Travalon in Slinger

 

Yesterday I worked from home and then went to Adoration. There was nothing to say about my day, and I was too tired to think of anything creative, so I didn't blog. Today I worked on campus, and at lunchtime I went to the monthly Baroque concert. (It's called Just Bach, but today was mostly Vivaldi.) Then Seabird and I walked in the afternoon.

When Travalon met me at my parking lot this morning to take me to campus, we saw lots of beautiful graffiti in the train yard, and he had his good camera because he was going to Slinger. Here are some photos.

Then he went to Slinger and hiked on the Ice Age Trail.

This is a gazebo they built in Slinger. It's becoming a miniature Rochelle for train watching.

 

You can see Holy Hill from the Ice Age Trail.

Travalon got some Trail Magic by purchasing this Brewer Smoothie, which was mango and pineapple flavor. (Don't tell Cecil - he HATES pineapple!)

Our internet stopped working, so it must be time to wrap this up. I’m writing this last bit on my phone.

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Roadtrip to Philadelphia: The Way Home

 

Sunday morning I set my phone's alarm for 7 am, but Tiffy and I were up well before then. We ate our leftover cheesesteak sandwiches and had lattes down in the bar, and then we hit the road, stopping to use a bathroom at a gas station. They had lime Bang there, so I got a can, and hence I was very happy during Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus in Cornwall, PA. (We had to do like an hour of research the day before to find a Mass along our route that had a parking lot and was at a reasonable time.) Then we got on the tollway and drove and drove, stopping at every rest stop. We got most of the way through Ohio, finding first one and then another AM station carrying the Packers game, and we stopped for the night in the same town we'd been in on the way out, Maumee. Then we watched the rest of the game on the TV in our hotel room. Despite all the unfair penalties against them, the Packers prevailed over the Cowboys. Yay!

When we had stopped for dinner at one of the oases, Tiffy had gone to Jimmy John's and gotten a sub, and they gave her a second one for free. She came to give it to me, but I had already ordered a Thai chicken rice bowl at another place, so we saved the sub and ate it for breakfast today. Looking out the window as we sipped our hotel coffee, I saw a chocolate-colored slug bug, and Tiffy said it did look like a giant chocolate drop.

It had a California license plate, but when I tried to blur the numbers, it just erased the whole license plate.

Yesterday at one of the Pennsylvania oases, there was a mini Amish market outside, so Tiffy and I bought cookies. They also had vegetables and pies, and there was a large shoo-fly pie and a small one, so I got the small one to bring home to Travalon. Today we also stopped at all the oases in Ohio and Indiana, and one on the highway in Chicago. We had a late lunch at Sooshibay, then we took a walk at Petrified Springs. Here I am in the outfit that a guy in the hotel this morning said was "Very colorful!"

Then I drove home on backroads to avoid the interstate, and that was wonderful and relaxing. I drove home, mostly unloaded my car, but left my big suitcase in it so Travalon could carry it up the stairs for me. But then I ended up having to drag the suitcase around the airport with me when I went in to return the car key and get a refund on the $10/day we were supposed to pay for our toll transponder that didn't work. Travalon came and picked me up, then we had my first home-cooked meal in days and shoo-fly pie for dessert as we told each other about our week apart. He got to hang out with his high-school buddy one night and Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy another night, and then he and Cecil went to La Crosse to watch trains and check out the fall colors on Saturday. On Sunday he went to Rochelle to watch trains. Two things I forgot to blog about were the Amish who were a little more modernized, like they'd be driving a tractor, and my favorite was a young man on a bike, wearing the traditional hat and a high-vis vest. The other thing was the Indian wedding going on at the hotel we stayed at in Philly - there were lots of women in saris and men in traditional outfits with orange stoles with goats on them. On Saturday morning they were outside the front of the hotel, dancing around in the cold to Bollywood music - we could see them out our window. And then - a third thing - early yesterday morning a bunch of beauty pageant women were gathering in the lobby of our hotel, like Miss Philadelphia, Miss Pennsylvania, and Ms. Pennsylvania. Tiffy wondered how anyone could look that perfect that early in the morning.

The tiny tube of toothpaste I got with the travel toothbrush from the Benefits Fair last week actually lasted for the whole trip!

Isn't it adorable? And I wondered if the stuffed flag would glow under blacklight.

Answer: kind of? The red stripes don't glow, but the red edge does. Also, I think I forgot to answer the question of whether the Brewers won their game. They did, and they will be in the World Series! Our college friend is a season ticket holder, so she can get Tiffy a ticket for just a few hundred dollars. If you have to buy one on the open market, they are several thousand. Travalon looked into it, but we can't afford to go at those prices.

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Tiffy's Niece's Wedding

 

I forgot to mention that yesterday, as we were riding the bus into the city, we saw what I thought was a tourist bus with people on the top hollering. Then we realized they were throwing T-shirts down to the people on the street, and those people were running into the middle of the street to catch them. It was people from the 76ers basketball team doing this, and I hoped we'd see them when we got off the bus, so maybe I could get a free T-shirt, but we never saw them again.

Today Tiffy and I had a lazy morning. We eventually went down to the lobby to get coffee and some food, and we saw some people from her brother-in-law's family who said they were going to the closest place to get a Philly cheesesteak. We all admired this mural in the bar area.

Tiffy and I decided to walk there, since it was only about a mile, but it was a harrowing walk with lots of traffic so we decided to get an Uber back. The Philly cheesesteak was supposed to be a six-inch sandwich, but there were two halves, so we each saved a half. We did see this sign on our walk: Hamp On!

The big thing we did today was go to Tiffy's niece's wedding. It was in a park with an inn, and we all had to pile on a big yellow school bus to get there. Worse, we'd all been told that the bus was leaving at 4:15, but the bus driver herself had been told we were leaving at 4:05, so we had to beg her to wait for several people who thought they weren't late. It was a very long, beautiful, but harrowing drive to this park, and then it was cold so I had to wear my hoodie over my carefully curated flapperesque outfit.

It kind of ruined the effect, but I wasn't going to freeze out there. Too bad it wasn't warm like yesterday. The setting was so beautiful.

The cake was so beautiful.

Tiffy's niece made her own wedding dress. It was a Quaker ceremony, so people would stand up and say something when they felt inspired. I wasn't going to say anything, but I thought of how I was the "responsible adult" one time years ago when the niece was a little girl and wanted to canoe with her friend, so I went out with them. So I got up and told that story, adding that Travalon and I had bought a canoe right after we were married and someone said it was the perfect metaphor for a marriage, because you have to have balance and work together. Then I wished the couple a very stable canoe and sat back down. Tiffy said, "You would have made Pa Hat proud!" and many other people commented that they really liked my story, including the happy couple. 

Remember Cherry Minnie? She's the one who invented Tiffy's blog name. She was there in her own wedding gown!

Tiffy gave her to her niece on her third birthday. After the wedding we all signed the certificate, and then I asked the trio playing Irish trad music if they could play both Ballydesmond polkas, so they did. We ate dinner under a big tent with heat lamps, and then after dinner there was a caeli with the Irish band playing, and one of them calling. Tiffy and I danced, and so did a lot of other people, and one guy knocked over a heat lamp. I met a lot of people I may never see again who were great company, and we had wonderful conversations. We were all stuck there until the bus would take us back at almost 11:00, but then Tiffy's brother, sister-in-law, and niece (not the one getting married) decided they wanted to leave around 9:30, so they called an Uber, and we all got into it. The driver was from the Dominican Republic and very friendly. Tiffy and I also had a very friendly Uber driver this afternoon. I have to say the Uber drivers in Philadelphia all seem great.

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Niko in the City of Brotherly Love

 

This morning I packed my shamrock fanny pack with my wallet, my sunglasses, and Niko, and then Tiffy and I figured out how to use the Philadelphia bus system. The stop was right by our hotel room, and you can use your credit card to pay. This sign by the bus stop looks like it says "Sin City."

We went to the old part of the city, where we saw a cute trolley and waited in line forever to see the Liberty Bell. The guard told me it would have rung in E flat.

Such cool old buildings!

And modern stuff too!

We went to the Reading Terminal Market and had soft pretzels, which were chewier than the ones I've had before but very delicious, and the best latte I've ever had. Then we went to Chinatown.

We both had noodles with seafood. Our (nonalcoholic) drinks were so pretty.

Then we went to the mint, which had lots of cool stuff. Here are some photos.

At the end we got free bags of shredded money. Then we walked to Elfreth's Alley, which is a narrow street with houses preserved from the 18th century.

We also went to the Betsy Ross house and bought some stuff in the gift shop. Here we are in front of Independence Hall.

Then we caught the bus back to our hotel. Oh yeah, on the way into the city, we saw a train way up on an elevated track, and then their light rail train came along and blocked our view of it.

Here is some stuff I got today. A stuffed American flag.

I got yet another bucket hat, but this one's patriotic.

A couple of magnets and the shredded money.

I've been keeping up with my DuoLingo too.

This evening we took an Uber with some of Tiffy's family members to another hotel where a lot of the other wedding guests are staying. There was a pre-wedding party with food and drink, and there were people there I hadn't seen in a long time, and people I'd never met before who were fun to get to know. Tomorrow is the big day!

Famous Hat