Hello, one and all. I haven't written since we returned from our trip to Chicago late Sunday night. The last few days have been quite busy for me, including a trip to Marquette on Tuesday for a track meet inside the Superior Dome. So it's time to catch you up with things.
But first, unfinished business: I have to pass along a photo I took last week, on the first night of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's the CBC's Don Cherry, welcoming the start of the NHL playoffs with a jacket that probably glows in the dark. I think once I saw a picture of Peter Townsend or Roger Daltry of The Who from the late '60s, wearing a jacket like that in a concert--but that jacket was just black and white.
Eat your hearts out, guys! This, folks, is the quintessential Don Cherry photo ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-CoachCrnr-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
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I'll start with the end of our Chicago trip. Later, I'll tell you about its start. The middle part (at the quilt show) will come later.
We had a long, exhausting day at the quilt show on Saturday and spent Saturday night at the motel. Sunday at 9:30 a.m.., we left for home, taking a different route than when we arrived--I had to get an oil change for the car.
Breakfast was at the McDonald's in Des Plaines. As I was parking the car, I saw an old, old McDonald's across the street. Like one built around the time of the Pyramids.
It turns out that this was the very first McDonald's drive-in in the U.S., which opened in 1958--50 years ago. They are renovating it into--get this--a McDonald's museum. Anyway, I got a picture of it ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-McDrest-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
A little further up the road, we stopped at a railroad crossing for a very long freight train. It was so long, in fact, that a second very long freight train passed by in the opposite direction while the first one was still rumbling through. We were there 15 or 20 minutes. Here are the two trains passing each other, with a long line of cars just waiting and burning their precious gasoline. (Except intelligent drivers like me, who shut down and relaxed.) ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Trains-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
Back on the road, we got the oil change. The only think I'll say about that is that everything in the Chicago area seemed to cost about 20% more than it does elsewhere. Call it the greased palm tax, if you want.
Then back north. Aside from the pit stops, we made only one stop, in Appleton, Wis. My wife wanted to visit a fabric store (they have two there) and a Barnes and Noble. They turned out to be long, long stops--and then she bought very little. Then, after a lot of looking around and driving in circles, we found an Arby's for "lunch"--except by then, it was after 4 p.m.
My mood wasn't good. I just wanted to get home. I can only start unwinding from a long drive after my work is finished. She can snooze in the car; I can't. So I was ticked. We got home about a half hour after sunset. There was six inches of snow on the sidewalk from our weekend storm--but it had crystallized, so it was easy to walk on.
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That's how the trip ended. Now I'll write about the best part of the whole weekend--to me, at least. It came late Friday morning, when we visited S and her husband at their home in Oshkosh, Wis.
We sat at their table and talked for an hour or so. At some point, I went to the car and brought back a box, which contained the two jumbo-size bath towels my wife had made for them. As you may remember, S and her husband have a hot tub, and they also visit a nude beach in summer when the weather is nice. Plus, jumbo bath towels come in handy in normal household use, too.
Then a cat jumped up onto the table and walked towards us. This, S said, is a little lynx kitten that has been with the family for five years or so. It walked towards me and seemed friendly, so I picked it up and started stroking it. And, just like Charlie, it put its paws on either side of my neck and before long you could hear it purring.
I wanted to get a photo of it--but the camera was in the car and I didn't want to let the kitty go. My wife, though, couldn't stand not holding the kitten, so she soon took the cat from me; I went to the car, got the camera, came back and got a photo or two ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-LynxA-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-LynxB-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
S pointed out the tufts of fur on her ears, the large paws and even a ruff of fur around her neck. And, for all her friendliness towards us, S said she is a terror to neighborhood birds when she gets outdoors--sort of a split personality. As for size, it was small for a cat her age--Charlie is bigger and heavier. It has a little stub of a tail, like a lynx.
After a while, we went out to eat at a nearby restaurant that has a buffet for lunch. We all ate well.
Then another treat.
Before we left, David had told us they are shooting a Johnny Depp movie in Oshkosh. S and her husband mentioned it, too, and that part of the downtown area had been transformed back to the 1930s--the John Dillinger era--for some location shots.
The film is called "Public Enemies," and it is scheduled to be released in 2009. Depp plays John Dillinger, and other stars in the film include Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard and Channing Tatum.
So after lunch, we drove downtown to see what we could see. They were putting rubber "cobblestones" on one intersection. We didn't know cobblestones come in rubber rolls, but you can't argue with pictures ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-StreetSigns-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Streetwork-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
The fronts of many stores in that area had been redone with 1930s-era products and merchandise in the windows. Little (easily removable) signs identified what the store really is today, for the sake of today's shoppers.
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Importfront-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
We went inside one shop (actually a restaurant), and I was impressed by the floor ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-TileFloor-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
If we had the time, a visiting band looked interesting, if the poster is any clue ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-DrKick-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
S's husband was lamenting that they had taken down a big sundial in the middle of town--and then they blocked that entire area off with a display of vintage signs, so that you wouldn't have been able to see it anyway.
The signs are in that picture above, with the roll of rubber bricks. That's the front side. Here is the back side ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-SignsBack-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
This has been quite the news in Oshkosh. Read about it for yourself: The Oshkosh Northwestern [URL="http://tinyurl.com/3yo6fe"]has a section[/URL] about Oshkosh going Hollywood.
And the area merchants are putting out T-shirts to mark the occasion ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-TshirtA-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-TshirtB-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
We walked around there for about 45 minutes, looking at this and that. Here's pictures from a men's store ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-MensWearB-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-MensShop-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
Here is a cigar shop and newsstand ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Cigarshop-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
Interested in a new typewriter?
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Typewriters-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
What about a clock or a radio?
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Clocks-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
Perhaps I can interest you in a beautiful new fountain pen ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-FountainPens-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
Or how about matches and some exotic smokes?
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Smokes-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
I know what you are looking for--a handsome record player ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Gramophn-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
Maybe you need to borrow a little money. These people would be happy to help ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Chi08-Thermometr-4-08.jpg[/IMG]
It should be obvious: This is the part of the trip I enjoyed most. Of course, I enjoyed being with S and her husband, too. We are talking about trying again for a movie night some time soon. Maybe in the next month or so, after the movie crews have gone.
****
That's the story of our trip except for the part about Chicago and the quilt show itself.
So there's more to come in a few days, once I get a chance to sort through some 200 pictures I took at the show and pick the best/most interesting ones. That's not going to be easy, believe me!
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