Tuesday, April 2: For the next nine days or so, I don’t have much time off. The plan right now is for me to fly home on Sunday, arriving in the evening, and leaving fifteen hours later at noontime Monday for a swing through Philadelphia and New Jersey next week.
I’m not thinking much about the City of Brotherly Love just yet. Yesterday, I landed in Albany, the New York state capitol. I immediately remembered the last time I was at the Albany airport: a couple of years ago, my wife, Nicki and I took her father Don, her brother Keith and his son Jacob, and our son Joshua to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, where Abner Doubleday was purported to invent America’s Pastime in 1839. (Baseball historians are in near agreement that Doubleday didn’t invent baseball, calling it a myth.) The occasion was Don’s 60th birthday, and we couldn’t think of a more memorable way to celebrate.
Let me tell you: visiting Cooperstown was a highlight, was one of the best times of my life. I loved walking past the hundreds and hundreds of exhibits and displays: balls, bats, gloves, and uniforms belonging to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Willie Mays as well as modern-day heroes like Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, my favorite player.
After landing in Albany yesterday, we drove along the Hudson River to Kingston, New York, where I did a Perfect Weight America event at the Mother Earth Storehouse. Then we hopped on the bus today for a 333-mile drive to Buffalo in upstate New York. From there, it’s on to Rochester and Syracuse this week.
I’m really looking forward to being in Syracuse because I’ll get to spend the day with one of my closest friends, Jeremy Schwimmer, who lives in nearby Skaneateles—pronounced something like “Skinny Atlas.” We’ve known each other since diaper days. That’s when I was growing up in the Atlanta area while Dad attended chiropractic college. Jeremy’s parents were students as well, and Jeremy and I used to ride our Big Wheels together. Our families were close: my parents babysat him and his sister, and Jeremy’s mother was present at my sister’s birth. We’ve remained close since then, and I would say that Jeremy is the oldest friend that I still communicate with.
Jeremy went on to Georgetown University and became a big Hoya basketball fan. I’m afraid you can’t be a Hoya fan in Syracuse, especially during March Madness. Jeremy’s married with a daughter whom I’ve never met, so it’ll be great to spend some time with them.