Our Big Trip Weeks 11 to 12- August 24 to September 6

An Overview

We have been spending a lot of our time in and around Trenton, NJ, where Beth's mother, brother and future sister-in-law and your humble narrator's father, father's wife and half brother live. This is the part of the trip where we have done more visiting and less exploring, and as a result, there is not as much day-to-day activity that would appeal to the masses who devotedly read these updates. As a result, the daily travelogue will be suspended in favor of a travelogue when something that would be univesally exciting happens. For instance, if I write that my sister Kirsten cleaned the inside of her car, that would be VERY exciting, but only to a select group. So I'll try to keep the updates on a more universal level.

A Special Note to Tom & Jeannette:

We are thinking of you as your "due date" draws ever nearer!

Day Somethingorother- Thursday, August 28:

We got tickets to go see the Trenton Thunder's final home game. The Thunder are the double-A farm team affiliated with the New York Yankees. Since this is a non-biased website, and I don't want to receive any hate emails from a bunch of boorish, spoiled, overbearing Yankees fans who probably can't even spell and certainly couldn't find their way around a computer, there will be no mention of your humble narrator's opinion about this team. We took Matthew and Andy Alpert, Beth's cousin's Laura's 10-year old son. We all had a great time and Matthew ate too much sugary food. I would not have cared how wound up he was except for the fact that we foolishly got him some of those "thunder sticks" you see at sporting events these days. They are about 3-foot long inflatable tubes that make a terrible racket when you bang them together. The problem was not the racket, however. The problem was that Matthew did not have a lot of space to operate the thunder sticks and kept hitting the man in front of us, who was roughly eleven feet tall and seven feet wide. In addition, he had on a shirt that said "West Coast Choppers." This is the motorcycle shop where Jessie James (of "Monster Garage" on, you guessed it, The Discovery Channel) works. I don't know if you've seen Monster Garage, but as far as TV shows, they don't get more manly than this. I saw one episode where a guy actually cut his head off with a blow torch and the rest of the crew laughed at him as he bandaged his hand before finishing tearing the muffler off the car he was working on. Really. So this guy at the game was big AND manly. So I tried to keep Matthew's flailing thunder sticks in check while keeping one eye on the nearest exit. We did make it to the end of the game and saw a neat fireworks and music presentation. A fun night indeed.

Saturday, August 30:

I have given up trying to figure out what day of our trip it is, partly because it requires advanced math (adding) and I have taken a vacation from higher cranial functions, and partly because at some point we will be more than halfway through our big trip and that point will be quite depression-inducing. Today we got up bright and early because we had some big plans. We planned to go to the 20th annual Plowing Competition at Howell Living History Farm. The farm is a historical farm, which means that they still have people working there in the same fashion that people worked farms before the advent of machinery. That is, all of the work is done by human or animal power. They have programs there where you can participate in old fashioned farming activities such as sheep shearing, apple picking and butter churning. I read about the plowing exhibition and decided it was the kind of thing we had to do. We got there around 10am and most of the teamsters (old fashioned plowers who plow using animals) were walking their horses, oxen or mules up and down the field. While this was happening, other teamsters were discussing how the judging would take place and what the judges were looking for. After that got settled, the teamsters hooked up their teams and got to plowin'. That left Bob Simpkins all by himself on the announcer's wagon . Bob has been the announcer at the plowing match for every one of its 20 years. He was talking all about plowing depth, furrow width, soil PH, etc. As Bob was giving everyone the backround info, Beth and I sized up the field. We both picked our favorites. Beth's favorite eventually won. His name is Dan Ruth, and he had won in the past. He sure could plow. His area was as square as an olympic swimming pool, and the dirt that came out was as fine as talcum powder. You may not be able to appreciate this unless you're an experienced plower, as your humble narrator is. But I wasn't when we got there, so I registered for the novice division of the competition. There were 14 others registered as novices, and the atmosphere was tense. As the fine plowers and old-timer plowers got underway, the novices gathered around our horse team. As Pam, the judge, gave us tips about how to go about plowing, we tightened our boots and steeled our resolve. I caught up with Farmer Bob Simpkins to ask him about how to best approach the competition:

Your Humble Narrator: Excuse me, Mr. Simpkins?

Farmer Bob Simpkins: Yes, young man?

YHN: You've been around plowing for a long time?

FBS: Oh, heck, I been comin' ta plowin' events fer quite a while. I been announcin' this one since, oh, 1980 or so.

YHN: So you've probably seen it all, huh?

FBS (smiling wistfully): Oh, I seen quite a few things.

YHN: Um, I've never plowed before. Any tips for someone about to plow for the first time?

FBS: Nope.

Then we went to it. We were using Aaron Vastine's horses. Aaron (the winner of last year's match) came in 2nd in the Fine Plowing Category (the pros). We lined up to get ready to go. I went about 9th out of 15 plowers. The atmosphere was such that we competitors cheered one another on during and after each run, but secretly rejoiced when we saw the blade of that plow breach the top of the soil (a big deduction) like a beautiful Humpback Whale embracing the sun by leaping out of The Pacific. There were a couple of good runs, but I thought I could probably make a run for the title when it was my turn to go. Pam Flory, the judge, said that any attempt to bribe her would be considered, so when I got set up to plow, I told her that she looked beautiful in the faded purple T-shirt that she was wearing. Before I knew it, I was underway . My furrow was even, my blade deep and there was no garbage or grass clots left after I plowed. My exit was clean too. There was, however, one problem. You need to take 8 to 12 inches of new sod off each time you run the plow through. It's important to keep the plow straight so that the rows are straight (and the crops that will be planted will be straight). I was like 3 feet from the end when my plow slipped into the furrow that had been plowed on the previous lap. I managed to get it back out soon enough, but I could see first prize slipping out of my grip. It was unfortunate that it happened near the end like that, because I knew that Pam would remember my accident when she was scoring my run. But there was nothing I could do about it, so Beth and I carried on and visited with some of the other animals and listened to The Jugband Mountain String Band to keep my mind off the crushing agony that grasped every fiber of my being when I relived my agricultural faux pas. Finally, it was time for the judging. If you thought it was tense before our run, you should have been there for the judging. Man. Anyway, when it was over, I had won 4th place in the novice division. That included a yellow ribbon and a snappy baseball cap . If my recap of the Plowing Match has led to a yearning hunger for more information related to the events of this exciting day, check out Howell Living History Farm's Website. We then went over to Beth's cousin Mary's house, and only there did I realize how sunburned my forehead had gotten. We enjoyed catching up with everybody, and enjoyed all of the yummy food we ate as well. A triumphant day for me, for sure. Beth had an OK day, too. She called up ticketmasblah or whatever and got front blah tickets to go see Bruce Springblah and The E Street blah up near New blah city, or something.

NOTE FROM BETH: HELLOOO!?!??! Springblah? This is grounds for divorce. I actually scored "front and center" tickets to Bruce. A dream come true. In all the shows I've been to, I have NEVER been that close. I could see the sweat dripping from his brow. It was absolutely fantabulous!

This was a REALLY REALLY great show. No lyin'. The following is an excerpt taken from the Backstreets website (www.backstreets.com):

August 30 / East Rutherford, NJ / Giants Stadium

Notes: In the world of Bruce Springsteen concerts, some nights seem earmarked as special before the first note is even played. Whether it's a birthday show or the last concert of a lengthy stand, sometimes you just get a hunch. There weren't many good hunches flying around after Thursday's standard set, filmed by a professional crew. So Saturday night at Giants Stadium (night 9 of 10, if you're keeping score) caught quite a few folks off guard as Springsteen raised the stakes and had the crowd raising their hands in joy, gratitude, and disbelief. As the filming continued--with still no official word as to why--Bruce and the band busted out of the gate with the ultra-rare "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart," and established new possibilities for a Rising Tour that is most likely a month away from wrapping. Eleven songs not played the night before, ten songs in the encores, two special guests, tour premieres, rarities, dedications...this one had it all. Highlights (and there were many) included "Trapped," "Roll of the Dice," "Because the Night," and the second appearance of "Pretty Flamingo" since 1978. Springsteen dedicated the main-set closer "Thunder Road" to the family and memory of Jim Berger, who was killed in the September 11 tragedy. Emmylou Harris joined Bruce for a poignant "Across the Border," and the Philadelphia-based band Marah helped out on "Raise Your Hand." A special night for many, this seemed to be the show that said, "Hang on Philly, Jersey's back in town!"

Setlist: Janey, Don't You Lose Heart/The Rising/Lonesome Day/Candy's Room/Trapped/Empty Sky/Waitin' on a Sunny Day/Roll of the Dice/Because the Night/Badlands/Out in the Street/Mary's Place/Across the Border (with Emmylou Harris)/Into the Fire/Thunder Road

First Encore: This Hard Land/Raise Your Hand (with Marah)/Glory Days/Born to Run/Seven Nights to Rock

Second Encore: My City of Ruins/Land of Hope and Dreams/Pretty Flamingo/Rosalita/Dancing in the Dark

Sunday, August 31:

Beth and I headed over to my sister Kirsten's place. She lives there with her boyfriend Bob. She is 4-foot-10 and he is 6-foot-6, which means it must be funny to watch them dance. I must note that it is also funny to watch me dance, and I don't even need a partner. Kirsten made potato salad, which Bob has been asking her to make all summer. What it means that Kirsten made potato salad is that your humble narrator peeled, sliced and boiled the potatoes, Beth cut up all the other ingredients, and Kirsten washed the bowl that we combined everything in. Anyway, it was yummy. I should note that we have had comments asking us to describe our food and the types of food that we eat more closely. I guess people are interested in the different types of food that are consumed in different parts of the country. Part of the problem with this, however, is that some of our experience is contingent upon our environment. For instance, if we said that in Wyoming, people eat a lot of sushi, that would be somewhat misleading. While staying at Laura and Ted's however, sushi accouted for roughly 20% of our dinners. So. Jersey is famous for corn and tomatoes, and I am a fan of both. I must say that I do not eat enough raw tomatoes to tell the difference, but the corn here is dang good, and puts west coast corn to shame. Anyway, Kirsten made some really good potato salad, but both my mother and Beth's cousin Anne are famous for their potato salad, so I don't want to start any friction, and I will just leave it at Kirsten's was quite tasty. Then we went four-wheeling. ATV's. Oh yeah. I would like to point out an interesting phenomenon. I have been to hospitals for every extreme sport I have ever tried that used self-propulsion or gravity to move me forward. However, I have motorcycled, snowmobiled, jet-skiied and now ATV'd and never gotten a scratch. This must mean that either I am very comfortable on motorized things or I am so incredibly strong and powerful that I wind up going so much faster under my own power than I ever could using a motor. Who knows. I did feel very comfortable on the four-wheeler, though. It was a blast. Beth and Bob also rode- Kirsten stayed behind, because she had a bit of a headache from all the difficult cooking. Bob explained that the rule is that when you're in danger of running head-on into another rider, turn right. About 5 minutes later, Beth and I find ourselves about to run into each other and Beth turned left, almost killing us both and running into a small tree. I'm sorry I didn't have the camera with us, because we got REALLY muddy out there (it had rained the day before), and it would have been great to have a picture of us all muddied-up. We then went back to the house and had ice cream sundaes with little peanut butter cups, walnuts in a gooey sauce, hot fudge, whipped cream and Snicker's pieces.

Monday, September 1:

We (Dad, Dawn, Matthew, Beth and I) went down to the New Jersey State Aquarium, which is located in Camden. The aquarium is filled with fish, sea mammals, and other things you would expect, but the other thing the aquarium has (more than anyplace else) is dangerously loud kid noise. I thought at first that this was just because there were a lot of kids, but I then realized that there wasn't necessarily a critical mass of kids. No. The problem was (and I could only notice this because of my extensive training in the aural arts, and wouldn't blame any of you "normal" folks for not noticing) lack of soundproofing. Really. Any time you get more than 1,000 kids together, you are generally in a place that is either outside or in an arena or something with some sort of soundproofing. At the aquarium, the walls were primarily made of glass, and the aquarium was shaped so that you walk along tunnels that are only 10 feet or so high, so you're essentially walking along a large megaphone. But we all had a great time. We saw some divers in the big tank do a presentation on sharks while swimming with them, which was fun and funny, but it made my back a little sore. Here is the reason . This kid was sitting behind me kicking me through half of the presentation. I thought it would be funnier to get a good picture of him than to ask him to stop. Part of being an honest reporter is taking some lumps for the story. We had fun looking at all of the exhibits and learning about all of the animals . Notice what a nice picture that was. I offer that picture in response to family members who claim I only put silly pictures on the web site, like this one of Dad enjoying a trip on the Merry-Go-Round in the handicapped bench, which is where Matthew decided to sit because the horses were too high . Matthew's favorite part was when we went to a shallow tank and we got to pet baby sharks as they swam by.

Thursday, September 4:

I quickly fell into last place in the football pool I am playing in by picking the Jets to beat the Redskins.

Friday, September 5:

I went and picked up the van, so our travels could commence. We will do a northeast loop over the next couple of weeks. Beth accompanied Laura Alpert to the delivery room where she produced a baby, Chloe Elizabeth Alpert, who was 7 lbs. 9 oz. Beth felt really fortunate to be able to be there , and Laura said she was grateful for Beth's support.

NOTE FROM BETH: I can't thank Laura enough for the most amazing opportunity I have ever (and probably will ever, lest I do it myself) had. I felt so honored. The hours leading up to the delivery gave me hope that it was something I might actually be able to survive myself! And the final moments moved me to tears. Nothing could be more beautiful. Thanks, dear friend.

LAST WEEK'S TRIVIA CONTEST WINNER: Connie Marinko was the first correct respondee. More people responded to this trivia question than any other, which means that Close Encounters of the Third Kind must have been a popular movie, and your humble narrator will have to see it someday.

CONNIE'S COMPLIMENT: Connie Marinko, doting mother and wife, is thoughtful, tenacious, a talented and prolific crocheter, and bakes the meanest banana bread ever made.

THIS WEEK'S TRIVIA QUESTION: What activity is legal in all 50 States, with the exception of Oregon and New Jersey?

COMING NEXT WEEK: Jeannette and Tom deliver a baby?!!? Stay tuned. As for Karl and Beth... most likely another week in central NJ, as we have a wedding coming up on the 13th and some folks we still haven't managed to catch up with yet, then a partial northeast loop. We have another wedding and a christening to attend the last week of September before we migrate south.