lost4good

Our latest blog is DC and Spain @ https://neuage.me/spain2023 (December 20, 2023)

Our previous blog is Chicago. For some reason I can not sort out why, it is not on top. This Battle Creek one comes on top on mobile devices. Chicago is on top on desktops. Until I find the fix click on the Chicago blog here https://neuage.me/2023/09/16/chicago/ Battle Creek is our previous blog. Cheers

This is the first segment of our trip from Australia to the States to Spain.
Firstly, BLOG #1 is our road trip from Albany, New York to Battle Creek, Michigan with the whys and wherefores and whatifs that is so popular in a rambling three-part blog of particular moments in several spaces. BLOG #2 is Chicago with the train trip Chicago to DC and a bit of a time in DC tossed in. BLOG #3 will be, or when we are back in Adelaide, is, Spain with a stop over in Kuala Lumpur. Overall, just a three-month trip. Our second three-month trip for 2023. As you would expect, the first three-month trip is already up. That was the Pakistan, Kuala Lumpur, Wales, Holland, England, and Phuket trip.
Before we start, I want to point out one of the main differences of this trip, visiting friends and family more than usual. I do not recall any trip of the past twenty-years during which time we visited with so many from our past. Of course, most of those we visited from our past were people who we have met in the past twenty years.
As always, italics are Narda’s notes, and non-italics are my wanderings.
AUGUST 6
We took a bus from front of our house to see the world once again. Knowing we can walk to the end of our driveway, get on a bus and be in Lahore, London, Chicago, Paris, Mexico City, or standing at your door wondering why you have aged so much makes living in a place as remote as Adelaide so close to anywhere else.
We have been staying in a hotel in Adelaide the night before leaving if we have a morning flight. Not only do we leave a clean house for whomever is staying there but we do not have the stress of getting to the airport, almost an hour’s drive, in morning traffic.

Met with sisters and their hubbies at Marcellinas. Leon recommended the Sicilian pizza which I ate…anchovies and all. Yum. Carolin and Michael are also on their way. First Michael celebrates his 60th then off to Bali. Very civilised.

We slept well at the Grosvenor. Its name is fancier than it is, but we slept well. Up at 5.45am. walked all the way to the J1 stop. The bus sped past us. Oh no. Then he pulled into the next stop and waited for us!!! Bless him. What a kind driver. A good start to a long trip.

Then there is a piece of good news. We spotted Batik Air, our new current favourite budget carrier…..we even are the proud owners of their pillows, legitimately purchased on a previous flight for $1 each. Thats USD in case you thought I was a cheapskate.

Batik plane landing in Adelaide.

Sitting in a west bound local Sydney train now. Summerhill.
We are heading to Olympic Stadium to pay tribute to Leigh. If we had tickets, we would also stay for the FIFA soccer match between Australia and Denmark…how cool is that!!
PS. Australia won!

We used to go to Sydney each year in August since my son died there in 2003. We had not been there for a few years, and I had wanted to be there on the twentieth-year of his death, and when he would have turned 40. We left Sydney on the sixth of August and Leigh died on the 16th. He had turned twenty the month before. Leigh’s last breath was overlooking Olympic Stadium. Twenty years ago, I put up a newspaper story about him and his Dodger’s Baseball Card on a light pole where he died. Twenty years later the tape is still visible on the pole. https://neuage.org/leigh.html

See our ‘Sydney for a day’ one minute clip @ https://youtu.be/tcbV3OAqT4Y

Wolli Creek…
After our afternoon in Olympic Park – always a place of peace and reflections for me

we took the train to our hotel, CKS Airport Hotel. A most basic hotel though priced as if they were some hotsy totsy resort on the Mediterranean. Being the forever cheapskates, we decided to walk from the train station to the hotel, apparently my initiative – the other party wanted to take an Uber. Dragging our suitcases and bundles of joy for the next three-months with us became more of a challenge after 20 minutes, some uphill, as we passed our hotel and kept on going blindly following our GPS that was laughing at us. Eventually we got to where we were going – obviously, as I am writing this weeks later, and went tromping off in search of nourishment as we were starving, almost. We found Rowers On Cooks River a few blocks away. And yes that is Wolli Creek. A membership only place but a cheerful young lad signed us up for free and led us to the porch overlooking the river. The food was fantastic, I had fish tacos – never had that before, and Narda a Caesar salad. We even got a 25% discount as we were now members. Wonderful views of the river and airport and nighttime lights and stuff.

Early next morning we were up and off to the airport. The good folks offered us a great deal on a shuttle service to the airport that we easily dismissed. They wanted $17/person for the five-minute drive. We rang a taxi service and got there for $13 for the two of us. The flight was OK – 13+ hours to LA. I think I got a good two hours sleep and arrived muddled and dazed,

more than my usual state. Narda slept a bit more. I watched a Jimi special –

A few yucky hours in LA, wait…not that bad actually. As we use a United Credit Card, we get one free United business class lounge access a year. The United lounge at LAX is very good. A great buffet breakfast. We ate like the starving hobos we were. Narda managed to fall asleep in a chair and she had set her clock to get us up in time to board – of course we didn’t hear the alarm, but luckily, I stayed awake, not trusting these alarms. The flight to Chicago was ordinary, a few hours in Chicago, then on to Albany, New York. Arriving ten pm there were no shuttle service to our hotel. A friendly airport helping lady got us a taxi with her friend for too much money, but we were happy to collapse in our hotel in whatever time zone our body thought it was.
It was a long but uneventful flight, first to LAX, where we had time to use our United Chase card member ship for a nice buffet brekkie in the United lounge. It’s a bugger of an airport. We had to take the shuttle bus to terminal 7, not close enough for walking.
Then 2 nights at the Baymont by Wyndham Latham Albany Airport in Albany and a car rental. On the second night we drove to Sean and Jean’s place in Troy. They were great friends from our DAIS days. So much to talk about and catch up on. They are now planning to stay with us for a bit in Adelaide in January.

Our drive home was a bit “sketchy”. No working GPS and complete darkness which is not my favourite driving condition. I’m looking forward to getting my cataracts dealt with back in Adelaide in November. Still we made it.

The original before we left home sketch of our road trip Albany to Battle Creek is here
https://youtu.be/u7j_jRcGf30?si=Mi3oAAsqLenEBl75

This is the part of the trip that I had been looking most for. Of course, a road trip across the States in a camper van would have been our first but impossible choice. Back in Adelaide I pushed a lot to rent a car in Albany and drive to Battle Creek. The rental for five days was $650 USD (almost a thousand dollars Australian). We got a car with state of Washington plates so I suppose we will appear as out of towners.

I didn’t drive the first few days as I was not feeling too flash. Not that Narda was feeling much better, but she was in the driver’s seat. We spent our first day with the car driving around some of the places we used to live twenty-years earlier. Clifton Park, where I attempted to grow up, from being adopted in 1950 to doing a runner in 1965 – to do the sixties, was our main stop,

Walmart – wasn’t there in my growing up attempt but we popped in to get a sim card and various items on Narda’s shopping list since Adelaide. We went to the Clifton Park Cemetery where my parents and brother are buried, left our laundry at a Asian laundry place then went back to the hotel to sleep. The next day we were out about nine heading to my sister’s. My blood sister who I managed to find in 1987 and first met with my two boys in 1992. I met my real grandmother then to, she who made my fifteen-year-old mother put me up for adoption. Not telling that story here – though it is in my well-researched ultimate about the 1960s book, ‘Leaving Australia, Before the After’ available through Amazon in Hardback, paperback, and for Kindle. Of course, if you stop into our house in Adelaide, you can borrow it from our bookshelves packed with my many other books.

Strangely I am not having too much trouble with jet-lag. I slept quite a bit on the plane, using my new formula….soft pillows, neck ring, a window seat and half a “sleep assist”. Seems to do the trick. Then I use a bit more sleep assist for the nights, and I’m good. First half, then a quarter, then an eighth, then I’m done. Hmm.

AUGUST 10 Terrells 76th birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈
Then into the car and heading west….for the next 4 days.

Stopping overnight in Norwich, visiting Terrell’s sister Susan and niece Nikki and her partner, Lucas, who have recently moved into a gorgeous house in the small town of Gilbertsville.

Susan and Nikki took us for a walk around town, highlighting the sculpture park. They are both incredible artists. Susan gave Terrell a lovely paining for his birthday. Nikki has a business creating both graphic novels and dolls made to order all in “anime” style

The hotel Fred’s Inn was really nice. We had a lounge area, old style. They set up a gazebo for us to have a dinner to celebrate Terrell’s birthday. Great food, huge helpings and a very pleasant evening.

The next day we checked out, dropped by Susan and Nikki again for some morning tea and then started our drive west.
The first one was the most difficult aspect had booked a hotel in Olean, and the drive was a bit of a slog, Terrell not feeling too well.

On the second day we ran into some “weather”. Oh boy. Weird clouds, a tornado warning and full on rain with poor visibility. A bit of a challenge, though suddenly it was over and sky was blue again. I have to say, I did have my moments……

The next day we made it to a southern suburb of Toledo and headed out for some Chipotle takeaway. Nice hotel.

I am writing now in the breakfast room of our Battle Creek hotel. Just had an afternoon nap. A couple of weirdos and bikers hanging around the front, but the office guy was very friendly and gave us early access to our room.

I have only seen my sister a few times, the first with my boys in 1992, then again, a couple of times with Narda between 2002 – 2010 then twice since. Narda says we look alike though she is about a decade younger than me and much better looking. I have a brother in Hawaii, and we visited him in 2002, the only time we have been together. I met my grandmother in 2002 and we tried to get her to tell me who my father was but to no avail. We attended her funeral, she was about a hundred-years old, soon before going to China in 2010.

My sister had just moved to Gilbertsville from Oneonta two weeks earlier, so we arrived when she was getting settled. She has bought a two hundred plus year old house and has made it beautiful and homey. Her daughter, Nikki and her boyfriend, Lucas, live with her alongside their cat, Murray.
Nikki, like her mother is a very good artist. She writes graphic novels, one of which she sent me, ‘Vitalism’. It is definitely for over 17. See her wonderful work @ https://vitalism.the-comic.org/

We arrived on my birthday, walked around the village of Gilbertsville and had dinner in the gazebo of our hotel, Fred’s Inn, https://www.fredsinn.com/index.php, in nearby Norwich, which by the way is a good place to stay.

Gilbertsville is a historic village in Otsego County, New York. The only community in New York State to be wholly listed as a National Register Historic Site. Less than 400 people live there.

One of the highlights, aside of visiting my family was walking through the Gilbertsville Expressive Movement – https://www.g-e-m.org/ Sculpture Park – 14 acres of park land property. Check out their sculptures @ https://www.g-e-m.org/g-e-m-sculpture-park the photos are better than what we took but here are some of ours in case you don’t want to click the link.
https://neuage.org/Birthday.mp4

The next day we caught up with Sidhee from DAIS (Dalian American International School – China) and Pune (India) who took us out for lunch. She’s a lovely, talented girl, already on her first job as a computer engineer. She showed us around Cornell University where she had just finished her masters degree.

We spent the next morning, August 11, with my sister and her daughter, Nikki. We left for Ithaca, a couple of hours away (our driving time). Halfway there I realized I had left my hat at Susan’s. She’ll mail it to Chicago so a few days without my hat. Will I survive?
A year ago, I saw that an ex-student from China, Sidhee, was going to Cornell University in Ithica. Ithica is about an hour from where my sister was living and I thought they should meet. It never happened but I said when we go to upstate New York, if she was still in Ithica we would pop in. Sidhee was my year 8 student from India in Dalian, China. Five years ago, after she had graduated from high school in India, she was attending university in Pune, and we happened to be going there so we visited her and her family there. See https://neuage.me/2018/03/04/pune/ Now Sidhee had completed her master’s degree and had been hired by an AI company in Ithica so she had stayed.

We spent an afternoon with Sidhee, she showed us around Cornell Campus and told us about here work in the field of AI. She is working in the legal side of it. Having had a wonderful time using AI in Photoshop the past few months I found talking with her about this educational. My sister and her daughter, two great artists, are concerned about artist having their work taken without giving the artists credit. Sidhee says that the art AI is using is taken from artwork already on the internet and is considered public domain. Of course, that is the simplest way of looking at this and does not answer many questions about artist’s ownership.
Here is Sacha’s AI rendition of me using Journey’s AI stuff, and a few drawings of Narda and me – at an Elton John concert earlier this year in Liverpool (https://neuage.me/2023/04/22/liverpool/)

We drove the four hours to Olean, getting there after nine pm and by now both of us were feeling exhausted and were on our way to Toledo early the next morning. Don’t recall much about Olean, western New York except I had read it was settled in 1765 by Europeans who chased the natives out. We just saw the freeway part of it.
We had planned to tour Toledo. Forget why. We didn’t and headed toward Michigan. On the way we got stuck in a nasty storm with radio broadcasts of an approaching tornado where we were. I had my camera ready, Narda was unsettled. We figured we should just park under an overpass (bridge) if we saw it coming toward us. Seemed like a great protection – but… we looked up what to do if a tornado is coming at you and the first thing it said was do not park under an overpass. The worst choice of all.
See our little clip… https://youtu.be/z1lKafBLbQk?si=DOq1H_idG6Qhye6L

13th Sunday to Battle Creek
This was, to me, the main part of our USA trip. I was born in Battle Creek and soon after my mum took me back to her home in Troy New York. Three-years later I was adopted so I never got to know my mum or see where I was born, until now, seventy-six years later. I have been reading about it and identifying with Battle Creek most of my life

Battle Creek, a mixture of poverty, empty spaces and speccie building with impressive height and massive columns. Then there is the ex sanitorium hospital, probably the most imposing building in town, now a federal building where we are not allowed entry.

But the main thing is it’s Terrell’s birthplace, and he has never seen it. He was born there to a 15-year-old girl, who was not allowed to keep him, despite many attempts to rescue him from the orphanage. Such a horrifying story full of pain. Susan was able to help him understand some of this.

Our hotel was nice, good location, had a swimming pool and plenty of sugary breakfast options, though they did also manage some strange ribbons of eggs and sausages. The room was good. The staff very friendly.

We made a nice connection with some ladies managing the Seventh Day Adventist village. A small museum, extolling the virtues of healthy living, vegetarianism, and Saturday worship. This was the church that spawned the Kellogg cornflakes phenomena. A great deal of money was made and spent on the hospital. I think they were quite ahead of their time. For example, back in the day, eating raw vegetables was considered to be dangerous.

The Battle Creek Sanatorium is where it all began (me too)…founded by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It combined aspects of a European spa, a hydrotherapy institution, a hospital, and high-class hotel. A vegetarian trip – I have been a vegetarian since the 1960s. Also, in Hong Kong in 2014 I had a pacemaker/defibrillator installed at a Seventh-day Adventist Hospital…go figure. If it wasn’t for their screwy religious beliefs I would be one of them.
I have written extensively about it in my book, “Leaving Australia”.
A bit about my start in BC from my book…”Leaving Australia“

“I was born 10th August 1947 Battle Creek Michigan in a military hospital and delivered by Hugh Robins, M.ED. and left with the name Terry Miller which was changed upon adoption to Terrell Adsit which was changed when I joined a cult order to Arthur Adsit and upon marriage to Terrell Neuage.
‘The Battle Creek Sanitarium opened in 1866 as the Western Health Reform Institute. The institute was founded on the health principles advocated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In the 1980s, I was making tofu in South Australia and I was working with a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church who was going to help me get involved with selling soy products to the Seventh-Day Adventist company, Sanitarium. The U. S. Army purchased the buildings and established the Percy Jones General Hospital in 1942, obviously to get it set up for my birth. The hospital closed in 1953. When I believed in astrology (for about 40-years) I studied the influence of midpoints. The midpoints between two planets, signs, houses, charts, etc were a fulcrum of power. I was born at the exact midpoint between the start and the end of the Percy Jones General Hospital; 1942/1953 = 1947. Means nothing. The Kellogg brothers worked at the sanitarium for twenty-six years before leaving to establish the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company. Some of this information I collected from http://www.michmarkers.com. Viewed 1/11/2006.’
To keep it all fun, there is a TV show called ‘Battle Creek’ from the writer of ‘Breaking Bad’. OK my birthplace is a joke. Even sillier is that the series is not filmed in Battle Creek though I have read the actors visited Battle Creek to get a feel for the place. Hey, I was born there, and I have no feeling for it as I was whisked away before having an opportunity to have a poo there.

"The place of birth, Battle Creek is the best metaphor I can think of for my life. Even my name has a battle element to it; Terrell was a name for the Norwegian war god, Thor, and Arthur was his fighting bird and there is King Arthur too. Neuage is close enough to the French word cloud to translate my name as ‘war cloud’. I grew up not identifying with any group, as I did not know who my birth family was until I was in my forties. I am an Australian and United States citizen..." 

There is much more – read the book. Back to now. We spent two days in BC then took an Amtrak train to Chicago which is our next blog. We got to see the Kellogg’s trip, which is basically the whole town. Visited the outside of the hospital I was born in and that is it. All my myths of my magical birth place incorporated into a box of cereal.
Oh, and the current Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center used to be Percy Hospital. They won’t let us inside as it is a government property. People at the Dr. John Harvey Kellogg Discovery Center/Historic Adventist Village- Historic Adventist Village, 411 Champion St, said we needed a ten-day advanced notice, and they would take us inside. Well, that is not going to happen is it.

To be short and mean about my birthplace it is a bit of a dead-shit dump of a city. I read somewhere that it was one of the most dangerous cities in the USA. We didn’t see anything dangerous, but it looked like a place that once was OK and now is a bit of close to a ghost town.

Here is where I was born, Percy Hospital.

Train to Chicago
The train was full. We were early. The ticket guy asked us if we would like to take the earlier train which was significantly delayed. Bless him, he even processed a $20 refund for us as the earlier one was cheaper.