Utica 10/17/2025 - 10/20/2025

Friday 10/17/2025 - Arrival

I took the day off today and we drove out to Utica, NY to visit Tyson. We left the house at noon. We listened to the audiobook of Rick Wakeman's "Grumpy Old Rock Star" on the ride. It was quite an amusing book, with the same type of humor and anecdotes that punctuate his live shows. Rick himself narrates the audiobook, and it was quite an enjoyable way to spend the 300 mile drive.

The GPS predicted that we should have made it to Tyson's house at around 4:20 p.m., but we spaced out and missed the exit. This caused us to go about 20 minutes out of the way. When we arrived, at around 4:45, Spooky the cat greeted us. We were immediately stricken by the absence of Roxy the boxer, who passed away since our visit last year.

Tyson poured himself a scotch and offered some to Craig. Craig is not usually a scotch drinker, but Tyson had let him try some John Barr on a previous visit, and Craig actually liked it. Craig accepted and actually got a little buzzed from it. He usually drinks beer and it doesn't affect him, but he felt that he had driven 300 miles today and wasn't driving to dinner, so he indulged. I had some hard cider that I had brought.

We chatted and then decided to go to the Taj Mahal Indian restaurant in nearby New Hartford for dinner. They gave us an order of pakora on the house as an appetizer. Craig's speech was a bit slurry after the scotch, and we were gently teasing him. It was probably for the best that this restaurant didn't have a liquor license. Craig and Tyson had lamb vindaloo, and I had paneer tikka masala. Craig and I both asked for our dishes to be spicy, and they delivered. I had a mango lassi, and we shared an order of garlic cheese naan.

We went back to the house and chatted and listened to records (Pulp, Sparks, Halloween songs, etc.) Tyson has ammassed quite an LP collection, and it felt like the old days, having to get up every twenty minutes to change sides.

Saturday 10/18/2025 - Michael T's

Spooky opened the door to our room in the early morning hours on her daily walkabout. I picked her up and put her on the bed where she laid with us for a few minutes before moving on.

We woke up this morning and Tyson went to the local No Kings rally. We decided to sit it out, despite fully agreeing with the movement, because Craig wasn't sure he'd be able to stand for an extended period of time. So we stayed at the house with Spooky. Craig and I made English muffin, egg, cheese, and bacon sandwiches and showered, and Tyson was home again before we knew it. We hung around in the afternoon and chatted and listened to more records.

At 5:30, we went to Michael T's restaurant in New Hartford, Tyson's ex David's family restaurant. Tyson and David are still on good terms and we wanted to see him, so we sat at the bar where he was bartending. Craig had an IPA, I had a Moscow mule, and Tyson had a Jameson's. We thought it best for Craig not to have more scotch in public.

Italian restaurants can be difficult for Craig because he gets a reaction to olive oil. Partly because of this, and partly because he loves a good prime rib, he usually gets the delicious prime rib special, which is a generous portion at a reasonable price. Tyson ordered the prime rib as well. I ordered my usual, the veal Trunfio, a specialty of the house which I absolutely love: a veal cutlet smothered in cheese, olive oil, and peppers.

We had some garlic bread while waiting for our orders. Although it ws cooked in olive oil, Craig couldn't resist having a piece. Craig's prime rib was served with fries, and my veal had ziti in marinara sauce as a side.

It was nice to see David and chat with him about his recent trip to Ireland and his purchase of a new house. And of course the food was delicious, as always!

After that, we went back to the house. We watched "Scott Walker: 30 Century Man", which was quite interesting. We hadn't really heard of Scott Walker previously.

Sunday 10/19/2024 - Calvin and Hobbes at the Fenimore

We had coffee and Tyson made us breakfast sandwiches. Tyson's friend Dave came over at around 11:30. We had never met Dave before, but he was really friendly and funny, and soon it seemed like we had been friends forever. We went to the garden and harvested some peppers (jalapeños and long hots) to take home, and Tyson also gave us some fresh catnip to bring home to Inca and Maya. It had been a big success in prior years.

Then we hit the road to go to the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown. We had been there four times before, for a Herb Ritts exhibit, a Keith Haring exhibit, an M.C. Escher exhibit, and a Bob Dylan exhibit. It is a great little museum.

This summer they hadn't really had an exhibit that interested us, but they had announced a Calvin and Hobbes exhibit for the fall! Craig is a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan from back in the day (it ran from 1985-1995, fully encompassing his college years), so we timed our visit this year to coincide with the exhibit.

The exhibit was not downstairs where the temporary pop culture exhibits have been in the past; it was smaller, so it was upstairs. The exhibit charted Calvin and Hobbes from its inception (when Calvin was named Marvin, and had hair covering his eyes) through to the last strip. Creator Bill Watterson had been told that a comic strip in which you can't see the protagonist's eyes would not fly, so he changed Calvin's look to be what we know today.

They had some art which was rendered in watercolor which was really eye-catching. They even had an anti-tyranny strip, which was quite timely for yesterday's No Kings Day!

Craig was wearing his vintage T-shirt from back in the day that depicted Calvin and Hobbes jamming to the record player, and I got a photo of him standing in front of a strip of the two characters dancing.

We went into the gift shop with every intention of buying some merch, but all they were selling were the books. Craig has the complete collection (thanks to our friend Gary), so we didn't end up buying anything. Watterson has always been against the commercialization and commoditization of his work, so I guess this is not too surprising. This made Craig realize how special and rare his official vintage shirt is.

We contemplated getting lunch at the cafe at the Fenimore, but they didn't have their usual paninis (the menu consisted mostly of chicken and tuna salad types of sandwiches, and Tyson hates mayonnaise). We considered going to a restaurant, but Tyson had bought Utica burgers to grill for dinner, so we decided we would just cook them a bit earlier than originally anticipated. We stopped at Hannaford to pick up some additional supplies. They sell alcohol there, and they had some local craft ciders that I can't get at home, so I bought some to try.

We went back to the house. Dave made nachos, and Tyson made Utica burgers, butternut squash, and salt potatoes. We had a lot of laughs, and dinner was delicious. Dave had to leave after we ate.

We chatted with Tyson and watched "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" while enjoying a few drinks. Somehow, Craig and I had not seen this movie before. It was enjoyably ridiculous. We had vanilla ice cream with almond thins and quince for dessert.

We said our goodbyes tonight as Tyson will be working tomorrow when we leave.

Monday 10/20/2024 - Departure

I woke up as Tyson was leaving for work and gave him a hug goodbye.Craig was still sound asleep. We had a leisurely morning and made breakfast sandwiches and coffee. We left just before noon and got gas at Fastrac. As usual, we screwed up a bit trying to get to the highway (why is it so difficult, even with a GPS?), but we made it. We were making great time until we got to Rt 95, where there was an accident. We got home shortly after 4:30.