The Long Way

As I said goodbye in the early morning hours, I had my trip roughly planned out.  I was leaving Boothbay Harbor, Maine at about 3:45 am in early August 1998.  The road was dark and windy.  Driving along coastal Maine is a series of hairpin turns and two way traffic, although considered a highway.  As I left coastal Maine and made my way to the interstate, I had just a few more of these twists and turns before the straight shot toward Boston.  Just as I began to relax and settle in to the drivers’ seat, I turned right and my headlights caught a large, brown object in the road in front of me.  I slammed on my brakes and the giant moose crossed the road.  I was thankful he (or she) didn’t stop and was now fully awake for my drive. 

I was making great time that morning; cruising down through Maine and into Massachusetts.  I decided as I had a fast breakfast at a Highway Oasis that I would take a slight detour in New York.  It was August, after all, and my brother-in-law Mark’s birthday was coming up.  Mark and I have a special relationship.  He and I are good friends; I consider him the brother I never had.  We have always had a good relationship – he is funny and kind, quirky in the very best ways, and we always laugh together thoroughly.  There was a time, early in his marriage to my sister, that I lived with them in Grand Rapids and on more than one occasion, Mark and I ganged up on Lisa in some creative little inside joke.  She’s very good natured about being called “the General” because she would order us both around for cleaning and things like that. 

Because of my love of my brother-in-law, I decided that even though it was a 17 or 18 hour drive, I would take the long way home to Michigan via Cooperstown, NY.  Mark loves baseball, so I decided for his birthday, I would get him a gift from the Baseball Hall of Fame.  I was pretty cocky, too, arriving around at the Cooperstown exit off the expressway at around 11am.  I had no idea that I was a full hour from Cooperstown at that point – this was waaay before GPS had been made mainstream.  I just followed the signs and enjoyed the drive.  And the drive was memorable, that part of New York is just beautiful – rolling hills, farms and green everywhere you look.  The main road into Cooperstown is just as lovely; the downtown looks like something right out of a Norman Rockwell picture.  I arrived at the Hall of Fame feeling really great – although surprised at how far out Cooperstown was from the highway.  I looked around and tried to find something that spoke to me for Mark’s gift. 

As I perused the gift shop I saw this great section of vintage baseball hats.  In that section, I saw a hat that said, “Jersey City Giants”.  I picked it up, put it down and kept moving.  But that hat kept calling to me.  Mark is from New Jersey, and of course, New Jersey does not have a major league team of their own. So I asked the clerk about the hat.  I found out a whole story about the minor league team called the “Jersey City Giants” which was the farm team for the New York Giants in the 30’s to the 50’s.  The hat was so cool and I just knew that Mark would love it.  I had found my piece of Americana for his birthday.

I was feeling pretty great about my day so far; so I headed back out to the expressway thinking I’d still be home pretty early.  I had planned on being home by about 7pm that night.  The New York landscape was just as beautiful on the way back, I even stopped at a Louisville Slugger outlet before heading on to the highway.  I realized when I got back to the main route just how far out of my way I had gone.  I really started to feel it about 7:00 that night when I was still nearly three hours from home.  I had been awake since 3:00 in the morning, drove all by myself and was in the middle of Michigan on my way to Grand Rapids. 

When I finally reached home, I was, quite literally, exhausted.  But I had a great trip, including the side trip to Cooperstown.  That was fifteen years ago, and just the other day, Mark said to me that I have given him some of the most memorable and thoughtful gifts any one in his life has ever gotten him.  He mentioned that hat; and I had to laugh when I said, “Mark, you got the hat – but I got the adventure.”  And I truly meant it – what a great day, a great trip, one I’ll never forget; all in the hopes of finding a good gift.  And fifteen years later, we’re both pretty happy I took the long way.