Snowyday-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

It was snowy, blowy and pretty darn cold. It was 18F (-8C) when I left for work. In mid-afternoon, it was 14 (-10C). Now it's about 11 p.m., and the temperature has fallen to +3 (-16C). Tomorrow, snow is in the forecast. A couple inches. (2.5 cm * "a couple").

It's also getting on towards Christmas, and I need to come up with suitable gifts for everyone. But that's another post for another time.

I wanted to fill you in about last week's trip downstate, with a few pictures. I wrote several times about it, so you may want to know.

The recent post about the trip to St. Ignace included several photos of the Mackinac Bridge. Here is one more: from the bridge itself as we crossed it. My wife took it ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-OnBridge-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

That was five hours into the drive, as we crossed from the Upper Peninsula to the Lower Peninsula. Just south of the bridge, we saw some wind turbines. The only ones we ever get to see. "Might as well get a shot of them, too." OK ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-Windturbns-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

The drive from here to there is really long, and we tried to make as few stops as possible. Some (gas, meals, pit stops) are unavoidable. Others (photos) are optional. The camera was put away, and I kept driving. Besides, it was cloudy and there wasn't much to see except the highway, oncoming traffic and the occasional town or city.

Part of the time, we talked. Mostly we listened to the radio. I've got Sirius satellite radio in the car, and lately we've been listening to a lot of classic radio. My personal favorite is "Gunsmoke"--the stories are always interesting and well-written. "The Lone Ranger," of course. A few months ago I found a site that has podcasts of old radio shows--and my iPod has a good library of them now.

After dark, with snow starting to fall, we finally reached our motel in Flint (an hour from my son's place). We called my son, Phil, to plan our visit the next day and then settled down for the night. Not much to report--we were pretty tired from the long day on the road.

The forecast called for an inch or two of snow overnight. We looked out the window Thursday morning. Ummm, not that much ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-AMSnow-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

We got to Phil's place about 10:30 (Central Time), an hour before the Packers-Lions football game started. It gave Phil and David a chance to look over each other's stuff ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-Apartmnt-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

Phil's cat, Duchess, looked us over pretty closely. Eventually she decided we didn't pose a threat to her playthings ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-Duchess-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

The main entertainment of the day was the Packers-Lions game. It wasn't a good game for the Lions. Though Phil was brought up with us in the western U.P. (i.e.: Packer Country), he's been following the Lions for years, since he's been living there since going off to college in the mid '90s. So he felt compelled to groan once in a while as the Lions struggled.

One football game was enough: We went on to another kind of macho entertainment: a Popeye cartoon collection that came out recently. Several hours were spent watching Popeye and Bluto battle for the fickle affections of the oh-so-skinny Olive Oyl. The DVD set had commentaries and everything. Cool. But after a while, we started thinking about supper.

Most restaurants in the States (even the fast food places) are closed on Thanksgiving Day. So what could we do about Thanksgiving dinner, since he lacks serious cooking skills? In past years, we went across the international border to Windsor, Ont., to check out the stores and get a nice meal--went to an Outback steakhouse one year and an Italian restaurant the next. But the exchange rate hasn't been too good for the greenback lately, and we stayed on our side of the border this year.

The solution to our culinary dilemma: frozen pizzas! He got two stuffed-crust pizzas, and we made short work of them. When in Rome, and all that.

After the pizzas, we moved on to the main event of the night: a movie. He suggested a few, and we finally settled on Ratatouille. Did I spell that right? About the rat who becomes an expert chef. It was a fun movie that I hadn't seen before.

We didn't stay late because everyone knew the plan for Friday. The three of us (my wife, David and myself) were to get up at 6 a.m. Central Time, drive down to Phil's apartment, pick him up, and continue south into downtown Detroit for the game, which kicked off at 9 a.m. Central Time.

(I specify "Central Time" because Detroit is in Eastern Time, an hour ahead of us. When Phil and I discussed schedules, I had to be very careful to avoid misunderstandings. It's rarely an issue, but this time it's obviously very important.)

Friday morning, everyone knew their jobs. We all went to bed early, and we all were able to get up at 6 a.m. and feel fairly well rested, with our things mostly packed up already. I called Phil: He was ready. Bottom line: We were inside Ford Field in plenty of time for the game. The rest of our contingent found seats near the field. Hi, guys! ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-Higuys-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

Phil was somewhere else at the time. He got back a few minutes later ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-Higuys2-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

Phil wanted to come along because he had never seen Ford Field (where the Packers and Lions played the day before) from the inside. David and I had been there twice already, and my wife had been there once. I took some photos [URL="http://drdog.efx2blogs.com/5148/Name+of+the+game%3A+TV+or+not+TV%3F.html"]last year[/URL] and showed them to you.

I gave my wife a $20 bill, for her ticket and concessions. After a soda and some popcorn, she only had 25 cents left. The kids paid their own way.

Only two more shots this time. One was taken inside, about a half hour before the game ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-InsideFF-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

And the other was taken just after our team was presented the state championship trophy. It's shaped like Michigan, if you can't tell ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Finals07-Trophy-11-07.jpg[/IMG]

After the game I was busy for about an hour with interviews, running around to get stats and then finding my way out. Then, we got back onto I-75 and headed north. We dropped off Phil at his place and kept going north.

I had hoped to get back home that night, but we got away too late for that. By the time we got to the bridge (long after dark), we decided to stay at St. Ignace overnight and finish the trip the next morning.

And that's what we did.

In the end, we had a nice visit. But it was far less than it could have been--mainly because I was visiting on the clock. Everything revolved around getting up early for that game and then getting back home as quickly as we could afterwards. We didn't have the luxury of looking around the area, shopping, seeing the sights or even going out to eat at a nice restaurant.

Next year, maybe we'll be able to visit him in summer and do all the things we couldn't do on this trip. I hope we can.