Return from the Plains

Yesterday we made our way back from South Dakota—up at 6:40 a.m. and, we hope, back in Rochester at midnight. (This is being written at 8:30 p.m. in the Detroit airport.)

The return back was uneventful, aside from the usual bumps in the road. This was a day of wandering around Detroit’s airport, coloring, extensive etch-a-sketch use, and some DVD use. (Oh, and dinner at a Mediterranean bistro-ish place—good stuff.) In Mitchell, Sam displayed even renewed enthusiasm for and skill at his coloring. This came with a greater sense of ownership, so that at one point, when Uncle Paul admitted he had seen what Sam was working on before it was finished, Sam gave him to know that was not the way it worked. Later, Sam wanted Susan to color along with him, and graciously allowed, “Yes, you can color that. But even if you don’t color what I want, I still love you.” (Phew!)

On the first flight today Sam was thrilled to see the view out the window and enthusiastically enjoyed the whole flight. Somehow, hand-puppet Max appeared early on in the flight (following a game of “I spy with my little eye something which is ). Sam couldn’t have been more pleased to have his old protégé back to coach in the ways of high-speed interstate air flight. He advised Max, “Up in the sky cars look small like birds, except birds can’t drive.”

He also walked the fine line between reality and fantasy when, eager to have Max peek out the window while I was busy writing something, he ripped the pen out of my hand and grabbed Max to tell him where to look! He proceeded to observe that Max has no eyes, but Max, who was by then starting to munch on Sam’s hand, did have a (pretend) mouth. So, clearly he knows Max isn’t real, but Sam is still very excited to have someone to give advice to! Sam was so excited he hugged Max more than once.

Speaking of the flights, our initial flight was delayed an hour, which made us miss the next, giving us four hours to sit in the Detroit airport waiting for the last flight to Buffalo. Fortunately, Detroit has a very nice airport and we found plenty to entertain us. Including a bird which had somehow made it in, and was flying around the spacious causeway. Sam’s opinion, perhaps colored by the toy store he’d just been in: “I think it’s electronic.”

Our South Dakota visit included many high points. Nothing can take the place of his time with Uncle Paul, Aunt Ruth, Cousin Katie and Cousin Jon, all of whom were objects of much affection. (I keep wanting to say that Katie and Jon were big hits, but that might give the impression that Paul and Ruth weren’t also, and they were. This may have something to do with Aunt Ruth's giving Sam slices of banana topped with whipped cream for his final South Dakota breakfast—which also brings to mind Grandpa Gene who generously bought Sam breakfast at Country Kitchen consisting of a pancake with an Oreo cookie in the middle.) And, for the sadly brief time he was able, Sam loved playing with cousins Joey, Megan and Erin. That said, here are some other experiences he won’t soon forget:

· A trip to Cabela’s sport-goods store, a huge and amazing place with a 3-story wall modeled after a rocky mountain face, bearing a plethora of mounted animals all shown to great effect. It also has a huge circular fish tank with all manner of very large fresh-water game fish. Sam had a great time wandering the forest of clothes racks and playing with the pop guns.

· Sam’s first ride down a full water slide, at the hotel where the Colorado Gilberts were staying. I gave the slide a test run and stayed upright, so with confidence took him on my second run. (Sam, having recently taking his first swimming lessons, has no experience being submerged.) Unfortunately, I used a different type of inner tube on the second trip, and Sam ended up getting dunked—which was followed by coughing and many tears. Amazingly, after a few calming minutes with mom he was willing to go down again (on the other type of inner tube), and I successfully kept him out of the water. We did that several times before he was ready to be dried off.

· Sam also got to visit the world-famous Mitchell Corn Palace, a large rectangular building decorated with multicolored cobs and husks of Indian corn. In its own unique way it is quite impressive, and Sam loved it. Perhaps the best part was when the adult dressed as mascot Cornelius in a large corn-cob suit wandered up to say hi. Sam was so happy he actually followed Cornelius around for a while. (Besides an outside shot and one with the mascot, there’s a photo of Sam simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of stuff animals in the huge central gift shop.)

· I don’t know if I mentioned this in the last post, but one of the great things about living in an apartment attached to a warehouse- sized shed with a full basketball court and workout facility… is being pushed around at full speed by your cousin Katie in a wheelchair. Amazingly, a lot of people don’t know this.

It’s late and we are approaching Buffalo, so I’ll sign off and add things as I remember them…