9/11/06--The Bowdren Family Reunion

Now, onto happier thoughts and times.  Someone much smarter than I am once said that you can pick your friends--but not your relatives.  I was going to take a chance and find out how true that was this past weekend, as I journeyed to upstate New York for a Bowdren family reunion.  Now, there was one of these shindigs about 12 years ago, but...quite frankly I was still with my 2nd wife at that point, and I can remember her not being too keen on the idea of hanging out with 100 people who were just like me.
I mean, can you really blame her?

Fast forward to this past weekend, and myself, the wife and the two young un's flew up to the first reunion in over a decade.  It was quite the experience, I don't mind telling you.  I'll try and keep it short---but you know me....I like to go into detail.

The four of us were flying JetBlue, and I have to tell you....it was one of the nicest flights I've had in a long time.  Every one of the seats on the plane has a t.v. screen in front of it with Directv....so instead of flying and being bored out of your mind, you have 35 channels to choose from to watch.  What can be better than that?  So we arrive in the beautiful haven of Newark, NJ (which caused me to wonder why NJ was ever termed the "Garden State" I gotta tell ya) and after a slight disagreement of which rental car we would take (the kids and I wanted the new Mustang--the wife wanted the Infiniti---I let her win) we were on the one road that leads to everywhere in Jersey.
The Jersey Turnpike.

And I gotta mention, that once you get out of Jersey (no offense), its actually one truly amazing drive.  The proverbial rolling hills and mountains, my ears are popping left and right from being clogged from the flight--then being unclogged--and so on and so on.
So we're zipping along in our Infiniti, which is actually a real nice car--although the whole Hertz slogan about how every car has Sirius satellite radio is a bunch of nonsense, because OUR car did not--and in about an hour and a half we cross into New York, having managed to totally miss the city and we start making our way towards upstate New York.  Hills....mountains....I am not talking about the sort of hills that we have in south Florida, which are of the "hey, we just drove across the I-95 overpass--wow, what a hill that was" sort of a hill.  These things were freakin MOUNTAINS.  I mean, you would lose radio signals for about half a mile and then regain it after you got out of the valley.  Truly, truly awesome.
It reminded me of one of the reasons that I hate Florida so much.  It might be the nation's most boring state to drive through.  The Florida Turnpike?  If it wasn't for the billboards you might begin to hallucinate.  I mean this was like some sort of a painting.
Every mile you came across a stretch that was more beautiful than the one before.
Eventually we pull off the main highway and make our way towards our intended stay.
This was a good 30 miles on 2 lane roads going up and down, up and down.  My wife and I kept remarking how beautiful it was while figuring that in the winter that the old snowplows probably weren't going to make this stretch of road their first destination....ya know what I mean?
Finally we pull onto an even smaller two lane road and go up into the hills, past farmhouses and.....swear to God....meadows that have DEER grazing in them.  I was beginning to wonder if we secretly weren't like the couple at the end of the movie Funny Farm....where the whole town was being paid to act like authentic country folks with little picturesque things happening here and there....seriously, it was like something out of a movie. 
We were staying at the lovely Villa Roma resort.  Here again, let me recall a movie to describe the place.  Remember the resort that Baby and her family stayed at in Dirty Dancing?  That was what this place is like--which is also to say that, while its very nice, it was probably way nicer about 20 years ago.  It just has that slightly dated feel to it.

So we check in and as we're walking down the hall, looking for our room, I begin to hear my brother's voice.  So I start yelling out for him, figuring if its him, he'll respond, and if its the ghost of one of the past residents of the Villa Roma, they'll probably shut right up.  So we hook up with him and his wife Angie and then my parents emerge from their room, and we're all together.  Well.....all together that is except for my sister and her family--and I'm about to get to that.

So I can't help noticing that we are missing a key element to the family gathering--to wit:
One sister and her family.  Now, I had gotten a phone call from her earlier in the day telling me that they had missed their plane--which of course began the inevitable inquires as to whether or not her daughter had overslept again (sorry Scarlett)--because they had gotten there, oh...I dunno, like 30 minutes before the plane was leaving and were told that it was too late to get their luggage on the plane, so if they were going to make the flight they would have to carry the luggage on the plane with them....which of course meant that all their cosmetics would have to be thrown out---which was where Scarlett drew the line.  Think about it.  Your in upstate New York for a family reunion with people you haven't seen in 20 years, and won't see for another 10 years....AND NO MAKEUP??!!!??? 
Well needless to say, the decision was made right then and they began looking into later flights. (I say that sentence with total respect and admiration of my bro-in-law Johnny, because if that had been me---I'd have been tossing my daughter's makeup into the trash--your a better man than I Gunga Din!)  So then they finally get into Philadelphia, and begin to watch as their luggage is sitting out on the tarmac....and there's no plane to take them to their final destination.  And naturally the good folks at USAir are offering zero explainations.  So finally, a couple of hours later they finally are on board and make their way to join us.  By that point, those of us already in New York had made our way to my cousin Lynn's farm.  You know their well connected when the road they live on is named after them.  Again with the rolling hills and valleys, and then on the side of a large hill is this picturesque (there's that word again--get used to it) house and farm.  We get out and walk up to say hello with relatives that we haven't seen in literally forever.
My cousins Lynn, Gerri & Bridget along with my Aunt Gerri, who's always been a favorite of mine since I was a kid.  She was...hmm....appearing to feel no pain that evening as the toddies were flowing quite liberally. 
Apparently Aunt Gerri had warned the NY crew about me, so...ya know....I tried to put on a bit of a show for them (Very Important---You have to KNOW your audience).  Soon after, my sister arrived with her family and then Aunt Gerri's youngest daughter Maureen showed also.  At some point during the evening Aunt Gerri started telling a story about someone getting a vasectomy, but we really weren't sure who she was referring too (keep that reference in mind for later).  After way too short a stay, we all bid our good nights and headed back to our hotel.  Lynn and her husband still had lots of planning to do....and we had a whole day to explore the surrounding area.
We decided to head up the Hudson River and visit West Point.

End of Part 1.

Later,
Jeff