Blue Cord

As my readers know, I occasionally round up a list of things that annoy me and blog about them. My last installment was back on August, so I thought it was time for another edition. Having just returned from a ten-day trip, I thought I would do a travel edition of my pet peeves.

Here are just a few things that annoyed me while I was on the road:

• Official signs on the Interstate that tell us what food and gas are available at the next exit – There should be a law that says any restaurant or gas station that is listed on that sign must be within a half mile of the exit. I hate getting off the Interstate only to find that I have to go two or three miles away from the Interstate to find the store I want. On the flip side, I love the signs at the end of the exit ramp that tell which direction each store is and how far.
• Turn signals – I know it is common place to complain that people don’t use turn signals. But this is actually a complaint about people that do. On a highway, a turn signal is supposed to indicate your intention to change lanes. It is supposed to be turned on for a second or two before you change lanes, not as you are in the process of changing lanes. When you swerve into my lane in front of me at the last second, the fact that you turned on your blinker at that same moment is hardly helpful.
• People who don’t know how to drive an SUV – Being able to afford an SUV is not the same as being able to handle one. It is a large vehicle and is not driven the same as a car. When I drove buses in Alaska, I had to get a commercial drivers license. The fact that you can own and operate an SUV without any special training is ridiculous.
• Interstate exits that are inappropriately numbered – The Interstate system is designed to be logical. North-south routes are odd numbered. West-east routes are even numbered. Major arteries have numbers evenly divisible by five. And mile markers increase from west to east or north to south depending on the orientation of the Interstate. Exits are supposed to be numbered according to the nearest mile marker, but not all states comply with this convention. I find that annoying. If I know my exit number and my current location, that should give me the ability to calculate how far I have to go. When the exits are number sequentially instead of according to the closest mile marker, it messes up the system. For the record, Massachusetts and Connecticut both number their exits wrong.
• Interstates numbered incorrectly – While I am on the subject of Interstate numbering, I should point out that some Interstates are numbered incorrectly. By law, an Interstate with two numbers must end at another interstate, and international border, or an ocean. Interstates with three numbers are either loops or spurs. Loops begin and end at Interstates and have an even first number, while spurs, which have an odd first number, can simply run out. Some Interstates do not follow this logic. For instance, I–83 in Baltimore simply ends at the Inner Harbor, which violates the rules of Interstate numbering. To be consistent, the part of I–83 that runs inside of I–695 should be renumbered to something like I–383.
• Connecticut – I experienced four backups driving the 125 miles through Connecticut. This is twice as many backups as I experienced in the other fifteen states combined. Most of these backups could have been avoided. One was caused by a junction between one Interstate and another. There was only one lane on the exit between them, but things could have flowed smoothly if everyone had simply moved into the right lane and waited their turn. Instead, a large number of cars rushed to the front of the line and forced their way in. They blocked the left two lanes while trying to push their way into the front of the line. This backed up the traffic in all three lanes for two miles. At another spot, I experienced a three mile backup in the north-bound lane because people were rubber-necking to see an accident in the south-bound lane. (Flashing police lights are so mesmerizing.) I remember this from the five years I lived in Connecticut. Drivers in Connecticut are not the best drivers in the world, and this combined with a lack of manners makes driving in Connecticut a frustrating experience.
• People who think signs don’t apply to them – When I got home to my parking garage, I was presented once again with a familiar sight: SUVs, trucks, and station wagons parking in spaces marked “Compact Cars Only.” I drive a station wagon, so I don’t park in these spots. But apparently other people think that these rules don’t have to be followed. So, they park in these spots, which means that people in small cars can’t open their car doors. Often, an SUV parking on one of these spots takes up two spots, which means there are fewer available spaces for the rest of us. Apparently, these people are willing to inconvenience lots of other people just to avoid parking twenty feet farther from the door.

Granted, most of these are minor inconveniences, but when you experience all of them multiple times over the course of a ten-day trip, they add up.

We concluded our trip today. After 2,800 miles through sixteen states, we arrived back in northeast Massachusetts this evening.

I haven’t blogged on the trip since day 5 when we were in Chattanooga, so here is a brief overview of the last five days.

Wednesday we headed up to Jonesborough, TN, where my mother and step-father live. We stayed with them until Saturday. The highlight was Friday evening, when my parents threw a surprise party for my son, who had turned ten back on April 13. Since he was not with me then, it was nice to be able to celebrate his birthday.

On Saturday we drove as far as Washington, DC, where we stayed with a friend of mine from seminary. Today, we got up bright and early and got on the road for the final day of travel. As I was driving trough Philadelphia, it occurred to me that it would be nice for the kids to have a chance to stretch their legs. So, I got off the interstate long enough for us to stop by the Liberty Bell. The kids had never seen it before, and the last time I saw it it was in a different building. The new pavilion, built in 2003, is about three times as large and has a nice exhibit about the history of the bell.

For those who don’t recall, the bell has an inscription around its top. The first line reads, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The quote is taken from Leviticus 25:10, which refers to the Jubilee Year that Israel was to observe every fifty years. It is thought that one of the reasons this inscription was chosen was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the chartering of Philadelphia. Of course, the liberty that is intended by Leviticus 25:10 is not political liberty. Instead, it is freedom from slavery and debt. Every fifty years, slaves were to be allowed to go free and land was to be returned to its original owner. Given that slavery was accepted in the colonial period and the Founding Fathers believed strongly in private property, it is somewhat ironic that they used this verse.

On Monday we drove down from Dayton, OH, to Chattanooga, TN. My brother teaches music (low brass) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, so we wanted to swing by to visit him for a couple of days. After all, Chattanooga is on the way from Iowa to Massachusetts.

We spent Tuesday afternoon at Rock City on Lookout Mountain. For those who don’t know, Rock City is an attraction centered on the rock formations on top of the mountain (the picture at the right is my brother with the kids). The trails wind through crevasses, over dizzying heights, under overhanging boulders, and through caves. The woman who purchased the land and set it up as a huge rock garden went a bit overboard with gnomes as a decorative motif, but it is still a lot of fun. From the vantage point on top of the mountain you can supposedly see seven states. The park is just over the line into Georgia, so Tennessee is only a half mile away. Alabama is only eight miles to the west, while North and South Carolina are 50 and 80 miles respectively to the east. Mt. Pinnacle on the border between Kentucky and Virginia is supposedly visible on a clear day. Since the earth doesn’t actually have lines drawn on it indicating where each state begins, I will have to take their word that I saw seven states.

My brother and I went to Rock City for the first time on July 3, 1986. It was the first big trip the two of us had ever taken alone (we grew up 3.5 hours away). I had just graduated from high school and our parents allowed us to spend the weekend in Chattanooga. We didn’t come just for Rock City, however. We came to attend our first ever Star Trek convention. Yes, I have a long history of being a geek.

As a bit of trivia, the Rock City area claims to be the place where miniature golf was invented.¹ The husband of the woman who started Rock City had bought land to build a housing community centered on a golf course. Those are a dime a dozen these days, but back then it was a novel idea. It took longer than planned to build the golf course, however, so to keep the residents happy the man put together a small putting course, which he called Tom Thumb Golf. The idea took off from there.

Tuesday evening was spent at a Chattanooga Lookouts game. My brother’s tuba/ euphonium ensemble was scheduled to play the National Anthem. Because I also play tuba, my brother invited me to play with them. The girlfriends of one of my brother’s students was supposed to take pictures of the event, but her camera batteries ran out. So, I loaned her my camera. She took the pictures standing directly behind my brother, which allowed her to get a panoramic view of the entire ensemble, with the exception of the person standing directly in front of my brother. Unfortunately, that person happened to be me. So, even though my camera took pictures of the event, the only part of me that shows up in the pictures of the performance is my right leg. The picture above was taken while we were waiting to go out onto the field. I am the handsome gent at the right of the picture in the red shirt. I am apparently the only one who doesn’t know the correct way to hold a tuba.

The game went well. As opposed to the previous two games we saw on this trip, the home team won this game. The got out to an early lead, but their opponents - the Mobile Bay Bears - kept coming back. Chattanooga took a two point lead into the 9th inning, but Mobile tied it up. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th, Shaun Cumberland of the Lookouts hit a double into right field that scored the winning run. Cumberland had also hit a two run homer back in the 7th inning to give the Lookouts the lead then. It was a very exciting ending.

The Lookouts have an nice field which is fairly new (2000). Unfortunately, it follows the new trend of being named after a corporate sponsor. I prefer parks that are named after people (Jacob’s Field), groups of people (Veterans Stadium), or the team (Oriole Park at Camden Yards) or anything else that represents the spirit of the community. Chattanooga’s AT&T Field sits in the heart of downtown, just up the bank from the Tennessee River. For some reason, however, it faces the wrong way. Home plate is in the southeast corner of the park instead of in the southwest corner. This means the sun shines in the eyes of the fans down the right field line. I am told that the old Engel Stadium, where the Lookouts played until 1999, is a classic baseball venue.

1. Whether the claim is true or not is a matter of debate. Tiny putting courses in Europe had been around since the mid-19th century, but the Rock City area may have been the first to introduce whimsical obstacles such as pipes and windmills in place of sand traps and water hazards. [back]

On day two of the 3D Trip we drove from South Bend, Indiana, to Dayton, Ohio. Fortunately, it was a much less eventful trip than our first day of travel, so I will spare my readers the boring details.

Day three was spent in Dayton with a friend who teaches Catholic theology at the University of Dayton. He had gotten us tickets to an afternoon game between the Dayton Dragons and the Clinton Lumberkings. It was raining lightly when we arrived at the field, but by the time of the game it had stopped. It never quite got warm, but we were fairly comfortable. Dayton sells out practically every game of the season. In fact, they have sold out eight consecutive seasons and are the only minor league team ever to sell out a season before it began. Because we had gotten tickets late, we were sitting on the right field berm.

Dayton has the nicest stadium I have ever seen for a Single A team. It is in a fantastic location downtown. The field is sunken, so the top of the lower seats is at street level. It also has an upper level as well as suites, both of which are rare for Single A baseball. Many Single A fields, such as the Beloit Snappers game I attended in Wisconsin two weeks ago, resemble glorified high school stadiums. The field is named Fifth Third Field after Fifth Third Bank. For those interested in trivia, the Fort Wayne Wizards (Single A) and the Toledo Mud Hens (Triple A) also have fields named Fifth Third Field.
Unfortunately, the Dragons’ play did not rise to the level of their ballpark. Their starting pitcher was pulled from the game after giving up for runs (all earned) in the first inning and loading the bases in time for the top of the order to come to the plate again. He left having gotten only two outs. The relief pitcher slowed the flow of runs, but by the end of the game it was 11–1 in Clinton favors. The Dragons’ loss meant that Clinton swept the series.

Afterwards, we went to a wonderful local pizza place called Dewey’s. If you are ever in Dayton, I highly recommend it. My kids liked it because they could watch the pizza being made. We finished the day with a trip to a cemetery to see the graves of Orville and Wilbur Wright. On a side note, Charles Kettering, the inventor of the electric ignition for cars, is buried in the same cemetery, as is Erma Bombeck.

I am going to be taking a hiatus from blogging about the Bible for the next ten days. I just finished up my semester at Wartburg College, so I am heading back to my home in Massachusetts. On the way, I am going to be stopping to see friends and family. My blogging between now and April 27 will be about the trip.

I am not alone in my travels, however. Yesterday, my kids flew out from Boston. I picked them up in Minneapolis and we drove down to Iowa. This morning, we set out on the 3D Trip (the three Ds are dad, Duncan, and daughter). I did a similar trip with Duncan when I taught in Iowa five years ago, so I thought it would be nice to repeat it with both kids. As on the previous trip, we will be stopping to see a number of baseball games along the way.

We set out this morning for what was supposed to be a six hour drive to South Bend, Indiana. We had hoped to visit the site in Iowa where the movie Field of Dreams was made. Duncan and I played baseball there five years ago, but the rain today meant we had to pass by without stopping.

The trip was lengthen by two hours when the front driver’s side tire decided to blow out while I was doing 70 mph on I–80 in Joliet, Illinois. I managed to wrestle the car to the shoulder and set about changing the tire. If you have never had the chance to change a driver’s side tire on the shoulder of a busy freeway, I highly recommend it. It’s a rush money can’t buy. My spare is a donut, so I used it to limp to the next exit. Once there, I found a tire shop. Unfortunately, I have a 4WD vehicle (1994 Subaru Legacy), so when you replace one tire you have to replace them all.

Because of the delay, we got to tonight’s game in the bottom of the 4th inning. The South Bend Silver Hawks were playing an Iowa team, the Cedar Rapids Kernels. When we got there, the Kernels were already up 6–1. The Silver Hawks had already made two errors, and they made an additional one in the late innings. A passed ball also allowed a runner to score from third when the Kernels had the bases loaded. It ended 9–1. The Silver Hawks have a cozy stadium that sits in the middle of downtown South Bend. We had really nice seats two rows behind the visitor’s dugout on the 3rd base side.

After the game, my kids went the side of the dugout to see if they could get some souvenirs from the players. Duncan in particular is a ball magnet. I had never gotten a ball at a game, but during our previous trip five years ago we got balls at three straight games (including a foul ball off Carlos Lee at a Chicago White Sox game). Tonight’s game was no different. Between the two of them, the kids got a game ball, a ball with the Silver Hawks logo on it, and a game-used bat. The bat is cracked but is still in one piece.

One interesting piece of trivia about our trip: I picked up the kids in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN; St. Paul, MN). Today we drove through the Quad Cities (Davenport, IA; Bettendorf, IA; Rock Island, IL; Moline, IL). Next week we will be visiting my parents in the Tri-Cities (Johnson City, TN; Kingsport, TN; and Bristol, which is in both TN and VA). Anyone know where we can find the Quint Cities?