Hi again,
The Travels
of YOUNG AMERICA are looking a lot like the Travels of Linda and Fred. Lately, YA appears to be doing a fair amount
of staying in port. As we’ve said, we
fit cruising into our life, wherever that may take us, and the blog is our journal,
as well as a way to keep in touch.
After
arriving in NY, we had a fun evening with Betsy Blair and her husband
Mike. Betsy is currently VP of the
Hudson River Maritime Museum (Fred is a former trustee) and gave us a tour of
the new pole structure that was miraculously constructed by volunteers at the
Museum in one weekend. CLEARWATER, the
Pete Seeger sponsored ‘Clean Up The Hudson’ Sloop, will now winter at this
great location on Rondout Creek, Kingston, NY.
That is just down from Certified Marine where YOUNG AMERICA 2, the
houseboat, lived for 17 years. Mike and
Betsy cooked a fine meal. A very nice evening.
On Friday
we drove to Boston where we attended the inauguration of the new President of
MIT, former Provost, L. Rafael Reif. We
had great seats in the Alumni section (Fred earned his MA in Business
Administration there in 1960). Fred was able to congratulate outgoing President, Susan Hochfield on the fabulous job she has done
of fostering the MIT Energy Initiative, among many other things. As she is much
less frequently asked to pose for photos these days, she was happy to smile
with him for my camera!
From Boston
we drove to Portland, Maine. The USS Cutlass Submarine (Fred’s Navy ship) reunion
held there was well attended, and highly charged emotionally. Fred discovered
through many conversations that he is far from alone in the long delayed dealing
with the grief and guilt associated with the death of his friend and shipmate, Lt.
William Thompson. Happily, the
organization voted to donate a commemorative bench for the ship at the
Charleston Cold War Submarine Memorial, and also to present a memorial bench to
the city of Sharon, PA to honor Bill Thompson, who was lost at sea in
1958. Fred is now creating documents to
enlist financial support for these important remembrances from the 300+ men who
served on the Cutlass while she was in the service of the US Navy.
We toured Portland
with the Cutlass group on a bus ride, and I marveled at the Maine Coast. It is very Stephen King in some places, and
inspiringly peaceful in others! We found
time to visit the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, ME. The museum is situated on the property
formerly occupied by 3 shipyards, and boasts a steel skeleton of the bow and
stern of WYOMING, the largest wood ship ever built by anyone except Noah, Apparently, 450 feet equals 300 cubits..
Can’t go to
Maine without stopping at LLBean, and we did, and had lunch at Linda L. Bean’s
restaurant across the street from the now gargantuan home store. Also discovered a great UU Congregation in
Yarmouth, ME.
We stopped
again in Boston on the way home, as Fred had asked for, and received,
appointments at MIT with Bob Alexander and Yuriy Roman.
Bob is
deeply involved with MITEI, the above-mentioned energy initiative, and it was
great for the Texaco oil guy (Fred) to spend an hour finding out what is new
and cutting edge on that horizon. Yuriy
is the current holder of the Texaco-Mangelsdorf Career Development Professorship
at MIT. His work is being funded by the
endowment created upon the death of Fred’s dad, who, like many Mangelsdorfs,
was an MIT grad. The funds are awarded to a new researcher in Chemical
Engineering to assist him with, well, career development. Yuriy was delighted to
show off his lab and introduce the 3 researchers working there. Two of these grad students were excited about
their work—the third was ecstatic! He
and Yuriy had just returned from Japan where the student presented a paper
outlining his accidental discovery—newly patented by MIT---that could hugely
impact (downward) the cost of the production of a simple pharmaceutical sugar
used in many, many medications. Who
knows what is possible?
Before we
left Boston, we rode the DuckBoat around the beautiful old city, whose streets
were most definitely laid out by the meandering oxen. Also (because it is a
Duck) we had a ride up the Charles River. Later, we walked
to the home offices of the Unitarian Universalist Association for a visit.
Back in
Newburgh, we made the rounds of doctors and dentists, and visited with
family. We caught the dress rehearsal of
the Arlington High School Marching Band Invitational where grandson Paul
proudly played his Saxophone in an incredibly complicated presentation. We also found a new tenant for my old condo
(daughter Kris) when the current guy unexpectedly moved out.
On Sunday,
Oct. 7 we flew back to Louisville, where YA was patiently awaiting our
return. First thing Monday morning, Clayton,
the hvac guy, spent hours making the #&^(@% furnace work. For a day.
Really. Tuesday the furnace stopped working. We provisioned and puttered and planned to get
underway, and on Wednesday, Clayton returned for yet another rebirth. It was running when he left. We left too, and Power Squadron Harbor Host
Gary Harrison and his wife Janet gave us a hand with rental car return, and a delicious
Havana Rumba lunch, to boot! Thursday,
the 11th, we tossed off the lines and departed Louisville, with the intention of hurrying
along to Memphis, TN to catch up with CAROLYN ANN. It was not to be. On Monday the 15th, we flew back
to Newburgh, this time from Evansville, IN.
On Saturday,
we had received notification of the death of good friend, Jim Silver. For the past several years, Jim has done
battle with an extremely rare degenerative brain disease. The Church in Kent,
CT that Jim was instrumental in rebuilding was packed with family and friends
and the priest beautifully eulogized a life well lived. We were grateful to attend and to hug our
friend, Jan, Jim’s wife of 47 years.
There
followed a couple of days in Newburgh, awaiting the best return flight. One upside of that was time spent with
grandchildren, when daughter Jen took Katie Rae, Casey and Rebecca and me to
the Museum of the Hudson Highlands. The
critters there (mostly turtles, snakes and birds) are all local. A new crow
says “Hello” (but not as vigorously as the original who cawed there when Jen
was Casey’s age! We played Pooh Sticks
at the stream and a good, healthy, outdoor time was had by all!
Another
bonus was the opportunity to attend the Mid Hudson Power Squadron meeting and
tour DUTCHESS, the 44’ sailboat that John Kwak has been lovingly restoring for
the past 6 years. The boat is in the water and will be North Carolina bound
very soon!
Turns out
that Memphis was not all it had been expected to be for CAROLYN ANN. We all knew the water of the Mississippi was
low, and recognized that several areas have been closed to tow traffic. Tows need 9-12 feet of water---our GH N-37’s
only need 3-1/2 feet. No problem,
right? Wrong. Joe and Punk had the choice of moving on from
Memphis or facing a solid mud pack for the bottom of the boat for---who knows
how long? Couple that with unexpectedly
spotty cell and internet service along the Mississippi, few transient dockages,
and add in the undated antibiotic prescriptions Fred and I each received from
our dentists ‘just in case that annoying tooth flares up’ (how come we each
have one???), and on the return flight to Evansville, IN, we decided to once
again alter our course, and take the Tenn-Tom waterway back to Mobile. We’ll save the Mississippi for another
day. Joe and Punk are already in Nachez,
MS, so there is no way we could travel together, regardless of how fast the
current pushed us.
Back in
Evansville, we loved the Nu Plaza Marina.
Jim, the owner, is laid back and knowledgeable and generously provided
us with a courtesy van. Bruce, the
right-hand guy kindly shuttled us to and from the airport, and on Wednesday we
hosted a Happy Hour. What a neat group
of people stopped by!
Again, we
hated to leave, but the brightly colored leaves are falling, and this morning
the temp was---and stayed--below 50 degrees.
Time to head south! Haven’t beat
the cold weather yet, it is Saturday the 27th and still in the
50’s. We have, however, completed the
Ohio River portion of Fred’s long held wish to go to West Virginia by
boat. As I write this, we are anchored
in the Cumberland River.
The sunset is beautiful, Fred has fixed the furnace, and tomorrow is another day.
Be well, and remember to breathe!
