The Shadow Show tour is over, and Alan is on his way home from Toronto with the girls. (Air Canada has far lower fares to Europe than any domestic airline.) I remember being young, cobbling together multi-connection routes to the places I wanted to go. Living in Fort Wayne, you could save hundreds of dollars flying out of Indianapolis, only 110 miles south, or Chicago, 150 miles west. The drive down at the beginning of vacation was a blip; the drive home might as well have been 500 miles of two-track road.
Crossing international borders keeps getting easier, but even Canada is still complicated. However, they’ll be home later tonight and that will be good.
I’m trying not to mainline Doom, but I read this piece earlier this week and it unhinged me a bit. It’s about Marjorie Dannenfelser, “the woman who killed Roe,” i.e. an anti-abortion pitfall who sees no color but black or white. She is…infuriating:
She soon converted to Catholicism and came to believe that full human rights are conferred upon a zygote at the moment of fertilization, rendering even a rape exception “abominable.” She tried to convince her parents of this and failed, repeatedly. “They really taught me to relentlessly pursue the truth,” she told me, “which is why it was so frustrating.”
Of Trump, the strangest bedfellow:
…Dannenfelser says she “felt ill at the prospect of defending a man who could speak that way.” Her daughters told her they could not support her if she supported him. “Ultimately,” she wrote, “I had to accept my own public argument: Trump’s commitment to the pro-life cause outweighed his offensive remarks. My daughters saw a snapshot in time and were right to be appalled. But I saw the evil that had been wrought in the decades since Roe v. Wade, which had ended the lives of more than 50 million preborn babies.”
Inside the logic of this particular nightmare, the 50 million dead, there could be no question of falling back. Dannenfelser watched the final presidential debate. Trump had, of course, been coached, but he still sounded, usefully, like a child. “If you go with what Hillary is saying,” he said, “you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby … you can rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month on the final day.”
Finally! thought Dannenfelser, watching at home. Here was an answer neither avoidant nor squeamish; here was a man describing the improbable violence she wanted to be on every voter’s mind, the Gerber baby, the Nilsson baby, the visual stand-in for every routine eight-week abortion across the nation. “Trump got it right and was never even a part of it,” she tells me. “He wasn’t a part of it. But he has an instinct for how to build something.” Others had focused on “issues surrounding the act itself, paying for it, informed consent about it, parental notification about it. He’s one of the first politicians that was able to talk about what it is. Everyone else was afraid to offend. He wasn’t afraid to offend. He’s not a cautious man.”
Go ahead, nice Christian lady, get in bed with this guy. Enjoy the herpes. Although this story, infuriating as it is, is still very good, and has a great kicker. I recommend it.
Is that it for me tonight? It would seem so. Long day. Tired.
Sherri said on May 11, 2022 at 9:26 pm
It was a bit of a mindfuck for me to grow up hearing how wrong the Catholics were to put the life of the baby over the life of the mother, only to come back to visit my parents in the 90s to hear Sunday School classes leading off with an update about the fight against abortion.
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Deborah said on May 11, 2022 at 10:40 pm
I’ll be interested to hear what Kate has to say about her tour. What a fabulous experience for a young woman.
We’re in an historic hotel in Baker City, Oregon where the view of the snow covered mountains is spectacular. It was snowing up there on those mountains when we arrived a few hours ago. The little town is cute but of course suffering, earlier from Walmarts and more recently from Covid.
Driving through Salt Lake City this morning was surprisingly depressing. First of all the interstate is 7 lanes each direction in places which is absurd and then about a mile east of downtown a mountain range is devastated by strip mining, this environmental destruction actually faces square on downtown. Then on the west side of the interstate you pass hideous industrial buildings that look like oil refineries but probably aren’t, instead they’re probably processing whatever is being strip mined on the other side of the interstate. I’m using the description of an oil refinery so that you know if you’ve ever seen one how apocalyptic they look belching toxic who knows what. The most mind boggling thing is how close this all is to downtown with the revered tabernacle. I had only been to the Salt Lake City airport before on layovers and fortunately missed that about the place.
Once we crossed into Oregon the scenery was incredible, beautiful green rolling mountains, hills like white elephants but a luscious verdant color.
Tomorrow we arrive at our destination in Everett, WA.
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Deborah said on May 11, 2022 at 10:49 pm
I will add that if we ever do this road trip again up through Utah and Idaho we’ll try to figure a route that takes us through Moab then Park City, UT and then up through Sun Valley, ID before heading NW up into OR and WA. But at our age now this will probably be the once and only time we do this. And to get to Everett, WA in the time frame we had now it was impossible. Live and learn and then you don’t have enough living time to do it right.
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Dexter Friend said on May 12, 2022 at 2:47 am
Deborah, in 1974 we took a family vacation and went to Salt Lake City and decided to tour the Mormon buildings. I remember the beams of the tabernacle auditorium are still held together by the original cured rawhide straps , at least they were in 1974. The place is stunningly beautiful, the paintings, the sculptures, the whole thing was mind-blowing. I used to swim in any body of water I was near so of course I swam in the Great Salt Lake. There was no shower afterwards, so when I walked into a motel later, all crusty with salt, I must have appeared as a ghost.
In the news, whoa…John Eastman is a real POS. He should be indicted right along with Trump for voter fraud. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/disclosed-emails-make-notorious-trump-lawyer-look-even-worse-rcna28348
My family flies quite a bit, and when the 3 daughters all lived in or near Toledo, they rarely used Express Airport, they almost always used Detroit Metro. I never did, but I used Cleveland Hopkins or what was then known as Port Columbus International Airport, now called John Glenn.
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Dorothy said on May 12, 2022 at 7:16 am
My daughter-in-law’s father passed from pancreatic cancer in August 2018. Moab was his favorite place on earth. He was a hunter and had spent time there years ago with friends while they hunted all around that part of the country. In the summer of 2019 his widow, kids and grandkids flew out west to scatter his ashes in a spot he had chosen in Moab. I hope to see it someday. Deborah you make me want to jump on a plane and head to Oregon just to see what you are describing!
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Deborah said on May 12, 2022 at 9:21 am
Dorothy, Moab is fantastic. We only drove through it this time, we’ve stayed there before. The town is nothing special but the national park and surrounding landscapes are incredible. While staying there, in the hotel room was a Mormon Bible which I perused. That was interesting.
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Jeff Borden said on May 12, 2022 at 9:24 am
Has anyone figured out how the laws against abortion will be enforced by our beloved “party of small government?” Jennifer Rubin wrote about this issue in the Washington Post a few days ago and pondered how far Big Brother would go if a woman is thought to have ended her pregnancy.
Interviews with family members, friends, medical office receptionists? Subpoena all phone records and emails to find links to a potential abortion provider? Questions about the woman’s menstrual cycles? All incredibly, deeply personal stuff that will now be mined by red state abortion police in the search for the hussy who dares to believe she has autonomy over her own body. I’m sure the evangelical goobers who hold positions of authority in the states are salivating at the prospect of bashing others over the head with their own religious beliefs.
Meanwhile, there are stories floating around that SCOTUS is just one big high school gossip party. It appears Strip Search Sammy and his minions of ultra-right-wingers were mightily pissed off when John Roberts cast the deciding vote upholding the ACA and they are punishing him for that action. Sounds about right, doesn’t it? These pompous windbags in black robes are just your average Kens and Karens, nursing grudges and holding to their cliques and society at large be damned.
If Shadow Show needs a 71-year-old roadie, gimme a call. I’d love to get out of this crazy country for a few weeks.
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basset said on May 12, 2022 at 10:33 am
It’ll certainly be interesting to hear stories of the tour.
Our most recent airline experience was just this morning, booking on Allegiant from Nashville to Flint for Mrs. B… $55 flight was $115 by the time they got done tacking on extra costs – what IS a “carrier usage fee,” anyway? Not that bad a price in the end, but still…
and I’ll second Jeff on the roadie offer, actually did some of that back in the 70s but the gear is so different now that I probably wouldn’t know what to do. How much of a crew does Shadow Show use, anyway?
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Julie Robinson said on May 12, 2022 at 11:32 am
basset, that’s a fee all the airlines charge and it ought to be incorporated into the price shown or it’s a bait and switch come-on. Allegiant will kill you with all the extra fees but they still are covering smaller airports like Flint and Fort Wayne. As Nance mentions, otherwise you’d drive a couple of hours to Indy or Chicago and pay to park your car while you were gone. Or you could pay through the nose for a connecting flight and wait forever on your layover.
Even the big airlines seem to have fewer flights and fewer direct flights now. We were looking at one to Dublin that was three flights and took 17 hours. I’m too physically decrepit for that.
What a shame about Salt Lake City.
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basset said on May 12, 2022 at 11:53 am
Indeed it should. Mrs. B has family in Frankenmuth but Allegiant only goes BNA-FNT twice a week, this last time we went to DTW instead of our usual twelve-hour drive.
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basset said on May 12, 2022 at 12:07 pm
And, a useless fact about Salt Lake City… the downtown streets are unusually wide to make room for a wagon and team of oxen to turn around.
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Connie said on May 12, 2022 at 12:18 pm
Basset, I am but a few miles from the Flint airport should help be needed, though Frankenmuth is not that much farther. And it is Food truck festival weekend in Frankenmuth.
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Mark P said on May 12, 2022 at 12:22 pm
I think Arches National Park is one that requires a reservation to get in. It had been so Cory for years that their web site warned that during the peak months, it would be difficult to find parking to stop and see the sights.
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Jeff Borden said on May 12, 2022 at 12:42 pm
The only thing I know about Salt Lake City is that a few years ago, NBA players declared it their least favorite NBA city. I always assumed that despite the overwhelming Mormon presence there, SLC would obviously still have decent night life. The players disabused me of that belief.
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basset said on May 12, 2022 at 1:05 pm
Sure appreciate that, Connie. We got back Tuesday night, Mrs. B is going up again next month. Food truck festival sounds like fun… and as many times as I’ve been to Frankenmuth, I’ve never set foot inside Zehnder’s or the Bavarian Inn.
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Joe Kobiela said on May 12, 2022 at 4:02 pm
Bassett,
Have flown into Frankenmuth a few times, they have a small grass strip outside of town. The Baverian Inn will come pick you up. The missus and I use to do the brewery tour at the long gone Black Label brewery, free Label and a very extensive stein collection, unfortunately its a strip mall now. Salt Lake is a great city, snow ski in the morning golf in the afternoon, and a absolute beautiful approach over the mountains into the airport.
Pilot Joe
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Deborah said on May 12, 2022 at 4:34 pm
We’re on Rt 2 In WA, on our way to Everett. It’s beautiful. Waving at you Susan wherever you are.
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Mark P said on May 12, 2022 at 5:12 pm
I just looked back at my comment on Arches and saw that I said “Corey” when I meant “crowded.” I believe it makes more sense that way. Damned autocorrect.
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annie said on May 12, 2022 at 5:31 pm
I saw that “corey” comment and thought it was some new computer slang.
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Mark P said on May 12, 2022 at 6:17 pm
Maybe I was actually trying for covfefe?
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David C said on May 12, 2022 at 7:53 pm
92° today and the A/C has crapped out. I forked out $5000 for a new furnace last fall. I hope I don’t have to pay up for the other half of my HVAC needs so soon.
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basset said on May 12, 2022 at 9:23 pm
Been to the brewery, Joe, long enough ago that I didn’t know it had closed… and bought the “Ist Gud Fur Sie” or something like that t-shirt, which I was told meant “It’s Good For You.”
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Deborah said on May 12, 2022 at 9:29 pm
We arrived in Everett a couple of hours ago. My brother in law and his wife live right on Puget Sound with incredible views. They have 3 floors and every room has a view out to the sound. They see eagles and seals every day and sometimes whales spouting way out there. It’s stunning. I need better adjectives. Our drive on route 2 was also stunning, it was about a hundred mile drive from 97 north, through a national forest with rushing rivers in view, snow on mountains on either side and at Steven’s Pass the snow was down to either side of the highway. It rained of course a good half of the way but once we arrived the sun came out briefly. If I can see a whale while here, I can die peacefully.
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susan said on May 13, 2022 at 12:35 am
Deborah, you probably waved at my butt as you zoomed by. It was pointing up in the air, as I was planting peppers and eggplants in the garden. Sorry to have missed youse guys! Next time, if you stop, I’ll give you a tour of the Ice Age Floods landscapes around here. Spectacular story, breathtaking features.
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Deborah said on May 13, 2022 at 2:37 am
A lot of young women students who went to my Lutheran college spent their summers working at the Bavarian Inn (or one of the German restaurant establishments) in Frankenmuth, MI. And sometimes one or two of them didn’t return to school in the fall because they got pregnant. The supposed story was that the owners liked to hire good Lutheran girls because they didn’t get into trouble.
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