Jun 18, 2013 - Shawnee Forest

Judy and Jerry invited us over for lunch today. We had lasagna and pasta salad and garlic bread. Yum-yum. And of course more tasty desserts that we ate just like we do it every day. After lunch we went for a drive into Shawnee Forest. Jerry took us high up a mountain where the views were beautiful. Larry likes to sniff the leaves instead of the flowers. LOL. Actually he was looking for a plant his mother used to make tea when he was a boy. It has a certain smell. But this was not the one. We found a lake where there were a lot of cattails...

Jun 17, 2013 - Lunch at Dottie's

Well, I had to do some housecleaning this morning. Even when on vacation it must be done. Dottie invited us over, along with Judy and Jerry for lunch today so we are looking forward to that. We got to eat pinto beans and cornbread, fried potatoes and pasta salad along with fresh green onions and tomatoes. We did eat, let me tell you. It was all so good. Judy made her delicious Jello cake with a pudding icing and added to the feast. Why does it always taste better when you are away from home. It could be the good cooks! It causes you to eat...

Jun 16, 2013 - Lazy Days

We woke up to a light rain falling, just enough to be nice. We sat out under our awning and watched for awhile. Larry has fished in the creek a couple of times. Not caught much but the creek if fairly clear so you can see the fish swimming along. We went with Judy and Jerry and Jerry's sister Patsy to do some shopping at Walmart. After we finished we ate at Bob Evans. This is a must do on our list while we are here. They have really good home cooked style food. It being Father's Day we thought it would be crowded but it was not that bad. I...

Jun 15, 2013 - Driving Down Memory Lane

We are camping at an RV park that was once a racetrack. It still has the one quarter mile race track and once a year they invite the racers of years gone by to come and make a few laps around the tract in their race cars. And guess what day they chose this year to have this huge celebration. Yes, I bet you guessed correctly. It was today! Because all the full hook-up campsites were taken we had to camp in the north 40 by the creek (which is very pretty) but we have only water and electric. Larry bought a new super duper sewer hose and has...

Jun 14, 2013 - Where are we now? Maumee!!

The final leg of our journey awaits us tomorrow, starting in Maumee, Ohio. Yes, Maumee is a town in Ohio just a short jaunt from Toledo. A quiet little town, but a good place to spend the night in the Courtyard. After dinner at the Outback right beside the hotel, we retired to chat and share a few adult beverages--to toss around stories and enjoy each others' company before our journey ends. I'm uploading 2 sets of photos tonight because I can only upload 16 at a time. What you will see in this batch is some Crazy Horse National Memorial,...

Jun 14, 2013 - More from Maumee--more photos from last 3 days

We stopped for lunch today outside of Chicago, Illinois, at a place called Portillo's. It came highly recommended by Guy Fieri and by Joe's best friend--who has eaten there twice this week while visiting her family. They are known for their Italian beef sandwiches, so I had to have one. Joe had to have the big one, of course...and we were both really pleased. Dr. Bob had one of their beef hot dogs, and by his estimation, they challenge the best beef hot dogs he has ever eaten. Coming from Long Island, he has become much of a connoisseur of...

Jun 14, 2013 - Day 13 of 14--Second batch of photos.

Here are more photos of the Crazy Horse National Monument and Museum--including a bonafide post office station and an authentic stage coach in the studio of the sculptor. Some fascinating information available in the museum about the native Americans of the area. For those of you who are interested in the history of the native Americans, this is a must-see. The sculpture of Crazy Horse dwarfs the Mt. Rushmore sculptures. Then you will see some photos of the Little Big Horn memorial park. It was an awesome place, and you can see the stones...

Jun 14, 2013 - Hometown West Portsmouth

We started out this morning to finish our trip to Ohio and just over the KY line we ran into almost stopped traffic on the interstate. We crawled along with lots of other large trucks and cars about 10 miles which took us over an hour. With our handy smart phones we could tell that it was probably a wreck and sure enough, a semi-truck had crashed and they were just pulling the truck out, when we went by, with the trailer following being pulled with another truck. The wrecked truck was quite smashed at the cab. We don't know if the driver...

Jun 7, 2013 - Great American Park

We are at our last park. We managed to see a game in every park in the N.L. Central. The backdrop of the Ohio River makes this park beautiful. The game was good from an offensive stand point. One guy hit three homeruns and another hit two while going five for five. We had an amazing trip. Every minute was enjoyable and something we will never forget. I can not say enough about doing this with my oldest son, the honor graduate.

May 31, 2013 - Progressive Park

We went to Progressive Park in Cleveland. It is a massive park and was Brett's favorite until the rain. . The city is under a lot of construction, which made driving tough. It was $1 hot dog night. Brett and I had seven among us. I put the local spicy mustard on mine. It rained all night. Real hard for about five minutes so we went into the portal. The game lasted 1.5 innings and then was delayed till 12:00. We left at 11:00 and hope to get complimentary tickets tomorrow.

May 28, 2013 - Day 6 - Oberlin

Carl and I woke up first and made the coffee. Carl took a walk down to Gibson's to buy some half and half for the coffee as well as some of their delicious doughnuts. Marsha and Warren arose a short time later and, after taking Zoe out for a walk, joined us for coffee and doughnuts. It was nice to just sit and relax over coffee and not feel an urgent need to be anywhere. After we all got dressed, we made our way into town to tour the campus. It sure seemed strange to be walking those streets again after so many years. Yet, very little has...

May 27, 2013 - Day 5 - Buffalo to Oberlin

Our plans were to leave Buffalo around 10 AM for our trip to Oberlin. Carl brought back another breakfast from McDonald's (yogurt parfait for me and egg McMuffin for him) to eat while we packed and got ready. We left on schedule and began the roughly 4 and 1/2 hour trip to Oberlin. I have taken this drive many times in my life but it had been quite a while since the last time. What impressed me was what a dull landscape it was in comparison to the drives we make out in CA. On the plus side, however, the traffic was much lighter than what we...