A short journey to Ithaca New York

Abby's 21st birthday seemed like  the prime opportunity for my first visit to her new home turf.  The calendar window was open.  It is my observation that visits between parents and children are best when they are short and sweet.  Longer than a few days and old patterns begin to emerge. "Leave them wanting more" seems to be the best policy.  So I left Friday at noon so as to arrive about the time Abby was getting off from work Friday night.  I would leave Monday morning so I would arrive home in time for a good night's sleep before my early Tuesday morning chemo appointment.

Looking at a US map and drawing a straight line seems to indicate that the obvious way to go is cutting through Canada at Port Huron and back into the US at the Niagara Falls.  So armed with GPS, a passport and audio books I set out on the 9.5-10 hour solo drive.  In the past, I've discovered that suspense stories are great for maintaining alertness so I picked out a Stephen King book containing 4 novellas as my first choice.  I estimated this could take me through both legs of the trip.

Arriving at Port Huron, there was only a moderate wait at the border.  Soon I was on my way. calculating Kilometer conversion on my speedometer.  Turns out that it was not really necessary because there was a lot of traffic and highway speed was a given.  I noted that Canadian drivers were  more aggressive drivers and was rather surprised at how many times someone cut into the safety gap in front of me.  Driving really slowed down around the last southern leg along side the western tip of Lake Ontario.  I watched the arrival time on the GPS slip later and later all the way to Niagara Falls.  At this border crossing, the border guard looked incredulously at my passport picture and asked for a second ID.  My driver's license picture, like my passport picture is chubby and hairy (pre-cancer) and so I had to resort to the chemo story this time (and both border crossings on the way home).

Current me on left, chubby passport Chuck on the right. Would you let this guy into your country?

The first New York leg at Buffalo is a straight shot toll road due east.  When I turned off, it was quite dark and the roads the rest of the way to Ithaca were winding rural pathways.  I would be quite lost relying on a map without a navigator sitting next to me.

GPS took me right to Abby's driveway.  It was a duplex and her landlords were having a bonfire party so there were cars everywhere.  But Abby had her own stub of a driveway on her side and it was a confort to see the Michigan license plate on her car and a gap to squeeze in my car right next to hers.

September 27, 2014

It was close to 10pm and and I was real tired but it was so great to be greeted by Abby and her cat Eloise.  After a little catching up, an apartment tour and general planning, I rolled out a sleeping bag on the couch. We started to watch a DVD but I was snoring within 15 minutes.  Eloise is clearly a great companion for Abby by the little traitor slept with me all three nights.  She's a little hard to see in the picture on the right because she is all black.

In the morning, it was Abby's birthday and I was glad to be there for the occasion.  She arrived 21 years ago in the very early morning and I remember the event clearly. She was alert and healthy.  It was a home birth. Both sets of grandparents were on hand.  The midwife barely got there in time because she progressed so quickly.

September 27, 1993

Unfortunately, Abby could not find a co-worker to take her shift at work so she had to spend a good chunk of her birthday from noon until 9:00pm at Trader K's.  We did a little birthday shopping for some apartment needs in the morning and then made plans for a late lunch/early dinner during her break at 4:00 and then meet up after work to try out her new powers ordering an adult beverage at some local watering hole.

I did a little hardware shopping and went back to her apartment for a few handyman chores.  Lunch dinner was an egg salad sub at the food court Subway near Trader K's.  It was "Free Cookie Saturday" so a chocolate, chocolate chunk cookie served as birthday cake.  Back at the apartment, I connected with my other Ithaca contact via Facebook Messenger.

 I originally met my old friend Armin at a national Public Access Television Conference back in the late eighties or early nineties. He held my job equivalent at the Buffalo, New York Public Access Center and we hit it off immediately and co-published a Public Access Trainer's newsletter that he laid out on an Amiga computer.  He left Buffalo to pursue a Library Science degree and secure a job as the Ithaca High School Librarian.  I had visited Armin and his wife, Gail, once in Buffalo and once in Ithaca when the girls were little.  They visited us once in Michigan but it had been at least 15 years since we had seen each other and they now had two boys, Toby & Leo, whom I had never met.  The boys happened to be out at a friend's house and Armin and Gail were getting ready to go out for dinner at a Vietnamese place. They invited me to join them and I readily accepted. After dinner, I hung out while Armin prepared for a monthly radio shift that he programs. It airs on Sunday morning so he needed to get it bumped to CDs that evening.  He is an expert in Alt Country music and has a fascinating system for organizing a show in advance using iTunes.

At nine o'clock, I called Abby and we decided to meet back at the apartment rather than at her work or a pub.  She was exhausted and did not really want to go out again for that drink.  So we cracked a bottle of white wine that I had picked up and tried another DVD movie.  Once again, I was snoozing in no time.

Sunday was to be our big day.  We had planned to have brunch with Armin and Gail and the boys right after his radio shift ended at 10:00am.  The 6 of us walked to the Ithaca Bakery and secured an outside picnic table on this perfect morning.  Toby and Leo were delightful, never short of conversation topics and personal interests. After brunch we walked to the Ithaca Farmers Market at Steamboat Landing and checked out the sights, smells, live music and people.  We took a leisurely walk back to the house and posed for some stoop photos before saying goodbye.

Armin & I share the same haircut and weight loss characteristics but his are due to his obsession with riding his bike. We also share the same birthday.  Gail is a Middle School Librarian and a lovely person. Abby connects with her as simpatico.

It was an incredibly gorgeous day and we decided to find a hike.  Abby knew of a good one; pretty, flat terrain through a gorge, leading up to a tall waterfall.  We took it slow with plenty of stops and conversation... and this still picture that accidentally was taken as a sideways movie:

 

 Of course, with the warm weather and the brunch wearing off, it was time for some  artisan ice cream at a shop we found just up the road.  We then headed back in the general direction of the apartment with a side trip through the Cornell University campus and a quick stop at a Wegman's grocery store .  Abby also lined up a dinner for us with her boyfriend, Adam.

Adam is a police officer and lives and works in the rural town of Cortland; a college town.  He gave me a tour of his house that he was rehabbing.  He bought it as a foreclosure home in very bad shape so he got a really good deal and has done a wonderful job fixing it up.  We took his truck into town to a place called Hairy Tony's.  It was a good choice with good food and my favorite beer on tap; Bell's Two Hearted Ale.  Abby shared it with me and by the end had developed a taste for the IPA.  

Back at Adam's house, we said goodbye (I wish I thought to take a picture) and headed back home.  We played some Skip-Bo and attempted to finish the movie we started the night before but once again, I was snoozing in no time.  I also had developed a cold over the trip and was bad company with my drippy nose and coughing.

  

Monday morning, we went out for breakfast at a downtown diner. We also stopped at a craft store for some picture frames and returned to mount some photos and other art.  We hung them in all the right places and sat on the couch to admire all the redecorating.  It was time to go home.  My intent was to leave by noon but the lovely, bittersweet couch moment hung on until 12:30.

The ride home to Michigan lead by the GPS and accompanied by Stephen King suspense was uneventful (aside from the suspicious border crossing experiences).  I began to get sleepy by the time I hit Michigan and I kept myself alert by munching organic baby carrots and hard sourdough pretzels.  Mary was happy to see me but I was too sleepy to tell her the whole story of my adventure.  We crawled into bed and I was asleep within minutes.

POSTSCRIPT:

Tuesday morning was a scheduled chemo treatment, postponed from the week before which was also postponed the week before that due to low platelet count.  As usual, they started me off with a blood test and waited for results.  A score of 80 or better and they would treat me.  It was 79 but they decided it was close enough.  I was both happy to receive the cancer-killing drugs and sad that my hiatus was over.  The nausea hit me a little harder this time or maybe it was just the contrast from being chemo free for those extended weeks. I left with the external pump and get it taken off again tomorrow.  I'm actually feeling pretty good today.  No nausea issues.  I accomplished some yard projects and as evidenced above, got my trip diary in writing.  Did you make it this far?