Family Vacay VIII: Day 5--From Owensboro to Chicago

The Bluegrass Museum and Hall of Fame was across the street from our hotel, and we were the first to arrive on Tuesday morning. In anticipation of this visit, I bought a couple of Bluegrass CDs, which we listened to in the car in the days before our arrival.  I read somewhere that Bluegrass is the whitest, most male-dominated of music genres, so I bought a Bluegrass compilation that featured women ("Oh Sister Where Art Thou"), and a solo album--"Hard-hitting Songs for Hard Hit People" by Hazel Dickens (1925-2011), a pro-union feminist who grew up in poverty in West Virginia. Dickens's songs can be heard on the soundtracks of Harlan County, U.S.A.; Matewan; and Songcatcher.

Here's a link to a Spotify playlist I made featuring some of the songs on the CD, plus a few more by artists I discovered at the Museum, a few from the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack, and a few others I've discovered since we got back (apparently you have to be registered on Spotify for it to work; it's free).


One of the highlights of our visit was playing the instruments.  I was surprised by how resonant the banjo was. Also, I'd never held a fiddle before!

Another highlight was encountering a long video interview with Hazel Dickens.

After leaving the museum, we had pizza at the Mellow Mushroom. On the walk there, I learned a little bit about the history of Owensboro.

Owensboro is across the Ohio river from Indiana.

Our next destination was the Eugene V. Debs house in Terre Haute, Indiana.

We planned to get there at 3, which would give us plenty of time for the 90-minute tour before it closed at 5, but I didn't realize that Indiana doesn't do Daylight Savings Time, so by the time we got there, it was 4 pm, not 3.

Fortunately for us, the workers at the House--a graduate student (Jackie), and a recent Ph.D. (Allison)--were happy to see us and they stayed open half and hour over time to give us the full experience. We started on the third floor, where there is a multi-wall mural honoring Debs.

The murals were painted between 1976 and 1979 by John Laska, former Professor of Art at Indiana State University.

In the photo above, Allison is talking to us about the portraits of Victor Hugo, Jean Sey, and Voltaire, "three French Enlightenment writers who were much read in the Debs home." Allison got a kick out of our kids' familiarity with Les Miserables (they knew Jean Valjean's number--24601), and she was even more impressed when Pablo offered up a quotation from Voltaire!

Debs opposed American participation in World War I. He encouraged people not to comply with the draft and for this he was arrested, convicted under the Sedition Act of 1918, and sentenced to a prison term of 10 years. While in prison, he ran for President.  His campaign button referred to him as "Convict 9653." He was proud of his principled resistance. Almost a million people voted for him (913,664--3.4 percent of all votes).

The mural above the listeners in the photo above depicts great labor leaders, from left to right: Karl Marx, Debs, Samuel Gompers, César Chavez, Dorothy Day, A. Phillip Randolph (?), and Walter Reuther (?).  Allison asked us who else might be added to that mural if it were painted today. Somebody in our group said "Bernie Sanders."

Allison offered another answer suggested by the next mural, which features the outstretched hands of "The People."

Some of us added our outstretched hands to the vision.

The mural above depicts Debs urging workers to unionize.

The quotation on the wall above Nina's head in the photo above comes from Debs's statement to the court when he was convicted of sedition on September 18, 1918.

This sculpture was created from life by James Earle Fraser during his student days at the Art Institute of Chicago. Fraser also created the "End of the Trail" sculpture that is now at the Oklahoma City History Museum. It was originally displayed a the World's Fair in Chicago in 1894. The quotation above the sculpture reads in full: "This is an Age of Organization. Everything Depends on Solidarity. Your Power is in Unity."

When we left the Museum, we had dinner at the Grand Traverse Pie Company and then headed to the Hamlin House B&B in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago--site of the first home Mari and I lived in in the United States.

Day Three: Saguaro

The featured event on day three of our summer sojourn was the Saguaro National Park, northwest of Tucson. The rest of the day was spent driving across the Sonoran desert to California.

On our way to the Saguaro National Park, I realized that the hillsides outside the park are thick with cacti. The drive to get to the park was even more impressive than the walks we took once we got there.


Yes, Pablo is leaning on a Saguaro cactus, and no, he was not harmed posing for this photo.

There are over 200 pre-historic Native American petrogyphs on this hill. Researchers believe they are at least 550 years old, and they may be as many as 1500 years old.

After we reached our hotel in Blythe, California, the kids took a dip.

Destination: Europe

After many, many years of hoarding mileage points with our Delta American Express and MasterCard American Advantage credit cards, we learned last summer that we would finally have enough points to buy round trip tickets for the five of us to Madrid.

We also learned that children under the age of 12 can get free Eurail passes when traveling with adults.

The summer of 2017 is the last that Emilio will be under 12.

We bought our plane tickets in August: Delta on the way out and American on the way back. In December, we bought our thirty-day Eurail passes.

Much travel planning ensued. It turns out that many of the trains we hoped to take required reservations that had to be booked via email through the cumbersome Eurail booking service. But some of the trains that required reservations--such as those in Spain--would not allow us to book them in advance online. Most of these reservations also required booking fees that cost more than we expected.

Then there were the hotels. We hoped to use hotel points for reservations as well but were ultimately disappointed with the results of that process.  In short, it was a mess. When friends asked about my expectations for the trip, I truthfully responded that I expected to feel happiest after we'd managed to make our last train connection.

But it is also true that I expected this to be the trip of a lifetime.

And it was.

Wednesday the 18th was the last day of school. Saturday, we battened down the hatches at 131, turned off the AC, suspended our Dish subscription, and drove to Mom and Dad's. On Sunday, we got up around 7 a.m. so Dad could get us to DFW three hours before our 11 a.m. departure time. 

We travel light: one backpack for each kid and for Mari, a canvas shoulder bag and a small rolling suitcase for me and an additional rolling suitcase for Mari. This is what we'll take with us on our month-long train trek around Europe. We check two more bags that we will leave in Madrid.

Emilio flew from Chicago to DFW with Mari and me at Christmas when he was less than two months old. Other than that, none of our kids had flown. Mari sat between Pablo and Nina on the flight to Atlanta; I sat by Emilio.  He, like Nina, had a window seat and was excited by the liftoff experience.  Pablo, who was a little more leery of the whole flying enterprise, was happy to focus on his Kindle.


We had plenty of time to eat in the Atlanta airport during our layover. We found our way to the food court and sat by a piano player who took requests.
On the 5:50 p.m. overnight flight to Madrid, Emilio sat between Mari and Nina, and I sat by Pablo. There was not much enthusiasm for the vegetarian ravioli I arranged for the kids to eat, nor was there much sleeping en route. Pablo watched Pete's Dragon, Storks, Trolls, and Ice Age: Collision Course before I compelled him to get a few hours of sleep. Nina watched Storks, Trolls, The Beatles Experience, and Wreck-It-Ralph. There wasn't any air sickness until we landed in Madrid, where Pablo succumbed.

Day 5 Afternoon: Wall Drug, Rapid City, Spearfish Canyon

After leaving the Badlands, we stopped at Wall Drug to buy homemade doughnuts.

Pablo got his fortune read by Zoltan and bought a book about the Battle of Little Big Horn, which he promptly read.

Pablo also had a shady interaction with Poker Alice.

We stopped for lunch at the Firehouse in Rapid City and afterwards took a walk around the downtown area to check out the street corner bronzes of the U.S. Presidents. I made learning cards about every U.S. President for our trip since it's an election year, we planned to visit Mount Rushmore. We reviewed the cards in the car throughout the trip, so the kids had informed opinions about many of the presidents we encountered. They had a bone to pick with John Adams about the Alien and Sedition Act.

Ronald Reagan was not a favorite.

Neither was Andrew Johnson.

Jimmy Carter came off well.

LBJ got a mixed report (domesitc policy=good; Vietnam policy=bad).
John Quincy Adams built roads and canals. He went on to serve as legal counsel for prisoners on the Amistad. He got a thumbs up.

We planned to spend the night at a KOA in Deadwood, but the threat of rain persuaded to opt for a hotel instead. The Deadwood rooms we hoped to book were sold out, so we took a scene drive to Spearfish Canyon and got to a Spearfish Hampton Inn at sundown.
The drive down Spearfish Canyon beside Spearfish Creek was beautiful. Photos don't do it justice.

Turns out the heated pool at the Hampton Inn in Spearfish had spiral tube slide which Emilio and Nina took full advantage of after dinner on Saturday and after breakfast on Sunday. Pablo gave it a try but was unimpressed.

Day 5 Morning: More Badlands

Two trails on our second day in the Badlands: the first, Notch Trail, features a ladder.

It was much harder coming down than it was coming up.

Our second trail, Saddle Pass, is the hardest yet.
Pablo and Mari decide to go their own way, while I follow Nina and Emi to the top.

On our way out of the park, we spot a Big Horn Sheep.