SUPERMAN TO ELVIS, BY WAY OF THE WACKY SHACK

The Wife, The Kid and I made a hectic, way-too-short trip back east to the homeland for a family reunion, a tour of Penn State Behrend, etc. Here are some travelogue pix, starting with me at Cleveland Hopkins Airport posing with one of Cleveland's favorite sons (I'm in the foreground)...

Next is me in Conneaut, Ohio, outside The White Turkey, from which a root beer float may have been consumed...

Friday evening we went with friends Lory Anne and Tom to UPMC Park (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Park; formerly Jerry Uht Park) in downtown Erie, Pa, to see our beloved Erie Seawolves (AA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers) play the second of two seven-inning double header games, a makeup game from the previous night's rainout. The Seawolves lost to the Bowie (MD) Baysox, alas, but Dippin' Dots were consumed, The Kid got to hang out with mascot C. Wolf...

...and after the game there was a fireworks show that sounded like the invasion of Bagdad.

Great baseball weather, too.

We made a pilgrimage to Mighty Fine Donuts on Parade Street in Erie; the name is not false advertising... 

We drove over to Meeder's in Ripley, New York, and bought a jar of their grape jelly...

...but as we were going through security at Cleveland Hopkins on the way home, the TSA agent flagged my suitcase, dug out the jar of jelly and said "Sir, this can't go through." "Just toss it," I said. What else could I say? Very disappointing. Pretty drive, anyway.

The Wife, The Kid and I also made it, along with our friend Lory Anne, to Waldameer Park in Erie, arriving only about an hour before closing time. The Kid, guilting me for being too chicken to take her on the roller coaster at New York New York in Vegas a few years ago, talked me into riding the Ravine Flyer 2, the gigantic terrifying wooden roller coaster there. I had ridden it a few years earlier with Lory's husband Tom, and would have thought nothing could have induced me back on. But when I saw kids of 8 and 10 eager to get aboard, I felt ashamed of my craven cowardice; this did not, however, stop me from bellowing like a wounded moose through the ride's brief duration.

Afterwards, I had the honor of accompanying The Wife on my favorite ride at Waldameer, the Wacky Shack (Lory Anne, who took these photos, rode with The Kid)...

One of my most treasured memories of the first couple of years of our marriage was of The Wife throwing her arms around my neck and saying "Kiss me in the Wacky Shack..." Pretty much sums up a successful marriage, if you ask me.

A few more random images: Me with some of the rather patriotic dinosaurs at Peters Welding on Bartlett Road in Harborcreek, PA...

...my fellow Harbor Creek Marching Husky and pal Pete Geanous and his sister Liz made me a delicious Greek omelet at Coney Island Lunch in Wesleyville...

...I got to see my pal Stan, very briefly (and my pal Ron, only a bit less briefly, but didn't get a pic)...

The Kid at Presque Isle, at "Kite Beach," at Glass Growers Gallery and at the top of the tower at Dobbins Landing...

The Wife & Lory Anne at the Presque Isle Lighthouse...

...and a pierogi burger at Union Station in Erie...

Family reunion pics...

And finally...Elvis!

The hotel at which The Wife and I stayed (The Kid, mercifully, stayed with Lory Anne and Tom) was, I think, the grossest, divey-est hotel at which I've ever stayed, which is certainly saying something. Due (supposedly) to COVID, no changed bedding or room cleaning, no clean towels, and--not due to COVID--no elevators, and rusted-out stairwells that looked, potentially, due for collapse. Having said that, the staff was nice, the continental breakfast offered excellent scrambled eggs, there was a party atmosphere among the guests, particularly the Western PA Retreads, a motorcycle club for bikers 40 and older. And...on our last night there, there was live entertainment! Rudy Elvis, an impersonator of The King from Canvas, West Virginia (near Summerville), played to a seriously packed ballroom of aging bikers...

I wandered by, loitered in the doorway long enough to hear Rudy E. perform two Hank Williams songs "which Elvis made his own, to a degree": "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." A nice lady spotted me and offered me a chair. I also heard a pretty respectable "Return to Sender" before I had to step away. A while later, I was in the lobby again and two middle aged Rudy-heads (who had followed him up from WVA for the show) asked me what I thought; I was able to honestly say I enjoyed it. About this time Rudy himself stepped into the lobby, saw me, and told me that he noticed me singing along with "Your Cheatin' Heart." "You're one of those guys who, if I forgot the words, I'd just look at your mouth."

His groupies explained to me that Rudy had taken up Elvising just ten years ago; this, they said, was his 218th performance--Monday night at the ironically-named Quality Inn, at State Street and I-90 in Erie. Good gig; living the dream!

Then it was back to the airport in Cleveland, with this lovely view out the window of the Great Lakes Brewery where we had lunch. A memorable voyage!