Category: Marcus

Another City Life Adventure

Yesterday afternoon I took my scooter to Safeway for a clove of garlic, some thin spaghetti and V8 Juice. The 46 ounce bottles of V8 were on sale – lucky me – 3 for $3 each, or 5 for $2 each… regular price $4.49 each. I drink a lot of V8, so I sprung for 5. Such a deal.

The cloth bag was heavy, too heavy to hang on my handlebar, so I strapped it on the back of the scooter with a bungee cord and started home.

Coming up the Union Street hill, I just made the light. Across Polk and hitting the upslope of the big hill I was going pretty fast. Suddenly I felt the absence of the bag against my backside and heard a thwap! Uh oh… think I lost my load. I stopped quickly, backed against the curb and dismounted.
Continue reading “The V8 Incident” →

,and Adventures in Chicago

In mid-June, Eric, cheesemaker at Monroe Cheese Studio, and number one son, emailed to say he was driving the Maine Cheese Guild‘s entries to the American Cheese Festival in Chicago at the end of July. I”m a sucker for a road trip and had nothing pressing on my plate, so I said, “Why not?” The fact that Carol hates road trips and I hadn”t been on one since ought-four made the decision easy.

The cheese was due in Chicago on a Friday, but the conference didn”t begin until the next Thursday, leaving time to drive the great Midwest to Amy and Gary in West Virginia and pop in to see Carol’s family in Lancaster, Ohio.

The flight and drive to Chicago are chronicled in Eats on the Cheese Road. The Festival of Cheese itself — and what a time it was — is described in Cheese Road.

This piece is about family. I hadn”t seen Amy and Gary since our great Georgia to Maine trip in June, 2001. Since then, they moved from Fairmont to Mannington, bought a house and moved in. I was last in Lancaster in ought-six for my high school reunion and then a month later for the Fairfield County Fair and Carol’s reunion. Since then, Carol’s folks moved from their condo to the Primrose Retirement Community. I looked forward to seeing them in their new habitat.

After, we had four days in Chicago where Eric attended the American Cheese Society conference and I had a chance to unpack, chill out and enjoy the great city as a tourist. Continue reading “Family on the Cheese Road” →

,and Adventures in Chicago

Having traversed Québec, Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Ohio again; and visited sister, aunt, in-laws, grandparents, we embarked on our final driving leg back to Chicago.

We had four days in Chicago where Eric attended the American Cheese Society conference and I had a chance to unpack, chill out and enjoy the great city as a tourist.

Indiana

Wednesday was perfect for driving, temps in the seventies and partly cloudy. We retraced our miles back through Columbus and on into Indiana. Eric had the cruise control set on 70, as usual, and we were purring along with the light traffic. The traffic slowed, as often happens on Interstate highways for no apparent reason. We passed a sign that said, “Up to $1000 fine for speeding. Speed Limit 65.” Then traffic speeded up again, as did we. We were at the back of the pack. Continue reading “Family on the Cheese Road (continued)” →

Vancouver wasn”t all about food. Other interesting things, unique to that city presented themselves.

A Cool Bicycle Rack in Victoria

A Tank and Cannon guard the Armory

Let the walkin” man walk.

The walking man is ubiquitous; we don”t even notice him. But in Vancouver, the walking man took new forms. Continue reading “Vancouver Objects” →