You would figure — or at least you would if you were the Amey family vacation planners — that a later-than-usual spring break would lessen the necessity of heading south for the annual family outing. So we didn’t.
And much like the summer of 2007, when Jenny and I had assumed the exchange rate would save us a few bucks on our excursion to Toronto, we got burned again — a couple of lousy days, even a few snowflakes. You know what happens when you assume.
But we travelers are nothing if not resilient. We persevered and had fun anyway, even though our destination — the Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri — is best known for fishing and hunting (favorite name for a retail outlet last week: Pistols Plus Guns), neither of which is high on our list of priorities.
We also had quite a bit to eat, as always. Although Ryan still had his share of cheeseburgers, he also branched out a few times for stuff like lasagna and Thai-style chicken. Darcy also had more than her share of cheeseburgers, although she likes ribs even better. Here are some highlights (or lowlights).
• Trip down — Remembered at the halfway point that I’d forgotten my reading material for the trip, so the books by John Wright and Seth Davis remain unopened on my nightstand at home. No problems like that for Jenny; she has a kindle, and perhaps every book ever written except those two at her fingertips.
Took us a while to find a place to eat along the way, and when we did we gained a newfound appreciation for Indiana’s no-smoking regulations. The kids wanted to wash their clothes (because of the smoke smell) as soon as we reached our condo, which we did relatively uneventfully. No we’re-lost tirades for Dad, in other words, to the amazement of all.
• Saturday — Went driving around getting our bearings, and finally found our off-site swimming pool — populated by several dozen happily inebriated college kids awaiting their spring formal later in the day. No do-not-feed-the-bear signs at this spring vacation, although we did have a groundhog in our yard.
• Sunday — Too cold to go anywhere until suppertime. Had some good fish (except for the cheeseburger folks) and visited Wal-Mart for the third time in three days (where else do you go on vacation?) to buy some games to play at the condo. Discovered that if you don’t really shuffle the cards for Uno, the game can last forever.
• Monday — Still cold but at least not snowing (a good thing, since we have to travel up and down at least a 60-degree grade to get back and forth to the street). Ryan and I got to watch baseball season openers most of the day, we ordered some St. Louis-style pizza (thin, crispy crust) for lunch, and finally got out for Mexican food (maybe best of the trip) at night.
Darcy and JoJo have their own room and their own kitchen. So Darcy is hoarding food, JoJo is hogging their television and my laptop is getting a lot more use than it did when the girls were younger.
• Tuesday — Still cool, but nice enough to get out and shop (Jenny and Darcy) or look for weird stuff to do (JoJo, Ryan and me). We went to the Haunted Hotel, which was scary enough that I was the only one who actually made it through. No bargains at the outlet mall, the girls said, and not a lot of kid-friendly stuff open during the middle of the week, but we were able to play some minature golf (absolutely the only game I won all week, holding off Jenny by two strokes).
Then went for Thai food to a place called Wok-N-Roll, which I heartily recommend as long as there aren’t more than 12 of you. Three tables, four chairs each, and Nok (the owner) cooks after you order. Jenny, often spicephobic, loved the Nam Sod; Darcy (crab rangoon) and JoJo (jasmine rice) found some of their favorites; and I had some panang that made my face red and the top of my head sweat, a sure sign of quality.
• Wednesday — Best weather of the week, so the kids and I went on a yacht cruise around part of the lake (JoJo even got to steer the boat). Learned the lake was man-made during the Great Depression and has 1,300 miles of shoreline (which probably explains how it seems to be on both sides of every road). Then we went go-karting.
Darcy and JoJo, being height-challenged, had to ride in the mini-karts on a single lane, and we made the mistake of letting Darcy’s car go first. The karts were painted like NASCAR cars, but unfortunately there wasn’t a No. 3 for JoJo. The single-lane track didn’t deter her from trying to bump-draft Darcy, causing JoJo to bang the wall at full speed and sending one of the workers diving over the railing to get out of the way. Then Darcy — a good driver, but a little more cautious — started looking over her shoulder for The Intimidator behind her and hit the wall herself.
Ryan was the only one who was going to go on the bigger karts — and the only other customer on the premises — so the two guys working jumped in other cars to race with him (the name of this track is being omitted to save them from the liability insurance people). All three of them were flying around, spinning each other out and trading paint, so a great time was had by all.
• Thursday — Our last full day was supposed to be our Cardinals day, until we found out how far we were from St. Louis. But the weather wasn’t too good — again — so we weren’t too disappointed to have to stay where we were.
Wound up going bowling as our last sporting activity, and don’t let Ryan, Darcy and JoJo tell you that they all beat me.
They did, just don’t let them tell you that.
• • •
• Other stuff I learned last week — The Western Indiana Conference might be about to have its first WNBA player. Brown County’s Mara Freshour, soon to graduate from Florida State, was a third-round pick by the Seattle Storm.
One of the Post-Dispatch high school athletes of the week while we were in Missouri was water polo player Matt Stipanovich of DeSmet. Height is a benefit in that sport, leading me to believe he might be related to another Stipanovich from DeSmet a generation ago.
And the Woodrow Wilson team I covered a few weeks ago was not the only unbeaten group of eighth-grade girls basketball players in the Wabash Valley. Teams from Sullivan and North Vermillion also earned that distinction — and would have liked a crack at the Warriors somehow.
Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. for comments or news items at (812) 231-4277 or at 1-800-783-8742; by e-mail at andy.amey@tribstar.com; by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
Amey Takes Aim
Amey Takes Aim: Spring break … burgers, bad weather and trading paint in Missouri
- Amey Takes Aim
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Amey Takes Aim: NHL playoffs to put TVs to good use
If Jenny had known, she probably wouldn’t have bought that TV.
But four or five years ago, my Fathers Day present — for those unfamiliar with Amey family traditions, the Fathers Day one is “let’s get something we all really want and pretend it’s a gift for Dad” — was a 42-inch Vizio. It’s been used even more than the cell phone I never would have bought for myself, or the TomTom that disappeared since Jenny’s smartphone arrived.
And it came with high-def.
I’m not going to insult you by telling you how great high-def is, because to do so would be to imply that you are even farther behind the technological curve than I am. I’m guessing, however, that not all of you have yet discovered what it does for hockey. -
Amey Takes Aim: Can’t bottle the joy of Amey vacations
The first bad sign was the Gatorade bottle.
In the Bataan-Death-March drive to Orlando that got the Amey family spring break vacation off to a bad start, seeing it between lanes of I-24 — as we zipped along at a 100-miles-in-five-hours clip — filled with an ominous yellow liquid was a little bit scary. And although we didn't stop to check for sure, I'm fairly certain I knew about its contents.
And the person stuck in the same traffic jam with us, the one with the existential license plate YMIHR4, couldn’t have asked a more pertinent question.
But, after seeing a lot more of Oak Grove, Ky., than we’d planned, and after enduring more traffic slowdowns in Nashville, we were on our way. Even some rain in the dark in the Smokies didn’t slow us down much, so you would think our first-day troubles were over.
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ANDY AMEY: Farewell to basketball
I believe you’ve heard me say before — just about a year ago, perhaps — that a boys high school basketball season that ends with the Tribune-Star in Bankers Life Fieldhouse can’t be considered a bad one, which is why we have a little celebrating to do thanks to the Linton Miners.
Lover of irony that I am, I’ve also got to point out that this season was another branch sprouting from the Wabash Valley’s most legendary coaching tree, that of Joe Hart.
Joe never got much credit for his work at Dugger, but he took Brody Boyd, Clark Golish and the Bulldogs to a state championship game in 2000, and since then three of his former players — Joe Pigg, Clint Swan and now Joey Hart, his son — also have coached teams in the final game of the season.
Joe probably wishes he could take credit for Doc Nash, another down-home type who gave a banjo lesson earlier Saturday in leading Borden past a bigger, more athletic Triton team (banjo lesson is a Howard Sharpism, for you younger readers), but his lineage is still the best I can think of around here. -
AMEY TAKES AIM: Maroons, Rox final a true Classic
I don’t make predictions nearly as often as I used to, but I had one several months ago that was proven correct last week.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Nitpicking aside, West Vigo Hall of Fame selections spot on
I can’t imagine a better first class of inductees into the West Vigo High School Athletics Hall of Fame than the one that was feted Saturday night in the Jim Mann Green Dome.
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Tough bunch of people
I’m getting my warm clothes ready for a trip to Linton this week, and if a few thrills from the Miners, Casey or North Vermillion happen the next couple of weeks, I hope I get to see them.
But high school football is over in Vigo County for the season — as coach Chris Barrett of Terre Haute North said, prematurely — and I’m sadder to see it go than usual.
Walking the sidelines and doing midweek or postgame interviews enables me to meet quite a few of the guys whose names you are about to read, and haven’t been more impressed than I was this fall. What outstanding groups of young men. What a tough, tough bunch of people.
Many know that one of my favorite athletic adjectives appeared consecutively in the previous sentence. -
AMEY TAKES AIM: A weekend to remember with ISU’s ’72 football team
They’re all still pretty hale and hearty, the boys of the fall of 1972 who returned to campus over the weekend to honor their former football coach.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: ISU reunion raises more questions than answers
One of the wrestlers I used to hang out with occasionally claimed to be a pretty good second-story man — although he may have just been talking, since I never saw any of the goods — and it was with him in mind that I was able to get access to the Indiana State Wrestling Alumni Reunion late Saturday night.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Deciding not to ‘vacate’ during ‘vacation’ – & other ventures
Flaunting the law, setting a bad example for the kids in other ways, grooming and acquiring dogs … not a typical Amey family vacation, but an appreciated one just the same.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Huntsville’s Stars, Havoc take back seat to GGS
The second-best thing about the Amey family’s spring-break trip to Huntsville, Ala., is that we left a lot of things on the table to do the next time we’re down there.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Rox well represented on Amey teams
If having the state finals in town makes it a successful girls high school basketball season, then certainly having a team to follow at the state finals makes it a very successful boys high school basketball season . . .
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AMEY TAKES AIM: A feeling of pride, not disappointment, comes from watching Rox play
It’s not going to come as a startling admission that I — once the rest of the local opposition has been eliminated from consideration — am an unabashed fan of whatever team the Wabash Valley sends onward in postseason high school sports competition.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: This private school plays basketball the right way
Any girls high school basketball season that ends with state championship games in Hulman Center is a pretty good one — even though I wished I’d seen Riverton Parke and Seeger knock off a couple of private schools the week before to even the public school-private school battle a little bit.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Even 2 of state’s best once had doubts
Look at them now.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Getting ready for the dance
Terre Haute North got the good news Sunday night — or did it?
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Harrowing path for state hopefuls
The bad news is that the winner of Class 4A Sectional 13 in boys basketball heads northeast instead of southeast for regional play in March — to Hinkle Fieldhouse instead of Seymour as a result of Indiana High School Athletic Association’s changes.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: A superior all-star arrangement
I don’t work on Wednesdays, so I wasn’t able to attend the first Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association draft last week to set up the annual all-star game that will be June 23 this year.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The biggest & baddest of a holiday classic
There are more things to love about the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic than could fit in this newspaper, but one of this year’s best things was that for an hour or so on Wednesday, it was Justin Paddock’s world and we were just living in it.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Taking note of ISU’s latest football win
The biggest difference I’ve noticed, as I transition from the high school football beat to quasi-official status as the Indiana State football beat writer for a few weeks, is the length of the games.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: IHSAA playoff draw not as bad as it could have been
First reaction to the Indiana sectional football pairings drawn late Sunday by the Indiana High School Athletic Association? It could have been a lot worse.
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ANDY AMEY: Between the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & a hard place
Just in case any of you noticed — with some anticipation — the recent lack of my bylines, I can tell you that your wish (and mine) did come true. It was vacation week for the Amey family.
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Amey Takes Aim: UFC fighter’s bloodines traced back to ISU brothers
As a mild-mannered reporter from a great metropolitan newspaper — or thereabouts — I admit I haven’t paid much attention to the burgeoning mixed martial arts scene.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Predators’ win is music to new fan’s ears
For many, many years, the number of live games televised on WGN has been cited as perhaps the main reason for the popularity of the Chicago Cubs (it’s got to be something besides masochism, right?).
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AMEY TAKES AIM: You’ll be having a good ol’ time on vacation with the Ameys
When one of the first people you meet is Tammy Wynette’s stepdaughter, when you’ve stepped on the feet of people you haven’t met while trying to navigate Ernest Tubbs’ old Silver Eagle tour bus, and when the activities director of your resort is, well, Elvis, you might be vacationing in Nashville.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The Annual All-Amey basketball teams close out the prep season
The most encouraging boys high school basketball event I’ve attended so far in 2011 has been the Lafayette Semistate a couple of weeks ago.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Family remembers Cheryl Weatherman as caring grandmother
As far as Riley and Keely Davis are concerned, Cheryl Weatherman was simply their grandmother, and a pretty darn good one at that.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Honor to see Turkey Run girls close out memorable career
I don’t know if anyone in this part of the state could actually say they enjoy going to Fort Wayne and back, but I was glad to see the Turkey Run Warriors play one last time during the girls basketball state finals Saturday.
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So many matches, so many favorites
Go ahead, ask me anything about the 224 wrestlers who competed last week at the Indiana state finals — or at least about the 112 wrestlers who survived Saturday’s first round.
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ANDY TAKES AIM: A sportwriters’s lament: Oh, the games we missed
I was already tired of winter by the time that first bitterly cold snap passed through in mid-December, so it’s safe to say the season hasn’t grown on me.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Time of the season for teams to tough it out
In the last month or so I figure I’ve seen at least four boys high school basketball teams with legitimate state-championship dreams as the season heads into its dog days.
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Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail
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Failed Cuba-to-Florida Swimmer Won't Try Again
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Rihanna Hits Fan With Microphone
Exclusive: Locklear & Seymour Lock Lips
Miami Heat Wins in Overtime
Fists, chairs fly in restaurant brawl
Journalist Michael Hastings Dies in Fiery Hollywood Crash
Hairy Leg Stockings Aim to Deflect Male Attention
Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor
Three Charged for Enslaving Mother and Daughter
Spurs' Popovich has no problem with Spurs' intensity
RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled
Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach
Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane
Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
Obama: NSA Secret Data Gathering 'Transparent'
WATCH IT: Lil Wayne tramples American flag
Mariah Carey Looks Beautiful in a Tiny Cut-Out Swimsuit
Out of Control Boat Throws Passengers Overboard
