Atlanta-Cleveland-Kingston, NY, May, 2022

The Covid-19 pandemic stopped all of our travels for almost two years. It waned (just for
awhile) so I took my first plane trip—all six flights—to Atlanta, Cleveland and New York.

Atlanta

The first stop was to visit Maya in

Atlanta, and I was immediately amazed at
how beautiful this city is, at least the area
where Maya lives. I stopped at this
gigantic house as an exemplar of her
lovely neighborhood.

Maya, of course, lives in a more

modest little casita on the property
of her landlords. (below)
We watched some riveting television shows in the evenings. My purpose was less tourism
and just wanting to see how my daughter lives, and hang out with her. We watched
Ozark, Severance, and maybe
Better Call Saul—can’t remember
which.

But wanderlust got the best of us,

and we took a walk to a local
Italian restaurant with very few
people, and no masks needed.
LaTavola was just incredible. I had
the most tender pork medallion
with grits (polenta), out of this
world. Our waitress was from
North Carolina and told us all
about Southern accents. It is
amazing how many people in
Atlanta have no apparent accents at all by the way..

Our next stop was the botanical gardens which were lovely, lush, and very relaxing

Next we headed off to a

lovely modern art museum replete with amazing
optical illusions, Monet, funny art, and clearly a pride of Atlanta
Maya in front of someone’s Atlanta garden right off the street
Not the best Monet, but a Monet!

Lovely museum!
From the botanical gardens
(above) to the fragmented mirror
in the art museum.
We sat on her landlord’s porch, in true
Southern style. They served us tea and
cookies and we visited. They were (are)
left wing lawyers who knew Kathy
Boudin’s father and famous radical
lawyer William Kunstler. They seem to
have a great deal of admiration for
Maya.

One more dinner out on the town

(tasting menu, Maya’s favorite place).
Boccalupo.

We also met Maya’s friends for a pizza

evening, Angela from Turner
Broadcasting where Maya made a
podcast on Lucy and Desi, plus their
mutual friends Larry, Julia, and Brian. Lots of fun. Relaxing evening in the back yard
schmoozing.

Then it was off to Cleveland.

Cleveland, R.I.P.

My last visit to see Frankie was in 2019, I think. He was a kind, loving, crazy,
spontaneous, accepting person…and funny. Here he is admiring some kielbasa which we
bought. He died Dec 18, 2021. He was my best friend.
My favorite past time was sitting on his porch, watching the world go by, and smoking a

cigar with a glass of wine with him. Time stopped in those moments.

So, I came to Cleveland to his funeral. His ashes were in a red box. I was taken to his last
home, and I bought a cigar, sat in the chair, looked out, and said goodbye to my friend
just where we used to sit.
Then we drove to the Catholic cemetery where his father is buried. Small ceremony. Lots
of friends, many of whom I had never heard of, spoke.

I brought my Ipad and put it on top

of his red box and played his
favorite jazz song, Poinciana by
Ahmad Jamal. Frankie taught me to
listen to jazz more carefully. I told
the friends at the funeral, and they
all listened more carefully too as I
played thihis tune.

Red box with Frankie’s ashes and

the ceremony; Suddenly, it rained
like hell, and lightning struck.
According to his former wife, Pat,
that is a sign the deceased is
happy.
Frank had a friend, Doctor Coviello. He was 93 and down the hill at the cemetery I saw a
man watching from his car. He couldn’t walk up the hill, so I came down and said
“You’re doctor Coviello, aren’t you?” He said, “Yes, and you’re Jerry. Frankie spoke a
lot about you.” And I said “And he spoke a lot about you too.” Dr. Coviello outlived
Frank. Very nice man who loved Frankie.

When my girl’s were little I

used to make up bedtime
stories of Hobo Joe. He was a
totally fictional character in my
head, but one day Frankie and
I were driving and I couldn’t
believe my eyes. There was a
place called “Hobo Joe’s.”

I actually met Frankie three

times in my life. The first was
when we were little boys and
they lived in Lorain, Ohio.
Then there was a long gap and
finally Jim, my brother, and I
visited Frankie and Jan in the
house they had in Cleveland.
(The guy driving me was kind enough to take me to this place, sold long ago into a
deteriorating neighborhood. But here it is. (right)

The final place Frankie lived

was on Thoreau Ave in
Lakewood outside of Cleveland
where we smoked cigars and
watched the world go by.

So long, my dear Frankie!

Kingston, New York, May 2022—Anya Marina and Matt

Next was an early morning flight from Cleveland to Philadelphia then Albany, NY where
Anya picked me up.
One day we went to Bard College where Matt when to school.

Very, very pretty grounds. We were all taken by it.

But I have to say I enjoyed
their house and their
hospitality the most. Very
relaxing We went
downstairs and watched
TV in the man-cave.

I found a little sun room

where I enjoyed my
morning coffee, breakfast,
and normal disaster porn
news reports.

Willa and I were admiring

the garden they haven’t
planted yet.
But they kept taking me places. Here is Matt saying he was going to break his hand with a
water bottle unless we told him a joke, so we did and he stopped
Actually this was a very elegant
restaurant that we went to and really
enjoyed ourselves until I asked the
lady who was her most famous guest.
She said Madeline Albright.

Hmm

Here’s Matt training his dog,

Willa, to not lick me constantly
Some nice conversations, and good contact all around.
I was really taken by
Kingston. Loved the
bookstore “Rough Draft”
and loved the older
character of the place.
There is a house there that
President Van Buren’s
father lived in which was
built in 1662. Can you
imagine houses still
standing after 500 years.

The lush vegetation

And greenery just was intoxicating.
What a lovely place in this world.

Morning coffee. . .
Maya recommended this place for ice cream
and I have to say it may have been the best
ice cream I ever had!
They took me to an outdoor art
exhibition and it was a lot of fun to
walk through these sculptures

My stay was very short, but it was a joy

to see how my Milipatkin was living,
how happy she is, what a wonderful
place in this world she lives, and with
such a wonderful person too. I enjoyed
the popcorn, the man-cave, and the
lovely trips around. But Matt kept
saying that Hudson (the city) was so
much nicer than Kingston, but I had to
disagree. Kingston is the coolest of the
cool.
I think my dochka is happy here

So that is the end of a very short 8-day trip. I felt treated like a king by everyone. I never
felt like I imposed or overstayed my welcome. Think I’ll do this again

. . . (and again!)