Planning holidays in North America...2012...

[Lester Curtis]

I'm half an hour out from Cleveland; I'll be there. Sounds like you won't be there for long, maybe a couple hours? Give us the specifics of time and location. I look forward to seeing you again.

[Lester Curtis]

I never did know where any of the good restaurants were, but Cleveland does have some attractions. There's the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame, and the Art Museum, which is really excellent. There's a new Aquarium, and there's a new casino downtown. The casino has, I think, four restaurants in it, and because it's surrounded by a high concentration of police, it's considered to be one of the safest places to be in downtown Cleveland. I've heard the casino pulls in about $40+ million a month.

I'm truly pathetic about all this; back when I was young, I used to go downtown just to have someplace interesting to see. In the last forty years, I've been there twice: once was with friends who treated me to a baseball game at the new stadium (the Indians lost, of course), and the second was when I drove my father to a doctor's appointment for eye surgery.

These days, I do all my traveling inside my head (it's cheaper, too). So, of all the above-mentioned places, the Art Museum is the only one I've seen.

I'll be as much of a green tourist as anyone there -- almost -- I'm sure I can still find the Terminal Tower, and Public Square with the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on it, and the old Cleveland Arcade and the huge Public Library.

I used to like going down to the train terminal and looking at the huge Art-Deco mural on the wall, made on big glazed-enamel panels. I don't know if that's still there, or accessible, but last time I went down there, it was very dangerous and scary.

We'll have fun, though. They say downtown is pretty safe now. All the shootings happen out in the eastern suburbs.

Seriously, though, if anyone else can make it, come on out and join us!

[Lester Curtis]

Waiting for others, indeed -- get on the bus, folks -- I'm buying the first round!

[Lester Curtis]

I think me and Lester Curtis are meeting around 6 for drinks - so we should be sloshed by the time we meet-up with Ente-per-ente at 8 pm. Cool!

Whoa up there, missy . . . not sure yet how early my friend can get away. Things are still in the planning stage. We'll get it all arranged, though. I may have yet another guest, as well.

[Lester Curtis]

Delightful work, as always, Sergio. I keep thinking there has to be more than one of you, to get so much stuff done!

[Lester Curtis]

Well . . . since I've had no feedback from the rest of you, I'm calling it thus: dinner at the Sans Souci. Looks like a nice quiet place. Pricey, but no worse than we've seen before.

I promised to buy the first round of drinks, but I don't know where that's going to be -- best I can find, the hotel doesn't have a bar, so we may have to hunt for one. Someone can ask at the desk; there should be a handful within a rock's throw of the front door.

See you at 8:00 PM at the H.I.

[Lester Curtis]

Bring rain gear; latest forecast says we'll need it.

[Lester Curtis]

Well, we didn't need the rain gear. I expect you might be getting reports from the others, but I'll just say it was a very nice evening. We met on time, had a drink at a very small and friendly Irish bar (Michele was already on a first-name basis with the owner), and then we went to the Sans Souci restaurant next to the Terminal Tower and had an excellent dinner.

I brought a friend of mine, whom I hope to get to at least LOOK at this forum now and again (I've been working at that). He's got five novels in the works, mostly supernatural action/adventure stuff, and it's not too bad. We're members of two local writers' groups, one of which is commonly only attended by the two of us.

I finally got a look at one of Sergio's models, and was surprised at how small it was; I'd been expecting something much larger, but it was delightful to see.

All in all a very nice evening; it was good to see and chat with Michele and Sergio again.

[Lester Curtis]

Looks like some serious geezerhood going on there . . .

Thanks for posting these; I was just thinking about them a few days ago.