129.August 25

Chicago, Ill

The first 2 nights I spent in Chicago. The ride there was easy. I-90 is fast and safe. I found it difficult driving at night in Jen's neighborhood, because he road signs were hard to read, but I found everything alright. The next two days, I used the Metro train, because I bought a weekend ticket. I had a great time riding the train. It alone made me feel like I was again a traveler, even if only for a short time.

1995

Frankfurt, DE

The pleasure of sitting under elegant arches sheltering me from the wet during a rainstorm complemented by the sun, huge leafy branches shaking off their heavy drunken drops, its irregular patter on the cobbled veranda, and the greening hue of an Atlasian statue stand tall and naked to the opening skies. I tipple kafe, and speise on a Beeren tarte, raspberry. Three other tables of two have remained out doors, they have umbrella's.

I've just spent most of the afternoon at the Stedel Museum, reveling in their fine collection of art. Favorites were Max Ernst, but other Max's also pleased my eyes. They have a wonderful paint painting of Sommersnachttraum, but no postcard of it.

The sun is shining in full glory now, my tarte is gone, and the rain has finished falling except when the wind hits the trees with force. Time to see the Ancient sculptures.

After I left the sculpture museum, or on my way out, I was given a book with all the design plans for the building I had just been in. It doesn't have much information about the sculptures, but it was a lovely gesture.

From there, I believe I simply walked to the Hoffsbahnhoff, the train station, and took a train to Hoscht, Lars and Frauke's train stop.

I stopped at the bakerie first, getting chocolate deserts for Frauke and myself. I just bought one, actually, but they gave me the last as a free gift. The bakeri people are very nice, but Frauke expects that they hate each other.

We had macchiato with steamed milk and talked about theatre and non-profit work. It was a great converstation. She is practicing her English, because she will have to speak it a lot with her job at IKEA.

We looked for shows that night, because she had decided that we would not leave yet for Ettlingen. I found a German outdoor version of "Moulin Rouge" too tempting to resist.

After reading for quite a few hours on the couch, we took Frauke's car to meet Lars at Freshfields, and then went straight to the park for the play. We ate schnitzel and ketchup sandwiches on the green beforehand, and an Alt-bier, and they left me to watch the masterpiece of German language theatre. The lead male was terrible, the rest of it was good fun, but the show was more of a medley of assorted show tunes. When intermission came, I got another Maltz-bier and then the show changed a lot in the next act. But it was fun, and I think better, so when it finished I walked back to meet Lars and Frauke. They'd already come to look for me. We got home and I read until 01:00.

2004

I mowed the wet lawn this morning, which was a task because it was long in the tooth. I bought some brake fluid and bled the air from the truck brakes in a very short process. I tightened where it might have been leaking. Then I joined Lee, Tyler, Beth, and Jacob at the Ramsey St house to move bookshelves and a freezer to my house. I brought one more load home as well. We all were treated to a Kwik Trip lunch in Caledonia.

I joined Rachel and Jill in St. Paul at 20:00, and we went to the Peggy's to use her hot tub and hang out with Mile B.

2012

We spent the day organizing the house, opening boxes from the move, re-arranging the basement, including adding cupboards from the pantry at the Old House to our basement. With the impending arrival of our foreign exchange student, Frida, everything it became much more important to have the house the way we want it. We didn't get to a point where we could say "it's clean" but we sure had a lot more room when we were finished. It was a great day.

2013

I am starting to realize how much my significant other plays a role in all my diary moments. Rachel and I shared lunch at the Mexican restaurant at noon, and I met her after work, too. We went to the Cellar Bar in Decorah, right across the street from the radio station where she is working. We had a drink, and I spent some time talking to Professor English for the first time, though I'd seen him when I took anthropology in at Luther. Then went upstairs for pork chops and kielbasa. We stopped to fill the diesel tank and deflated the tires to 34 lbs each. The vw golf drove much better, and felt like flying through the air on the highway home. We stopped at my parents to show them the Roger Delaney gold Elgin pocket watch that I had fixed. I runs wonderfully, and was at most 3 seconds ahead by the next morning.

2019

Hermann, MO

After getting our chickens settled for the weekend, we went across town for Jen's breakfast, a perfect way to start our road trip to Nashville. Scott started as our driver as the rest of us read the musical "Chorus of Disapproval" aloud in the car. At intermission, we stopped at the Troy Store in Troy Mills for a bathroom break, and as our driver did that, we ran across the street to Dharma's bar for a Bloody Mary or cervesa. The theme was Bigfoot in the bar, with two fully grown examples in Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts. After many laughs we continued, and after a few more hours we finished our reading of "Chorus", which I had directed in Decorah in 2004, and none of my companions had seen it.

We stopped nowhere for lunch, just gas stations. In one, just on the Missouri side, all but our driver quickly split a tall, hard seltzer in the parking lot before getting back in the car. This was going to be a good trip. We happened to stop at the cheapest diesel station on our next stop, and we were cruising right along with many stories into the Mark Twain National Forest. Soon, we were in Hermann, after having read a few more plays, one about goats, but most by Jen Silverman, our new favorite playwright. Rachel and I will go to her play "The Moore's" at American Players Theatre next month.

In Hermann, we found the Black Shire Distillery after failing to find an open Winery. We had just missed their hours, but were taken pity on by the bartender who had been serving drinks there, and he let us in for after hours tasting and purchasing. We each got a To Go gin or bourbon drink, with ice and tea or fruit juice (I had a Missouri Suite Tea with Bourbon) and drank them quickly before we hit the street for dinner. Rachel's mom Lyn showed up when we went the few blocks to our AirBNB, and after deciding on rooms, we went down and up the hills to the Stone Hill Winery and the Vintage 1847 restaurant for German fare. It was an exceptional night for all of us with food, wine, and fun. https://stonehillwinery.com/vintage-restaurant/. Schweineschnitzel was my particular favorite, but we also shared sauerbraten, atlantic salmon, spaetzle, two locally produced wurst on a bed of sauerkraut with pickled onions served with mustard. We didn't go wrong with a dry rosé , or any of the other bottles we drank. We must go back again someday.

From dinner, we journeyed back to our conveniently located AirBNB and walked up a long hill to see the sunset and head downtown to find bars and entertainment. I wrote the poem rustling about our journey, though it also goes a bit into the following day, and recollecting what wonders happened the night before. This trip to Hermann was so memorable and wonderful by itself, that we didn't have to be en route to Nashville for us to already be pleased with our trip. I can't wait to go there strictly to enjoy the place itself. Missouri always pleases me. After turning down some sports bars along the main drag that remained open, we headed to our neighborhood, a few blocks back, and found an incredibly eclectic wine and spirits bar that served the best to be had for another 45 minutes. After we'd been given cask strength bourbon along with the many different drinks we ordered, we stopped across the street at the Dueling Piano bar for some livish music and beer. We didn't stay long, because we had a great AirBNB to head back to, with plenty of very good wine.

On the porch, we did face masks and sat around under the loveliest of cement porches, with a ceiling fan above to take the stillness from the moist air. We talked and stayed out until very late. Just check out the poem rustling to get a good feeling about the evening. It was spectacular.

2022