Category Archives: Travel

Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 9 of 10: Oklahoma!

May 4, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Buffalo Bill!

Leonard McMurry’s “Buffalo Bill” welcomes you to the wonderful world of the wild, wild West!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time…

State #5 on our seven-day, eight-state journey had its pros and cons, but at least we can say we crossed it off our list of states to visit. To its credit, unlike our home state of Indiana, it’s had its own famous musical. We haven’t watched it yet, but I expect we’ll get to it someday and develop a deeper appreciation for the Sooner State, or at least understand a few more pop culture references. I’m assuming it generated some, anyway. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a famous musical if everyone forgot the songs ten minutes later, right?

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Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 8 of 10: Dr Pepper Picked a Place for Prepping Peppers

May 4, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Dr. Pepperbot!

Dr Pepper-bot welcomes you to Waco, not to Westworld.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time…

I’d love to say our whirlwind tour of Texas was a two-week sightseeing spree through all the major cities you’ve heard of from movies and TV, but time didn’t permit and they’re not all in a straight line five miles apart. (Houston and Corpus Christi were particularly disappointing to miss because at the time we knew folks who lived in each.) If all our Plan A’s had worked out, right about here would be a bonus chapter on our first expedition into Mexico, but time didn’t permit and two of us three travelers chickened out. Part of me is also annoyed at past-Me for skipping out on any Austin research altogether, but time didn’t permit because we hadn’t earned enough vacation time in our respective office jobs to take more than the single week we’d set aside.

But as always, we did the best we could with what we had to work with. And if that meant taking a slight detour to go Be a Pepper, so be it.

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Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 7 of 10: Total Texas Taxidermy

April 30, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Moose and Us!

The oddest thing about this moose photo op is that I have no memory of the shirt IM’ wearing in it. Once I started regaining lost weight in the years ahead, it was probably first into the Goodwill bag.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time…

As you get older it’s always interesting to look back through your old photos, recall past occasions spurred by visual stimuli from the photos you saved, and kick yourself for the pics you either lost over time or never took in the first place. Searching our personal archives in preparation for this remastered miniseries got a bit annoying when I realized we had five times as many dead-animal pics as we did live-animal pics. The disparity between this entry and our San Antonio Zoo visit was no intentional slight on our part against the Lone Star State or its perception of animals.

Or maybe at age 33 I just thought stuffed animals were more fascinating than live ones like what we have back home at the Indianapolis Zoo. Honestly, we’ve been to our own zoo so many times, we probably have enough shots to make our own flipbook of the animals aging in real time. But creatively posed ex-critters? That’s, like, different. I guess?

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Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 6 of 10: Riverwalk Wanderlust

April 27, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments
San Antonio Riverwalk!

If you think the only Texas greenery are tumbleweeds and tobacco, the San Antonio Riverwalk begs to differ.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time…

Our hometown of Indianapolis has its own Downtown Canal Walk, patterned after similar, larger pathways developed and fostered in other states. There’s something about a swath of nature cutting through the heart of civilization’s artifices and escorting tranquility and beauty into an otherwise hard-shelled environment. Anne and I have also visited riverwalks in Pueblo and in Milwaukee, but my favorite is still the first one we did through faraway San Antonio. Once we started up its staircases and across its bridges, it wasn’t long before wanderlust kicked in and I wanted to see every path through to its end, or as far as they’d take us before we collapsed in the dry Texas heat.

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Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 5 of 10: Remembering the Alamo

April 19, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Alamo Morning Anne!

Before you ask, no, they wouldn’t show us the basement, just gave us some poppycock about having no such thing. It’s probably for VIPs only.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time…

Before making any plans for 2005 we’d asked my son if there was any particular place he’d like to visit within a reasonable driving distance. His first qualifying suggestion off the top of his head was The Alamo. That fleeting thought became the centerpiece of our 2005 vacation planning. To this day he doesn’t remember the suggestion, why he would’ve chosen it, or most of this week in his life in general. But his wish was granted, even if “wish” was too strong a word.

One odd find: as I was digging through boxes to compile our 2003 vacation keepsakes a couple months ago, I came across an ad on the back of our souvenir Smithsonian Museum program that, in the grand scheme, could be interpreted as foreshadowing of this trip. Who knew.

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Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 4 of 10: Mandatory Zoo Visit

April 14, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Butterfly Me!

My impression of Hannibal Lecter’s cage guard.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time…

We had one specific tourist attraction we wanted to see in San Antonio, one of their most famous sites and a pivotal location in American history. It’s not hard to guess if you know the area.

But first, a zoo. That’s what happens sometimes when you bring kids on vacation.

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Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 3 of 10: Deep in the Heart of Texas

April 11, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments
Texarkana Welcome Center!

Pit stop at the Texas Welcome Center in Texarkana, Texas, which is not to be confused with its next-door twin city of Texarkana, Arkansas. Not sure which one’s the evil one.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time…

Texas. The Lone Star State. The largest state we’ve ever visited. Which is logical because the only larger United State is Alaska, which we’d have driven to by now if it were thousands of miles closer. We even know someone who lives there, so someday we’ll have to find an excuse to head up there. Maybe if we ever dive deeper into the world of air travel, save up enough vacation days, and remember to fly with any airline other than United.

Wait. Where were we? Oh, right: Texas. That big, long, flat, dry, world-famous state. From our first day inside its borders, as the driver I mostly remember the “long” part.

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Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 2 of 10: In Search of the Southern Sasquatch

April 9, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Monster Mart!

Hi, I’m the Boggy Creek Monster! You might remember me from such films as The Legend of Boggy Creek and Boggy Creek II: The Legend Continues! But I would be shocked if you did.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time…

Anne and I have been to Arkansas exactly once. Sure, we could’ve spent that singular opportunity hiking Hot Springs National Park, visiting the official Walmart headquarters and museum, peeking inside our first Bass Pro Shops, or touring something related to the Clinton family while my wife made faces and rolled her eyes. But my peculiar TV fandom took us off-course in another direction…

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Our 2005 Road Trip, Part 1 of 10: Southern Fried Greece

April 6, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Parthenon!

You won’t believe how we drove from Indiana to Greece in just six easy steps!

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our 2005 drive from Indianapolis to San Antonio, Texas, and back again in far too short a time. Some hindsight editing will be included along the way as part of the “special edition” processing.

Prior to 2006 all our amateur photography depended on cheap 35m cameras, which were an improvement over the camera I grew up with that used 110 film, or my grandma’s old 126. 2006 was also notable in that we took far fewer photos than usual by our standards today. Sometimes we preferred to enjoy the sights as a family and leave the cameras pocketed. At other points we simply didn’t give ourselves enough time to stop, think, and shoot. At least one site is nearly pictureless in our scrapbooks because we were disappointed with the exhibits.

As a result, you’ll notice most of these ten entries will contain more words than pictures. If that’s a drawback, stay tuned because we’ll have some awesome new convention cosplay photos coming in the next 2-3 weeks, we swear.

Enjoy!

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 10 of 10: Our Ohio Odyssey

April 2, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Welcome to Indiana!

We thought we’d be back home again in Indiana in no time. We thought the Ohio border was the end of the journey. We were wrong on both counts.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

Most of our early road trips ended more or less, “And then we drove all the way home with nothing else interesting happening. The End.” With the exception of the accidental Tennessee detour on our 2001 return from Metropolis, the final day of each vacation had usually been no big deal. Among other lessons, 2004 taught us not to take that final leg for granted.

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 9 of 10: Canadian Critter Cavalcade

March 31, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Killer Whale!

A much more charming killer whale encounter than when I saw Orca: The Killer Whale at the drive-in at age 5.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

Before our return to America and the long drive home, we just had to hit one more large-scale attraction in Canada. Sure, we could’ve hiked a beautiful Canadian forest, found another river as inspiring as the Niagara, learned some Canadian history in a vintage mansion tour, or gone shopping at an authentic furrier. Instead we took my son’s preferences into consideration and came up with…a zoo.

But not just any old zoo, mind you.

I wish I meant that as more of a compliment.

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 8 of 10: A Mere Taste of Canada

March 30, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Canada!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

Sometimes here on MCC I don’t come out and tell you when I’m the bad guy of a given entry. I prefer to leave those realizations and judgments for You, the Viewers at Home, either to catch or to overlook on your own. Anne and I made our peace with the Canada incident long ago, but it’ll never be one of my favorites.

In all our travels throughout the United States, we’ve left the country exactly once. This is the story of that one time. Between the communication breakdown, the part where I pulled a Homer Simpson, and the omen of car problems to come, it was not our best day. But at least I got some peanut brittle out of it.

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 7 of 10: Mandatory Amusement Park

March 26, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Anne + Daffy!

Once upon a time, a fake bomb in a crowded public area didn’t cause widespread panic.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

If you followed along with our 2003 road trip, you’ll recall we spent one day that week escaping the traditional tourist attractions and historical significance of our nation’s capital to spend a day out of town at a Six Flags amusement park for my son’s sake. One year later, this is us repeating what worked pretty well the first time.

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 6 of 10: Bathing with the Maid of the Mist

March 23, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Anne + Niagara!

Welcome to the wild, wonderful, wet world of waterfall watchers!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

When you’re in the Niagara Falls area, multiple viewing angles are possible — from above, from the bottom, or from a distance. On a normal day, they’re all virtual water rides, especially the literal option.

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 5 of 10: Soaking in the Cave of the Winds

March 20, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments
Bridal Veil Falls!

Come on, folks, single file up to the falls. There’ll be plenty of chances for everyone to feel the deluge!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

On our November 2015 trip to Colorado Springs I spent a few hours at an attraction near Manitou Springs called the Cave of the Winds. It was a genuine cave in which I felt actual winds, but it wasn’t my first “Cave of the Winds”. At long last we backtrack to our first encounter with that label on the other side of America.

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 4 of 10: The Cannons of Niagara

March 17, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Fort Niagara!

Because someone has to keep the peace on Lake Ontario.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

Of the four Great Lakes we’ve visited, Lake Ontario was the only one considered a strategic location worthy of a military outpost by both the French and the British back in the eighteenth century. For fans of natural attractions and American history — you can bet my wife qualifies — Fort Niagara State Park is a logical addition to your upstate New York vacation itinerary.

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 3 of 10: Another Great Lake, Another Gray Sky

March 16, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Bullseye Returns!

Hi, kids! I’m Bullseye the Target Dog! You might remember me from our 2003 road trip! I’m back and I bring you the gift of bright colors!


Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

I’m not sure how it works in normal families. If unpleasant weather threatens to shroud their vacation scenery in visual mediocrity, maybe they call the whole thing off, take advantage of their unreasonably flexible lifestyles, and reschedule everything for a different week in hopes that the sun will return and bask their photos in a luxurious, magazine-quality aura. We wouldn’t know.

But this was the week we reserved for vacation, and these were the results Mother Nature gave us. Sometimes God’s Creation has to have unpretty off days so we can appreciate the beautiful ones all the more. And sometimes you have to dig through the superficial layers and make the moment special yourself even if the sun has flunked its dress rehearsal.

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The View from Atop the Badlands (and 1,500 Entries)

March 15, 2017 By in Meta, Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Badlands!

Call it “South Dakota Gothic”. Photo taken by my son, age 14 at the time and too happy to stay off-camera whenever we’d let him.

Dateline: July 2009. Our road trip east across the length of South Dakota took us to Badlands National Park, which is end-to-end entirely made of geology and panoramas and tourist taking turns whispering, “Whoa.” The above photo from that particular road-trip collection is one of several I’ve never shared online before now. The wide, wondrous view from atop one of the Badlands’ many peaks has come to mind more than once today, least of which was a late showing of Logan in which Our Heroes take their own road trip up through the Dakotas and enjoy a scene in these familiar surroundings. To be honest, said scene was set in North Dakota, not South, but the coloration, texture, and height are identical. And in our case we saw a lot less bleeding. Otherwise, close enough.

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 2 of 10: Niagara Falls!

March 13, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Niagara and Horseshoe!

I’d considered naming this chapter “NIAGARA FALLS! Slowly We Turned…” but maybe three readers would get it, and none of you under 40.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps.

Spoiler in our lead photo: we got to Niagara Falls! Our MCC remastering of the original 2004 travelog continues…

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Our 2004 Road Trip, Part 1 of 10: Erie and Grey

March 10, 2017 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Danger No Swimming!

Scenes like this are why no one lets us design travel brochures.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: once upon a time in 2004, Anne and I got married and had a honeymoon! A week later, we (and my son) embarked on our fifth annual road trip.

Welcome to the first installment of another special MCC miniseries, representing the original travelogue from our first vacation as a capital-F Family: a drive northeast from Indianapolis up to see the watery wonders of Niagara Falls and its adjacent tourist traps. Some hindsight editing will be included along the way as part of the “special edition” processing.

Prior to 2006 all our amateur photography depended on 35m cameras, back in the day when finished film rolls had to be dropped off for developing and whose pics then had to be scanned using the terrible tech available on our low budget at the time, then uploaded via miserable AOL 56K modem. For years I hated hated HATED scanning under those conditions, which means our oldest internet friends who already read what Anne and I wrote have never seen any of the photos that’ll be newly shared throughout these ten chapters. Very little about these entries will approach 1080p quality. Back in our day, this is what history looked like. When these were first posted, they were as much about the writing as they were about the pics. That’s why two of the ten chapters will contain more words than pictures, if you need such an advance warning. They’re our stories to tell nonetheless, captured in our memories if not by our shutter clicks.

Enjoy!

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