My original plan was to blog while I was on the trip. I could not. When I had Wi-Fi I did not have time. When I had time, such as at the Bible camp where we stayed, I did not have Wi-Fi. So my blogs are going to be retrospective rather than real time.
I spent a great deal of time planning for this trip. In addition to a mission trip, I wanted the trip to be a sort of American heritage trip. I also wanted to visit some famous crime scenes. More on that later. Time does not always cooperate with plans, so some of what I wanted us to see went by the wayside. This first blog is going to be about what we missed.
On the first day we travelled 900 miles and 17 hours so we could stay at a motel next to a park where in 1934, two FBI agents battled it out with Pretty Boy Floyd. Today there is a rock with a plaque on it that commemorates the Battle of Barrington and honors the two agents who died there.
My plan was to have devotions at that spot in the morning. I found the spot which also had a US flag flying, but when we tried to drive there in the morning the geography was not quite right to make it easy and the traffic was horrendous. So we missed it.
I also like to visit President's graves. Rutherford Hayes is buried in Fremont, OH, right off the Ohio turnpike. We were going to drive right by it both coming and going. I thought for sure I was going to get to visit it sometime, perhaps while everyone else was eating. Time was tight both times, so I never even brought it up. William McKinley was shot in Buffalo, NY, but he is not buried there. However, Millard Fillmore, one of our worst Presidents is. I planned on visiting his grave after we saw Niagara Falls. No such luck. No time, so again, I didn't even bring it up.
Our time in Lancaster county, PA, was too short as well. Lancaster is the center of the Amish country in PA. We were a little too long at Gettysburg so the shopping day was waning when we got to Bird-in Hand, where we were scheduled to shop and eat. We got to eat a great meal, but the stores were closed. Many of my passengers were not too happy about missing out on the Amish stuff. There were plenty of buggies to see though.
While in New Jersey I had hoped to see Atlantic City. Some of our bunch did get up there, but I opted out for Ocean City, which is a more family friendly place.
In New York City, I had plans to walk across both Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge. Ruth and I made it about a third the way across the Brooklyn Bridge. The walking lane and bike lane are side by side and very crowded. Check out the Geico commercial where the lizard almost get run over by the bike. That's the Brooklyn Bridge. There was no time or energy to walk the half mile across Central Park. Nor did we get to go up into the Empire State Building. The lines were long and the cost was $30.
Of the crime scenes I wanted to visit, I missed only a couple -- Columbus Circle on the southwest corner of Central Park where Mafia boss Joseph Columbo, boss of the Columbo crime family was shot in 1971 by a hitman probably hired by Joe Gallo, who was shot in retaliation in a restaurant on Mulberry Street in Little Italy in 1972, a site we were able to visit. In fact many of our group ate supper at an out door cafe just across the street. Also on Mulberry Street is the building where John Gotti was arrested by the FBI in 1990. Eric and I walked up to see that spot on Saturday night. In 1957, Mafia boos and founder of Murder, Inc., Albert Anatasia was gunned down while he sat in a barbers chair on the ground floor of the Park Central Hotel in midtown Manhatten. Today that barbershop is a Starbucks. Ruth, Tanya, Katelin, and I each ordered a coffee there on Sunday. The second crime site we missed was Sparks Steak House, east of Grand Central Station, where John Gotti order the hit on Don Paul Castellono. Castellano's murder made Gotti the don of the Gambino family.
The last thing we missed was the statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemiji, MN. Caught up in a game of Trivial Pursuit, I wasn't paying attention to where we were and we just drove by the exit.
So we got to see a lot of what I had planned, but not everything. Such is the nature of long trips.
I spent a great deal of time planning for this trip. In addition to a mission trip, I wanted the trip to be a sort of American heritage trip. I also wanted to visit some famous crime scenes. More on that later. Time does not always cooperate with plans, so some of what I wanted us to see went by the wayside. This first blog is going to be about what we missed.
On the first day we travelled 900 miles and 17 hours so we could stay at a motel next to a park where in 1934, two FBI agents battled it out with Pretty Boy Floyd. Today there is a rock with a plaque on it that commemorates the Battle of Barrington and honors the two agents who died there.
My plan was to have devotions at that spot in the morning. I found the spot which also had a US flag flying, but when we tried to drive there in the morning the geography was not quite right to make it easy and the traffic was horrendous. So we missed it.
I also like to visit President's graves. Rutherford Hayes is buried in Fremont, OH, right off the Ohio turnpike. We were going to drive right by it both coming and going. I thought for sure I was going to get to visit it sometime, perhaps while everyone else was eating. Time was tight both times, so I never even brought it up. William McKinley was shot in Buffalo, NY, but he is not buried there. However, Millard Fillmore, one of our worst Presidents is. I planned on visiting his grave after we saw Niagara Falls. No such luck. No time, so again, I didn't even bring it up.
Our time in Lancaster county, PA, was too short as well. Lancaster is the center of the Amish country in PA. We were a little too long at Gettysburg so the shopping day was waning when we got to Bird-in Hand, where we were scheduled to shop and eat. We got to eat a great meal, but the stores were closed. Many of my passengers were not too happy about missing out on the Amish stuff. There were plenty of buggies to see though.
While in New Jersey I had hoped to see Atlantic City. Some of our bunch did get up there, but I opted out for Ocean City, which is a more family friendly place.
In New York City, I had plans to walk across both Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge. Ruth and I made it about a third the way across the Brooklyn Bridge. The walking lane and bike lane are side by side and very crowded. Check out the Geico commercial where the lizard almost get run over by the bike. That's the Brooklyn Bridge. There was no time or energy to walk the half mile across Central Park. Nor did we get to go up into the Empire State Building. The lines were long and the cost was $30.
Of the crime scenes I wanted to visit, I missed only a couple -- Columbus Circle on the southwest corner of Central Park where Mafia boss Joseph Columbo, boss of the Columbo crime family was shot in 1971 by a hitman probably hired by Joe Gallo, who was shot in retaliation in a restaurant on Mulberry Street in Little Italy in 1972, a site we were able to visit. In fact many of our group ate supper at an out door cafe just across the street. Also on Mulberry Street is the building where John Gotti was arrested by the FBI in 1990. Eric and I walked up to see that spot on Saturday night. In 1957, Mafia boos and founder of Murder, Inc., Albert Anatasia was gunned down while he sat in a barbers chair on the ground floor of the Park Central Hotel in midtown Manhatten. Today that barbershop is a Starbucks. Ruth, Tanya, Katelin, and I each ordered a coffee there on Sunday. The second crime site we missed was Sparks Steak House, east of Grand Central Station, where John Gotti order the hit on Don Paul Castellono. Castellano's murder made Gotti the don of the Gambino family.
The last thing we missed was the statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemiji, MN. Caught up in a game of Trivial Pursuit, I wasn't paying attention to where we were and we just drove by the exit.
So we got to see a lot of what I had planned, but not everything. Such is the nature of long trips.
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