We lived at 1602 Lyons, Lansing Michigan ... or it might have been 1600 ... or maybe it was 1604. It was Lyons Street for sure. Not quite a block south of Baker. There used to be a neighborhood grocery on the corner of Baker and Lyons ... it's something else now.

I worked at Oldsmobile I think. But I quit because my ears hurt and nobody cared. Not even the Union. I took a job siding houses down by Hudson eventually, but Hudson isn't in this story.

Patty stayed the weekend so my wife, Jo, and I could go to Toledo with Tim and Kurt. Tim was supposed to be some kind of wheel in Toledo.

It was one of those trips ... heh heh heh ... where we took an Atlas and a ruler, fumbled our way to Michigan and drew a pencil line between Lansing and Toledo. If it was paved we took it ... unless it was a major. Tiny towns dotted our way and Kurt ... our drummer ... had this bunch of strawberry barrels... 6aR,9R)-N, N-diethyl-7-methyl-4,6,6a,7,8,9-hexahydroindolo-[4,3-fg]quinoline-9-carboxamide in it's amateur chemist form ... made in the good old USA ... Ann Arbor ... in the Chem lab. LSD-25.

Jo and I had been regular weekend day trippers since the kid was hatched and we could find a babe ... oops ... baby sitter. Patty was free. Give her a nickel bag and a water pipe and she was good to go.

Jo and I had been pretty heavy into it that summer. Me more than Jo. I found I could work safely if I dropped after work and was in bed by ... oh ... midnight ... ah ... the dreams.

Well, Kurt had a couple of hundred two way hits he'd scored on campus ... I don't know who or where ... just some acid head. Patty got out of the car ... we handed her a baggie ... she knew where the pipe was ... we loaded up and off we went.

Toledo ... why not... ? Never been there.

Road Trip!!

"I'm gonna get you two off, no matter what it takes," Kurt said and handed us both a barrel.

You're supposed to split one between two people...

Half an hour later nothing was happening so we got another ... and fifteen minutes after that and so on and so forth until we'd each had some ten or twelve hits and nothing happening. We were someplace between Mason and Stockbridge on the Dexter Trail when Kurt ... good ol' Kurt ... directed us wrong. Munith was the next place of any consequence and there's this perfectly good road south of Munith with a sign pointing to Waterloo ... sooo ... Tim turned left and the ride began. Waterloo wasn't much but there was a sign that said Waterloo Road and Chelsea. We were going that way but Kurt ... Kurt was pretty off by now and Jo and I were jealous because we weren't ... Kurt had the map.

The sign said Bush ... so Kurt said turn right. Tim was pretty much smoked out and turned.

We went aways and the sign said Pierce.

Tim said, "You can't go wrong following dead Presidents."

We were going south ... right up to the back gate of the Chrysler Testing grounds.

Led wrong by old dead presidents. The live one wasn't any better.

US 12 took us into and out of Chelsea and we turned south again on Fletcher road.

I'm pretty sure we took Pleasant Lake to Schneider in there someplace.

Cruising along Kurt hollered. "Austin Road ... turn left." And that damned fool Tim did.

Tim floored it. "I'm hungry."

"Slow down Tim," Jo said.

People generally did what she said.

Somehow we ended up at a Dairy Queen in Britton ... where Jo and I got a burger and fries each.

The first bite is what did it.

The food fueled the acid and we were off.

I don't remember much ... except some guy yelling at Tim ... I think that was Toledo ... pretty sure ... I think. The next thing I remember was soap bubbles and a big hoop. Get that hoop good and soaked and swing it along the street ... Lyons was still radiating heat and that huge soap bubble would slowly rise out of sight ... I think. I know the neighborhood kids thought it was wonderful. So did I.

Rainbow colors dancing on the surface of that bubble. Groovy! The bubbles weren't round ... they were oblong and some of them were six feet long ... all wobbly and groovy. We ran out of soap.

Jo and I went to bed.

I got up in the morning and Jo was gone. Didn't think too much of it ... she did that. I took a bath in the big tub and put on my custom made bluejean bells with the red satin insert for the flair, my Flag cotton shirt and my Berks.

Smelled the coffee ... went downstairs and opened the cupboard door to get my cup and Lo and Behold ... there was a message from Jo.

"Hairy,

I'm in the tulips.

Jo,

The Orange."

The tulips were in the flower section of Potter Park.

I highly recommend the Lansing Michigan Google Map ... because this next part is important.

Lyons north to Baker. Right on Baker to Pennsylvania Ave. Cross at the light.

After crossing Pennsylvania turn Left and walk the east side sidewalk. Cross the Red Cedar River. Don't forget to look at the water for awhile.

If you kept walking on Pennsylvania you would see the notorious railroad bridge. That's the bridge that goes over the tracks ... mostly.

But the bridge was built for an older time ... when semi trailers were shorter ... in length and height. Now they're too tall and semi trailers get jammed under the bridge ... creates all kinds of havoc.