John and Joyce Staples

I received a Christmas card from John and he is on the road again. They stopped in Daytona for a Motorhome show in 2006 after having sold their home, car and most of everything else to take to the open road. We enjoyed dinner with them as they brought us up to date on the plans they were hoping to work out. The biggest trip they have planned is to travel north to Alaska. This is the plan as they winter in the Yuma, AZ area with the idea to go north when the roads open fully from the winter's storms. They traveled much of the east coast and out through the midwest enjoying much of our country along the way. I hope we can get them to send photos as they traverse the Rockies or Pacific coast highway come spring time. I've enclosed a picture of home when they visited in 2006. Anyone who needs to contact John, contact me and I will get the info to you. KR

Working on the rigs

Here are a couple of rigging pictures from Don Pollock. Don is in Texas and does a lot of cruising on the waterways.

from Steve and Lynda Muench

Hello Kerry, It's been so cold in Florida that Lyn and I are going to Australia in January. We've signed up for a 14 day cruise from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand. Lyn's looking forward to the trip; me, you can have the one way plane trip of 32 hours.
We'll have all of our kids(4) and grandchildren (10) here for Christmas. Two of them live locally to help share the noise.
Are we ever going to have another class reunion? I went to Lyn's 45th high school reunion last summer in June. We were there for 3 days and it rained for 2 1/2 of them. Just as I remember Syracuse weather.
Have a Merry Christmas. Steve Muench

With us having so much time before our 2012 reunion Steve, we will have the local committee request three days of sunshine so we can all enjoy returning to central New York. KR


----- Original Message -----

University of Notre Dame Football

Hi to everyone once again. I returned Sunday from a four day trip to the University of Notre Dame to watch them play Syracuse. If you don't follow SU football, they sort of upset Notre Dame, 24-23 on a cold and windy Saturday in South Bend. Temperature at kickoff was 26F with a wind chill of 19F. It only went downhill from there. Above are pictures of the Grotto where a daily prayer is said at 6:45AM and anyone can light a candle in memory of someone they have lost. Next is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and the Main Building. The Main Building is the one you usually see with its gold roof under which are the main campus offices including the Presidents'. Also I have included a picture on approach to the airport of Notre Dame Stadium which holds 80, 785 fans on game day. The last picture shows Syracuse taking the field with "Touchdown Jesus" in view over the north end zone.

I arrived Wednesday and while wandering around outside the stadium, I found the large iron delivery gate open and gradually walked towards the end zone and I was greeted by a grounds crew chief who invited me down to the field for a few moments as the field lines were being painted for Saturday's game. I traveled through the tunnel which is the only entrance to the field and it was just an overwhelming sight to walk on the field I had seen football played on since those old high school days. Nothing really compares to that feeling, especially at Notre Dame.

On Thursday I visited the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown South Bend and I saw many familiar names, statues and pictures from college football over the years. Because Syracuse was in town, they had a large display of Syracuse memorabilia and many articles and pictures of Ernie Davis, the only heisman trophy winner from Syracuse. Thursday night and Friday morning about a foot of snow had fallen leaving that white winter wonderland we have all heard of. Friday I enjoyed lunch at the Tippacanoe Place Restaurant which was once home to the Studebaker family afterwhich I went on a self guided tour of the old stone home. A new owner has assumed control of the home and is starting to restore parts of the building.

Saturday brought the game but the snow had reduced some of the parking places available so everyone was advised to arrive early but it was still a full house at kickoff. I sat fours rows from the top of the Stadium, and had the opportunity to sit on a wooden bench as opposed to todays aluminum bench seats or chair type seats.

Notre Dame is another Stadium which does not offer alcohol for sale inside the Stadium so overall it is a much better experience. If you ever get the opportunity to visit on game day, be sure to find the Knights of Columbus tent and have a steak sandwich. It's hard to describe but they cook up a steak on several charcoal grills and slap it on a sesame street roll and for just $6.00 you also get a bottle of water or coca-cola. The steaks are about 7-8" long and about 1/2" thick. Best pregame sandwich I have had over the years. So be sure to look it up on game day when in South Bend!

I guess that summerizes the great expedition and it just goes by so fast like everything else we look forward to in life.

Send me your information and I will blog more as the New Year approaches. Stay in touch, K.

Levi Stubbs...The Four Tops...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-ap-obit-stubbs,0,1348941.story



Levi Stubbs was a singer with the Four Tops from our era. Follow the link to read more. KR

Journey to Tampa, FL

I travelled from Daytona to Tampa on Friday afternoon to attend the National Street Rod SE Nationals which has been an annual event for me since 1998. I've included a few pictures of the cars that were there. After I arrived I turned on the local news and they were talking about the ALCS baseball game between the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Boston Red sox. I decided to check on the hotel computer to see if any tickets were available and I really got lucky. I ended up sitting about 20 rows up on the left side of home plate. I could easily hear the ball hit the catcher's mitt. The Devil Ray's home has a domed roof similar to the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University. Here is the wikipedia link which explains more than I ever could after watching my first game there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicana_Field. Sorry I forgot to take my camera with me. I will be returning next weekend for the Syracuse / USF football game in Buccaneer Stadium with Jay Adcook. Send me some information or just let me know what you have been up to over the summer and into the fall. I will post it for you and everyone can see what others have been doing. Thanks.

Mr. Petty

A little late getting this on the blog but when I was back in Fayetteville in September, I stopped at Hullar's Coffee Shop and I ran into Mr. Petty, our earth science teacher at Wellwood. He has had the opportunity to travel abroad and has very much enjoyed his retirement years. He has his garden he tends to albeit who can forget those short growing seasons of central New York. Send me some info to post in your blog here. Thanks. KR