The main purpose of my trip was for a celebration of my dad’s 85th birthday. It was presented amidst a family reunion for the descendents of Phillip Stahl who migrated to Dowagiac Michigan from Chicago about 135 years ago. A large cake was bought for this purpose and though shared amongst about 65 people, plenty of cake remained. However the details of the reunion will find themselves in a separate blog.
I arrived in Detroit and rented a car to get to my sister’s house at about 12:30 am on Thursday after a day of work. That was pretty uneventful as I pretty much went right to bed…where I could not sleep. It seems when I travel I always get little sleep the first night.
On Friday morning after a few hours of catching up with my sister, I headed out to visit an old friend, one that I have known for the longest time. T and I have been friends for about 43 years and if we met each other today we probably would not be friends. We have approximately nothing in common but…the great thing about long friendships is the common experience. Over that span T and I have traveled together or met up in a different place about 30 times. He accompanied me on a 14 hour failed trip to Chicago on my 21st birthday. Fueled by the gas that drove us there and the beer that inspired us, we got to Chicago and discovered that motel rooms were far too expensive for our combined cash and headed back to the Ann Arbor that I lived in at the time. T and I have misspent many hours and days together and despite our differences have some fun memories.
He had just returned home from about 30 days in the hospital having major surgery that was successful and then the poisoning of Sepsis that nearly killed him. It did not but he was in a pretty debilitated state. He sat in some sort of barcalounger and with a quiet raspy voice answered questions and offered insight to his ex-wife and myself. It reminded me of a gangster movie where by the minions paid their homage to the iconic Don. I do not say that negatively either. It just was reminiscent of the film scenes just like it.
I stayed with T for a few hours but he fell into a nap and I slipped out.
Later that evening I met up with an old college flame for dinner. K and I get together about every three years or so and it always good to meet up with her. We do not really discuss old times as they are very old. We talk about what we are doing now. K has had a very successful life financially and was able to retire with her husband at around age 53. More power to her I say.
We met for dinner at a refurbished train station in Plymouth, Michigan. I had Walleye since it is never on a menu in my adopted state of Maryland (I have live there far longer than I lived anywhere else and in several months it will be more than half of my life so “adopted” may not really be the right word). We laughed and groused and in general had a good time. We then paced Plymouth for about an hour and continued talking but alas it was time to say goodbye once again.
While in Michigan my old delights in the home town team resurface exponentially. I have become a very passive baseball fan as time goes by. I still read box scores every morning and am familiar with the biggest of names in the sport but once in Michigan during the summer I am as big a fan as all of the people I left behind. When I left K and returned to my sister’s home the Tigers were in mid game and the young Porcello on the mound spinning a masterful game simultaneous to the home team hitting up a storm. We watched the remainder of the blow out and agreed that Porcello at least tonight, looked like Verlander. That is how Friday evening ended and I slept much better that night.
On Saturday I headed to Ann Arbor where I had lived most of the early 70s. I was off to visit with my friend B who I went to grad school with 30 plus years ago. We have occasionally caught up over the years since we left Bowling Green where we matriculated. We obviously have not been catching up enough. I enjoyed myself immensely for about 12 hours before falling asleep on his couch; a sleep that would last me through the night.
I arrived earlier than I expected but B was hanging around lolling so I was accepted at about 11:00 am. We spent the first bit of time reminiscing then headed to a lunch enclave replete with diner carts and bought vegetarian barbeque served by P who as it happens has been married to B for the last few decades. And…their son R along with his buddy provided some guitar jazz for the lunch crowd this hot Saturday afternoon.
Back to the house for a few hours to eat salads and banana bread, continuing to do some reminiscing and watching a really badly played baseball game. Once refreshed we headed over to a house where a porch jam session was going on. Three guitars (two rhythm and one lead) along with a mandolin, bass and banjo, bluegrass was performed for anyone who was in earshot. We did not stay for more than about 4 songs but it was a delightfully pleasant way to spend the early evening. Then B and I headed off to a blues performance which included a voluminous female diva and a band of 6 or so including three horn players. They started off with “Killer Joe” which is a great way to introduce the horns. After a few numbers the grand dame came on board. I should have remembered her name but I did not. She sang her sultry Chicago styled blues songs for a set and we left. I had within about 8 hours been regaled with about 3 full hours of live music. I have sort of faded out of going to see live music and forgot how entertaining it could be.
Back at the home of B and P I relaxed in their company for an hour or so before falling asleep. I crept out silently at about 5:30 in order to head to the family reunion. The ride out was a delight all by itself as well.
I drove south to M-12 or Michigan Avenue as we all know it. It was one of those early highways built for the budding auto industry and the buyers of those cars. It was designed for early travel and I preferred early travel to the hell bent expressway. It was a good decision. On Sunday morning and early morning at that, a highway like this is nearly devoid of traffic so I ambled through the Irish Hills which served as a memory lane trip as my dad would take us kids to the Hills every so often. I saw the signs for Walker Tavern, the historic visiting spot in which there was a purported murder some 150 years ago. I reveled in the stains on the floor which were to be proof that a man mortally wounded, laid there as his breath expired. I continued on mostly enjoying the bliss of a pressure free drive through historical towns and on my way to Niles, MI the hometown of Ring Lardner. He was sited more than once in my Master’s Thesis.
Since I was early for the reunion I traipsed along the St. Joseph River on one of the bike/hike paths that are becoming standard for towns. That is a good thing. Niles on the other hand appears as so many other rust belt cities during the last 25 years. It is bleak and rife with obese people driving pickup trucks. Upon walking around the downtown I could see all the remnants of a thriving small city of about 100 years ago and waxed a little nostalgic. Perhaps if I had a time machine I could have encountered Ring and did some joking. I did not have such a device and headed towards the Pepper Martin Park to see my close family and to meet several distant cousins etc. ou already know hat story will be a separate entry.
I headed back to visit T several hours later and while I used Route 60-another two laner for about 60 miles, I climbed onto US #94 for the remaining 120 miles in order to save time. I did not regret saving time but #94 requires full attentiveness and higher speeds. It was not pleasant. I got there after awhile.
T seemed to be a bit lighter but he is in pretty weakened condition now so we had low key chats interrupted by periods of silence and television. G, another friend from my distant past came by for an hour and we three visited. I tried to keep things light with silly joking and recalling events of so long ago-the ones we could laugh at. It was mildly effective and we retired early I on the couch watching some television show of which I had forgotten about in the morning.
The trip was to end on Monday but not before Monday had nearly ended. As always I was awake at about 5:00am so I took the opportunity to walk to the corner for a newspaper and coffee. I have tired of the print media over the years and typically only buy newspapers when I am out of town. Newspapers have crossword puzzles though so I had something to do. Later I bought a too sumptuous breakfast being a cheese omelet with chili and about a bathtub full of potatoes. I used to eat like that several times a week but not so anymore. Well as it would happen I ate all of it and felt like a whale the rest of the day.
Eventually T woke up and we chatted for awhile but I had to get my rented car back to the airport before 12:00pm so I took care of that. Unfortunately my flight was not until 4:30pm so I had a long time in the Detroit airport to read books and complete my collected crosswords. I did that and the plane arrived (20 minutes late) and the flight took another 15 minute delay on the tarmac and the light rail in Maryland upon landing took another 20 minutes to arrive and the normally 50 minute trip to my stop was delayed by another 15 minutes or so at one stop along the way and the taxi driver that I called for upon arrival took nearly half an hour to get there to drive me home. That long sentence was intended to leave the reader as breathless as I was when I got home to a torrential rain at about 10:00pm. At least I did not have to wake up and prepare-then go to work until 4:30am.
Well I had to whine about the long trip home as that is my mien. My quick trip to Detroit was very good. I am glad I did it.
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