NOW we have a title fight!

I've been an amateur political observer for much of my life - probably since about 1976, the first time I can remember hearing the name of a national candidate (Bob Dole's) on the radio. I was about 8 or 9.
Watching politics is one of my favorite pastimes.
I cannot recall in any time since I've studied politics where we've had a presidential match-up like the one we have now in circumstances like these.
The late Tim Russert pointed out before his untimely passing that this election is the first in many decades which didn't feature a sitting president or vice president on either major party ticket.
That, in and of itself, is historic.
But wait, there's more.
The run-up to the Democratic Party nomination featured a bare-knuckled contest between a woman - New York Sen. Hillary Clinton - and the nation's first strong black candidate - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. This was the first battle of its kind for a major party nomination in terms of gender and race both playing major roles.
For weeks, Obama and Clinton fought for every vote and every delegate until Clinton eventually conceded. This week, she formally backed Obama for the party's nod. Thursday night, Barack Obama, 47, accepted that nomination on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. Several days earlier, he'd announced Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, 65, would be his vice presidential nominee.
Less than 24 hours later, a history-making event happened again.
Republican nominee-in-waiting, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who turned 72 today, introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - at 44, she is 28 years McCain's junior - as his running mate. She's the first woman to run on the GOP presidential ticket and only the second woman in history to run for vice president (Geraldine Ferraro holds that distinction).
Here is our fight card for the presidency in 2008:
In this corner, we have a stylish idealist - whose desire to see change was likely forged as he helped those in need - but who doesn't have a lot of political experience, especially in the arena of foreign policy. Enter his running mate, a seasoned senator with a wealth of political know-how in all the right areas and whose roots in scrappy Scranton, Pa. and personal losses helped shape him into a strong leader.
In the opposite corner, we have one of the nation's enduring war heroes who, by reputation, has attempted to reform Washington from the inside and whose foreign policy experience includes a stay in the Hanoi Hilton. Today, he introduced us to a woman - who from first impressions - sounds like the second coming of Teddy Roosevelt in terms of toughness and competitiveness - this time in high heels and sometimes hiking boots and running shoes - with the compassion of Mother Teresa.
This is going to be one interesting, fascinating election. We've probably not seen one like it in most of our lifetimes and I'm sorry Russert and late political observer Tony Snow aren't here to enjoy it with us.
As the voting public, let's break the turnout at the polls.
I assume, unfortunately, that the tactics will get dirty. Name-calling, race-baiting and gender-baiting may be all part of the discourse over the next 67 days.
But, other than that, let's hope they play this fairly.
This fight card is interesting enough - let's keep the cigarettes, cash and booze at home and let voters be motivated on their own to cast their ballots.
Besides the contenders themselves, I don't know what else besides an ailing economy, a need for a clear direction for our fight against terrorism and a national desire to see a break from the dependence on oil could draw out at least 75 percent of our nation's registered voters.
Maybe they can add some midgets or have a debate or two at Wing Night down at the local watering hole.

The Maximum Vacation, Part IX

Day 8 – evening

Later we went out to eat and did some clothes shopping. Pennsylvania has no sales tax on clothing, so we took advantage of that, given that in some locales in the South, people pay around 10 percent in sales tax on everything.
Here, Jadyn sports a set of sunglasses Mommy got her during our whirlwind shopping trip in the humongous Tanger Outlet Center.

Day 9

We got up, packed up and directed our car toward our first stop of the trip – our friends’ house – to drop off a borrowed item and wave one last time goodbye.
We checked out a few of the places of importance to Amanda and her side of the family in the area she grew up in, then pulled out the directions for the car rental office at the Philadelphia airport.
We turned in our car, got inside the airport and did all the necessary check-in stuff. We got aboard the plane with the plan of getting to Memphis – and then Birmingham – in just a few hours.
This plan didn’t materialize.
Our plane started to taxi out, but the air crew realized that a panel was open on the aircraft. So, we went back to the gate to have it shut. Then, several passengers wanted to get off the aircraft because they knew they would miss their connections in Memphis.
While we waited on them to decide what they wanted to do, we burned fuel, so we had to get more gas.
What started out as a planned two-hour flight to Memphis ended in the reality of us staying on the aircraft a total of four hours. When we arrived in Memphis, our plane to Birmingham had already been gone about 20 minutes. Outbound flights were done for the day.
We didn’t make it home the night of Day 9 like we’d hoped we would. Instead we stayed in a hotel – paid for, of course, by the airline responsible for the delay.

Day 10

We made it back to the Memphis airport in decent time to catch our flight to Birmingham, which arrived without any glitches. Seeing the family vehicle waiting in the parking deck at BIA was quite a welcome sight. We loaded up and started our already delayed journey back to Mississippi.
Our delay gave us an opportunity to interact with people we wouldn’t have gotten to know better otherwise, including a person we initially met in Philadelphia. We never completely know why something happens, we can only trust it was for someone’s benefit.
We got home with about 90 minutes to spare before Amanda went to a previously scheduled event and have been pretty much on the go since.

Epilogue

Our journey into the Northern United States helped us remember some of the more important things in life. These all involve relationship – with friends, family and community. Sometimes, the bonds of trust and togetherness are forged in a flash; trust comes immediately to engage what lies ahead.
Other times, they come into being by reconnection, taking extended amounts of time simply to sit and chat in a day and age when time seems impossible to find.
Spending quality time with friends and family is no waste of time.
Neither is extending a hand of friendship and support to a stranger you wind up stuck with on a layover at a hotel.
All of these things come by making a choice – and we’re glad we chose to take the Maximum Vacation of 2008.

The Maximum Vacation, Part VIII

Day 8 – morning

With all of us working on varying amounts of limited sleep, we got up to go to Dutch Wonderland, a theme park in walking distance from our hotel.
This was Jadyn’s first amusement park experience, and overall, she had a blast.
She loved her first ride, which moves along at a decent pace then slams into high gear.
First, here I am getting her set up for the ride.

The smile says it all.

She wasn't too wild about this spinning one.

She did OK on this ride, which climbs to heights above our heads.

The good ol' carousel worked fine. However ...

Jadyn wanted to see someone who passed by while we were on the ride, and once we were off, she literally ran down Duke the dragon to meet him.

Right after lunch, I went back to the hotel for a nap, while Amanda and Jadyn hung out with a college friend of Amanda’s and her daughter and stayed until about mid-afternoon.
I’ll save the roundup for the evening on the next – and final – blog about the Maximum Vacation.

The Maximum Vacation, Part VII

Day 7 - afternoon and evening

After lunch, we made our way east on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Route (U.S. Highway) 522, where our trip took a mostly northern heading toward the first day of the 30^th annual Creation Music Festival just south of Mt. Union, Pa.
Though we hadn’t placed this stop on our original itinerary, we thought it would be a good addition, both to spend time with our first-stop hosts and experience something we wouldn’t often get a chance to do. Plus, Amanda has fond memories of previous visits to the festival and got a chance to make some new ones.
We made our way through the entrance and to the parking area, then met up with our hosts.
We heard a speaker, ate some great festival food and saw several musical acts, including the David Crowder Band.
Jadyn figured out not long into our stop how to relax.

She also accurately determined the conditions we faced were quite warm, so she drank water.

This is mostly likely the biggest crowd Jadyn’s ever been in before, but she took to it very well.

She danced and had a good time ...

and so did we. We’re very grateful our hosts graciously allowed us to join them.
We continued on our original path toward the Lancaster, Pa. area, seemingly outrunning – and then getting caught by – a thunderstorm which appeared to follow us a good bit of the way to the east.
We got into Lancaster in the early hours of Day 8 on our trip, and we hurriedly got to bed so we could follow Day 8’s schedule as soon as possible.

The Maximum Vacation, Part V

Day 6

We'd already planned this day as a low-key one, with a stop with Jadyn specifically in mind.
In the morning, we went back into Marietta, this time to visit the city's Aquatic Center, which is basically a miniature water theme park. It's an excellent, affordable facility and a perfect thing for a child like Jadyn, who loves to play in the water.

After toweling off a bit, we went back to the hotel for another afternoon nap. Then we went to dinner with a cousin and later, took one last trip through Grand Central Mall, buying a few interesting items and letting Jadyn burn off a little steam.

As we began to pack and prepare to leave the Marietta-Parkersburg area, we wondered whether we could manage what we'd planned for Day 7. So, we gave ourselves several options and decided we would see which one could play out the next morning.
I anticipate two posts out of Day 7, if that tells you anything! I expect they'll be along within the next few days.

The Maximum Vacation, Part IV

Day 5

I'd been to Marietta, Ohio three times in my life previously - sometime between 1977 and '79, December 1984 and May 1990. This was Amanda and Jadyn's first trip.
It is one of the ancestral points of origin on my mother's side of the family.
As we headed north out of Parkersburg on Interstate 77 into Ohio, a moderately thick blanket of fog obscured our view of the mighty Ohio River.
We made our way to Old Town Bakery, a relatively new addition to downtown Marietta. One of my cousins owns and operates it and it was our designated rendezvous point with my other cousin. (The photo in the link is from a person by the name of Bob Church who posted the link at this site.)
We met up with my cousin, got some very good breakfast, then took a driving tour of Marietta with my cousin at the wheel.
She took us up to an overlook, where the fog began to peel back and let the daylight shine.
Here are a couple of other pictures taken at the overlook.


My cousin drove us back down off the bluff and then on to other parts of the area, including segments of the heart of Marietta.
The image I take away from this most recent visit to Marietta is that it's a city that's proud of and rooted in its history yet it keeps its mind on the present and future. I see it as a progressive community with a bike and walking trail tied into downtown and recreation areas on the north side of town and a former covered - and later railroad - bridge reverted to pedestrian traffic about 46 years ago.
We strolled across this bridge to explore another side of town and take a look out on the point where the Muskingum and Ohio rivers merge.
Community members adorned the bridge with hanging baskets of flowers, adding a very nice touch to an already scenic path.


We discovered a cluster of various shops on the west side of the river, including this antique store with a clever name:


We went back to the hotel in Parkersburg - about a 20-minute drive - to give Jadyn a chance to nap before a gathering back at my cousin's house on the outskirts of Marietta later in the afternoon.
We enjoyed a great meal and some warm and genuine interaction with our relatives - I just don't think it could have gone better. Jadyn mostly just played in the dirt and hung out with cousins closer to her age.
By this day, neither Amanda nor I contracted pinkeye, and we truly enjoyed our time reconnecting with this segment of our broader network of kin.
By the end of Day 5, our senses of uncertainty on Day 3 gave way to a mixture of feelings belonging, connection and satisfaction. In other words, we had a great time!
We have five more days to recap, so please hang on as I get the blogs together!

The Maximum Vacation, Part III

Day 4

The night before, we already thought we needed some recovery time and postponed a meeting with a cousin of mine. That was before we stayed up late trying to do research on what could be a serious situation.
The next morning, we called Jadyn's physician's office back in Mississippi and spoke to a staff member, who arranged for us to get some medicine called into a local pharmacy to treat the condition.
We were told the best way to prevent the spread of pinkeye was to keep our hands washed.
After a while, we decided to venture out and find dining and play around Parkersburg, and we found enough of all of it to suit us.
We took these pictures at City Park in Parkersburg.

Amanda snapped the cool one with Jadyn's feet in the air.
A little while later, we went back to the hotel and and took a nap.
We eventually decided to try to meet with my cousin the next morning.

We headed out again later and let Jadyn play at Grand Central Mall in nearby Vienna, W. Va.
As the hours passed and with treatment of Jadyn's eye, we began to realize that her condition might not have been as severe as we first thought.
We eventually went to bed for the night, ready to try again the next morning in meeting with my cousin.
Hang on - we hope have some more installments of the Maximum Vacation posted soon!

The Maximum Vacation, Part II

Day 3

We went to the church Amanda attended growing up and I really felt like we were being prepared to enter a difficult period in our trip. We'd really had almost a mountaintop experience in the first two days of the trip and didn't want it to end. (Along the way, we made arrangements to spend more time with our first-stop hosts later in the week.)
The road ahead would be filled with new experiences. Sometimes, facing this leaves one feeling a sense of excitement.
Sometimes, we encounter senses of uncertainty.
This includes being unsure of how an interaction with family will turn out - some I'd never met before, others I hadn't seen in 18 years and we'd seen only a couple of them at our wedding almost 10 years ago. None of them had met Jadyn.
With this sense of heading into a valley of the unknown, we ventured out west from our friends' house along the Pennsylvania Turnpike (a familiar path for Amanda and me), then down Route (U.S. Highway) 220 and a previously uncharted path for all of us.
The first valley in the stretch of ground we encountered from Bedford, Pa. south to the Maryland line was quite picturesque. (Sorry, we didn't take any photos along this particular path.)
We got on Interstate 68 and continued a westward journey, stopping to eat supper outside Cumberland, Md.
Then, we continued on our way.
Our official welcome to West Virginia:

A few minutes later, we pulled in to the welcome center. After we stopped, we realized something was wrong with Jadyn's right eye.

Still, Jadyn struck a pose or two.
And the scenery was just plain gorgeous.

We suspected Jadyn's eye problem might have been pinkeye, but we checked the friend we stayed with and found she and her family had no signs of the dreaded, contagious condition.
We arrived at our hotel in Parkersburg, W. Va. some time around midnight. After several unsuccessful attempts to get our computer connected to the Internet, I went to the front desk for some help in getting the information we needed to diagnose what the problem might be.
After finding out what we could, we suspected pinkeye of some form, but decided we needed to rest for the night.
Please be patient - the next installment of the Maximum Vacation will be on its way soon.

The Maximum Vacation, Part I

Though we'd been thinking about it as long as about a year ago, Amanda and I solidified plans earlier this year to visit Pennsylvania - the state where she grew up - for a summer vacation.
As we developed the itinerary, we decided to stay a total of about four and a half days in Pennsylvania and the remainder visiting relatives of mine in and around Marietta, Ohio.
We packed in absolutely as much as we could possibly stand and were pretty tired afterward but we had a blast!
If you are friends or relatives of ours who live in the areas we visited but we didn't get to see you, we apologize. We tried to see as many people as we could and simply couldn't get to everyone.
Day 1

On June 20, we drove from our home in Mississippi to the Birmingham (Ala.) International Airport. Here, we encouraged Jadyn to flap her wings just before we got on the first of three planes.
Our day of flying included stops in Memphis, Tenn. and Detroit, Mich. before we got to Philadelphia. The Memphis-Detroit connection was tight - we had less than 40 minutes to make it - but we did and got to the City of Brotherly Love in good shape. We obtained our reserved rental car and headed for a friend's house about an hour outside of Philly.

Day 2

We hung out with our friends, did a little shopping and got ready to go to a reunion of people from Amanda's youth group not terribly far from where we were staying. The men in our little cluster of friends took the kids back to play at the house.Then we loaded everybody back up and headed back to Reunion Central, where a fireworks display was scheduled.
The display got underway without warning and at the first shot, Jadyn ran like we were in the middle of a gunfight. We took her inside where she could see the fireworks but only hear them in muffled form, and she declared them cool, or something along those lines.


Please stay tuned for another installment soon from the Maximum Vacation!

It's kinda like spring

Now that the writer's strike is over, we're finally seeing some shows return (or their returns announced) on television. I guess we'll have to wait and see if any of the newer shows will return.
But we're finally seeing actual dates for things like the wrap up of the new version of "Battlestar Gallactica," which Amanda and I have been waiting on for months.
The painful attempts of people like Conan O'Brien to stretch their shows can now come to a close and while I've mentioned here that some reality television is helpful and beneficial, a whole lot more of it is junk. I'm glad to know we'll start seeming new, creative material coming our way.
Now, as for whether the ideas are original or not, that's another story. But I recently heard somewhere that it's not that the writers haven't run out of original ideas, it's that those in control want to make sure they make a profit and renewing an old idea is usually a safe way of doing that. That may be true but the regurgitation of age-old ideas just makes me tired. It'd be nice if there were an avenue for independent television like there is for music and movies. In some ways it's starting on the Internet with some of these serials that people have started.
I like being entertained and I like thinking that the people who bring me the entertainment have put some thought and effort into it.
And broadcast television isn't completely devoid of this.
An example is "Lost." These people have worked long and hard on how to mess with their viewers heads, and there's something satisfying blended in amid the frustration of it.
So, here's to new stuff on television and here's to people who have creative, inventive ideas getting their stuff seen and heard.

Best movie I've seen in a while

Thanks to a good friend who offered to watch Jadyn while Amanda and I went out last night.
We saw "Vantage Point." If you liked the general premise of the NBC series, "Boomtown," with a little suspense and plenty of action (mind-blowing car chases included) blended in for good measure, then you may like this.
I use the term "fun stuff" loosely given the subject of terrorism, but it was fascinating.
Here's the trailer, which is about 2 minutes, 34 seconds long.

The Man in Black

Early in the morning of May 11, 1965, officers in Starkville, Miss. arrested Johnny Cash for public drunkenness. As he told it in the song "Starkville City Jail," he was just "pickin' flowers."
Organizers are planning for this weekend in and around Starkville the first-ever Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival in honor of the late country music legend.
Cash was tough enough to empathize with the hard-boiled characters in his songs and play for those in prison, human enough to struggle with addiction and connected to his faith and His Lord and Savior enough to live well his own story of redemption. He remains one of my favorite musicians.
Starkville is a little over halfway between Interstate 55 and the Alabama line along U.S. Highway 82 within a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Memphis, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala. and Jackson, Miss. It is also accessible by air at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport just east of Starkville.
Entry to the festival is free, though organizers suggest a $10 donation to support the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum and the Starkville/Oktibbeha Boys and Girls Club.
Information can be found at www.myspace.com/pardonjohnnycash
or www.pardonjohnnycash.com .