1997. Pat Boone had released "In a Metal Mood" and I'd relocated from Monterey to Berkley, Michigan (suburb of Detroit). It was my first time living away from home. The motivation for the move had been to remove the question mark from a potential romance. By the time I was packing my new GMC pickup full of books & clothes the question mark had been removed: The answer was "No." I didn't have a job, I didn't know anybody in Michigan, I didn't even have the foresight to reserve a hotel room. But I did have my black motorcycle jacket and a sense of adventure.
Later that month, I'd landed a really good job working for EDS at the GM Tech Center in Warren, but I still didn't have any local roots. Folks in Michigan are very friendly, but relationships tend to be static and insular and it would be a while before I built up a network of friends. In the meantime, I discovered that Michigan was near a lot of places I'd never been. GM gave us Good Friday & Easter Monday off, so I decided to take the four-day Easter holiday and head out. A friend of mine from California, James Brown, was from Montpelier, Vermont and used to talk about how great it was. I decided it was time to find out for myself.
I called some friends back at Casady & Greene to get directions and advice. My old boss, Donald, said that if I was in the area, I should check out the Backside Inn on the "backside of Mt. Sunapee" in New Hampshire. So I got in my truck with two goals for the weekend: Visit Montpelier, and stay at the Backside Inn
I arrived in Monteplier on Friday, 28 March. My first order of business was to get a Montpelier High Football hat. That'd freak out of James the next time I saw him. The folks at Montpelier High office were very understanding. It wasn't football season, of course, but they agreed to send me hats as soon as the order for the new season was in (true to their word, I got my hats a couple of months later). I strolled around Montpelier, visiting the State Capitol building and James' much-hyped (and then-rare) Ben & Jerry's establishment. One feature of Vermont stood out: The personalized license plates. So few autos are there in Vermont, I saw plates like "Car," "Jeep," and "Mike." In California, people have to have their plates written in code that is almost as much gibberish as the standard plates.
Having all options leaves you feeling like you have no options. That realization hit me the next day. I talked to the hotel staff, explaining that I had no freaking idea what I was doing there and was open to suggestions. "How about... uh, skiing?"
My only other time skiing had been exactly 10 years prior, but it seemed like there was nothing to loose so I headed to Sugarbush. Not wanting to buy expensive snow gear for what was presumably a one-off event, I rented skis and wore what I had:
As the lift operator commented, "You've been going down this same slope all day, and every time I see you, you're more wet!" True enough. As the day wore on, my muscles grew tired and I gave up on trying to turn and focused on going as fast as possible.
One evening (I forget which), I went up to Montreal, Quebec. St. Catherine's St was amazing; tons of folks were out & about even though it was freezing cold. The other evening, I was going to go to the Lobster Pot in Montpelier, but decided that "while I was in the area" I might as well do the real-deal and go to Maine for my lobster dinner. I ended up at DeMillo's Floating Restaurant in Portland; I ostentatiously ordered pre-shelled lobster. It is besides the point that I think lobsters are ugly and I don't even really like seafood.
Bruce, Mackie, their daughter Taylor, and me were the only people at the Back Side Inn (http://www.backsideinn.net/) on Sunday evening. The Inn is still there, but Bruce is now doing home inspections in Florida. It was a little odd staying at a bed & breakfast by myself, but they were very nice people.
Before heading back to Michigan, I stoped by Salem, Mass. Salem has drawn on its history by becoming a haven for "real" witches. Not a lot of stuff was open when I got there, except for the Crow Haven Corner, run by Laurie Cabot's daughter (Laurie Cabot being the "official witch of Salem"). As it turned out, most everybody except for me was preparing for what would be the biggest snowstorm to hit New England in many decades. I tried to scoot out of town, but it was too late. After getting stuck on the highway for exactly 2 hours, I was able to proceed in 4WD. The only cars I encountered beyond that point were crashed or engulfed by snow. People were huddled inside gas stations, stores, anywhere but on the road. Except for me & my trusty truck. At first I was deteremined to make it back to Michigan, but it took me all night to get to Albany, New York. I finally conceded defeat and got a motel room.
I was delighted to find out that my friend Dorothy was going to college in Wheaton, just outside of Chicago. We had a lot of fun exploring Chicago together. Much like the obligatory lobster at DeMillo's, we orderd a Chicago-style deep dish pizza from Gino's East. We got back to the car, opened up the box, and stared at a huge 1" pile of tomato sauce. "Huh... I don't really like pizza sauce..." I remarked. Dorothy giggled. "I don't really like deep-dish pizzas either." We had a good laugh, ate half a piece each, and tossed the rest.
In July, I came back to California to visit along with Tony & Doug, two friends from Michigan. It was like an alternate reality oompa-loompa California. When I mentioned that Salinas was the home of John Steinbeck, they were overjoyed beyond any reason. We had lunch at the Steinbeck House, we went to the Steinbeck Library, we went to Steinbeck's grave... it was like an adult Disneyland. A sedate, literary adult Disneyland. We also went to San Francisco:
It is too small to tell, but the hat I'm wearing is my "Montpelier Football" hat.
On another occasion in 1997, I had the opportunity to meet the then-governor of Michigan, John Engler. It was a very cool experience, although I'm not sure how my views today would square up with Gov. Engler's. The suit in the picture was purchased especially for the occasion. It is one of only two regular suits I've ever owned.
The picture below is from late 1997, when I was taking pictures around Windsor, Canada. There was a very strange-looking gold-tinted window on the side of a building, and I decided to take a picture of my reflection in it:
