Made my way out of Indiana into the Illinois farmlands below Chicago. I was highly motivated to ride 99.9 miles on Saturday (yes you read that right 99.9 :-) to Gardner, where family friends Larry and Maryann would be hosting me for dinner and an overnight. I rolled into Gardner just in time for the shocking and sad news from Butler, PA where i rode directly through two weeks ago. Thankfully, my hosts helped us all escape with a wonderful dinner featuring lettuce/veggies from their own garden and a huge ribeye complements of local family steer farm. Farm to table in Gardner, I was spoiled rotten.
My in-laws met this collection of friends from Illinois, transplanted together as snowbirds in Florida. Our family visited them to escape the cold where my kids got lessons from Larry the “scratch” golfer. I love the “family friends” concept where multi-generation relationships are built. It made me reflect back to my youth. My family relocated from the Midwest when I was 7 and my parents were lucky enough to find other Minnesotans transplants in the Freehold area. These were the go-to family friends with whom we enjoyed countless weekend gatherings, shared holiday dinners, and suffered through 3 of 4 of the Vikings’ Super Bowl losses together. This brings me to a summer road trip for the ages, ex-MInnesotans traveling together from NJ back to the homeland to visit our respective families. The year was around 1977. Eight of us representing three families (yes 8!) and a small dog Brandy piled into a single green Chrysler New Yorker sporting a black vinyl roof. There were four adults incl. three smokers, gotta love the 70s), four children (14, 11, 9 and 4) and a small dog. The seating was three adults up front plus Brandy the dog and one adult in back with the kids. My brother was the 14 year year old and I was the 11 year old, splayed out on the floor behind the driver with a pillow behind my head. I recently spoke to Mary, the mother of the 4 year old, and we laughed about the whole trip, especially listening to country tunes, together belting out Kenny Rogers' “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille!”. Insanity…and memories of family friends that will last a lifetime.
