What's in Dave's Head

Is there a more romantic setting than the sprawling parking lot of the massive (8,400 acres) Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey? Especially on a big college-football game day, where 50,000 beer-infused fans crowd together to tailgate, pre-game, and celebrate like the end of the world was imminent? I think not. Forty-four years ago Donna and I and some friends and relatives attended a Notre Dame-Navy game. Donna and I had met a few weeks before, when a mutual friend played matchmaker and brought us together in Washington, D.C., where I was living and working. Our friend, Monica, was trying to set me up with another of her friends, but Donna and I had an immediate attraction. This was our first weekend together. I stayed at Donna’s parents’ house, where she was living. It was a big deal meeting the parents and siblings. The next morning a big group of us headed to the old Giants Stadium in multiple cars and met up. It was cold and very windy. I don’t rememb...

Talk about a study in contrast – Utah’s monumental, grandiose natural splendor versus Las Vegas’s monumental, grandiose manufactured opulence. Donna and I got to experience both on a weeklong trip to the Western U.S. during which we logged a mind-boggling 57 miles of hiking and walking over six days. We flew to Las Vegas and rented a car to drive to Zion National Park, then to Bryce Canyon National Park, and finally back to Vegas to spend a couple days with our son Jack. ZION On the drive from Vegas to Zion there are RV parks and campgrounds like at beach towns there are ice cream shops and mini golf courses. We chose to go in early October to avoid the summer crowds and high temperatures and failed on both counts. Zion, the more beautiful of the parks in my opinion, with trails that wend through spectacular vistas, peaks, sheer cliffs, the Virgin River, and beautiful foliage, was hot and crowded. The park tries its best to absorb four million visitors a year with a large vis...