The Secret

I have had to keep our trip to Pennsylvania a secret because of it’s intent, to attend a surprise birthday party for my step mom.  We headed out Saturday morning, we were flying Frontier airlines for the first time.  They recently started flying direct from Fort Myers to Philadelphia.  Normally arriving 90 minutes early is plenty of time.  We had already checked in online so we just needed to get our bags tagged and turned in.  We were not expecting to see a line that looked to be 100 people deep waiting to check in.

All of a sudden time became much more important.  The line was moving but not fast enough.  The people on the counter then asked who in line was going to Philly, they asked us to come to the counter because they needed to get our bags checked due to the time.  We ducked under the ropes and checked the two bags.  Our pace towards our gate was quickened until we hit the security line which again was longer than I was accustomed to.

This was the first time for me that the TSA line included getting sniffed by a dog to make sure we weren’t carrying anything we shouldn’t be.  By the time we got scanned we were 10-15 minutes past when boarding was scheduled to begin.   We quick stepped to the gate only to find the rush was unnecessary, our plane wasn’t even at the gate yet.  We wound up having our gate change as well, luckily it was to the one next door.

I paid extra to have the Frontier version of first class, we were in the first row and were allowed a carry on item and a checked bag.  The plane was not at full capacity, Cindy and I had the seat next to us empty which was nice.  The flight itself was uneventful and fine.  The only other turn off besides the mile long line at check in was that ANYTHING you wanted to eat or drink on the plane cost extra.  Absolutely nothing was included.  I dug out the credit card so we could each get a Coke and a small snack pack.

When we stepped off the plane the reality of PA winter immediately started biting our skin, it felt cold, really cold.  It was only snowing lightly as we walked the terminal to get our bag.  The steady snow waited until we were driving.  We hailed an Alamo bus to take us to the rental terminal, we were the only passengers on board.  I had reserved a mid-size SUV.  When we got walked out to the lot we had a choice between two Hyundai’s, a Nissan, and a Jeep Compass.  I took the Jeep without hesitation.

The Compass was a perfect vehicle for the situation with 4WD, heated seats and even a heated steering wheel.  It was a sweet ride.  The drive towards Reading was not great.  I discovered this was the most significant snow they had this year, evidently there has been very little white stuff so far.  We saw three or four accidents along the way.  In spots the driving was pretty hazardous with a mixture of snow and sleet coming down steady for most of the drive.  I hadn’t driven in snow since the last time I was in PA, it’s nice that Mother Nature likes to make sure I keep on my toes.

We stopped at my buddy Charlie’s business, Swing Evolutions on the way in.  A little over a year ago Charlie took a bold step and left his career as a programmer to take a shot at building his own business, literally.  He more or less did all of the construction work himself, erecting somewhere around 10 golf/multi-sport simulator stations.  The tech uses projectors, telemetry sensors and an impact screen to simulate golf and other sport events, it’s very cool.

When we walked in the place was empty due to the bad weather.  Charlie was in the back regripping a club.  I hadn’t seen him since my 50th birthday party although we still keep in touch through electronic means.  I have talked about Charlie on the blog several times, he is one of the nicest human beings I have known in my entire life.  He is incredibly hard working, smart, giving, and kind.

I was amazed at just how much space his place takes up, he has room to spare which is nice in some ways but comes with a cost in terms of high rent costs.  It didn’t take long before we dug into the simulators.  Cindy and I tried a bunch of stuff including football, baseball, dodgeball, and of course golf.  The tech was pretty impressive and we both had a lot of fun playing.  We hung there for somewhere between 60-90 minutes and I would have stayed longer but we needed to get to Todd’s place.  I felt guilty leaving Charlie alone in that huge space.

Todd suggested we meet them at a cool place for dinner.  It was an old hotel that was recently renovated and turned into a bar/small restaurant called Meraki Manor.  They were friends with the owners.  The place would normally be packed on a Saturday evening but because of the bad weather there were only a few people there.

We arrived before Todd and his family so we sat at the bar and hung out, talking to the wife who also bar tends, serves, does dishes and anything else that is needed.  They just opened up in June and they did an amazing job on the reno.  The structure originated in the 1800’s but it had been updated in a way that was cozy,  more modern and quaint, without losing the feel of an old building.

It wasn’t long till Todd, Mindy, her daughter Makenna, my niece Caroline and Mindy’s mom arrived.  We all enjoyed a great meal while we caught up.  Cindy and I had not seen any of my family since my 50th birthday party in 2017.  It was a very cool experience to enjoy the time in such a cool place while the winter whipped up outside.

We were staying at Todd and Mindy’s place.  We actually got back before they did because they had to drop Mindy’s mom back off at home.  I wasted no time before I went down to the basement and let their dogs Oakley and Bailey out of their crates.  The are a brother/sister pair of HUGE Alaskan malamutes.  They were massive when I saw them two years ago, they were even bigger now.

Cindy was not fond of the idea of me letting them out without Todd being home.  They loved me when I first met them and I had no concern for my safety.  As soon as I came downstairs they were happy and howling with excitement.  After they ran upstairs they jumped up on me a couple times which is easily enough force to knock you off your feet if you are not braced for impact.  Despite their incredible size they are so lovable it makes your heart melt.  I took them outside to let them go to the bathroom and soon after that the rest of the gang arrived.  Oakley and Bailey had a lot of highlights of the trip as you will read about later.

After hanging out some more we got ready for bed.  I wore long pajama pants and a long sleeve t-shirt to bed, something that is only required when I am sleeping in PA winters.  The spare bedroom has a bed that is much smaller than the king we are accustomed to so it took some adjustment.  We didn’t have normal sleep the first night but that is not abnormal.

Sunday morning Todd had already left the house when I came downstairs.  He had gone to his one rental property to go shovel the sidewalk since there is no renter in there currently.  I came up with the idea to go walk the two huge dogs, myself.  I walked the dogs with Todd two years ago.  With each of us handling one dog it was incredibly tough.  The dogs are so strong and not trained to walk on a leash nicely so the entire time you are being a human brake, trying to keep them slowed down.  Doing this by myself was not a welcomed idea by Cindy.  Not only was it two dogs at once, it was two dogs at once with icy sidewalks.  I assured her I could handle it, despite not really being sure about that statement.

I locked the two leash loops around my wrists and headed out.  Within seconds I was almost pulled off my feet.  I felt like I was trying to stop a car, the strength of these dogs was amazing.  I adjusted my body position so I had a constant back lean to try to keep the dogs controlled.  It took all of my strength to keep them in check.  Early on I considered just turning around and taking them back but I wanted to let them walk a bit since I knew they did not get walks often, because it is so damn difficult to do it.

As we got up to the main road I eyed the school on the other side.  There were open areas that looked good for dog exercise.  We headed over and I made my way down towards the athletic fields.  I kept going towards a baseball field.  I got the idea that the fenced in field would be a great opportunity for the dogs to run off leash without danger to themselves or others.  I saw the NO DOGS sign on the fence which I could understand, who wants dog shit on their spikes when running down a fly ball.  However the fact that it was January and the field was unlikely to be used for three months made me willing to ignore the sign.  I slid inside one of the gates and walked towards the middle of the field before unhooking Oakley and Bailey.

When I let them loose they both sort of gave me a look like “we are free??”, and took off.  They started running through the snow covered field looking absolutely thrilled.  They never get to run all out.  My excitement and happiness for them instantly turned into mild panic as I see the dogs run along the fence perimeter and finding another exit.  They started running down a pathway and I started running after them, calling their names which they happily ignored.  I had visions of the dogs running off under my watch which would have been a nightmare.  Maybe 50 yards outside the field they stopped to smell something.  I got their attention and started running back towards the field, hoping they would think it was a fun game of chase.  My hunch worked and I lead them back onto the baseball diamond.

I let them run around a little more, this time with me cutting them off before they could get to another exit.  While I was herding the dogs Cindy texted me that she came out looking for me.  I told her where I was and she met us.  After I hooked both dogs back up to leashes the difference was amazing.  Because they weren’t used to running both of them were pooped.  They no longer were pulling me around, they were more or less just walking with me which was an incredible contrast.  When Cindy saw me walk up with both dogs under control she was equally surprised. When we got back to the house the dogs drank almost a full bowl of water and then both laid down on their sides, exhausted.  I was happy I survived the experience and that the dogs got some needed exercise.

While I ran to Dunkin Donuts for coffee Cindy worked on preparing breakfast for all of us.  She made eggs and toast which was nice since breakfast sounded like it was not routinely eaten in the house.  The party was at 2PM.  Late in the morning the girls went out to see Mindy’s craft room she has at a local store and to grab some gifts for my step mom. Todd and I worked on getting his Blink wireless surveillance cameras online and then got cleaned up to go.

We all piled in Todd’s big Infinity SUV to head over to the party. Like I said the party was supposed to be a surprise so we needed to make sure we arrived early.  A lot of people were already there when we got there, some of which I had not seen in two decades or more.  Cindy and I sat down with my brother Patrick and his girlfriend Nico.  We always have a good time in their company.

The premise that was used to get Teresa there was they were meeting friends of theirs for a late lunch.  We saw them pull up and everyone made an effort to duck out of sight since the front of restaurant was all windows.  Once they stepped inside everyone yelled surprise in unison.  My step mom later told me she suspected something was up but she did not expect to see Cindy and I because of the distance involved.  I told her she was worth it.

They had a nice spread of food, beer and wine.  I had a few beers to help me manage my social meter.  I got around and talked to a good number of people.  The fact that I hadn’t seen many of these people more than once or twice in the last 30 years meant there was lots of time for ageing to occur which always messes with my head.  It’s crazy to think that many of these people were younger than my current age, far younger, when I interacted with them in my youth.

They had a delicious cake for the party which we all enjoyed.  Teresa got a lot of presents as well.  I made her two lithophanes, one was a picture of Teresa and my niece Cadence and the other was a very cool picture of the sheep.  She had a large pile to take home with her.  The party lasted around two and a half hours.  We said our goodbyes but we planned to go see my dad and Teresa the next day to check out their new house.

Saturday evening Cindy, Mindy, Makenna, and Mindy’s mom went out to shop and eat dinner.  I hung with Todd, he needed to pick up an old rug from one of his rental properties to dispose of.  We also went to Lowe’s where we met up with the renter from his other place.  Todd was paying for some materials that the renter was going to use to fix up the basement of the place.  We were there right up until the 8PM store closing, the employees were waiting for us to unload our carts so they could get the hell out of there.  When we got back to the house we watched the late playoff game while we waited for the girls to bring us back food from Panera.  I was surprised to see the 49ers dominate the Packers as much as they did.  I was also glad to see KC won earlier, giving Andy yet another chance to win a Super Bowl.

On Monnday morning I decided to take the dogs for another walk to the school.  This walk had a genuinely scary moment in it.  As we reached an intersection there was a woman with a black lab on a leash.  The dog turned and started barking and acting aggressive towards Oakley and Bailey.  The dog pulled and the woman let go of the leash, rather easily in retrospect.  The dog came running over aggressively and stopped a few feet from us for just a moment before showing his teeth and lunging at the two huge malamutes.

Instantly Oakley and Bailey turned into savage beasts, attacking the lab.  I saw teeth around throats, I saw bites into the back but this lab never relented and kept moving towards me as I used all my strength to try to pull my two huge dogs back while screaming at them to stop and to this woman to grab her dogs leash.  She was just standing there, perhaps afraid to get too close.  I have no doubt in my mind that if it went on much longer the malamutes would have killed the lab, it was definitely a fight to the death scene.

Finally the woman grabs the leash of her dog and manages to restrain him.  She apologized and said she slipped on the ice.  I was skeptical of her explanation but I think she was very lucky her dog was able to walk away.  After the incident I did a quick physical self survey, I used whatever I had to pull the two dogs back, I was lucky I didn’t injure myself in the process.  The fight made me realize just how problematic it is having dogs like this in an environment like that.  Not only are they near impossible to walk without a heavy powerlifting background, if they would see any other animal, not just an aggressive dog, there is the potential for huge problems.

Despite the fight I continued the walk to the school, once again letting the dogs off leash for a brief period.  You could tell they had less energy than the day before, they didn’t even try to run away from me.  On the walk back I did my best to scout out the environment as far ahead as I could see to make sure we steered clear of any other animals.  When we got back I relayed the story to Cindy.  It seemed odd telling her how both dogs became so fierce when these same dogs were now sitting at our feet looking like big happy teddy bears.

We headed out towards my Dad and stepmom’s place late morning, it was about a 45 minute drive.  The never ending terrain differences combined with old PA architecture was fascinating for Cindy to see since it is so different from what she has been exposed to most of her life as a Florida native.  I had driven by Lenhartsville before but I never drove through it.  It is similar to the countless other small towns in this area, many of which end just happen to end in “ville” as well.

Their land is open, wide open, a stark contrast to the heavily wooded areas that made up much of our journey there.  The property is so open that dad just had 21 trees planted.  The house was cute both inside and out but most of my attention went to Maggie, their dog that they got around the same time we adopted Nicki.  She is now something like 14 years old and has been having a bad time physically, her back legs are weak, requiring a boost to get her upright sometimes.  Her hearing and vision seem poor as well.  I spent a good portion of the time we were talking in the living room on the floor next to Maggie just rubbing her.

If you search her name on the blog you will see many stories of just how much she loved to play.  She would literally fetch balls and sticks until your arm fell off from throwing them so much.  She just loved to run which she was still doing at a lesser pace when I last saw her two years ago.  To see her now struggling so much to simply walk truly broke my heart.  We were outside with her a few times and she kept trudging along the best she could.  She seemed very excited to chow down on snow as much as she could so I was happy to wait for her to get her fill, despite the air being stinging cold.

I saw the barn which dad is still in the process of tweaking.  The sheep didn’t want to interact with me much and kept their distance.  I did get to meet their new llama, Larry, who was much taller than their first llama, Dhali.  It sounded like dad had a long mental list of things that needed to get done on the property, as always.  It felt a bit weird only visiting for a few hours.  Over the last decade when I visited PA I normally stayed with dad and my step mom so I got the full experience over multiple days.  Monday was just an afternoon.

We did go out to lunch.  After the first two suggestions were closed we stumbled across a place called the Bowers Hotel which was built in 1820.  It was very cool inside with the old architecture more or less intact.  Our waitress had a sassy attitude with dad which he appreciated since he often will intentionally try to be somewhat annoying.  She gave it right back to him.  The food was really good and we all enjoyed ourselves.

When we got back to their place we enjoyed some of the left over delicious cake from Teresa’s party along with some coffee.  It was a winning combination.  I got to take Maggie outside one more time, getting a cool picture of her against the setting sun which made me cry a bit.  I didn’t know if I would ever see her again.

We said our goodbyes around five.  They thanked us for making the trip and we assured them it was our pleasure to share in the event.  Like I said it felt odd to have our stay with them wrapped up in a matter of hours instead of days.  Hopefully they get settled in and enjoy their time at the new place.  I know Teresa loves being much closer to her grand kids whom she absolutely adores.

Cindy offered to cook dinner for everyone Monday night.  Mindy and the girls have very limited diets so Cindy made sure to prepare something they would actually eat, baked pasta and garlic bread.  The simple meal got rave reviews which was cool.  Dinner was pretty late and everyone was pretty pooped, we hung out and watched Real Steel before getting ready for bed.

This morning I awoke without an alarm, anxious to get the ball rolling on our trip home.  We said our goodbyes to Mindy before she headed to work.  Todd came back to the house after  dropping the girls off at school.  Todd’s life seems extremely busy filled with one responsibility after another that come rapid fire with very little opportunity to stop and breathe.  I decided to take the malamutes for one more walk by myself.  By now the dogs were almost expecting it.

Since school was back in session I kept the walk on leash and inside of their development.  After the snarling death match the day before I took extra care that we saw no other dogs nearby.  I was a little nervous when Bailey thought for a few seconds that a cat statue in one person’s yard was the real deal.  A big loop around the circle was enough to tire them out, during the last third of the walk the hard leash pulling had mostly subsided.

We packed up our bags and got ready to head out around 9AM.  I said goodbye to the two dogs, they really helped make the visit entertaining, memorable, and fun.  It’s not often you get to interact with dogs the size of a small pony.  We thanked Todd for his hospitality.  I have a feeling it won’t be two years before we see each other this time since his 50th birthday rolls around this year.

The drive back to the airport was quick and without incident.  The Jeep rental had been fantastic and a perfect vehicle for the conditions we encountered.  After dropping it off a quick shuttle ride was accompanied by much shorter and easier lines at the airline counter and TSA checkpoint compared to the trip up to PA.  As we walked towards our gate Cindy said she wanted to look in the space marked for the USO.  She was just curious about what they had, the answer was they had a lot.

It is a space for veterans where they provide free food, entertainment, internet access, showers, and even bunk beds if you need it.  The space was donated to the USO by the city and many of the services provided are via donations as well.  It was pretty cool to see and Cindy was touched by the generosity.

We had some spare time so we ate at California Pizza Kitchen.  We ordered a pizza to split and a side salad.  The pizza was great and came before the salad.  The salad for some odd reason that wasn’t explained to us came to us 10 minutes after we finished the pizza.  Oh well, the salad at least was a quality one.  After lunch we only had maybe 30 minutes to kill before boarding the plane.  I have spent most of the flight punching out the last few pages of this entry.

The trip was very quick, very cold yet also very memorable and fun.  Heading back to my stomping grounds for the first 30 years of my life always triggers feelings of nostalgia and wonder about how much things have changed.  It also make me appreciative of where we live now and how we have forged our little happy ball of existence out a small square in SW Florida.  I took tomorrow off as well which will be useful to get my ducks in a row to resume life as normal.