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.
Not to mention the addition of a second great-grandchild, although it appears highly unlikely we’ll be able to maintain the new-GGC-per-vacation ratio again for a while.
Most atypical of this particular vacation was the fact that we didn’t go anywhere except Indianapolis and Reelsville, which for me hardly qualifies it as a vacation (isn’t “vacate” part of the word?). I thought about soliciting donations to send us somewhere — since you folks seem to enjoy vacation news every bit as much as sports news — like Carly and Sam did on “iCarly,” but I remember that got them in a lot of trouble, and I’m pretty sure their fictional webshow has a lot more fictional viewers than I have readers.
So the highlights, such as they are, come a little closer to home.
• July 4 — A not-too-respectable 2 for 5 at the Jung family reunion softball game, and my earned run average took a beating too. I was impressed by my cousin Bridget diving for balls at shortstop in 100-degree weather (she’s the only member of the family I’ve covered in a sports event, having played second base for Lake of the Four Seasons in an MSA tournament many years ago) and I hope her two sons, who played first and second base for our team, were too.
• July 5-8 — These days were reserved for watching grandson Garrett Drake and his Terre Haute North 10-year-olds in District 4 Little League tournament play. He was 3 for 5 with a triple, no errors, ran the bases well, and his team outscored three opponents 54-2. July 7 was a particularly good day; Garrett was 2 for 2 including the triple, and Stella Grace Wilson was born.
• July 10 — We tried to think of cool stuff we could do in a day’s drive, and this was about our only success: a noon matinee game for the Indiana Fever against the New York Liberty.
It would be our first WNBA game since Stephanie White was playing, and a chance to catch up with her — she’s an assistant coach now — and another old friend, PR guy Kevin Messenger.
Problem is, you never know how long it’s going to take to get to Indianapolis from here right now, and after already finding ourselves behind schedule we also discovered street work being done that blocked our access to Delaware Street and the parking garage.
Panic set in, exacerbated by a couple of missed turns, a couple of wrong turns — and the eventual realization that the parking garage wasn’t accepting Fever parking on a weekday anyway. So we (I) finally pulled into a lot about a block from Bankers Life Fieldhouse that was only about half full. The lot right across the alley from the police station.
Even though we arrived in the middle of the second quarter, the game was a dandy. Although our seats were in Row 4, that meant we were in the first row of the stands (the first three rows are courtside), the Fever kept themselves from making the game a rout by forgetting Tamika Catchings was on their team for a while, and Cappie Pondexter of the Liberty got sizzling hot in the second half. Tamika re-inserted herself in her teammates’ consciousness in the nick of time, however, and with a two-point deficit and 8.4 seconds to go, the Liberty used Pondexter as a decoy to avoid tying or winning the game (Cappie’s storm off the court after not getting the ball was almost worth the price of admission).
The rest of the day was designed to be spent at Circle City Mall, but I was getting worried about the car. Jenny reasoned that it would either have been towed or it wouldn’t have, so we headed to the mall — early dinner at P.F. Chang’s (mu shu pork was outstanding) and looking for baby clothes and video games with the kids (who are much better shoppers than their dad).
Finally we couldn’t put it off any longer and had to head back to where we’d left the car. To my absolute astonishment, it was still there — no ticket, nothing. I’m guessing the cops figured nobody would be dumb enough to park illegally right next to the station, so we got a free day of parking in Indy — but you’d better believe I was looking out of the corner of my eye for people chasing us as I waited for traffic to clear and we could get back on the road.
I am NOT recommending this parking idea, by the way.
Oh, and on the way home we stopped and picked up Krissy, dog No. 5.
The rest of the time is a blur of lethargy right now, although we did have one trip to Reelsville to meet Stella Grace. Great-grandfather is not prejudiced at all in seeing movie-star looks (Angelina Jolie?) in this little doll.
I do recall seeing Spiderman and also bowling with the kids (my old self-assessment of myself in recreational sports was that my golf scores and bowling scores were about the same, so apparently I’ve improved a lot at golf). The dog grooming is a bit of an exaggeration; I tried brushing the massive long-haired Gabby a couple of times, until she had enough and lumbered off, and I’m not sure trying to wrestle two 50-pound puppies into a bathtub counts as grooming.
The bad example? Well, I tend to keep work hours even on vacation (that’s 3 to midnight or so for a morning paper) and Darcy and JoJo are more than happy to join me in staying up late and sleeping even later.
They may not be as appreciative of those habits a couple of weeks from now.
Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. 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. Follow TribStarAndy on Twitter.
Amey Takes Aim
AMEY TAKES AIM: Deciding not to ‘vacate’ during ‘vacation’ – & other ventures
- 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.
- More Amey Takes Aim Headlines
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Amey Takes Aim: NHL playoffs to put TVs to good use
Time Lapse: Rebuilding Bridge Post-collapse
Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On'
Fans Cheer Dramatic Heat Comeback
James Gandolfini Dies at Age 51
Ohio Woman Accuses 3 of Holding Her Captive
Hunt for Ex-Teamster Boss Hoffa's Remains Ends
Raw: Baby White Rhino Debuts at Australian Zoo
Raw: Heat, Spurs Back on Court Ahead of Game 7
Fmr. TWA Flight 800 Investigators Want New Probe
Raw: NASCAR Driver Jason Leffler Dies in Wreck
Rain Damages Brazil Soccer Stadium
Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail
Police at Patriots Tight End's Home for 2nd Day
Car Crash in NYC's East Village Injures 8
Raw: Massive Protests Fill Brazilian Streets
Falling Cable Hurts 10 NASCAR Fans
Family Tweets Say Kim Kardashian Gives Birth
Raw: Volcano Erupts Near Mexico City
Aug. Trial Set for Ohio Man in Triple Kidnapping
Failed Cuba-to-Florida Swimmer Won't Try Again
Paula Deen Admits to Using N Word
Rihanna Hits Fan With Microphone
Men's Wearhouse Founder Fired
Obama Renews Call for Nuclear Reductions
Miss Utah Explains Rambling Response
Exclusive: Locklear & Seymour Lock Lips
Miami Heat Wins in Overtime
Raw: Arizona Wildfire Scorches 8 Square Miles
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
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
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
