Traveling Again

Postings may (continue to) be a bit irregular here over the next three weeks, because I will be traveling.

I’m leaving here tomorrow and heading first for Boston where I will attend the 100th Anniversary game at Fenway Park. That’s a big deal all by itself, but it will feature the greatest rivalry in sports: the Red Sox vs. the New York Yankees.

From Boston, I’ll head to Washington, DC, for the annual three-day meeting of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.

Of course, I’ll be taking Amtrak the whole time I’m on the mainland.

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Coast-to-coast by Amtrak ... and Back!

I will be leaving around noon today for a three-week trip that will take me across the country and back again ... all by Amtrak. (Those of you who know about my love of train travel will not be surprised.)

A high point will be introducing an almost-nine-year-old granddaughter to her first overnight train ride ... aboard Amtrak's Coast Starlight, from Los Angeles to Seattle.

From there, I'll be traveling solo to Washington, DC, for an annual meeting of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. As an elected member of NARP's Council of Representatives, I'll be visiting a number of our representatives and senators banging the drum for more and better trains for the U.S.

After Washington, it's up to Boston to see several Red Sox games at venerable Fenway Park, then back to the West Coast, again by Amtrak: Boston to Chicago to Seattle to Los Angeles. I'll be joined on the Boston-LA portion of the trip by my brother-in-law who has heard me carry on so much over the years about both train travel and the Red Sox that he's decided to find out for himself what it's all about. By the time we get to LA, he will know for sure, one way or the other, if I'm really on to something, or am just a bit nuts.

I will do what I can to post here from time to time, but if you're interested in hearing more about all these train travels, stop in at my other blog where I'll be doing my best to provide regular posts as I go.

I'll be back home on Maui around the middle of May. Aloooo-ha!

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Reveling in My Obsession

The first major league baseball game I ever saw was in Boston at storied Fenway Park. It was May 25, 1946. I was nine years old.

I vividly remember walking through the bowels of that wonderful old ballpark, down a concrete ramp, looking up at a maze of steel girders overhead. Then came the magical moment: walking up a ramp and seeing that baseball diamond: green grass, immaculately groomed, and dazzling in the sunlight of a perfect spring day.

The Boston Red Sox were playing the New York Yankees that day. They won, 7 to 4, and ever since I have been a passionate fan. I even manage to travel to Boston almost every year to see them play.

But while the Red Sox grew to be my passion from that experience, it also turned the Yankees into an obsession.

I loath them.

I will not see them play in person and I cannot watch them play on television. They often win and I often hear myself screeching obscenities at the screen. It's just too upsetting.

And so, this morning, I am reveling in the news that the Yankees lost the first game of the World Series to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1. And, adding luster to this glorious news, a local Maui boy, Shane Victorino, played center field for the Phillies, got a hit, scored a run and drive in a run. And it all happened in the new BILLION-AND-A-HALF DOLLAR Yankee Stadium in front of all those Yankee fans.

I am still pessimistic about the final outcome of the series -- being a Yankee-hater breeds pessimism -- but today, at least, I rejoice.

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Some Very Random Wonderings …

1. Everyone seems to agree that a single payer health insurance system would reduce the cost of health insurance. So why aren’t business owners demanding it?

2. How long will it take for Manny Ramirez to get tired of La-La-Land and start sitting out games with a sore knee … and forgetting if it’s the left or the right one? (Yes, I’m a Red Sox fan, and if you root for the Dodgers, you are more than welcome to the big bozo.)

3. Why don’t the people ranting about “socialism” check out the actual meaning of the term? (Oh, wait … I forget … they don’t care what it means as long as it keeps the ditto-heads frothing at the mouth.)

4. Republicans like Knee-Jerk John Boehner are automatically against everything President Obama proposes. Wouldn’t it be helpful if they had some alternative ideas?

5. Why don’t the people responsible for the SpellCheck programs fix it so “Obama” isn’t flagged?

Six - Or Maybe Just Two - Degrees of Separation

SYDNEY -- I took a wine tour today, riding in a bus for three long hours to the Hunter Valley, the wine producing region north of Sydney. At one of the wine tastings arranged for our group of thirty, I struck up a conversation with an attractive and exotic-looking woman. It turned out she's Tahitian, visiting Australia with her husband.

I was delighted to chat with her because at one time I was visiting Tahiti on business fairly regularly and still have a great affection for the place. Of course, I couldn't resist asking her if she knew an aquaintance of mine from those days ... and indeed she does. Further, she promised to call him upon her return to Papaete and pass along my aloha.

I had heard about the Six Degrees of Separation theory, but never really took it seriously. I am starting to change my mind, however. This kind of thing has just happened too often. In fact, I have discovered that, as much as it's possible to do so, the theory has come close to being proven.

What I believe to be true without question, however, is that there are followers of the Boston Red Sox everywhere in the world. It's been sunny and very hot here, so I've been wearing my Red Sox cap whenever leaving the hotel. It's not fancy or even particularly distinctive: Navy blue with a red "B" above the bill. But it's instantly recognizable by other Red Sox fans and so far I have been hailed three times by fellow citizens of Red Sox nation in the two full days I've been here in Sydney. I'm not even surprised any more when it happens! Oh, and one Yankee fan -- at least I presume it was a Yankee fan -- who muttered "Red Sox suck" as he passed by me in the street.

Ten years or so ago, my wife and daughter and I were in Hungary in the town of Pecs. Walking along a side street one afternoon, I was startled to see a large decal in the rear window of a battered Skoda: "BOSTON RED SOX, 1986 AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS."

I wish I could have met that guy!

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