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The Rest of the Story Part Two

 

 

 

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After the game as we were walking past Tommy Prothro practice field, I overhead a young USC fan discussing the game with a buddy, he said, “We can beat anybody in the nation, but we when come here, we suck!” Hold that thought young man. We will see you again in two years!

 

Penn State is now ranked # 12 in the nation. Do you realize that we could be 3-2 for the first time in several years, and that is with playing one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation? I sure wish we could play Stanford again. I think we would have a totally different outcome.

 

Next weeks game with Utah will not be easy to say the least. They are ranked

17th in the nation, and will probably smash Weber State today. That

will move them up even higher.  We also have to play in their house this year. Our away game record certainly could be improved upon.

 

The Ducks go to Washington State today. They should win pretty easily. They can bath in their great victory this week, but do you know who they play next? Yup! USC! USC is going to be head hunting, especially when any team with the name Oregon in it makes their blood boil.

Travels

 

As we were traveling from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Boston, we saw some beautiful landscape. The trees in the hills were starting to put on their new outfits for the fall. We were able to look down into big valleys full of corn for miles and miles. Our crack photographer, Lloye Liedtke, took pictures along the way. There was one problem. We were moving, and her trigger finger, was slow. A few of the pictures she ended up with were some fantastic pictures of trees along the highway, and some stunning sides of trucks as they went by.

 

We had fun teasing her, and she was great comic relief after a bad day watching our Beavers being taught how to eat humble pie. Actually she really did get some great pictures, and she sent me some of them. I will see if I can post some of them here on the site.

 

Along the way, I saw some of the old America. People were still drying their cloths out side on cloths lines. I can smell the freshness I remember as a child when I helped my Aunt Dollie hang the cloths on the cloths line at the farm. You can’t get any fresher than that. The dryers of today don’t even come close.

 I saw one humorous mail box along the way. It was a salmon with his mouth wide open, and that is where you put the mail.

 

The gas prices during our travels:

 

Maryland-$3.42

Pennsylvania-$3.41

New York-$3.48

Massachusetts-$3.43

 

At this time Oregon was $3.59. Oregon has gone down a lot since then. I saw gas for $3.39 at the Arco station coming off the I-5 freeway and headed east on Highway 34 towards Corvallis. They always seem to be lower than others.

 

We had one more side stop before we got to Boston. It was Cooperstown, NY. For anyone that knows anything about baseball, that is the Holy Grail spot for baseball history. It lived up to that name and more. Of course, I am talking about the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

It is amazing to come into this town. It was only about the size of Silverton, OR, but even smaller than that. It had one main street, and one side street. The homes there were beautiful. They were the old style homes with the big wrap around porches like you would see in a movie like, Gone with the Wind. For you young whipper snappers, that was probably one of the top five movies of all time. Do a google search and learn all about it. Better yet, rent the DVD.

 

We stayed at an absolutely wonderful hotel in Cooperstown, called The Otesaga. We got there about noon, and we were told to go to the dinning room to eat. It was bigger than many ballrooms. Yes, their eating area was that big. It was a brunch type set-up that they do everyday. There was everything you could dream of to eat. I was a good boy and didn’t go to the feeding trough (brunch area) very often.

 

This hotel was built in 1909. Its architecture is the charm of the area. It is located on the southern shore of Otesaga Lake. The gentle breezes from the lake were a welcome feeling. We could sit out on the Veranda; have a drink and watch the sun got down with the lake right in front of us.

 

For dinner that night we had a choice of wearing a sport coat and eating in the dinning room, or going out to eat. Charlotte and I chose the dinning room. (After all, I had brought my sports jacket all that way.)

 

What an elaborate sitting, candles; fire place, cloth table cloths, and a dinner for a king. I had a salmon dinner that was out of this world.

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OK, I know, you thought I was never going to start talking about the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

There were three floors of memories to look at:

 

The first floor had all the Hall of Fame broadcasters, writers and story tellers. Dave Newhouse from the Seattle Mariners was just inducted this year. On the way out on the first floor was the Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery. It had bronze plagues of every baseball player that made the Hall of Fame. It was amazing to stop at each plaque and bring back the memories that went with the player that was represented there.

 

The second floor had tons of things to look at. I will not go into too much detail on each thing, but as you walked by the displays, it has a progression of how baseball evolved. It started with 1900-1930. It then was from 1930-1970, 1970-2000 and then to current times. It was interesting to see the progress of the game.

 

There was one room dedicated to Babe Ruth. I saw many pictures of him that were not anywhere else in the world. They were donated by family members. Here they showed a movie of Babe doing his pointing to the fence to show he was going to hit and home run on the next swing which he did.

 

Also on this floor was information about women in Baseball. I will never forget Ton Hank’s line in the movie, A League of Their Own, “There is no crying in baseball!”

 

It also had all the major league teams with photos, video highlights, and artifacts that were put in 30 major league lockers.

 

The third floor had baseball cards, all the records, no hit games, (BTW. I have the autograph of the only pitcher in the history of baseball that threw a no hitter in the World Series. That would be Don Larson. I had him sign four pictures, and gave three of them to my children.)

 

One baseball card was behind a glass incasing because it was worth 3.5 million dollars. I am sorry but I am not sure exactly who, but it was either Roger Hornsby, or Ty Cobb. Please email me who it was if you know, and I will get it in the next newsletter.

 

On this floor was one very special memory. That had our beloved Beavers in a window case, acknowledging their incredible feat of winning two College World Series in a row. I made sure every one around knew I was a Beaver fan.

The Hall of Fame also had Ichiro Suzuki honored, because of his record breaking year with 267 hits in one year. He has had over 200 hits in all all his seasons in the United States.

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Well, I still didn’t get to Boston!! I will have to save that until the next newsletter. Don’t miss it. It has all the history that helped shape this country. The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s home, JFK’s home, Harvard, the USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides) and some team called the Boston Red Sox.

 

Be sure to go up to the tab called, “Newsletter” if you haven’t already done so. Click on it and subscribe. Eventually that will be the only place you will get the Beaver Path Finder. You can opt out any time you want if you get tired of my ramblings.

 

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The Rest of the Story

              The Rest of the Story

 

A special edition just for the Oregon State University football fans!!

 

For those of you that have already been coming to this site, you may or may not like today’s post. It is a special one just for the OSU football fans, but I think you will see that it is very interesting too.

 

This post will be about my travels to Pennsylvania to see the Beavers play Penn. State in football. It was a grueling time watching the game. We got beat by a big score. BUT! The side trips that Eola Hills Winery in Rickreall, Oregon put on added up to a trip full of history, and fun times. If you want to check out prices for some of their Blue Ribbon/Gold Medal awarded wines, or want to know more about the trips, go to www.eolahillswinery.com . They have a great site with lots of information about their products. They do ship the bottles also.

(That ought to get me a free glass of wine!!)

 

Day one of trip:

 

Our first stop was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A beautiful town that was in the middle of the history from the Civil War. That would be our “base camp,” before going to the Penn State game.

 

Tom Huggins, owner of Eola Hills Winery, went to the area ahead of time and set up some fantastic side trips.

 

The side trip I went on was to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Sound familiar? You got it! It was the spot of the deciding battle during the Civil War.

 

We got to the town right at lunch time. We had made plans to eat at the Dobbin House Tavern. We were sent to the Abigail Adams Ballroom. It was a large eating area, and we was able to get all sixty of us in quite easily.

 

It was buffet style, and there was enough food for an army. By the way the armies did eat there during the Civil War. Did you understand what I just said? There were Union soldiers there and then the Confederates were there after they chased the Union soldiers down the streets, and out into the main battle field. Right in the room I was eating had soldiers eating there.

 

There is one other little bit of history about the Dobbin House Tavern, There is a balcony there, and someone gave the famous Gettysburg Address, right across the street from the Tavern. The people who stood on the balcony could see none other than Abraham Lincoln giving one of the most famous speeches of all times. I was right at the spot where they think he stood. What an awesome feeling to know that Abraham Lincoln stood on the same spot I was!! You can learn more about Dobbin House Tavern by do a Google search writing in its name.

 

Then we drove through Gettsyburg to the battle field. What we saw as we drove through was absolutely amazing. The brick buildings that were open for business the day we went through, were the same exact brick buildings that were there during the Civil War. Need prove??? There were still the original bullet holes in the buildings from the battle as the two sides fought going down through the street. There was even one house that had a cannon shell stuck way up near the roof. The owner didn’t want it removed, because it was a tourist attraction!! You could almost hear the noise of the guns going off, and the non-fighters screaming in fear.

 

On the way to the battle field, we went by several churches. Our personal guide, Erin Haynes, told us that those churches were all full during the battle with wounded soldiers from both sides.

 

As we reached the actual battle field I was in shock as to how peaceful the battle field looked. It was just like any farm land with fences, tall grass, and homes with barns scattered through out the field. The barns, and the homes were used by the Generals to plan their attacks.

 

I got out of the van, and lined up along a fence were cannons that were used during the battle. We were on the confederate side. We were told that the cannons balls could go for hundreds of feet, and cause heavy damage to the other side.

 

There was even an elderly man dressed in a full confederate uniform sitting by a tree and telling some big tales about the war. He of course thought the south won.

 

Before we left the Confederate side, I saw a wreath placed at the foot of a statue of a general from the war. It brought a swelling of tears to my eyes. On it was a memorial to the deaths three men. It was a father and two of his sons. They all died in the same battle. All the men from one family gone!

 

We then drove to the union side. As I looked back at the confederate side, it didn’t look that far away, and it wasn’t. It was about 10 football field lengths away. (I know the length of the football fields, because of thirty years of officiating.) That is about ¾ of a mile give or take a few feet.

 

The three day war was fought within that small space! Thousands of men from each side battled with guns, cannons, bayonets, and fists. One spot I was standing the guide said according to diaries, and stories from the elders, there was a hand to hand bayonet battle going on!! Right where I was standing!! Again, can’t you hear the clanging of the metal of the bayonets, and the screams of the wounded?

 

We were then taken to the top on one of the mountains/hills called Little Round Top. It was controlled by the North. They thought they could win the war by controlling that spot and shoot down on the enemy. There was one problem. it was called, Devil’s Den. All you could see were a pile of rocks, some about the height of a tall man. The confederate got control of it and caused havoc with the Unions soldiers. They were able to “Hunker,” down and not be seen behind the rocks, and they could raise up long enough to get a shot off, and usually killed a soldier. That was where the first snipers were used. They were called “sharpshooters,” in those days. To read about the whole battle at Devil’s Den, Google in Devil’s Den, in the Google search area, and click on Devil’s Den Gettsyburg. It goes into complete detail there.

 

Like I said, the battle lasted three days with over 20,000 men either wounded or killed. That was in three days!! Can you imagine that happening with our wars today? War is not a picnic, and I wish they never had to happen. Especially battling against your own brothers, which actually happened in the Civil War. Families had relatives on both sides. They were so set on their beliefs that they would kill members of their own family.

 

To cut to the chase, the Union army gained control and drove the Confederates out of Pennsylvania.

 

It is hard for me to continue to tell how the battle went each day, but it was several mistakes by the Confederate Generals that turned the tide.

 

That was just one day!!!

 

I will have this be the first stop on the trip, and I will post this. I will have new adventures in future posts.

I will talk about the trip to visit the home where President Eisenhower lived in his retirement days.

There is the drive on the way to Boston that was very interesting. I will also talk about all the history that I saw such as:

 

The USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides)

 

Cooperstown, New York, where the baseball hall of fame is.

 

Fenway Park where the Boston Red Sox play.

 

The excitement of staying in the very hotel that Babe Ruth and Ted Williams lived during the season. This same hotel is where Shoeless Joe Jackson took the bribe to throw the World Series.

 

There will be my observations of the places is saw where women were hung for being (so called) witches.

 

Standing at the spot of the Boston Tea Party, and many more historical places we visited riding on a double decker bus.

 

This post is directly on this site for now. You need to subscribe to get further stories that will be coming in the new newsletter for those that subscribe. You can subscribe by clicking on the “Newsletter,” tab and filling out the form for subscribing. You will get an email notification that you are subscribed, and you can opt out any time you want.

 

The newsletter will have stories like you see above.

A section with photography from my trips. 

It will also have excerpts from the book, Close Encounters of the Heavenly Kind: Through Bumper Stickers. This has been a labor of love of mine since 2001. It is a book that reaches out to the many people who have suffered from self doubt, depression, fear, or hopelessness.

 

I have been there in that muck and mire. I have had all those afflictions and more. I was on the brink of suicide at one time, but God intervened, and saved my life. He wanted me to write the book to help others that have been in the trenches with me.

 

To find out more about the book, you will have to subscribe. That is the only place that I will be releasing the excerpts. It won’t hurt you! You will not get a rash if you subscribe. You will be able to opt out any time you have decided that I am blowing too much wind and you want to  shelter yourself from it.

 

I love being able to talk to you. I will be much more serious when I get down to the excerpts, but for now I would like to hear from you and what you think of the site, or have comments on what is posted. A website is never much if people do not interact.

 

Be sure to go back and forth between the two sites. The other one is called www.depressionsuppressed.com There is a link for it right on this site. It is a site that has ways to battle depression, and all the other afflictions that attack our minds. It has been going longer, so there is a lot of material to read there.

 

You can also click on the RSS widget, and when ever I make a post you will be notified immediately.

 

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The first official Prize has been given!!!

I have the great pleasure in announcing that we have our first prize awarded. I decided that the first official subcriber to this site would receive a free book. I will not name the person until I have permission.

The prize is a Book called, “Out of Darkness,” By Alicia Peterson. It is a fiction story about a young Roman beggar that is blind from birth, and a Jewish boy, anxious about his mother’s health.

This will be the begining of many prizes and awards for the future. So you need to subscribe and join in on the excitement. Only subscribers will have a change at the prizes.

The one award I really would love to give out is, the best comments of the week. I haven’t had many comments, so I am not implementing this award yet. Subscribe, and make some comments. You may be the next person to have a freebee that will very enjoyable.

I had my picture taken on the 15th. I will be posting it as soon as I get the CD. So hurry up and subscribe. I fear that once you see the picture you will run away in fear.

I will be having a professional company sending out the newsletter you are subcribing to. They are called, Constant Contact. They have newsletter templates, and I have found one that is perfect for fitting the theme we have on both sites.

I am a newbie on how to place things in the newsletter, so it could be a few days yet before I publish the first one.

Before you make comments be sure to read the rules for making comments that I have on the side bar. It will help make the comments a pleasant experience.

Doug

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