Covid Interruptus-Again

 

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. We had planned to return to Paris and then visit other locations in Europe in 2020 to celebrate our 50^th Anniversary on August 8, 2020. However, the Covid-19 pandemic was in full swing by then and international travel was all but impossible.

Fast forward to 2023 and the pandemic is mostly a memory. Pam and I had isolated ourselves at home for much of the 2020 as restaurants, theaters, sporting events and other public gatherings were shut down. Things were still uncertain in early 2021, so we postponed our big trip until this summer.

Then, this past March, I had to have a significant surgery that put me on the shelf for several weeks. By late May, I had recuperated enough that we began to plan our “50 plus 3” Anniversary trip. In early June we booked a flight to Paris and reserved a hotel there for about a week. Then we booked a flight to Copenhagen, Denmark and planned to spend four days there before coming home.

We were scheduled to leave from Cleveland the evening of August 7 and return on August 20. That way, we could celebrate our Anniversary on August 8 in Paris, visit several sites there and then have a few days to explore Copenhagen. We had spent one night in Denmark’s capital in 2017 and were looking forward to seeing more of it.

While I had recovered from my surgery, I was still concerned about my chronic asthma condition before the trip. I had gotten a respiratory infection at the end of our trip in 2017 and that messed up our three days in Rome. But we went ahead with our plans and scheduled several tours in Paris for this trip. 

The day we were scheduled to depart, I received a text from American Airlines saying that our flight from Cleveland to Philadelphia had been cancelled. We were scheduled to go from Philly to Paris later that evening. Less than two hours later, I received another text saying we could take a flight to Chicago and then connect with a flight to Paris.

Brian had a work commitment that evening, so his girlfriend took us to the airport, and we boarded our flight to Chicago. That flight left about 20 minutes late and we only had about an hour to make our connecting flight to Paris from Chicago. We made a 20-minute sprint to get from one concourse to another at O’Hare but made our flight.

After the overnight flight, we arrived in Paris at about 11AM and took a cab to our hotel. They stored our luggage because the room wasn’t ready, and we found a nice sidewalk café to have lunch and then returned to the hotel to get our room. Our hotel was located near the Garnier Opera house and the St. Madeline church, and it turned out to be an excellent location.

That night we had a pleasant dinner at another nearby café and crashed at the hotel. The next day, we walked down to the Jarden d’ Tuileries and then to see the Seine River. The following day, we were scheduled for a trip to Giverny to see Monet’s house and garden. The tour guide met us at the hotel, and we boarded a van for the hour-and-a half trip. There was another young American couple of in the van with their five-year-old daughter along for the trip. As we started, I noticed the young girl coughing often, but she was wearing a mask. I put on my mask, and we proceeded to Giverny. 

The tour went well. Monet’s home was impressive and there were plenty of examples of his paintings as well as those of his contemporaries on display. We then saw the extensive gardens that covered several acres and were the inspiration for many of his paintings. We returned to Paris with the same couple and their coughing daughter.

The next day, we toured the Musee d’Orsay and had a very good guide named Humberto. He was from Portugal and very well-educated about the artists. I also like the fact that because he wasn’t French, a few of his comments were somewhat “tongue in cheek” as he discussed the significance of some paintings as they were related to the French Revolutions of the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

The next day was a rest day and Pam wandered around the area near the hotel and went window shopping while I sipped coffee and watched people. That evening we went to dinner at a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower and waited until sunset to see it lit up. There were thousands of people on the plaza near the Trocadero with multiple food and souvenir vendors and a DJ playing pop music. It was a very festive site, and I took a selfies of Pam and I in front of the tower. After taking my last picture, I turned and stumbled on the edge of a step and fell, banging my knee. 

We took a cab back to our hotel and I wanted to put ice on my knee, but there were no ice machines in the hotel. Fortunately, there was a small refrigerator in the room and placing a bottle of chilled water against my knee provided relief.

On Sunday, we got an unpleasant surprise. That weekend was the Catholic feast of the Assumption and nearly all the restaurants near our hotel were closed. Fortunately, about a block from our hotel, there was a small shop like a bodega and we bought ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. 

That afternoon, we were scheduled to meet our tour guide for our trip to see the palace and gardens at Versailles. About 15 of us met our guide Oscar at a Metro station near the Invalides. We then got on the Metro for a couple of stops before boarding the train to Versailles. Once we got off the train, we had a very taxing walk to get to the palace. 

It was warm and humid that day and I couldn’t keep up with Oscar and the rest of the group. Pam tried to keep up with the guide but stay in visual contact with me. The station was 1.9 km from the palace (about 1.2 mile), and I didn’t think I could make it. We arrived at the entrance to the palace grounds and a new guide, Marie, was handing out the wireless receivers and headsets for the tour. She saw how late I arrived after the rest of the group, and she suggested I skip the garden tour and meet the group later at the entrance to the palace.

So, I went to the snack bar for a bottle of water and rest while Pam and the rest of the group toured the gardens. Pam said later that the garden tour involved a lot of walking, and it would have been very difficult for me.  About 45 minutes later, I met the group at the gate to the palace.

The Versailles palace is very impressive, and Marie did a good job explaining the history of the palace and the art pieces there. What bothered me was the size of the crowd. We spent at least an hour crowded with hundreds of other people as we moved from room-to-room through the palace.

When the tour ended, we were told that we could board a train to Paris at a closer station. The ride back was more relaxed, and we took a cab back to the hotel. We found a Japanese restaurant close to our hotel for dinner and I bought a bottle of Cutty Sark Scotch at the bodega.

 

We awoke Monday morning, and I didn’t feel well at all. I had a cough and had awakened during the night covered in sweat. We had a cruise of the Seine River scheduled for that afternoon, but I told Pam I didn’t want to take it. She found a coffee shop near our hotel, and I spent a lot of time there on Monday and Tuesday afternoons resting while she explored the area around our hotel.

Wednesday morning, we were scheduled to fly to Copenhagen. Our hotel normally provides a complimentary shuttle bus to the airport, but none were available because of the holiday. So, they provided us with a free breakfast that would have cost 32 Euro. But we had to take a regular cab to the airport that cost 60 Euro. 

Terminal One at Charles de Gaulle International Airport is a massive multi-level structure serving a couple of dozen airlines. It took us about 30 minutes to find the SAS Airline counter and then we had to stand in line for another 30 minutes to check our bags. Then we proceeded to go through security to get to the gate. But to get to security, we had to traverse an escalator and then we got on a long and hilly automated walkway. Yes, it was hilly and in my weakened condition I almost fell twice, the second time when we were getting off at the end.

As we waited in the security line, I noticed this one senior agent giving me the “skunk eye.” I was sweating profusely, and I was worried that he might pull me out of the line to check for Covid. At this point, I was beginning to believe I might have Covid, but I hadn’t tested myself yet. 

When we arrived at our hotel in Copenhagen, we were able to check in immediately and we dropped off out bags in our room and went to the bar to have lunch. After paying 26 Euro each for a large hamburger with fries, we went back to room. Pam went for a walk around the hotel. I decided it was time for a Covid test and it was positive. 

When Pam got back, we started to explore our options.

While she was out walking, I turned on the TV and one of the few channels with English was CNN international. Fortunately, there was a segment about the uptick in Covid cases around the world and Dr. Sanjay Gupta reviewed the current CDC guidelines for Covid—five days of isolation from the onset of symptoms and then wear a mask in public for the next five days. Since my symptoms started Monday, we figured I should stay in the room until the weekend and then wear a mask when we were scheduled to fly home on Sunday. So, I spent the rest of the week mostly in my room with an occasional visit to an outside patio off the bar area.

The Tivoli Hotel is about 14 stories and has 700 rooms. It also has the most phenomenal breakfast buffet I have ever seen that was included in the room price. I would put on a mask go to the buffet each morning and select my food making sure to stay as far away from people as I could. For lunch, there was a room service, which was expensive or some less costly prepared food at a small coffee shop.

Pam went sightseeing and did some shopping one day using the Hop-on-Hop-off bus. She also discovered that there was shopping mall about a 10-minute walk from the hotel that had a sizable supermarket with a prepared food section. So that’s what we ate for lunch and dinner during my quarantine. 

Finally on Sunday, we checked out of the hotel and went to the airport for the flight to JFK. The Delta flight went well, and we arrived in New York about a half-hour early. After nearly 8 hours in the air, we had to wait another 15 minutes on the plane for a gate to open. We then spent an hour going through immigration, getting our baggage and the rechecking it before going through TSA security again.

We had about four hours before our last flight was scheduled to leave for Cleveland. Then there was a mechanical issue with the plane we were supposed to take, and it took another two hours to before we took off. Brian picked us up at CLE and we finally arrived home at about 2AM.

We left our bags in the living room, and I filled a glass with ice and Evan Williams Bourbon and sat down in my favorite chair. After the Bourbon, I promptly crashed until morning. 

It was so good to be home!  

Robin Nests-Part 2

For the past two months, we’ve been able to observe a drama on our front porch. It was a life and death struggle that showed both the beauty and cruelty of nature.

The last week of May, we noticed a robin paying a lot of attention to the hanging plant hanging from a hook on the ceiling of our front porch. Whenever, I would sit on the from porch, a robin would fly out of the plant to a nearby branch of a tree and chirp at me incessantly. My curiosity was piqued and on May 28, I held my phone over the nest and took some pictures. I was astonished to see four colorful eggs—colored the distinctive blue labeled in paint samples as “Robin’s Egg Blue.”

In past years, we’ve noticed a nest in this location, but they were usually smaller birds—sparrows or finches. This was the first time I had seen a robin’s nest there. We didn’t know how long the eggs had been there, but research said the chicks usually hatch 12-14 days after the eggs are laid. I observed the nest for the next few days, and three of the eggs hatched on June 6. The final egg hatched on June 7, and I named that chick “Pam” after my wife. 

She enjoys sleeping in and taking her time to get moving in the morning and at her accounting firm, the word was don’t speak to Pam for an hour the first thing in the morning until she’s had a cup of tea.

Back to the robin chicks, on June 8 I noticed the mother feeding her babies, most likely insects or worms that she has chewed first. I took a picture and two of the chicks had their beaks wide open and pointed upward for easy feeding. For the first days after hatching, the chicks are blind because their eyes are covered and they don’t have feathers and are covered by orange fuzz. 

About two weeks after hatching, the chicks can see and their feathers have appeared. On June 14, we noticed the chicks had feathers and their eyes were open. One of them looked as if it was giving me the “skunk eye” when I took its picture.

During the nesting period, both the female and the male share responsibility for gather food and protecting the chicks. The fledging chicks usually leave the nest about two weeks after hatching. On June 19, I was sitting on the front porch when one of the parents came to the nest and was squabbling with the chicks for about 15 seconds. A few minutes later, another robin (I think) came to the nest and squabbled with the chicks for a few seconds.

The next morning, I found the nest completely empty and totally cleaned out. My hope is that the chicks were able to leave the nest and get on with their lives. As a side note, when the chicks hatch the mother eats the shells which provide a healthy amount of calcium to strengthen her bones. I wonder if the squabbling I heard the day before was the parents telling the chicks it’s time to leave the nest.

Female robins typically lay two brood of eggs each year between April and July. And another robin might lay eggs in a previously used nest during the same season or in future years. 

So, it wasn’t a complete shock that about a week later, I noticed another robin hanging around the same hanging plant. I was curious and on June 27, I was surprised to find a single robin egg in the nest and another egg appeared the next day and another next day and the fourth egg appeared on June 30.

I can’t be sure if it was the same mother or a different one, but I was surprised that the nest was occupied again so quickly. We are fortunate that when houses in our neighborhood come up for sale, they don’t stay on the market long. Apparently, the same is true for robin nests.

I continued to monitor the nest and two of the eggs had hatched on July 11, followed by the other two on the twelfth. I didn’t follow this brood every day like the previous one, but on July 17, I noticed the chicks had developed feathers. Again, I didn’t check on the nest for a couple of days.

On July 20, I was shocked to discover that only one chick remained and it had been mauled by a predator. Cats and raccoons are the usual suspects, but I don’t think so this time. The plant basket was hanging a couple of feet away from the wall of the porch and there was no easy way for a ground-based predator to reach it. Blue jays and crows have also been known to attack a robins’ nest and this seems to be the most plausible scenario. 

Since there was no trace of three of the chicks, I hope they were able to escape. The statistics say that only about half of the robin chicks hatched will survive to the next year. Since the chicks had hatched less than two weeks before the attack, I am not optimistic about their fate. But the one whose corpse I found in the nest was well-developed, I have a faint hope that the others may have survived.

I said at the beginning of this story, that it was a drama involving life and death and indeed it is. The beauty of this story was observing the very young chicks develop from blind, orange-colored helpless babies to young birds ready to leave the nest two weeks later. The average life span of robins is only about 13 months, but that is a statistical anomaly because the mortality rate for robin chicks is about 50 percent during the first year. Robins who survive their first year typically live 5-6 years and robins in captivity often live for a dozen years or more.

It’s been an interesting process. We decided to bury the mauled robin in its nest in the back yard and move the hanging plant from the porch. So, there won’t be any more nests this season. But Pam will probably hang another plant on our porch next year and I hope as the song says: “The beat goes on.” 

 

The Four Robins

For the last couple of weeks, we have been entering the house through the garage and not using the front door. The reason, a momma robin built a nest in a hanging plant next to our front door and she produced four “robin’s egg blue” eggs and had been nesting there for a couple of weeks.

The babies hatched on June 5 and 6 and left on June 19^th or 20^th, right on schedule. It’s been a fascinating experience to follow the process and I tried being as unobtrusive as possible while taking pictures every day or so.

 

Pam hangs a plant in the same spot under the front porch roof nearly every year and we have had smaller birds nest there in the past, usually chickadees or finches. But this year a fully-grown robin couple decided to set up housekeeping in our plant. I noticed a robin sitting in the basket in early June and when she was away, I took some pictures and observed four eggs in the nest.

 

 

The next day, I took another photo and noticed three chicks and one unhatched egg. According to the Audubon Society’s website, it usually takes one or two days for all the eggs to hatch, and those four eggs is an average size clutch. 

 

 

I jokingly named the un-hatched egg chick “Pam” after my wife who is a notoriously late riser. And, true to form she hatched a day later than the others.

 

 

It usually takes about two weeks for the chicks to develop enough to be able to fly away. Right after hatching they hadn’t developed feathers yet, but they did have an appetite! Both parents gather food—worms, insects, and berries—and bring the food back to the nest for the babies.

 

For the first five days after hatching, baby robins can’t see as their eyes are covered while they develop. So, need to be fed and kept secure by their parents.

 

By day nine, the robins had developed some feathers and their eyes were open and they could see. At this point, one of the chicks seems to object being photographed. I hope I don’t hear from their lawyer!

 

At this point, the chicks begin to make more noise and I observed them sticking their heads out of the nest and making more sounds and they are only about four or five days away from leaving the nest. After they leave, neither the chicks nor their parents will return to this nest. Robins always build a new nest for the next family. I have read that cowbirds will use a robin’s nest, so this one may be repurposed in the future.

 

The day before they left, I observed one of the adults return to the nest and have what appeared to be a heated discussion with the chicks for about 15 seconds. That adult then flew over to the maple tree in our front yard and sat observing the nest. About five or ten minutes later, another adult flew into the nest and had the same type of animated conversation with the chicks for about 15 seconds. I wonder if mom and dad were giving their “kids” orders that it is time to get on with life.

 

 

The big day finally arrived on schedule. That morning I didn’t hear or see any activity around the nest. And my photo confirmed that the chicks and momma had left the nest. Also, the next was totally cleaned out with only a single leaf remaining. Once the chicks hatch, the mother typically eats the shell fragments as a source of calcium for her diet.

 

The four baby birds are now out in the big bad world and will have to fend for themselves. One tragic note is that the analytics by researchers say that only one of the four chicks will survive for more than a year and the average length of a robin’s life is two years.

 

Depending on her age and ability to escape predators, momma robin may produce one or two more clutches of eggs this summer. So, she could eventually produce about a dozen chicks and have a very busy summer.

 

I wish the four robins good luck as they begin their new adventure. They are going to need it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2022 and Beyond

Okay, so it’s been over a year since I wrote for my blog. But I think it’s time to catch up. For the past year there have been very busy periods, but also not so busy periods where I suffered from writer’s malaise (I bet Jimmy Carter wishes he had never heard that word). So here goes.

Last summer and fall, I took three significant trips, two for pleasure and one for a family memorial. 

In May, Pam and I has some unused airline credits from the pandemic that were about to expire. So, we booked a flight to Florida and stayed for a week at condo in Ft Myers Beach, Florida. Obviously, this was before Hurricane Ian wiped out large portions of that city in September.

We had a very nice eighth-floor condo with a wonderful view of the Gulf of Mexico. The weather was unseasonably hot, so we didn’t sit out on the beach much during the day. We had a nice visit with Pam’s cousin Sarah who lives in nearby Naples; toured Thomas Edison’s winter home and attended a street festival in downtown Ft Myers.

In July, we decided to visit the other Stowe, the one in Vermont. It was about a 12-hour drive that included an auto-ferry trip across Lake Champlain. The scenery was delightful with plenty of scenic views of the Green Mountain State. We toured the state museum in Montpelier; had lunch with my brother Tim and his wife Shannon at the Trapp Family Lodge (of Sound of Music fame); and spent a couple of afternoons at the Shelburne Museum near Burlington. We wanted to tour the Ben and Jerry’s factory, but the tours were all booked to capacity.

We had a lot of fun touring the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory outside Burlington. Pam is an avid collector of Teddy bears, and we learned how the bears are manufactured and visited the Teddy Bear Hospital, where owners can send in injured bears for repair. The guide said that 90 percent of the bears are victims of dog attacks.

The remainder of the summer was filled with concerts at Blossom Music Center, Akron Rubberducks baseball and couple of visits to the beach on Lake Erie.

In September, my sister-in-law Wanda passed away in Yakima, Washington, after battling cancer for several years. The family decided to hold a memorial service and inurnment in mid-October. It was a great opportunity to spend time with my niece Angela and her family and my nephew Neil Brent. 

At the graveside ceremony both Wanda and my brother Neil’s ashes were buried. He passed away in 2018 and he wanted his ashes spread in Puget Sound from the ferry boat that he used to get from his home on Whidbey Island to his insurance business on the mainland. Washington state law limited the amount of ashes that could be spread in the water, so the family took the remaining ashes and buried them with his wife in Toppenish, Washington where Wanda grew up.

I developed bronchitis two weeks before Christmas, but was able to recover in time to attend a production of the “Nutcracker” ballet in Akron with Brian and his girlfriend as our guests. We also celebrated New Year’s Eve with a group of friends at a condo clubhouse party.

For the past few years, I had been suffering from "slow flow" and the situation was getting worse. In February, I was referred to a urological surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and I had surgery in Akron in early March. I spent the next several weeks recuperating at home while watching a lot of March Madness games on TV. 

I am now nearly fully recovered and looking forward to some new adventures this summer. I hope it won’t be nearly as long until I post on this blog again.

The Barnyard

We live in a typical midwestern suburban subdivision about 10 miles north of Akron, Ohio. One reason we picked this area was because it has a rural feel with a large park to the north of us and significant tracts of open land to the south and west of us.

Most of the houses were built by Ryan Homes in the early 1980s with typical suburban-size lots of about one-third acre. When we bought our home 28 years ago, there was a 100-plus acre farm across Stow Road that runs by our subdivision. There was a lot less traffic then and Pam and I enjoyed quiet summer evenings outside as a respite from our jobs in central Akron.

Then about 20 years ago, the family that had owned the farm since the 1840s decided to sell most of the land to Pulte Homes which built more than 200 new homes on the farmland. That increased the traffic on Stow Road and the summer evenings were not as quiet as before.

However, one small remnant of the farm remains directly across the road from the entrance to our subdivision. There is a Victorian style two-story farmhouse built in 1915 along with another small building that has room for two vehicles and a small apartment. A couple of years ago, a younger couple (who we have not met) bought the house and outbuilding. They put  in a swimming pool and fixed up a small hen house and shed put up a new wire fence on a quarter-acre lot next to the house.

There are now about a dozen chickens, four goats and a miniature donkey in this barnyard. A year or so ago I wrote an article for a chain of suburban newspapers about people raising chickens in urban and suburban areas for eggs and I suspect that’s what this couple is doing. Also, the four goats could be providing milk and the donkey is probably there just for show.

I pass by this barnyard a couple of times a day on my way to and from my house and I wonder about the social dynamic among the animals. Most of the time the chickens have their heads down on the ground looking for food. The goats seem more sociable and often two or three of them are standing together. Occasionally, I will see one or two of the goats standing next to the donkey, but the donkey spends most of its time alone.

Can these animals really communicate with each other? Do the goats understand the chickens or the donkey? There have been many stories personifying animals. The one I remember best is “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. He said this was a satire of the 1917 revolution that overthrew the Czar and his family in Russia and led to the creation of the Soviet Union by the ruthless dictator Josef Stalin. In Orwell’s book, the animals united to rebel against and overthrow their inept human owner.

The revolution was led by two pigs and one of them eventually killed the other to take complete dictatorial control of the barnyard.

I haven’t seen any signs of the animals rebelling against their human owner. There is usually a sizable bale of hay hanging on the fence for the donkey and goats to feed upon and the chickens seem to be well fed too. The sturdy newer fence ensures that none of them are likely to escape. Although, before the new fence was installed, I did see one chicken on the loose very close to the road.

I wonder if she was thinking about crossing the road.

 

Savannah Blog-Week 5

Savannah, GA prides itself on its eccentric characteristics: the unique street pattern with 22 squares interspersed with several main streets; the many legends that allow it to call itself the most haunted city in America; its liberal alcohol policy of allowing people to carry “party cups” anywhere outside in the historic district; and, the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the country. 

During my five weeks in the Savannah, I saw many unusual things.

I mentioned before things I saw from my balcony looking across the street at Drayton Tower, a contemporary styled 12-story apartment building. At least three times, I saw young women undressing in front of the nearly floor-to-ceiling windows. One time a fully-clothed woman was watering plants and noticed me on the balcony and she quickly pulled down the drapes. Another fully-clothed woman would dance in front of the windows while wearing headphones.

Savannah has lots of ghost tours, mostly after dark and guides tell riders tales of bizarre happenings and haunted buildings. These tours were mostly by tour bus or horse-drawn carriage. But, I saw one group on a ghost tour in a hearse that had the roof removed and riders sat in elevated seats so they could see the sites more clearly.

Another kind of tour I observed was a vehicle that was powered by about a dozen riders pedaling while drinking from their party cups. They were singing and shouting and were obviously well-lubricated.

Savannah also must be one of the South’s most popular sites for bachelorette parties. During my time there, I saw numerous groups of young women sporting matching t-shirts being led by the bride wearing the same t-shirt and a veil. The women in one bachelorette party were all wearing brightly-colored wigs.

Also, there was an upscale hotel across the street that had a large outdoor rooftop patio that was the site of three weddings the last week I was there. After the ceremonies, the parties would move inside for dinner and dancing. But, the bands were so loud, I could still hear them clearly. One band had a drummer who played the loudest I think I’ve ever heard and not very well. Unfortunately, that band played until midnight.

I did tour the Mercer Williams house that is next to Monterey Square. General Hugh Mercer, the grandfather of renowned composer Johnny Mercer, began to build the house in 1860, but construction was halted by the Civil War. Gen. Mercer served in the Confederate Army and was captured by Union forces and imprisoned. When the war ended, he returned to Savannah in poor health and could not complete construction of the house. He sold the house and it was completed in 1868, but no member of the Mercer family has ever lived in the house.

After being unoccupied for nearly a decade, antique dealer and developer Jim Williams purchased the house in 1969 and restored it. Williams was one of the leaders of the movement to restore the historic district of Savannah and is credited with restoring 50 houses in the district.

Williams is the main character in the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” written by John Berendt that was published in 1994. Three years later Clint Eastwood directed a movie version of this story that begins with the extravagant Christmas party that Williams held every year at the house. After the party, Williams shot and killed a young man who worked for him during an argument, and the book and movie deal with the trial that occurred afterward.

The last weekend I was in Savannah, I was enjoying an iced-coffee and people watching near Chippewa Square when I noticed a young couple with two children trying to take photos of themselves. I volunteered to take their photo and the guy was really pleased and said I should be a photographer. I told him I worked for 30 years in video production and we had a good laugh. His family was from Washington, D.C. and he said they have visited Savannah several times for a long weekend vacations.

On my journey home, I stopped in Greenville, NC to visit a friend. Dr. Sam Barber is a music historian and my brother Tim took a class Sam taught at Ohio State in the early 1970s. Sam found out from Tim that our dad was involved with the Cleveland-based Wings Over Jordan choir that had a weekly radio show on CBS from 1938 to 1947. They developed a long-time friendship that resulted in a book they co-authored called “Go Down Moses: The Wings Over Jordan Choir” that was published last year. It is available on Amazon.

In the early 1990s, Sam visited me and we videotaped interviews with several of the surviving choir members still living in the Cleveland area. We have kept in touch and had dinner together and breakfast the next morning before I headed north to Ohio. It was a great time to catch up on things.

The next day I drove 628 miles in 11 hours and 15 minutes which was okay considering there were five traffic tie-ups for construction in the 100 miles between Winston-Salem, NC and the West Virginia Turnpike and rain once I reached Ohio.

It was an interesting visit, but I am glad to be home and it’s time to think about summer travels.