USA Road Trip: Week 14

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My sister had returned from Seattle by the time we drove back through upstate New York, so we stayed at her place again. We also got to see my niece, who was visiting from Mexico City, which was a nice surprise.

Edgar Martinez from the Seattle Mariners was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, so we stopped in Cooperstown to check out his exhibit. We also saw the plaques for Ken Griffey, Jr. and Randy Johnson, and some exhibits for Ichiro, including the Ichimeter (if you’re a Mariners fan, you’ll get it). He had 262 hits in 2004 (that’s about 1.6 hits a game, in 162 games), and over 200 hits in ten of his first eleven years with the Mariners. He should be in the Hall of Fame in a few years.

Niagara Falls was amazing. 150,000 gallons of water per second plunge more than 1,000 feet (Lonely Planet, USA, 2018, p. 160). We took the Maid of the Mist boat tour, which takes you right up to the falls. We had talked about investing in an umbrella for this whole trip, but being from Seattle, we don’t use umbrellas. We were given ponchos on the boat because passengers get soaked; we kept our ponchos, so didn’t have to buy umbrellas.

From New York, we drove to Cleveland, where I grew up. We saw several friends and relatives, and a friend drove us around the city, showing us how much it’s changed since I left in 1980. The 1983 movie “A Christmas Story,” in which 9-year old Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, was filmed in Cleveland, so we went to see the house where it was filmed. You can buy a version of the Leg Lamp that the father displays in the window. And I used to work on the floor of the department store where he and his brother went to see Santa.

Miles driven after this blog, from Seattle: 19,536 miles, or about 31,440 km.

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Photos

Cooperstown - Ichiro shoes
from when he got his 3,000th MLB hit (for a total of 3,089 MLB hits, plus his 1,278 hits from his playing days in Japan)

Cooperstown - Mariners’ exhibit
Different memorabilia from special Mariners accomplishments

Comments

[Janet]

Christmas Story House
Well at least you made it there .. great !!! It is all about the memories!