Typical Day on the Road

December 2004

Dec. 1

Back in St. Louis. We checked into a Quality Inn, courtesy of some complimentary coupons we received from Choice Hotels to compensate us for our abominable encounter with one of their properties, Reno Econo Lodge. We can't stress it often enough: avoid Econo Lodge in general (we've heard of many other awful experiences at their locations) and ESPECIALLY the one on Wells Ave. in Reno, Nevada.

Dec. 2

Still at Quality Inn, which has a rather pleasant indoor pool.

Dec. 3

Still staying in St. Louis, mostly just hibernating in our motel room and camping out on the Internet.

Dec. 4

Took Zephyr back to the Boy Scout Christmas tree lot where he volunteered last year. This time it was rather warm weather, as opposed to the heavy snow last year, and the lot wasn't nearly as busy, so he spent most of the time having fun with the other boys working there.

Dec. 5

Still in St. Louis. Another long day of Internet work.

Dec. 6

Made a day (and night) of it at a school in Villa Ridge, just south of St. Louis. Two performances in the day, then after a rather lengthy break, we did a family program in the evening.

Dec. 7

Drove to the post office in downtown St. Louis to check for our mail. It still hadn't arrived, so we drove on to Kansas City, arriving in the late afternoon.

Kansas City is a place that we have some fond memories of. It was here that we first discovered Borders Bookstores 12 years ago; and Borders has been our "living room" on the road ever since then. We also will go to Barnes & Noble and, in a pinch, Books-A-Million. (We'd prefer to frequent independent stores, but they're not as easy to find, especially big ones.)

Across the street from our original Borders was a huge bowling alley/ skating rink that we went to one night many years ago. It happened to be Oscar night, and they let us linger in the café, long after the establishment was officially closed, to watch the rest of the Oscar telecast.

The following year when we were in town, we decided to attend a performance by an improv group, which turned out to be quite good. We arrived early, and Zephyr (age 3) began chatting with a young man who was doodling on a sketch pad. He drew a cartoon portrait of Zephyr, which he gave to us, and we probably still have it somewhere. This fellow had also done several drawings that were posted on the walls around the theatre. His name, we learned, was Luke Sienkowski; and a few years later we heard of him again when he began to enjoy a degree of success as a performer of humorous songs under the name The Great Luke Ski. (His web site is www.lukeski.com.) Like Dennis, he has been featured on The Dr. Demento Show, only more often.

During the performance, there was one point when the performers turned their backs while the moderator collected a few items from the audience, which were deposited in a paper bag. (The objects, not the audience.) Then the actors turned around and, upon being presented with an item drawn from the bag, each would improvise a bit with it. Kimberly got the inspiration to contribute Zephyr as one of the "objects". He gamely went along as they set him on a stool onstage, and the performers addressed lines to him. Finally, he decided he couldn't be upstaged, so he responded to their lines with his impersonation of Homer Simpson's forehead-slapping "D'Oh!", which had the audience rolling in the aisles. This only encouraged him, and he contributed another ad lib or two; one of the troupe commented, "well, I guess I'm out of a job now."

We returned to see this troupe, in its new location, a couple of years ago - two of the same performers were still there. Since this was not long after 9-11, the performance was prefaced by the entire audience singing the National Anthem. On the down side, we arrived early again, pulling into the parking lot before any other audience members, with our van and trailer. Two gents came out, eyeing us suspiciously, and asked, "What are you?" Well, we've been regarded with a great deal of suspicion before, but we've never heard it phrased quite THAT way. (This particular evening's performance, by the way, was videotaped for a special by Kansas City's Channel 62.)

This time in KC, we did none of these fun things, but it was just work, work, work.

Dec. 8

Performed at Gashland Elementary in K.C., our second time there. Then we drove back to St. Louis.

Dec. 9

Stocked up at Trader Joe's, since we expect to be out of TJ territory for a couple of months. Inquired about our mail at the post office one more time, but it still hadn't arrived. (Later learned that due to an incorrect zip code, it was sent back to California.) Started our long drive toward North Carolina.

Dec. 10

A LOOOONNNNGG day of driving. This time, it was almost all done by Dennis, just like in the old days, while Kimberly (the usual driver these days) caught up on some work.

Dec. 11

Arrived in Chapel Hill, N.C. Met up with some Internet friends and went to lunch at an Indian restaurant. Our rendezvous point was the Internationalist Bookstore, a bit of a local landmark.

Dec. 12

Convened at the North Carolina capital in Raleigh with our new friends and about 200 other people as part of a nationwide demonstration to call attention to the problem-plagued election system. Three computer experts gave speeches about the horrific flaws in the recently adopted computer technology for accepting and counting votes. One of them, who makes his living by "hacking" computer systems so he can report to the companies on how to prevent such activity, was a Republican who made it clear that this was not a partisan campaign by a bunch of "sore losers" (or sore winners). His loud and clear message was that the only way to prevent fraud and/or grotesquely inaccurate tallies is to use paper ballots.

Finally, we had attended our very first demonstration!

Dec. 13

Still in Raleigh, NC. Disappointed, but not surprised, to see that there was apparently NO media coverage of yesterday's demonstrations - even though they took place in all 50 state capitals, in addition to Washington, D.C. (Probably a first.) Meanwhile, 850 reporters are covering the Scott Peterson trial.

Headed south to the little town of Dudley. Far removed from the lights of the city, Zephyr noticed a couple of shooting stars. We checked the news on the cell phone online, and confirmed that a major meteor shower was scheduled for tonight just for our benefit. So we sat in the van and watched the show.

Dec. 14

Performed at a school in Dudley, NC. Our very first performance ever in The Tarheel State, number 43 for us!

Then we drove to Wilmington, where we worked at Kinko's (now called FedExKinko's, and often less convenient than it used to be) until they locked the doors at midnight. The most helpful and efficient staff at a Kinko's or a FedEx Kinko's, or just about any business, that we've ever seen.

Dec, 15

Wilmington, NC. We're at Cape Fear, site of at least two movies of the same name. Apparently we're also in the stomping grounds of NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, of whom Zephyr was once a big fan. There is a Jeff Gordon Chevrolet dealership in town. Dec. 16

Drove to Myrtle Beach, S.C. , our first time here. It reminds us of Santa Cruz or Santa Monica, except a bit chillier and far less crowded. In fact, since it's the off-season, the place seemed all but deserted. Even many businesses seemed to be shuttered for the winter. We strolled along the waterfront, and saw motel after motel with empty parking lot. It was like a science fiction movie about all the people on earth vanishing.

We took our van to Firestone for an oil change, only about 2000 miles overdue, while we explored the neighborhood. Nearby was an amusement park called The Pavilion, which was of course closed for the season like everything else. But the gates were open, so we meandered inside where workers were performing maintenance on the rides. For Zephyr, a theme-park lunatic, this was more thrilling than actually being on the rides. We asked the crew, busily spraying lubricant/cleaner on the pieces of the rides they had disassembled, if it was okay for us to watch them. They cordially invited us not only to watch them, but to stroll around and see the whole place if we wished, and we did. Evidently, however, they didn't communicate with the security guard, who showed up about an hour later - after we were just about ready to go - and asked if we had permission to be inside.

Dec. 17

Checked into Apache Campground, right on the beach in Myrtle Beach. It's next to Apache Pier, which is billed as the "Longest Pier on the East Coast", but at some 1200 feet, it seems to be dwarfed by some of the piers we've seen on the West Coast. The pristine beach, and the high rise apartment buildings guarding it, stretched as far as we could see in either direction. We decided we'd like to come back during warmer weather, because this appears to be one of the best places for ocean bathing we've ever seen.

Dec. 18

Myrtle Beach, SC. Took a stroll on the pier, then went to play miniature golf at Atlanticus, a "minotaur goff" course like none we've ever seen. The elaborate décor is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the legend of Atlantis. Most impressive.

Dec. 19

Mt. Pleasant, SC. We finally found a movie theater that is showing "Finding Neverland", which Zephyr has been frantically wanting to see. (It's been surprisingly difficult to find.) Went to a noon matinee, and since "Series Of Unfortunate Events" started immediately afterward, we decided to see both films. "Finding Neverland", though not bad, was a bit of a letdown. "Series Of Unfortunate Events" (based on the first three books in the Lemony Snicket series) was somewhat better. But the real highlight was the end credits of the latter - quite simply the most engaging and creative we've ever seen. Having spent some time working in Tinseltown ourselves, we ALWAYS read the credits at the end of a movie, and we're usually the only ones left in the auditorium when the lights come up. But this time, a few others had lingered as well, because the text was accompanied by a brilliant animated shadow-puppet style mini-movie that foreshadowed sequels yet to come. Bravo!

Dec. 20

Only five more congested traffic days until Christmas. After shopping at a health food store in Mt. Pleasant, we drove to Savannah, Ga.

Dec. 23

Savannah, Ga. Counting the Confederate flags we see. And we finally noticed that, lo and behold, there really are savannahs in (or around) Savannah. Or at least marshland. Visited the YMCA in late afternoon.

Dec. 24

Checked our mail again at the post office in Bloomingdale (a suburb of Savannah) and the last item we're expecting has arrived. So we did some grocery shopping and then drove south to Brunswick, Ga. and checked into a Red Roof Inn for a couple of nights. We were the only occupants at first, although a couple of other rooms were rented out later. It seems Christmas is always a quiet time for innkeepers outside of Bethlehem.

Dec. 25

After having complimentary waffles for breakfast in the lobby, we went back to our room and opened our Christmas gifts. Later, we watched "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" on DVD. Dennis had bought a copy of it for a dollar, and it was worth every cent for the laughter (mostly unintentional) that it provided. After we'd finished, we took the disc out and played frisbee with it.

We hope that everyone out there is managing to find reason for good cheer this holiday season. And we hope that as many of you as possible have managed, somehow, to make the holidays a little more memorable for someone less fortunate - especially children. We all have at least one childhood memory of a yuletide season we consider magical. And sometimes such memories can have a profound and lasting impression. By helping a child have a Merry Christmas (or whatever holiday he or she celebrates), you plant a seed that can only benefit us all in the long run.

In the true spirit of inclusiveness and good will, we wish everyone Happy Holidays!

Dec. 26

Checked out of our hotel in Brunswick, Ga. and drove to Jacksonville, Fla. Dec. 27

Jacksonville, Florida. Heard about our favorite Christmas story of the year: a man walked into a homeless shelter in Denver and started handing out 100 dollar bills, a total of $35,000. He said he once had been homeless himself, and had done similar anonymous donations at a homeless shelter in Las Vegas. Now that's a way to celebrate Christmas!

Dec. 28

Two awful news stories today. The toll of the earthquake/ tsunami in Asia has topped 55,000. Just unfathomable. And the city of Salinas, California has announced that it will close all three libraries. This is the hometown of John Steinbeck, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Grapes Of Wrath" chronicled a family of brave Americans surviving The Great Depression. But the library named after him couldn't survive fiscal irresponsibility. While these two events may seem unrelated and dissimilar, there is at least one thing they have in common: the primary victims of both are kids.

Dec. 29

The tsunami toll keeps climbing, to a level of horror that most people can't imagine. We're still in Jacksonville, and today was laundry day. Next door to the laundromat was an Indian grocery (that's Indian from India, not native American) and we picked up some excellent food.

Dec. 30

Finished up our business in Jacksonville (including a return to the Indian grocery) and drove down to St. Augustine for the night.

Dec. 31

St. Augustine, Florida. It seems appropriate that we end the old year in the oldest city in the nation - or, to be more precise, the oldest city founded by European settlers. Established in 1565, St. Augustine is not only considerably older than the nation itself, but even considerably older than the British colonies that later became the U.S. In fact, a settlement was established here in 1513, more than 50 years before it officially became a municipality. So naturally, there is history everywhere - and very old history, by American standards.

Our first stop was the most conspicuous local landmark, the fortress originally built in the sixteen-hundreds, and augmented a few times thereafter. We then moseyed across the street to take a stroll through Old Town - many towns have sections they call Old Town, but in St. Augustine, the moniker is well-earned. The main thoroughfare is the oldest street in America; and I should say the main PEDESTRIAN thoroughfare, because it's much too narrow for automobiles. Both sides are lined with shops and dining and drinking establishments, much as they no doubt were centuries ago. The specific businesses are rather modern - Birkenstock, for example - but the types of merchandise are in many ways quite similar. And even the buildings themselves, in some cases, are quite old. There is, for example, the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the country, a structure that is so dilapidated and lopsided that it looks like it belongs in a Lemony Snicket story. There's also a waterwheel that has been in operation for (as I recall) a couple of centuries.

After a detour to visit a museum where a volunteer has been putting us in touch with local libraries for possible bookings, we met up with Mark and his son Tyler, with whom we have been in touch online, but have never actually met. Mark is a tour guide, and we took his ghost-walk tour, which he conducted quite ably. It ended at about 11:00, and we all went to a restaurant to get a late dinner (or an early breakfast) and we were there when another new year came stealing in.

<- November 04 - December 04 - January 05 ->