I worked from home today and when I do that I'm also able to catch up on a few things from the comfort of my desk.
For instance, my phone needed a cleaning.
Oh, the contacts need editing in the worst way. I have multiple entries for several people as well as people who need to be, er, editing.
Or deleted.
But alas I decided to clean up my photos between the end of the job and the start of "Doubleheader."
Pictures on my phone can be of baseball lineup cards and basketball scorebooks and hockey game sheets.
They can be graphics for games and broadcasts and other things that I don't mean to keep.
They can be things I want to take note of.
Regardless, many of them just have to go. The others need to be archived.
I realized that I never posted the photos of the great road trip of 2023 to Buffalo, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and North Carolina (and everything in between).
But not everything needs to be shared with the world so it really doesn't matter.
This process did lead me back to arguably my favorite picture from that trip.
The road trip grows in stature for me all the time because of what it was.
It was my first trip to Buffalo, thanks to Dan Murphy setting up the 2023 National Road Meet there. For the record, the '24 National is this weekend in New Orleans and I couldn't quite pull that one off. I have too many other things going on and the costs were a bit high.
Oh, and I've been to NOLA a few times.
But I'd never been to Buffalo. In fact, I'd never been west of Binghamton in my home state.
Eventually, the road would lead us to Pittsburgh and a special day that ignited our desire to return (and keep going). We've since gone back for a Steelers game and I suspect that will happen many times again but there are also Pirates and even Penguins games to attend.
Then we spent a night in West Virginia and visited the majestic New River Gorge Bridge.
Then time with family in North Carolina before the trip home. I dropped Sean off in Ocean City, MD on the way and he's still glowing about how much he loved that.
But it was near Buffalo -- in Niagara Falls -- where I took this picture.
To be honest, it might have actually been in Niagara Falls, Canada but that's somewhat immaterial here.
Sean was mostly into going to Buffalo for one thing: wings. He wanted the original wings at Anchor Bar. For the record, he thought they were spectacular.
He had been to Niagara Falls before, on a student trip to Toronto. However, he hadn't done the Maid of the Mist boat ride.
After lunch at Anchor Bar, we drove to the Falls. I felt legitimate excitement to see them for the first time.
We found parking -- we stayed on the underrated American side -- and walked to get on the boat.
Sean decided he wanted maximum soaking, so we went to the front of the boat.
The water poured in as we rode past American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.
But there was still the big dog -- Horseshoe Falls.
As we got pelted with the mist, I stepped back for a moment out of the deluge. I wanted to just take it all in. Sean joined me, and we chatted briefly.
"I'm going back in," he said.
That's when I saw the image. With Horseshoe Falls in the background (meaning we were in Canada), I grabbed my phone.
It was natural. It was a moment for him. It was his story.
It was my moment to stand back and let him be.
I didn't need to see the finished product to know I had something I'd cherish on my hands.
I knew I saw something special and it turned out great.
There would be other great photos from the nine days that we were on the road but that's the one that stands out to me.
A treasured memory from t special time.
We know we're driving to Florida next month. Sean isn't going back to Ocean City this year but it looks like he's heading to Myrtle Beach.
There will likely be another trip somewhere and certainly, our annual North Carolina drive is the odds-on favorite.
I'd like to think we'll be back towards Niagara Falls again and, hopefully, into Canada, but it will never be the same.
That's OK -- really, it is.
I have this image to remember it by.
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