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Well, this story ends up being a sad one. At the
start of 2001, we were hoping to make good use of Jesse being
home-schooled and take several interesting and educational trips
sometime during the year.
In January, we watched as the USA soccer team
won against Bermuda to advance to the final round for World Cup
qualifying for North and Central America. Dave asked the question
"Why are we sitting in a bar when we could be in Bermuda right
now?", and we all agreed that we should travel to see at least
one game in the coming final round. Jesse and Dave had such a good
time back in November of 1997 when they went to Vancouver to see the
USA beat Canada (clinching a spot in World Cup France). Also, it
would  be
a perfect chance for Jesse to learn about a foreign country or just
go to an interesting American city. The North American final round
would have six teams, with five home-and-home series, making ten USA
games to pick from during the year.
Also qualified in the next round was Jamaica and Trinidad (along with
Mexico, Costa Rica, and Honduras), so we figured to visit one of
these two island countries (as long as the game was not scheduled in
the heat of summer). Plus, five of the games would be at home.
Probably in Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles. Surely we
would get to see anywhere from one to four games during the year.
The schedule is made by pulling random ping-pong balls, just like the
Lotto, and the February pull could not have been worse for us.
The game at Jamaica would be over July 4th and the game in Trinidad
would be the tenth and final match, with the outcome probably already
decided by then. Just in case, we booked a hotel room at the
Port-au-Spain Hilton for November and started researching plane fares
(with eight months lead time).
The USA games were no better, with the first two home games slated
for Columbus, Ohio and Kansas City. Mexico was the first opponent,
and the USA picked Columbus (in March) specifically to throw
them off of their stride, and it worked. The USA is always at a
disadvantage playing at Mexico, especially in mid-summer, so why not
make turnabout fair play? Instead of Miami or Los Angeles (which are
essentially home games for Mexico), the match would be in chilly
Columbus with very partisan fans. The USA won an important victory,
but we said "no thanks" to sitting in the frigid seats. The
same for KC. We wanted to go to a match somewhere and make it a
extended trip with museums or other sites, and KC did not have enough
for us to justify, without a good bit of driving. Again, we passed.
We held out hope for the match in Boston, and the Labor Day game in
Washington, DC. As the year progressed, with Lyn not feeling well
(see her story), and the economy slowing down, we eventually talked
ourselves out of each game. Lucky for us, since the Boston game was
played in a day-long deluge, and the Labor Day game sold out quickly.
And in the end, the USA did clinch one of the three spots in the
World Cup finals in Japan and Korea next year, but we ended up
watching all the games on TV and reading about them in the paper.
Sure enough, they clinched after the ninth game, and the match in
Trinidad was meaningless. The USA sent a hodge-podge mixed squad and
played to a lackluster zero-zero tie. We were so glad we cancelled
our plans.
 By
March, we had settled on going to Europe. We decided to
go in May, for two weeks, and to go to the continent. We made plane
reservations and had Jesse do a lot of internet research about places
to stay and various sites. We wanted to go in or out of Paris (on
foot / metro) and also visit Amsterdam. After that, we would be
flexible. As the plans progressed, we decided to visit Normandy for
the D-Day sites and William the Conqueror. We would go as far south
as Paris and up to the Netherlands. We downloaded maps from the
internet and printed them on 4x4 sheets, cutting and taping them
together for wall size. We also hit bookstores (real and e-) for
travel guides and planners. We had started several e-mail
conversations with friends in Europe and that had traveled to Europe.
Then there were layoffs. The economy started to slow in March, and
with plans to go to one or two soccer games, we finally nixed Europe
and decided to see the USA.
You can read about our Ozarks/Cajun
trip which we took in May. Dave had a one-week class in Dallas, so we
could rent a car and bill it instead of a plane ticket. We drove from
Florida to Dallas, then up to Kansas City, down to Memphis and New
Orleans. Jesse got to see a lot of history and we ate a lot of
authentic BBQ and Gumbo, and we spent three days in Branson, Missouri
to see shows, but somehow it was just not the same as Paris,
Amsterdam and Normandy. But it was nice not to have the credit card
debt, even if Jesse missed a perfect summer for learning.
At the last minute, Dave was assigned a class in Copenhagen, which
would have paid for his ticket and hotel, but then it was reassigned
at the last-last minute. Oh well, can't win.
During summer, we decided to visit Yellowstone.
Dave was closing in on visiting the 48 lower states and the 100
largest cities, so he definitely had "Montana on his mind".
Again, he had assignments in Denver and San Francisco so he could
leverage some expenses or at least wear and tear. He wanted to set
foot in Spokane (for Gonzaga) and Montana. The rest was for Jesse. We
found that Stompin Tom Conners would be in Calgary for July 1st
(dominion day) so looked into it, but it was for the "Calgary
Stampede" and arrangements (and expenses) were already a
nightmare. We looked at taking a train from Chicago, and driving a
bit. Also and driving up from Denver or Salt Lake City. In the end,
we had reserved seats for Lyn and Jesse into Spokane and a car for
the drive. Again, we had Jesse do lots of internet research and even
put together a distance map for the various points across Montana and
Wyoming, but then Lyn got too ill to enjoy the trip.
 As
her situation progressed, the hormonal imbalance part of it started
to overshadow the other discomforts she had. Of course, that resulted
in the constant nausea for her that all pregnant women know as
"morning sickness". As we all bemoaned, she got all the
nausea and no baby. Some deal. In the end, Dave took a quick week-end
jaunt up to Spokane, in the week-end between a week in Denver and
another in San Jose, by flying north instead of east and took a
Saturday in Spokane. He put 500 miles on a car, driving a big loop
all the way into Montana (punch that ticket!) and then flew onto California.
So that was our year. Lot's of planning. Lots of
home school research and reading. But in the end, just one trip and
that was an extreme compromise, at best. Oh well. At least we ended
the year with no extravagant debts to match our extravagant travel
plans. If business picks up, and Lyn starts to feel better (and the
roof doesn't leak) we will get to travel a little more in 2002, and
make better use of Jesse being home-schooled.
Dave |
