IN WHICH I Get to Mike's House, I Tell You a Little Bit about Mike, The Long-Awaited Day Dawns, Tasty Sandwiches are Made, We head Down to the City, Spy an Odd Picnic of Sorts, Take a Wrong Turn, Sit in a Traffic Jam Listening to Anti-Yankee Talk Radio AND - in the Meantime - I Get to use the Words "Bereft," "Idyllic," and "Tuba."

As a side note, I just got my pictures back from this trip yesterday, and the roll of film I took from my parents' room turned out to have been partially used already, and rewound.  So my first eight shots or so, which includes everything up until I'm actually in the Stadium, are double-exposed and look stupid/freaky/terrible.  I'll tell you more about some of these shots when I get up to that point in the narrative, which will be probably round SIX or SEVEN.

Mike's family had moved since my last visit, for the tickertape parade journey.  (See "An Epic Saga," vol. 1-16, 10/24/98 - 11/17/98.)  They now live in a housing development, with very large, beautiful homes overlooking sloping communal yards - the sort of area that springs up outside of cities when farmers finally realize that although cows are pleasant enough creatures, as they say in France - milk don't get Daddy no condo in Florida.

I talked to his mother for a while, and his father, when he got back from the store, and then Mike himself, when he returned from youth group, which he was helping to lead until the church could replace their youth pastor, who had very recently been fired, for cause.  He told me how God was blessing his fundraising - he leaves this coming March to take part in a one-year cross-cultural missions internship in Poland, as part of a team called Take 12.  In his Take 12 brochure, Mike claims he will "mesmerize the Poles with his interpretive polka dance."  It's like the Scripture says - some plant, some water, some mesmerize with tuba music, but it's God who gives the increase.

We got up Saturday morning, and came down to prepare to leave.  Mike's dad had bought lunchmeat and Portuguese rolls for us to use; the fact that the rolls were not whole-grain honestly thrilled me to no end.  Apparently, in Portugal, they know what to do with the brown part of the wheat - GET RID OF IT.  After we packed an impossible amount of food, not even knowing if we could smuggle it in, we decided to leave a bit earlier than we had planned, because we had no real reason to sit around and wait, and it's always better to be early than late.

We took off down the Merritt Parkway, which was bereft of traffic - a testament to the intelligence of our decision.  It started to get crowded around the Connecticut suburbs of New York, when I happened to look over to the side of the road.  A minivan had pulled onto the grassy shoulder and a family was wandering around, having their picture taken and pulling a blanket out of the vehicle.  I don't know about you, but a picnic on the side of a freeway on Saturday morning - especially a freeway that will be jam-packed for hours with traffic headed to a playoff game - is not my idea of a good time.  Maybe they were counting on traffic being stopped in order to get out.  I don't even want to think about the alternative (backing up to the treeline and flooring it into the right lane??)

We were supposed to take the Cross-County Parkway to Interstate 87, but somehow Mike got confused, and we kept going down the Hutchinson towards Queens.  Thankfully, I had brought my Road Atlas, and I told him to just take the Cross-Bronx Expressway, and we could get to the same place.  As soon as we got near the CBE, traffic came to a complete stop, and the binoculars Mike's dad had loaned me gave me an excellent view of the idyllic Bronx countryside.  One fun thing I found I could do was count broken windows.  The winner had 19.

On one floor.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Round SIX

NHS Speech

"My View" Editorial

The October Surprise
|  Round 1 |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |
|  11  |  12  |  Final Bell  |

Journey to Jersey II
|  Intro  |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |

Journey to Jersey I
|  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |   6  |  7  |  8  |
|  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |
|  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |

An Epic Saga
|  Act  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |

Christian Rock Email

Freshman Room Draw
|  Part One  |  Two  |
|  Three  |  Four  |  Five  |