Batten Kill

Batten Kill at Sunset

The Batten Kill River is a 59 mile-long river rising in Vermont that flows into New York and is a tributary of the Hudson River.  "Kill" means a creek, the name "Battenkill River" is pleonastic.

The mouth of the Batten Kill is in Easton, New York,  and the source of the river is in East Dorset, Vermont, not far from my photo, which captures the view from Larry and Marcia's property.  The area is protected and a special place in VT.

The house (purchased by the Lees in 1987) came with a taxidermied tiger, which Larry hoisted into a tree across the pond, unbeknownst to certain houseguests at the time. Marcia was awoken to screams of terror.

Op-Ed Off Site

Katie's fabulous team organise an off-site pow wow in Dorset, joining us for an early afternoon cocktail at Marcia and Larry's house.

"We - our leaders and the public - are not getting the information and ideas we need to make the best decisions. Our world conversation is currently an echo chamber that reproduces the same narrow range of (85% male) voices over and over. Even worse among academics: a May 2008 Rutgers University study found that 97% of op-eds by scholars in the Wall Street Journal are written by men. What is the cost to society when so many of our best minds and best ideas are left out? What could we accomplish if together we invested in our missing brain power?"
--From The Op-Ed website

Kindle-rama

Madeleine's summer reading: Lee Harper's "To Kill a Mockingbird", John Fitzgerald's "The Great Brain", Judy Blume's "Blubber" and "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret", Huntley Fitzpatrick's "My Life Next Door," John Green's "The Fault In Our Stars" and Jay Asher's "Thirteen Reasons Why."

Madeleine and I have a conversation about growing up.
Me: "One day you will grow wings and fly from the tree."
Madeleine: "You mean I'm going to fall and die or something?"
Me:
Madeleine: "What's so funny Dad?"

A Proper Drink

The winner

Moe and Grace face off in a martini making contest, which is a serious business. Grace makes a slightly dirtier martini with large olives to Larry's dry martini with small pitted Spanish olives.  Both prefer gin and, Larry points out, using vodka is a "vodka martini" while gin is simply a "martini." In a blind test, Larry wins by one vote.

My mom's father made pitchers of dry martinis and Manhattans to serve guests while entertaining, or hosting bridge, in Upper Arlington, Ohio, in the 1950s.

Madeleine: "Blech! That is so awful."
Larry: "It is an acquired taste."

Outlet

Fresh shoes

I take Madeleine to the factory outlets in Manchester, Vt.  She's no dummy and knows I can't resist her. We end up in the usual places - Ralph Lauren, J Crew, Banana Republic.  She scores some shoes at Coach which makes us both feel good . .. At RL I try on some Polo cologne which every teenage male doused himself with in the 1980s. Sonnet crinkles her nose while Eitan accustomed to using my cologne from G F Trumper which, he informs me, "smells more like a man."

Madeleine: “Can I have my Ju Ju Fish?”

Me: “No. You can take a break from sugar.”

Madeleine: “What? ! Eitan is eating Pringles !”

Me: “You can have four.”

Madeleine: “10.”

Me: “Five. And that’s a final offer.”

Madeleine: “You are so unfair.”

Me: “Remember when we talked about the glass half-full and how other people influence your perception? You only care about Eitan getting to eat Pringles.”

Madeleine: “Who cares about some dumb glass?”
Me: “You got me there.”

Happy Vermont

Scrabble

We arrive in Dorset, greeted by Marcia, Gracie and Moe.

In 1987 Marcia and Larry discovered Dorset, a small semi-rural community outside of Manchester, Vermont, where they found a red house with a pond and a fourteen-foot dam immediately adjacent to the property. They fell in love with it immediately.  Since then, they rebuilt the dam (including relocating at their expense a family of beavers), modernised the home and added a large ceiling kitchen and sun room next to the Battenkill river, beneath the dam.  The living room overlooks the pond, and its ducks, with all-glass windows. It is the perfect gathering place for family and friends.

The property began its life in the early 19th century to polish marble from a nearby quarry - the dam's ancient turbines provided the energy. The marble was then sent to New York City including the New York Public library, which uses marble from the Dorset quarry about .75 miles away.

Robin Williams commits suicide, age 63. Lauren Bacall passes away at 89.

Dog Days Of Summer

Rest Area, Somewhere, upstate NY

From Medina, NY: NY-36 N to I-490 W to NY-30, NY-60 W to NY-22 S to VT-133, VT-153 and VT-315 to Marcia and Larry's house in Vermont.

Off the Road:

Erie Canal waterfront and historical point, Buffalo; Railroad Museum, Medina, NY. Fall gun raffles, Route 65; Oakfield-Alabama Middle-High School, Oakfield, NY; Women’s Rights National Park, Exit 41, E 90; Montezuma National Wildlife Reserve, mile 316, Route 89

Fresh Fudge, Seneca, NY; Salt Museum, Liverpool, NY; National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Amsterdam, NY; Robert Elmwood Museum of the Mohawk Valley, Amsterdam; Old Fort Johnson, Schenectady, NY; Wildlife Museum and Art Museum, Gloversville, NY; New York State Military Museum, Saratoga, NY; Historic Salem Court House (1869), Salem, NY

Saratoga High School: “Why fit in when you can stand out?”

Madeleine: “Dad can I get Ju Ju Fish because they don’t sell Laffy Taffy ?”
Me: “Are you expecting a reasoned answer ?”

Medina, NY

Sister brother reunion

Marcus and Adrienne are in play as the saying goes : they have recently sold their house and moving to a suburban block where Adrienne knows 12 neighboring families. Adrienne continues to kick ass and raise money for Niagara University (home of a Sweet 16 basketball team) and Marcus the Director of a refugee organisation in Buffalo. They are in process of adopting a child. I stand still around them.

Following a tour of Buffalo including two Frank Lloyd Wrights and a Louis Sullivan, we end up at Adrienne's cousin's house for a High School graduation party and backyard BBQ (taped to the beer chest: "Must be 21"). The Shakespeares overcome their fatigue and bashfulness and engage in the teenage action while Sonnet and I enjoy our extended family, including Patrick, who is implementing Obamacare in NYC and owns a tall building in Manhattan's East Village, and Judith, who creates costumes and hires out stock for films, theatre and television.

Sonnet and I bike along the Erie Canal (363 miles from Albany to Buffalo, 36 locks, total elevation differential of 565 feet. Opened October 26, 1825, an engineering marvel).

Madeleine: "You owe me five dollars. Can I have it?"
Me: "Since when ?"
Madeleine: "Two dollars that you borrowed. One dollar for walking ten feet with a plastic cup on my head. And the rest is interest."

Honeymoon Falls

A lot of water

We visit Niagara Falls, a "7th Wonder of the World," which drops 750,000 gallons of water a second over the 22-meter American and Bridal Veil Falls (closest in photo) and the Canadian "Horseshoe" Falls. The city of Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side and pictured, has been built up around hotels, convention centres and gambling, while the NY side has not done so well. For some reason there are a lot of tourists from India, go figure.

The connecting Robert Moses Niagara Hydroelectric Power Station, built in the 1950s, supplies one-quarter of all power used in New York State and Ontario.

Me: "You know, they put chlorine in the water. So you can swim in the river."

Eitan: "Yeah, right."

Me: "You don't believe me ?"

Eitan:

Me: "Watch, I am going to play the same joke on Madeleine. It's the swimming bit at the end which is the give-away. I can't let you guys feel like complete idiots."

Eitan:

Me, later, to Madeleine: "You know, they put chlorine in the water. So you can swim in the river."

Sonnet: "Really ? Who would have thought they could do that."

Summer Philharmonic

We take I 90 East to Buffalo, skirting alongside the Lake Erie, passing through Western Pennsylvania. We stop in Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame which is great fun - something for everybody. The Gay Pride Games (which includes ballroom dancing) start same day, also in Cleveland.

From the road : Great Lakes Science Museum, Cleveland. James A Gardner Historical Site; Spire Institute, Olympic and Paralympic Training Site; Geneva, Ohio.

We arrive just in time for the Buffalo Philharmonic's final concert of the summer season at Old Fort Niagra, performed outdoors on a perfect evening sunset complete with cannon blasts and fireworks. Marcus and Adrienne meet us with chairs and blankets.

Sonnet: "From Rock & Roll to the philharmonic. How appropriate."

Living In America

Soak City

Nobody does amusement like America and Cedar Point is the best. We walk through Frontier Town and Soak City and The Old West and the Turn Of The Century without batting an eye. Since nobody wants to eat fruit or vegetables there aren't any : we devour corn dogs and garlic fries for lunch and fried sandwiches and coke for dinner. So what ? The rules don't apply here.

We enter the park, our second day at CP, at 9AM and close it down at Midnight. I would not have thought possible - 15 hours ! - but the best part after dark when the temps down to 70 and the crowds have dwindled and lines fast. There is a new found camaraderie between us and the park. Eitan's voice hoarse from screaming and Madeleine proud of her thrill rides.

It is kitsch and cheesy and joyous and unawares. Is it ironic ?

The Skyhawk

125 feet, world's tallest swing

In 2004 CP had at least several roller coasters I was too afraid to ride. So this has been like a ten year inevitable march to The Millenium Force (45-degree lift hill, 300 foot drop, 93 mph). I nearly back out but Rob’s coaching moves me along ("get over here you pussy").  Up up we go and, boom!, it is surreal man. Violent. I am actually proud of myself for doing it. I go back a second time with Sonnet.

The hardest part of the ride for me is the lead-up : I fret. I doubt. I stress.  Sonnet ignores it until we are climbing in the car. Her life strategy up close seems better.

America USA

The Kleins

We pull into Sandusky, Ohio, home of Cedar Point, the largest amusement park in America and anywhere, where we meet the Kleins for some action packed fun.

Last time I was here was July 2004 with Grace and Moe en route to Akron and Kelly’s wedding – a visit notable for Madeleine, who had the chicken pox which appeared first day of our 5 week vacation. Poor kid unable to go in the hotel swimming pool where Eitan spent hours.

Cedar Point next to a lake offering wide beaches and the smell of Coppertone, taking me right back my childhood summers visiting my grandparents in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The Big Choice was King’s Island or Cedar Point, both about 2 hours from Columbus. I was unable to sleep the night before and, joy of joy, many of the rides still around, only a bit dated, like The Gemini, a twin-racing roller coaster that, when completed in ’78, was the longest and tallest roller coaster in the world. It’s icon so Logan’s Run. In '78 I waited three hours in a spaghetti maze for the 2 minutes of pure terror nirvana. Now there is hardly a line as the thrill seekers have moved on to taller, higher, faster.

WKRP

The Brent Spence Bridge connecting Ohio and Kentucky over the Ohio River

In Cincinatti we visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Museum which offers a moving history of the nascent United States and its interlocking relationship with the African slave trade. 

Cincinatti hosts the second largest Octoberfest in the world after Munich.

We duly attend a Cincinatti Reds game at The Great American Ballpark and are treated to a home victory over the Cleveland Indians, 8-3, including a couple of home runs.  The kids allowed three ballpark food items. The Reds will host the 2015 All Star Game and the 2015 All Star logo is uncovered first-time to fireworks, woo-hoo. But it is a Big Deal for the city, which is tearing itself up with new roads and highways, buildings and a waterfront path anticipating next year's summer classic.

Madeleine , beginning of the Reds game: “Do you get to keep the baseball if it goes into the stand?”Me: “Yes. It’s all yours.”
Madeleine: “I am going to catch one then.”

Madeleine: (3rd inning): “If I catch a ball will you give me $20 ?”Me: "You mean a foul ball ? If you catch a foul ball I will give you $1000."
Madeleine: “You are going to owe me $1000 then,”
Me: “Good luck kid.”

Madeleine (5th inning): “If I catch two foul balls, will you give me $2000?”
Me: “I will give you $10,000.”
Madeleine: “What?! Shake on it.”
We shake on it.
Madeleine: “Will you really do that? Give me $10,000?”
Me: “If you get two fly balls, I will transfer the money today.”
Madeleine: “Cool.”

Madeleine (7th inning): “Dad if I catch three foul balls will you get me a greyhound?”
Me: “With pleasure.”

Spotted along the highway: The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH; Armstrong Air And Space Center, I 75 North; Allen County Fairgrounds, Lima, Oh; Lion’s Den Adult Super Store “Books and Videos”, Exit 165 I 75 N. Wood County Historical Museum, Napoleon, OH; Rutherford B Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont, OH 

Heading to Cedar Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, Eitan irons his shirt and asks for hair gel.

St Louis Arch

Gateway Arch (Katie photo)

We visit the Gateway Arch on the west bank of the Mississippi River, St Louis. The arch is 630-foot-high, clad in stainless steel, and built as a flattened catenary. it is the tallest man-made monument in the US and the world's tallest arch. When I consider all the man-made monumental crap built to trump up some ancient event or city, I am impressed by the arch's simple simplicity. It's an arch, God Damnit. Genius.

Madeleine freaked out by the ride to the top, fair enough, but fortunately she has Katie to give her re assurances (Eitan: "Oh, boy, Madeleine, it sure is a long way down.")

The Arch was designed by Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947. Construction began in 1963 and completed on October 28, 1965, at a total cost of $US 13 million ($97,300,000 in 2014). The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967.

Eitan takes to ironing his shirts in the morning.

The Family Business

Star Binding And Printing

We visit Star Binding & Printing, the company founded by my Great-Grandfather Salomon and Grandfather Jacob Orenstein.  Star Binding pulled my family into America's middle classes.

During the Second World War the company provided bindings for US military uniforms (military issue hats and trousers) and today continues to mfr bindings for hats and in-seam decals, where it is the largest in the US.

"Star Binding  Manufacturing Co. was acquired in around 1914 by Salomon Orenstein and his son Jacob. A few years later they were joined by George Zatlin who was married to Jake’s sister. Georges’ son Philip joined the firm after serving in World War II. In 1979, Philip’s son Stuart joined the company and the two run the company to this day.  Star Printing Company began as an in house printing company independent in 1926. Star Printing shares a single story building with Star Binding in the old automotive district of St Louis."

--From the website

MO in 24

Cousins Di Di and Devon

We touch the Missouri River and the Mississippi River in the same day, pretty cool, and now it is St Louis.

We visit Moe's side of the family and cousin Di Di organises a re union at Aunt Ida's Jewish retirement home (next to a Chinese restaurant, of course) which includes Liebermans and Orensteins and Seniors. Ida is 103 years old and sharp - she recalls everybody's face and where they are on the family tree. A highlight is Joy's photo album which takes us back to the 1920s.

Moe's cousin and childhood pal Al is with his wife Alice, a freshman at University City High School when Moe was a Senior. This area was predominantly Jewish until the '70s and so where my Orthodox great-grandfather Horen landed in the late 19th century, speaking only yiddish (Joy tells us). Horen left Russia to escape the pograms of the 1890s and entered America via Ellis Island. Alice tells me Moe was school President, and "very important and so handsome. We all looked up to him."

Devon is a great kid (head connected to electronic toy) and son of Shavon and Danny, who was adopted by Joy and Larry in '72, before mixed adoptions were stopped (says Joy). Danny is 6'4" and Joy 4'11".  Shavon is from Oakland and, remarkably, was a Freshman at Berkeley High School when I was a Senior, though we did not know each other.

Me: "What do you think of the Liebermans ?"
Madeleine: "Huh?"
Me: "Did you know that you had all these Jewish relatives in St Louis?"
Madeleine: "No."
Me: Pretty cool."
Madeleine: "Yep."

The Jew Crew

Kansas City Missouri

A boy in transition

We pull in to Kansas City and decamp at the hotel, which means clothes and debris everywhere.

Sonnet meets her ancient dear friend Kevin, who drives to us from St Louis.  Kevin and Sonnet worked together at I. Magnin in San Francisco in those post college days when life was but a goof. These are the best friendships.

I have the Shakespeares solo so we go for a bike ride along the Missouri River, swim at the hotel pool then, treat-of-treats, Arthur Bryant's BBQ for dinner, the best in Kansas City and anywhere (says Calvin Trillin : "the single best restaurant in the world"). Barak Obama lunched here three days ago. Sonnet and I at Bryant's in 1997 when driving across the country and not much has changed - it has cleaned up a bit perhaps but the pulled pork as good as it ever was. The kids share a full rack of ribs and a plate of fries, washed down with lemonade. It's a restaurant without pretencion , where everybody enjoying themselves, and beats any of London's Michelin stars, hands down.

Grain Storage

Route 96

Today, back to Interstate 70 East (known as the Eisenhower Truman Highway, at least in Kansas).  We visit the Eisenhower Museum and Memorial and the Eisenhower National Library in Abeline, KA, in 45 minutes, including lunch. Sonnet runs a tight ship.

Abeline, where Eisenhower raised, a dust bowl town with maybe 5,000 people but, man, every child here believes he can be President.

Eitan patiently eats his melted RussellStover chocolates in the back seat, slowly peeling the crinkly wrap from the liquefied chocolate. Madeleine: “That is disgusting.”

Spotted from the road :

“Free Wine Tasting”, Prairie Fire Winery

“Brown v Board of Education Historic Site (Topeka)

“Wild Wild West, Gentleman’s Club, Exit 250”

“Welcome to Lindborg, Kansas, America’s Little Sweden.”

Kansas State University : International Research Facility and Five Times Men’s Basketball Champions. 

Sonnet: “Well, that was Topeka.” [Dad's note: Topeka is the capital of Kansas and we went through it in 5 minutes, 65 mph]

Kansas

It's agriculture

We depart Montrose saying our sad good-byes to Stan, who takes it stoicly : “Now I can have some peace and quiet back”. The kids sit quietly in the back as we pull away honking the horn one last time.

Today’s route : Montrose, HW 50 to 96 at Pueblo then to Route 40 to 25 North, where we spend the night in Colby, KA, “the oasis in the plains.” It's hard driving, about 8 hours in all, without much to look at, other than the corn fields and blue skies.

Museums : Salida Museum of Local History (Salida, CO), Fort Wallace Museum (near the Fort Wallace, CO, cemetery); Prairie Museum of Art and history (Rte 40, KA); High Plains Museum, Colby, KA; Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Kansas State University, Hays, KA; Czech Museum and Opera House (Wilson, KA); Eisenhower Presidential Library, Albine, KA); Kansas Motorcycle Museum, Minneapolis, KA; Smokey Hill Museum and the Salina Art Center, Salina, KA