Indian River, MI to Detroit to Lima, OH
Saturday, July 28

Keri and I were pretty much all packed up last night so getting away was pretty easy. We met the rest of the Kerr family at Paula’s this magnificent diner round the corner from our cabins and close to the highway. During a quick but filing breakfast we did the last bit visiting and said good-byes. It had been way to long since I had last seen this part of the family. HAVE to do this more.

On the road again. “Old Grey”, my Honda, headed down US-75 to Detroit to drop the sis off at the airport; were she caught her flight back to Chicago. It was great getting to hang with the sis for the last few days. I’m glad she is soooo happy in Chicago, but I really miss having her around. We drive each other nuts at times but nobody else “gets” each other better. I particularly enjoyed Keri’s literal dance moves, yes I said dance moves, choreographed to her Barry Manilow and power ballad laden iPod. Great entertainment on the drive through Michigan. A successful drop off was made to DTW and Pete was solo again.

I stopped off in Findlay, OH to get gas and snap a couple of photos of Findlay University. My grandpa Steph briefly attended here before his dad, my Great-Grandpa George got him a job in the mill. That seems crazy now by during that time a job at the mill was tough to come by and pretty much guaranteed you a good job with a solid wage for the rest of your working days. Findlay is a nice little town and had cheap gas, $2.56. Did you ever think someone would read a sentence like the previous one and have it actually make sense?

University of Findlay

Once I got into Lima Grandma and Grandpa Kerr took me and Aunt Nancy for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Aunt Nancy is actually Grandpa’s younger sister and technically my Mom’s aunt but she has and always will be Aunt Nancy to me. The place was packed but the wait was not bad. I had a tasty Prime Rib. It was so good to see everyone. We were all pretty tired so after returning home and catching up we all called it a night. I really needed a quiet evening and got it.

The Strugeon River

Bonfire Fun
Grandparents and Lilly
Jimmy, Lilly, Brian, Scott, and Erin

Indian River, MI
Thursday, July 26th and Friday, July 27th

I can gloriously report little action happened these two days. The previous statement is by no means anything derogatory, in fact the polar opposite. The mornings entailed late sleep in times punctuated by large hearty northern Michigan breakfasts with family and friends. Everyone is free to do what they please each hour of the day. I napped more in the last week than I had the previous two months combined.

I spent Thursday afternoon reading by the Sturgeon River and then catching up on this journal. I grabbed some excellent pizza at a place called Vivio’s. Keri and I went out with our cousins Erin and Bri, their husbands Scott and Jimmy, Scott’s parents, and Bri’s daughter Lilly. The conversation was hilarious and we all had great time. Scott’s order was screwed up which allowed Bri to channel her anger and the rest off us to lovingly mess with Scott. After pizza we scored some killer ice cream and then we all hung out around the campfire shooting the breeze. I’ve been doing more laughing than usual the last few days and that’s a lot for anyone who knows me. I can not begin to explain how nice everyone is up here. Yes, the people of Indian River but especially Erin and Bri’s cousins on their Mom’s side. Although we are essentially cousin tag a longs from the other side of the family, you would never know it by how well we are treated.

Friday, was unofficially dubbed Manfest 2007, with the bulk of the rainy day spent playing Texas Hold’em. I doubt this will shock anyone but I am quite lousy at cards. Although my skill is low my enjoyment is high and therefore like playing. The stakes were high, $5 each. I was out first and therefore had the job of getting pizza. This is a task I am well suited for. These are my people in this part of the country; they really know how to eat. Big portions, lots of carbs, and plenty of butter.

This past week in Michigan has been the perfect way for me to end my summer and begin the drive back to Memphis. I’ll be taking the drive in stages. The only certainty is Lima, OH for a visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Kerr and others from my mom’s side of the family.

Indian River, MI
Wednesday, July 25th

I slept in till 9am then met my Aunt Linda and Uncle Gary for breakfast at this great spot around the corner from the cabins we stay in. The living quarters break down like this. “Adults” stay at the Stargate Motel up the Road and “young people” stay in cabins along the Sturgeon River. The terms in quotation marks are not well defined and very open to interpretation.

After breakfast I napped, because as many of you know eating breakfast is hard. I woke around 1pm and prepared for a day tubing excursion. Then I napped. I woke up and went to Paula and Kent’s house a ways up the road, actual directions given, had dinner. It was a glorious cookout spread with your basic charred fleshes and lots of nummy fixins's from the other food groups such as bread, dessert, and snack food groups. After dinner I went home and napped, if you are wondering a definitive trend has developed.

After the nap we had a costume party. Each night in the cabins along the river there is a goal or theme. One night each year there is a costume party. The theme this year was movie characters. The costumes can not cost over ten dollars to assemble. There were some great costumes. Some of the better ones were Spiderman, the Reno 911 police department, Baby from Dirty Dancing, Joe Dirt, and Tom Cruise from the volleyball scene in Top Gun. I went as “the Dude” from the movie, the Big Lebowski. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Between the napping, tubing, cook outs, and costume parties my decision to come up here was a sound choice.

Amherst, OH to Ann Arbor, MI to Indian River, MI
Tuesday, July 24th

I was on the road again after a very pleasant morning conversation and coffee session with the Volberts. If I had stayed any longer I would have to be treated for a caffeine overdose. I took off north as I hit the ninth state of my summer journey. I occupied the drive catching up on podcasts of the NPR show Fresh Air. I listened to six episodes with topics such peace efforts in the Middle East, the Supreme Court, national health care, and the adoption of Chinese girls by American parents. All of them extremely informative and the time passed by quite quickly.

I stopped in Ann Arbor, can’t resist the siren call of a college town, for lunch. I ate a little dive called the Red Hawk Lounge. It was a pleasant meal and then I went to a park in downtown Ann Arbor and took a cat nap on park bench. For those in the worry wart camp I was drawn to the location by college students doing the same thing. It was quite refreshing.

After the nap I was back on road to Indian River which is at the very tip “on the hand part” of Michigan. If you take your flat right hand and put it palm up that represents Michigan minus the Upper Peninsula. If that is your “map” of Michigan then Indian River is the crease of your middle finger closest to the tip of your hand. I was first exposed to Indian River through when my cousin Erin, daughter of my mother’s brother, got married here last year. Unbeknownst to me, Erin’s mom family, the Daubenshires have been coming to Indian River for well over twenty years. Keri and I had a ton of fun here last year so we came back. I got her around 6pm and I within three hours I was on a night tubing cruise down the Sturgeon River. This family knows how to get things done. All who left on the cruise returned, just not in the same shape.

View from the cabin

Cousins with their daughters on the swing

Erie, PA to Amherst (west of Cleveland), OH
Monday, July 23rd

I woke up this morning and headed over to Calvary Cemetery to visit my Grandpa’s gravesite. I said a prayer, shed a couple tears, snapped a photo and took off. He was a great Grandpa, I was blessed with two. In a society where many people do not get to know their grandparents, I was able to grow up with both sets being an integral part of my life. This is and increasingly diminishing part of American life.


After that I went over to Grandma Steph’s place at St. Joseph’s home. St. Joseph’s is this cozy independent living retirement home. She loves living there. I know the place well because my high school practice field sits behind it. My high school is in downtown Erie and therefore land locked, many of practice fields were scattered around the city. I remember that during practice the folks from St. Joe’s would set up chairs outside the fence and watch practice. During the hot practices our coaches had us take water over to our fans. I remember one lady who would all yell, “Get um boys!!!” as we took off in the team bus to our games.


I had a great visit with G-Ma as she shared stories and remembrances. Her mind is sharp as ever, as evidence of the nearly completed crossword puzzle that my visit interrupted. We talked about family and travels. A great example of hoe cool the adoption story of Christopher and AJ from last post is that my G-Ma Steph says that the little ones are one of the reasons she feels she is still living at 90 years young. Another reason this is a great story is that because my recently deceased Grandpa Steph was an only child and really did not like it at all. As a result family was very important to him and my Grandma Steph. Well as tribute to him his family now number five sons and daughters, fifteen grandchildren, and now three great grandchildren with another on the way. We live across the country and we all keep in touch. I hang out with my cousins who now live in Memphis. My cousin Greg, who has sailed around the world, is staying with my sis in Chicago before he sets sail on another adventure. We are family not just in name but spirit as well. No bad for an only child.

After my visit I went back to Aunt Sue and Uncle Dave’s house for a nap and laundry. Aunt Sue was nice enough to make chocolate cookies for my drive to Cleveland. I took off and had an uneventful trip to my Godparents, Len and Jean Volbert, who live just west of Cleveland in Amherst, Ohio. Mr. Volbert was the head basketball coach at Lima Central Catholic and coached football with my Dad when got hired by LCC out college. They basically too care of him. Whenever I get near Cleveland I try to stop for a visit. When I got there we went to dinner at Outback. I updated them of my travels and caught me up on their family things. We always have a pleasant visit. Each time I visit I get let in on a new story of my father’s early career or the courtship of my mother. The stories remind me of my early days at SBA. As a testimony to Mr. Volbert’s impact as an educator and coach he still gets invited to all the class reunions from the days he was at LCC.

Erie, PA
Sunday, July 22nd

Another relaxing and fun day in the home town. I got up and met G-Ma and Uncle Billy for 9am mass at St. Jude. I typically like to hit the home Parish, Blessed Sacrament, but G-Ma Steph likes St. Jude, so when you are 90 years old you get to basically do whatever you want. It was a solid sermon, increasingly rare these days. After mass we joined Matt, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Dave, for breakfast at Perkins. There was great conversation while we all happily stuffed ourselves.

The Bixby Bowl or as locals call it “the house that Steph built”

Don’t all grade schools have their own football field with a field house?

After breakfast we all took our separate ways. I headed to the Jack and Judy Bestwick’s to visit. They are the parents of Amy whose family I stayed with in Virginia a week earlier. As I mentioned in an earlier post our families go way back. What I did not mention is that during his coaching days Jack was widely considered the best football coach in the area. He is in every local and state Hall of Fame possible. His teams at Fairview High School were some of the best in area history. What is noteworthy is that Fairview was not some blue collar school district that was featured in the movie, All the Right Moves. It was an affluent school district. Mr. Bestwick was the ultimate motivator; he got everything he could out of a demographic of athletes who stereotypically are not the most motivated.

I had wonderful and legendary coaches growing up, who I learned a lot from. But I learned how to coach from watching Mr. Bestwick when I tagged along with my dad to their practices. Coaching skills from practice organization to breaking down game film were gleaned from those early years. All that being said, Jack and his wife Judy are even better people and are great friends to my family. At their house we hung out and caught up as we watched Sergio Garcia give up the British Open championship to Padraig Harrington of Ireland. My guess is that a few pints of Guinness were consumed in pubs of Ireland in celebration, not as the Irish really need another excuse to enjoy their most famous export.

Auditorium Entrance
Main entrance

I spent the rest of the day floating around Erie. I took a lot of pictures. Most were of my old grade school, Blessed Sacrament, and of course Erie Cathedral Prep. I also went down to dock located on the Bay of Erie. I enjoyed a couple of pints of Mad Anthony Ale, a local Erie brew named after US Army General Anthony Wayne who was stationed at Fort Presque Isle, which later became Erie, during the Northwest Indian War. It was one of the fantastic Erie summer days. The summer weather in Erie as good the winter weather is bad.

Sailing on the bay

One of the random pictures I took was looked like a small wooded lot. What you did not see was this place was “Harvard Lot”. I grew on Harvard Road and this lot was no longer than a hundred feet from my house. On that hallowed field epic athletic battles took place. We played some waffle ball there but the field was mostly used for football and in my neighborhood there was only tackle football not this silly touch variety. What made the battles there particularly legendary was the fact that to score a touchdown you did simply go one length of the field. One field length was simply a first down. We usually played three to four lengths of the field for a touchdown. What does that mean? No breakaway touchdowns. If you got away from someone they could rest a second and have a chance to get you on the way back. We played in all weather. The best games were after the first snowfall. It was fun because you could see blood stained snow.

There is no telling how many games were played here in the years of my youth. You learned to defend yourself by giving and taking hits. I guess the difference between youth then and now is that we regulated ourselves. There was no league that our mommies and daddies would run. You played because you wanted to play. This made a better athletes and better people. Off the top of my head there were at least seven kids from our five block radius who played some sport in college in the years I lived there. Although degrees don’t necessarily make the man but more impressively my friends in the neighborhood tallied; One PhD, two JDs, and four Masters Degrees. I could not imagine growing up in another neighborhood and being anywhere close to the same person I am today. Incidentally, the wooded part of Harvard Lot became an excellent area for harmless make out sessions with girlfriends as that equally perilous game stole some of our attention in later years.

Erie, PA
Sunday, July 22nd

I met the rest of the family for dinner at Hoss’s to celebrate Dena’s, my cousin Jeff’s wife, Birthday. This was a lot of fun as the family engaged in our typical self deprecating humor. We ate a ton and laughed more. What was great was the fact that Dena and Jeff got their real present a couple of months ago, their son AJ.

In the last two months both Jeff and Dena and Julies and Mike before them adopted children. Folks these two kids are cute as the day is long. And more importantly two young kids got to go two loving families who desperately wanted children. This is how it is supposed to work. I’m not even going to touch the political aspect of abortion, the fringes of both sides make confuse rather than help, but in a perfect world this is how it should work. Two birth moms loved their kids so much they realized that someone else was better able to raise their kid. Because of their loving choice to have their respective babies, two kids get a better life and two couples get to be parents. So many people want kids. There has to be a better way to figure the whole abortion thing out than the politicians are doing now. I am critical of both sides of the argument. I see how happy my cousins and their families are right now. The cool thing is that both of these guys, AJ and Christopher, get to grow up and share their extended families and their own adoptions stories together.

Most of the clan at dinner
Dena feeding AJ
Christopher Boam