Episode 9: Covid In College Interview; Blizzard of '78; Las Vegas to Cape Cod By Bus; This Week In History with a Twist (2-11-2021)

Episode 9 of the podcast has a special interview segment: Covid In College. I interview my two oldest nieces about the changes and challenges they have faced going to college during the pandemic. 
We take a look back at one of the most infamous storms to ever hit New England, the Blizzard of '78.  This storm changed the shape of Cape Cod immensely, specifically the popular Coast Guard Beach in Eastham.  Learn about its origins and impact on the Cape and New England as a whole.
Part 2 of my Las Vegas story continues where Episode 6 left off.  This is the story of the nearly 3,000-mile bus trip which took me from Las Vegas to Hyannis 20 years ago.  It sowed the seeds of my desire to travel by seeing much of the country.  What parts of the trip stuck out the most?
Finally This Week In History features the strange story of Vermont lawyer Arthur Austin, the end of Peanuts, an iconic film character's debut, and a new twist you will enjoy!
Plus there is a special preview of the new album by DJ Williams, the man whose song is used as my theme music.  All of this and more is here in Episode 9 so come on and take a walk!

Check out Episode 8 here.

Transcript

00:00 Intro

Hello world! How is everybody doing out there this week? My name is Christopher Setterlund, this is the In My Footsteps Podcast coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It's the first episode of February groundhog day passed, the groundhog saw his shadow. We've got 6 more weeks of winter, whether or not you believe that, oh well more snow that's fine. We'll enjoy spring more if we get more snow. So how's everybody doing out there? Anything interesting happen to all of you since I last broadcast 2 weeks ago?  I'll tell you just when I thought I've seen everything I have something interesting happen.  I was on my way to a client's house for some personal training this is in the Marstons Mills village of Cape Cod.  I was driving there's an airfield there and I went around this rotary heading for my client's house and in front of my car flies a huge bald eagle being chased by a couple of crows.  I've seen one bald eagle in my life and that was in Maine several years ago.  I've never seen one that close let alone being chased by several crows the irony was it was kind of a snowy morning and I was driving pretty carefully, and I'd made it all the way basically to my client's house safely driving through the snow and I laughed when I told her I said it would have been the eagle would've killed me.  2 seconds earlier I would've smashed it with my car.  I've had my siblings have told me many many times over the years that there are points where my life feels like it's an episode of the TV show Seinfeld, where the most random humorous things will happen to me. When I tell them the stories they sometimes will say they think I'm making it up and it's just like no this is reality. Someday I'll write a book that's just my memoirs of life in general and it will have the Seinfeld music playing over the audio book.

So this is episode 9 of the podcast. As you here at the top of every episode the song James River by DJ Williams a great guitarist is what plays the intro and outro and DJ Williams has a new album that just dropped on February 2 called 'Short Stories' and he sent me the lead single ahead of its release. I want to play you a clip right now of that song called 'Everyday Is Love' so I hope you enjoy this clip. (song clip plays) That was 'Everyday Is Love' by DJ Williams off his new album 'Short Stories' you can go and get it at DJWilliams Music.com.

So as I said before this is podcast episode 9 I'm very excited we've got a loaded show today.  I've got a special interview with my 2 oldest nieces who are both in college they're going to be telling us a little bit about what it's like the college experience through the Covid-19 pandemic. We're going to go back in the day and look at that epic storm known as the Blizzard of '78.  I'm going to share part 2 of my living in Las Vegas back in the day series. This is the famous bus trip from Las Vegas to Hyannis, Massachusetts from 20 years ago so stay tuned for that and some laughs. That's literally like when I say my life like an episode of Seinfeld listen to that bus trip and you'll agree and finally will have this week in history with a little bit of a twist that includes something special at the end, a new little addition but this week in history also includes this crazy local story from the 19th century where the line from a nirvana song that Kurt Cobain said is 'just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you' and this one this story may he may live up to that hype so stay tuned for that and more on episode 9 of the In My Footsteps Podcast I am Christopher Setterlund. Let's get it rolling come on let's go take a walk.

05:02 Covid In College Interview

Kaleigh: All right, so my name is Kaleigh, I go to school at Bridgewater State University and I am a senior. 

Emma: My name is Emma. I'm currently a freshman at the University of New Haven. 

Christopher Setterlund: And just for the full disclosure, these two lovely ladies are both my nieces, so I am privileged to share DNA with them. That's part of the reason why I asked them to come on and tell a little bit about what it's like to deal with the covid-19 pandemic in school. 
 First question would be what was the first change that you guys saw as far as school when it came to the pandemic? Like way back. It's been almost a year now. So what was kind of the first changes you saw? 
 
Kaleigh: Well, definitely one of the changes for me, was the inclusion of wearing masks everywhere we go, most of the buildings on campus are closed. And to the buildings that are open, you have to, enter and exit in certain parts of the building, which is interesting. And we also have like these check in QR code things that as soon as we enter the building, we have to check in the QR code. So like it reminds wherever like where we are in that, like we're safe now. 
 
CS: Emma, I know when this pandemic started, you were still a senior editor, Dennis Yarmouth High School. So what was it like? I mean, I remember, but tell the listeners what it was like when covid hit for you as far as what happened with school. 
 
Emma: Our last day of in-person school before everything shut down was March 13th, which is a Friday. And I remember that day was pretty, pretty strange. And a lot of people weren't there because covid was first becoming pretty major in the United States. So everyone was freaking out. And then we were originally told that we were only going to be home for two weeks. So that's how it started because they were going to disinfect the schools, what they said. And so we didn't start classes again until like three weeks later. So it was a really long, like limbo of not knowing really what was happening because we just kept getting told that school was going to be closed for longer. So it was really stressful. It was not fun. 
 
CS: So you ended up going back to school or was it remote? 
 
Emma: So we went remote. So we just started doing Zoom classes like we're doing right now. So we met with our teachers at the time that we would normally have them and then we would not really even do anything because no one knew what was happening. So we kind of would just get on Zoom and kind of just talk about how we were feeling and what was going on, because really no one knew what was happening. We all were kind of experiencing the same kind of feeling of not knowing. After the pandemic started and as far as up till now, I mean, Kaleigh touched on some of it with the QR codes, but what sorts of precautions have they been taking at the schools as far as to make it as safe as it can be? So I can say for me it's the same thing. We have this app on our phones and it basically says if we're cleared or restricted. So that goes with the daily testing we have. We get tested every week. I got tested yesterday for my weekly testing, so we go and get the swab every week to make sure we're all still negative. And we have an app on our phone that shows that we're cleared or restricted. So if we're cleared, that means we're allowed to go into buildings and stuff. We have to show that. I have to show that if I want to go into my dorm or other like my classes, if I'm going in person that day, I have to show that if I'm going to the dining hall, we have to wear a mask everywhere, constantly washing our hands, sanitizing the whole shebang. 
 
CS: Yeah, is it the same for you, Kaleigh at Bridgewater State?

Kaleigh:  No, it's fairly different at the very beginning of the fall semester. We were originally having covid tests like biweekly. And then it was halfway towards the end of the fall semester that it became like a weekly thing. And it's still a weekly thing even now. 
 
CS: What kind of tests do you guys get? Is it the swab or is it like in your mouth and nose up the nose? 

Kaleigh: The swab. Thank God they have you do the test yourself so you don't have to like, shove the whole Q tip up to your brain. 
 
CS: So you had said that you guys have done a lot of remote learning and there's been times that you guys have been at home at your mom's. Has it been difficult to adjust to a lot of that remote learning? I mean, I couldn't imagine sitting in front of a computer just writing or working on this podcast or something. I easily get distracted. So I couldn't imagine having to actually learn at college using this sort of method. So what's that been like? 
 
Kaleigh: Well, I think it's depending on the class because some classes are synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous is like when you have like Zoom meetings with your whole class and then asynchronous is when you just, do your assignments and send them to your professor like email and stuff you don't like have meetings. Most of my classes that this school year have been synchronous, which I find very easy because I like learn. I typically like to learn in a classroom setting. And meeting with your professors and other students on Zoom I feel is like kind of the same. And I get to hear stuff being sensitive, like reading and taking notes and stuff which I find very difficult and is partially a reason why I found it difficult last year when the pandemic started, because that semester, because for me the pandemic started during my spring break and we were supposed to go back to school at the following week, which ended up not happening. So we ended up doing the rest of the semester remotely. But all of my classes were asynchronous, which was very difficult for me because I was having a hard time, like struggling basically to get all my work done on time and just like trying to like, read a bunch of, like, my assignment to like read PowerPoint for final projects and stuff for like do readings for final papers and stuff, which was like very difficult for me because I'm more I'm more of like like I said, I'm more of like an in a classroom setting type of person. So Synchronous classes for me have been very easy. Like I've definitely last semester. I've done much better than I did the semester before. 
 
Emma: So I can say for me personally, I'm the same. I like taking classes in person because my classes have also been synchronous for the first two weeks. I came back for my spring semester. We were online for the first two weeks to kind of do like a soft quarantine on campus where no one was really allowed to leave the campus. So we all were online and they were synchronous. But I also have a hard time focusing just on my computer, like I have my phone easily accessible to me. I have roommates, so sometimes my roommates are in here. So it's really hard to focus and especially because my classes this semester are pretty difficult and content. So it's hard to learn that through. Zoom because I'm much more of a person who likes to be in a classroom where I have one thing to focus on. So learning online has been pretty difficult, but I've been able to do it. So it's fine now, but it's. Really not my preferred way of learning. 
 
CS: I could only imagine, like I told I told you guys I had to learn how to run a Zoom meeting just to do this interview, and I'm now I didn't think I was that old to the point where the technology is that far advanced. So I couldn't imagine even right now, I have my phone literally right in front of me, so I'm easily distracted. So God bless you for being able to handle that. You know, college is different than high school where it's like college is more of a choice. You don't have to go. Don't tell your mom that. But high school, you got forced to go. Moving on, have you had any close calls when it comes to the virus as far as like in contact or, you know, because it's scary? In full disclosure, my mother, their grandmother and one of my sisters are positive for covid right now. And it's very scary to have it close to home. Thankfully, they don't have it in their lungs, which is the scary thing. But still, it's got to be difficult being on a college campus. It must be all around you at times. 

Emma: I know I had two encounters with it, so in mid-September, I've been in quarantine twice, so in mid-September, one of my suite mates, not my roommates, but like my sweetmeats, one of them was in contact with a girl who was positive. So because of that, I was considered a contact of contact. So I was put in quarantine. And then the last time was towards the beginning of November. It was right before I was supposed to come home for Thanksgiving break. I got in quarantine again because my sweet maid tested positive, like actually one of them tested positive. So I went home to quarantine and thankfully, I didn't get it either time. I'm very shocked that I've been here and I haven't actually gotten it yet, but I've had to close calls with it. 

Kaleigh: I live in a single, so I don't have any roommates and most of my suite-mates well not most of them but some of them has moved out between semesters so it's like me and another person. I feel like the closest so close call it be one of my friends her mom is an essential worker who works at a hospital where she deals with a bunch of covid patients that's kind of close but at the same time like that friend's very cautious about where she goes and takes covid seriously, makes sure that she's clean and stuff and I bring her up because she likes to visit me and my friends who live on campus.

CS: So we're heading on to basically a year of this world that were in now having granted it looks like it's turning the corner I'm hearing that vaccinations are outnumbering people that are getting the virus but the big question too kind of sum it all up is what's the thing you're most looking forward to doing once the pandemic is finally over and things have loosened up in the world is as close to normal as it could ever get again?

Emma: I would say for me because one of the reasons why I chose the school that I'm at is because it's right near New York city so I really wanted to go to New York for my birthday before the pandemic hit so I really want to go there while at College. I also want to visit my other friends at other schools like what my best friend is in Newport in Rhode Island so I really want to go visit her and there with my friends and obviously Massachusetts and then my New York City sell I just want to travel. 

CS: What about you Kaleigh? First thing you want to do like they say tomorrow are you covid over you can go about your life and do whatever you want.

Kaleigh: I plan on leaving the state for a good couple weeks. I have a couple of group chats with friends but seemingly different backgrounds like a group chat with specifically theatre friends in both group chats we've all planned on like wanting to do meet us in like hang out and like have movie night than road trip. Stuff that like I'm really looking forward to doing because I miss my friends.

CS: It's incredible to think I couldn't imagine being in college and having it where you're basically on lockdown for a year and if you're not on lockdown it's like you're severely restricted what you can do and I feel terrible that it's like the college experience at least you'll have an interesting story to tell when when you're my age and older that people won't believe that this was reality. When are you as far as like the rest of the semester are there any changes? Are they saying anything about vaccinations and stuff if you gotten any word there about if you guys are in line for that at any point?

Emma:  I just heard today because my one of my roommates is immuno-suppressed so she's been talking to people that came to vaccinations and I think I heard that they're talking about cuz I guess there's a new vaccine only one dose and I have been hearing that one of the places here that gives vaccines is trying to get it so college campuses can get it cuz obviously we're a bunch of people living in one spot so it kind of makes sense for us to get it sooner rather than later so I've heard of that happening before the semester is over but I'm not a hundred percent.

Kaleigh: So far I haven't heard anything from Bridgewater regarding the vaccinations.

CS:  I have trust and faith that you guys are smart you have a smart mother so you're being safe and this will be over when I'm hoping by sometime in the summer that the world is kind of back to close to normal hopefully you know things go smoothly for the rest of this semester for both of you but I wanted to say thank you so much for taking some time I know that if I was in college in my crazy uncle asked me to do some kind of an interview for a podcast I've got ya I'm busy forever thank you so much for taking a few minutes to inform the people listening to this podcast about what it's been like for the both of you dealing with covid in College. 

21:36 Blizzard of '78

Snowstorms in New England in the winter time they're just a part of life. Every year you get at least a couple good size storms now these may be 6 to 10 inches or a foot of snow with a lot of wind but you just get used to it. If you grow up in New England in the northeast you just know that's a part of dealing with December, January, February, maybe March. Every now and then you get 1 really big blizzard we get a couple feet of snow and everything shuts down for days or up to a week and those kind of stick with you, especially if you're a kid you know you remember the snow days and the adults who have to go out and shovel the snow and drive in it. Then there's the once in A generation storm that only a select few storms ever get to be in that category, ones that are considered kind of the storm of the century, and we're coming up on the anniversary 43 years ago of 1 such storm that people still remember when you hear the name the blizzard of 78.

Anyone that was alive then can remember where they were and the younger generation hear about it as this big mythical tremendous weather event.  I was 3 months old so I don't remember it but this is the story of the blizzard of 78 and how it changed New England forever.

The blizzard of 78 began creeping into New England on February 6, 1978 it piggybacked on a storm that had actually occurred in the area 2 weeks earlier that had dumped more than 2 feet of snow when the weather people that actually predicted rain. So there was already snow on the ground when this monster came up the coast there were 2 big problems on Cape Cod when it came to this storm 1 was the Canadian high pressure system that slowed the storm down so it was able to impact going on for more than 36 hours and the other thing was a high tide event. Anyone that lives on Cape Cod knows of storm surge and how that erosion just eats away at the outer Cape especially.

On Monday February 6 that was when it was a snow event all throughout New England even Cape Cod received 8 to 12 inches of snow, the wind was the problem on Cape Cod and in much of New England Scituate had the highest gust it was 111mph. Thousands of vehicles ended up getting trapped on roadways, my mother tells the story of our little Volkswagen Beetle getting stuck on the road Rt. 151 if anyone familiar with that road on Cape Cod and people having to get out and push people up this hill that was covered in snow and once the vehicles were at the top of the hill the people would go back down the hill and find another 1 to help push up so that they could get home. 

It caught some people a little bit off guard because the weather people not that they didn't predict it was going to be a strong storm but it ended up being much stronger than even they could have predicted. Tuesday February 7 it dawned kind of calm and people thought maybe the storm is over but in reality this blizzard had an eye hurricane. Anyone that ventured out got to see exactly what the damage was on Cape Cod. Changing the shoreline forever it's still you go when you can see what the damage the storm did.  Monomoy island in Chatham was split and created north and south Monomoy. Commercial street in Provincetown was underwater there were floods at Herring Cove beach in Provincetown and Ballston beach in Truro. The breach in Truro split Pamet Road into the north and south Pamet roads of today.  North Beach in Chatham had been breached and as many as 20 places and due to the astronomically high tides, there was actually even a period where the outer Cape was an island. A 16 foot tide washed across Eastham through Fort Hill in that area which is kind of low lying it left every area north of that on its own as an island. The flooding tides were as high as 17 feet at Town Neck beach in Sandwich and more than 13 feet at Corporation beach in Dennis but if you want to sum up the damage of the blizzard of 78 at least on Cape Cod you've got to go to Coast Guard beach in Eastham.

First off the famed Outermost House known as Fo'castle that author Henry Beston lived in in 1928 for his book the Outermost House which was 2 miles south of the Coast Guard building at the beach in Eastham along the Nauset Spit spit was totally washed away out into the water. It actually got knocked back into the marsh area so bits and pieces could be seen.  People came in gathering to watch the damage so Coast Guard beach. For anyone who's younger and goes out there there used to be a 350 spot parking lot in front, kind of in front to the right, of the Coast Guard building. There's postcards you can see how it used to look there's pictures from this storm of the people out there watching the damage, but the 350 space parking lot was collapsed because of the storm.

These waves on the outer Cape some of them reach more than 30 feet in height and they just chipped away until the parking lot was gone the bath house was gone the Outermost House was gone. The outer Cape sits in a precarious position, because of the shoreline change. There's a website that Massachusetts shoreline change browser this is something that I started using when I was writing for Cape Cod Life.  I did a series called the shape of the Cape all about shoreline change and I became a big fan of this website. It basically shows you where the shoreline was for different years so you can see exactly how much land has been lost on Cape Cod and since 1969 the Coast Guard station there has lost roughly 300 feet of shoreline and it'll get to the point where is the Coast Guard building will have to be moved back or who knows. They got now the parking lot is so small there they have a shuttle to bring you down there it's the same thing a few miles north at Whitecrest beach in Wellfleet, where there's a parking lot that overlooks the dunes that is very close to just going over the dunes and they're kind of retreating, moving the parking lot back across the road. All it takes is a big storm like the Blizzard of 78 and it just speeds the time line up so much.

When all was said and done nearly 100 people that lost their lives in the Blizzard of 78 Boston received 27 inches of snow Providence, Rhode Island received about the same amount. Snowfall rates got as high as 4 inches an hour, imagine being plows trying to keep up with that? Damage was reported to be around $1.9 billion when adjusted for inflation and it's 1 of those storms that every storm every blizzard that has come after has been compared to. You either got feet of snow like in Boston and Providence or you've got 100mph winds like you did on the Cape that just ate away at the shoreline. You did not escape the storm 43 years ago in 1978.  1 of the biggest storms to ever hit Cape Cod biggest winter storms to hit New England came roaring through and the whole place we were all changed from the Blizzard of 78. Go and look up pictures video New England Historical Society.com has some stuff about the Blizzard of 78 Digital Commonwealth.org they have some great photos. They have the photos donated up there by the I think it's the Eastham library that are all of the Coast Guard beach as it's getting destroyed, with the people standing there watching. You got to go and see those if you aren't familiar with it if you're too young you need to actually see and then you'll understand why this is considered to be the storm of the century that everyone sense has been compared to.

29:43 Back In the Day - Las Vegas Living Pt. 2

For those of you that have been listening to the podcast as we've gone along. You'll remember in episode 6, my back in the day segment was all about when I moved out to Las Vegas,

Nevada, and kind of my adventures out there, getting used to Vegas after coming from Cape Cod. This segment is going to be part two of that, which is the bus trip that I took from Las Vegas to Hyannis, Massachusetts. That was kind of the closing chapter of Vegas. If you haven't heard part one of this, you can go back in the archives, especially on Buzzsprout.com. That's my hosting site, you can find that it's episode six, living in Las Vegas. This is how my exit from Vegas went though. 

So I left Vegas. This was the first or second week of January, 2001. So we're talking 20 years ago, last month. And my father came with me too. We took a bus because it was the cheapest way, Greyhound bus, $99. One way. I don't know if it's still that much now, but it was a pretty good deal Back then. My Uncle and aunt dropped us off at the bus station. My cousin stayed home because the bus that we were taking left the station in Vegas at midnight, I guess, to give us more time to sleep and not think about the fact that we were about to go 2,700 miles cross country. We weren't thrilled to be leaving. I was hit or miss. I was realizing that I like to gamble, way too much And the job market wasn't as great as I thought, especially for me being in college. So I didn't mind it. Plus I thought the adventure would be fun to go cross country. My father didn't really like it. He was not happy. While sitting in the terminal, waiting for the bus we kind of befriended this young guy that was going, I don't know where he was going to, but he was taking the same bus. He was my age. 

Just after midnight. We boarded the bus in the dark and left Las Vegas. I have not been back since. So as the trip went along, we crossed very briefly into Arizona, but the first real true stop was in the town of Beaver, Utah, and a spot called the El Bambi Cafe with a picture of a little deer on the sign. This was 225 miles from Vegas .It was close to 5:00 AM and I just remember at the stops, you know, you would want to get off and stretch your legs. You did not want to stay on the bus for the full 2,700 miles. Actually, you couldn't, you couldn't for most of the trip. We were actually on the same bus for a while, but they didn't want you to staying on there. They had to clean the bus and things. The highlight of this first leg of the trip was a pair of young men. I don't know how old they were. They were reading a Playboy magazine in the seat right behind my father. And this was close to 3:00 AM. and finally my father had enough and he popped his head up and he yelled and swore at them to up because they were reading the Playboy and basically doing commentary on what was on the pages. And my father was already on edge just about leaving Vegas. That was his dream place. So he needed some sort of outlet and those guys happened to be it. 

We left Beaver, Utah and continued on our way through Utah, into Colorado, after a little over 280 miles on the bus. We stopped in the little town of Grand Junction, Colorado. I had bought a disposable camera before leaving Vegas. I wanted to document the trip. I think I already had that little kernel of interest in travel and everything that I bring up in this podcast that it was cold, but it was sunny. And I walked a couple of blocks. You didn't have much time to walk around from the buses and you didn't want to get left behind that's foreshadowing. They had something called art on the corner. And I have a picture of this little girl with some balloons that I still have20 years later. It was around this time that I decided to buy some sleeping pills from this little convenience store at one of the bus stops. It was one of those brands that you have no idea who they are, but it's more or less like I just wanted to have the opportunity to sleep if I had to. So I bought this unknown brand of sleeping pills and they came into play because I took one when we were leaving Grand Junction. And boy did it work. When we stopped at the town of Eagle, Colorado, about 120 miles from grand junction. These sleeping pills were just kicking the hell out of me. I was in a total foggy haze, just had my head leaning up against the window of the bus Looking out. Eagle is in the middle of the Rocky mountains. There's nothing around this bus stop. We were getting ready to leave and everybody seemed to be on board the bus. And as the bus was pulling away that same young guy that I had told you that we met in Vegas, that we had chatted with. He came running out of the convenience store and in my sleeping pill induced stupor, I thought everything was just a hallucination or a dream. And I must've just zoned out. He ran up alongside the bus and I just smiled and we drove away and left him an Eagle. And before you worry, he caught up with us. I think it was at the next stop. And he was not thrilled. He shot me daggers in his stare as he walked by. He wasn't my friend after that, but it wasn't my fault. It was the sleeping pills. 

We continued through the Rocky mountains and through Denver, it's pretty scary going down the winding roads in the Rocky mountains when it's snowy, I thought that was going to be the end right there. Denver was nice. Walked like a block through Denver. One of the big highlights on the trip for me was the tiny town of Ogallala, Nebraska on the Western part of the state, about 200 miles East of Denver. Ogallala is tiny and when we stopped there, it was almost 8:00 AM and it was still dark out. It must be something with the time zones where it gets lighter later. And we actually got off the bus and went inside the bus station and they had the tables that are little square tables with the vinyl red and white checker pattern on them, like straight out of the early 1960s. And as I looked at these tables and the tiny bus station, and it's dark outside at 8:00 AM, I finally looked at my father and I said, maybe we crashed. Maybe the bus crashed because this place seems like it's straight out of the Twilight Zone. For years after that, once we got back to Cape Cod, I just remember my Nana always laughing at the name of the town of Ogallala.

We continued through Nebraska through Lincoln and Omaha into Iowa and Des Moines. One thing I noticed as we went through the great Plains was the amount of Sinclair gas stations. I had never seen those before the big green sign with the Brontosaurus on it. That became one of those symbols of the trip. Eventually we got all the way through Iowa and we stopped in Walcott at the I-80 trucks stop, which is the largest truck stop in the world. It's literally like a mall with trucks all around it. I got to go take a little walk around there, but a lot of these places, it was the main thing was the bus taking us back to Cape Cod. So even if I saw places I wanted to explore, I had a very short window or else I'd end up like the kid that got left behind an Eagle, Colorado, just a few facts. So the Iowa 80 truck stop has 900 spots for trucks and it's a hundred thousand square feet. So it's pretty big. And considering some of the other bus stops that the Greyhound bus stopped at that were no bigger than a closet. This was amazing.

See, like I said earlier, usually they wanted you to get off the buses so they could clean them at certain stops, but you always had the opportunity or the option to stay on the bus. That was different in Chicago though. So we're like two days into this trip and it's early, early in the morning and we get to Chicago and the bus driver gets on. And first of all, warns us, don't go into any dark corners, because there are pickpockets all over the bus station, which naturally freaks me out. And then he says, you all have to get off though. It's like being on a boat and shark infested water and being said, look, there's all these great whites out there. Don't go near them. But now get off the boat and swim. That's how it was.

In the town of Elkhart, Indiana, a little over a hundred miles East of Chicago I thought I was about to get my comeuppance for allowing that kid to get left behind an Eagle. Even though I still say it was the sleeping pills. Most of us got off the bus at the stop and headed over to a McDonald's. There was also a Sinclair gas station. Of course I was near the end of the line. And I mean, like there was one or two other people behind me and I kept thinking, Oh God, the buses going to leave me behind as payback and someone ahead of me brought that up saying, Oh God, I hope the bus driver doesn't leave without me. And the woman that was right behind me said he better not leave because I'm his wife. I'll make sure that he suffers if he does. So I got kind of lucky that one of the only people that was behind me in the line was the wife of the bus driver.  When I tell you those sleeping pills were strong, I have these memories of this trip and they're very crystal clear, but there are chunks of this trip that are just lost to history because of the sleeping pills. One example was we stopped at State College, Pennsylvania. It was only, I don't know, half hour an hour after we left State College, that I checked my bag, that I had, my carry on. And I had stuff there that I had apparently bought in the convenience store and had no memory of even getting off the bus. I was grateful to have snacks, but I had no memory of even getting off the bus to go get them. That's how strong those pills were. I'm actually glad I don't remember the brand because God knows if I had those now and took them. I don't know how long I'd sleep. I'm a lot older than I was. 

Eventually we got back to the bus station in Hyannis on Cape Cod. It was after sunset. We had been on the road for three and a half days, 2,700 miles. And I think we switched buses two or three times, probably three times. I wouldn't think we would do two buses for that many miles. Like I said, at the top, my father didn't want to leave. He hated the whole trip. Me. I found it to be an adventure so much so that now I do these travel trips. I've been doing them since 2010. I'd love to do more. I would love someday to do that same road trip in reverse Hyannis out to Las Vegas. Periodically. I check to see if some of these places I remember seeing are still there. That's why I know the El Bambi cafe is still there in Beaver, Utah. And I'd love to stop in Ogallala just to go to like the chamber of commerce and tell them my Nana loved the name of your town. She would laugh every time and she would say the name and just laugh. That would end up being the longest road trip of my life. The only one that comes close was November of 2019. I did a solo road trip and it was 2,100 miles over six days. So not quite as bad. And I saw a lot more and have a lot more photos.

And that was the story. Very, very brief cliff notes version of the story of my cross country road trip from Las Vegas to high-end is 20 years ago. Unbelievable. I can still close my eyes like it was yesterday. Did any of you ever take a bus that long, that long of a trip before? And did you enjoy it? What were the highlights you saw? For me? It was just a blast to get to see that much of the country. Even if I did end up kind of back where I started on Cape Cod, I had moved to Vegas thinking that was going to be a whole new chapter and it was although a short chapter, but yeah, someday I'll do a bus trip again, for sure.

41:32 This Week In History

All right. It is time. Once again, for this week in history, this is where we take a look back at a few events that took place regionally, locally, nationally around the world during this week, as we go back in time. And I know I've been teasing some sort of little change to this week in history, I teased it at the top of the podcast. We're going to get to it. It's something I think you'll like, but just if you stuck with me this long, stick with me through a few more funny stories and bits of history, and we'll get into that little addition this week in history, 134 years ago, February 7th, 1887, Vermont lawyer, Arthur S. Austin disappeared from Chicopee, Massachusetts. This story is a pretty wild one. So let me try to sum it all up here. Arthur Austin had recently made about $150,000 in real estate in Birmingham, Alabama, that adds up to about $4.1 million when adjusted for inflation. On Friday, the 4th of February, Austin came to Chicopee to visit his wife, Fanny, who was there in Chicopee for some reason, yet unknown. While he was there, he was judged to be insane on the 5th by a Judge Hitchcock. And he was sentenced to be committed to Dr. Thompson's private insane asylum in Northampton. He was meant to be sent there on Tuesday, February 8th, but he disappeared with two mysterious strangers who took him from his brother-in-law's house, where his wife was. It was feared that these well-dressed men were after his money. So an APB was put out a story was put out in

The newspaper. They had no idea what had happened to him. Luckily, he was found safe in New York city. And Austin said that he had been lured to Chicopee via telegram saying his wife was insane, but when he got there, she was fine. This is where it gets really weird. So

he found out that his wife was fine. She wasn't insane. But then from New York city, he claimed that several prominent Massachusetts men wanted his money and that he was on the run from them. Evidently he stayed with these two men in New York city and things kind of quieted down. That is until April. In April, Austin was arrested for making threats against ex New York governor Lucius Robinson saying that he would kill him if he saw him because Robinson was now after his money, see Austin was left to his own devices in New York city where they said he wasn't insane. He was just eccentric. But now he was making threats against the former governor. So he was jailed eventually though he was freed from jail. And after divorcing his wife, he moved out to Washington state and continued practicing law until the turn of the 20th century. I have done a lot of research to find out exactly what the truth was with this, but it's definitely a fascinating tale of, I don't know if Austin went crazy after getting money or if he was crazy before he got the money, but 134 years ago this week, he initially disappeared from Chicopee and the craziness ensued.

This week in history, nationally 21 years ago, February 13th, 2000, the last Peanuts comic strip was published only hours after the death of creator. Charles M Schulz who died on the 12th at the age of 77. The comic strip was initially published in 1947 under the name L'il Folks, when Schultz was only 25, it was renamed Peanuts on October 2nd, 1950. And it featured a cast that everybody knows Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, Woodstock, all of them. They went on to do thousands of comic strips. TV shows the Great Pumpkin, movies, Charlie Brown Christmas. They basically became a staple for anyone who's grown up in the last 60 years, despite Charles M Schulz being dead now for 21 years, the Charlie Brown legacy still goes on in 2015. They had a Peanuts movie, computer animated come out. These movies are still popular at holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, but the last originally run peanuts comic strip appeared 21 years ago This week in History.

This week in history, 57 years ago, February 9th, 1964, Beatlemania arrived in America. On that Sunday night, the Fab Four appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. The show returned from a commercial for Anacin pain reliever. Ironically to throngs of screaming, young female fans. The Beatles were performed Two sets. The first set contain the songs, All My Loving, Til There Was You, She Loves You.  They took a little break And then there was a second set, which was, I Saw Her Standing There and I Want to Hold Your Hand. 73 million viewers tuned in to watch this. Although this is the most famous of their appearances on Ed Sullivan and one of the most famous appearances by any music group ever in history, they actually appeared on the Ed Sullivan show 9 times with the final being August 14th, 1965. Four of the five songs played on the Ed Sullivan show would appear on their first album for Capitol records, Meet the Beatles, which came out a few weeks later. And the rest, as they say was history, the Beatles went on to be one of the most important and influential music acts ever. And it all got started in America on the Ed Sullivan show, 57 years ago, this week in History.

This week in history 107 years ago, February 7th, 1914,Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character debuts. In the age of silent film there were very few recurring characters in films and Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, which consisted of the giant bowler hat, a cane, big shoes and the mustache and that walk. He would twirl his cane and his feet would be kind of pigeon toed out. It became a sensation. The debut film was Kid Auto Races at Venice, which consists of the Tramp going to a baby cart race in Venice, California, and causing general mayhem. The debut would lead to a total of 29 film appearances. Most of them silent by the Tramp. Chaplin used his fame from these movies to co-found United Artists, which is still going today as a film studio in 1919 due to his success in the silent film genre. When films moved to talkies, he actually initially resisted and kept doing silent films, but eventually he relented. His first true sound film was The Great Dictator from 1940, which satirized Adolf Hitler and is iconic for people of that generation. The tramp character actually made a kind of a return in the 1980s. When the IBM computer company used him, well, a knockoff of him in their commercials for a little while, which just goes to show you how much of an impact that character made. Even 70 years after he had started, he was being recycled for television commercials, but the Tramp character made his debut in film 107 years ago this week in history. 

And now the little addition to this week in history, if you've stuck with me this long, I'm adding a little segment at the end that I'm just going to call Time Capsule. I'm basically going to throw a dart at the dartboard of time, pick out a date and give you a little overview of what the world was like then. So let's just dive into it. We're going back. 25 years ago, February 10th, 1996. The number one song in America was One Sweet day by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. The song was released on Carey's album Daydream and would spend a total of 16 weeks at number one, a record that it held for 23 years. The number one movie in America was Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. The movie is about a pilot that goes rogue and steals A pair of nuclear weapons. Travolta is the bad guy in the movie, filmed on a budget of $50 million. It ended up making $150 million at the box office. And today it has a 52% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes in case you're thinking of going and watching it. I enjoyed it, but you know, some people might not like it. The number one show in America was, ER, the series was created by Michael Crighton and ran a total of 331 episodes over 15 seasons. It was a phenomenon in the nineties. It started at various times, Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Noah Wiley, Eriq LaSalle, Julianna Margulies, and Sherry Stringfield. And obviously the television show was about life in a hospital, ER, in County general hospital in Chicago. And finally for time capsule, just to throw it back, the price of a gallon of gasoline 25 years ago, this week was $1.08 just to put a little bow on this. 

And that was a little time capsule to finish off this week in history. How did you like that little addition? I feel like that's a neat little way to kind of, especially for people who live back then give you a feel like all encompassing of what the time was like movie TV, music, and a gallon of gas. I was going to do price of bread and milk, but I said that's kind of cheesy and cliche. So join me again next week for more of this week in history and more time capsule, if you have any times that you want to see as part of the time capsule definitely shoot me an email. ChristopherSetterlund@gmail.com. Otherwise I'll find some good ones for you.

52:04 Closing:

That's gonna do it for this week's episode of the In My Footsteps Podcast. Episode 9 is now in the books I hope you enjoyed it special thank you to my nieces Kaleigh and Emma for giving their information and insight on dealing with Covid in college.  I hope you all enjoyed that interview and I just want to say on a personal note to the both of them that your uncle is very very proud of you and loves you very much and can't wait to see you when you get back from school this semester.

As I said at the top of the show make sure to go check out DJ Williams his new album Short Stories is now out go to his website DJWilliams Music.com.  I played to that little clip at the top of the show go and check it out you'll hear his song James River again in a few seconds. Find me on social media, Facebook there's the In My Footsteps Podcast page. Twitter my handle is Chris Setterlund.  Instagram I have 2 pages my personal one Christopher Setterlund with my photos mostly with my Canon Rebel T7 and the professional page In My Footsteps Podcast page. Check out my In My Footsteps blog at Blogger.com, the latest article that I shared up there was the fascinating history of the 3 sisters of Nauset lighthouses so you should go and check that out and you can go and visit the lighthouses themselves. Become a subscriber on YouTube just find me Christopher Setterlund. When it gets warmer I'm gonna do a lot more of the 4K New England videos, right now in the winter it's not as much fun when everything is bare as when things are in bloom it looks a lot better.  I'll just say that but I also do segments of the podcast that I create kind of in the video clips I think this episode the bus trip from Vegas to Hyannis will become one of those so you'll have to stay tuned for that. Visit my Zazzle store Cape Cod Living I have a calendar Massachusetts After Dark. That's a lot of the same the photos I've been talking about with my Canon camera there's also a little bit of podcast merch I've said it before, bumper sticker, keychain, I'm on the fence on adding more stuff I haven't gotten a lot of feedback on adding new merch so I'm not going to just create a bunch of products that sit there and collect dust on a shelf so let me know if you want podcast merch just let me know. Go to my official website Christopher Setterlund.com that was created and developed by one of my oldest friends Barry Menard a great graphic designer out of Rhode Island. My 5 current books are on sale there when books 6 comes out in may I'm sure that will be up there you can also buy the books from Amazon from Schiffer publishing from the History Press just look for Christopher Setterlund there's not many people with my last name S. E. T. T. E. R. L. U. N. D. it gets misspelled so much you'd think I'd gotten used to that but I really haven't.

Everybody stay safe out there I've seen that the new cases of covid it are the lowest they've been in 4 months now and vaccinations are starting to take over I've gotten my first dose but everyone please just stay safe it's like it's a race now between vaccination and people getting sick.  I'm glad to say that my mother and my sister actually are now on the mend and getting close to feeling better but it's been about 3 weeks and unfortunately one of my favorite people I worked with at a recent job lost her life with Covid complications so please just take it seriously for a little longer we're almost there.

Join me next week for episode 10 I'm gonna relive my very first ever book event so that's going to be fun to look back on how things have changed. We're gonna take a road trip as far east as we can go in New England to the town of Lubec, Maine. We're gonna go back in the day to the early days of Nickelodeon and it's definitely different than what it is today. We'll have this week in history as always with the little time capsule. If you ever have any questions or comments about the podcast hit me up that Christopher Setterlund@Gmail.com but until then remember never walk in someone else's footsteps always create your own path on this journey we call life stay safe and I will talk to you all again soon.