more meanderingin Mich &Ohio

A whole month to catch up on - what happened? Here's what we think: we were sucked into some kind of vortex in Michigan and the black swamp area of ohio and couldn't get out. Really! I hope I don't leave anyone or anything important out as I retrace our social adventures of the past 5 weeks.

What a blessing it was to have arrived 2 1/2 weeks early in Michigan for my parents 60 Anniversary party on August 22. It completely changed the course of the month. Since we didn't want to get out of shape, we decided to pedal around awhile and reconnect with friends from our past, places we used to live and relatives in Mich. and Ohio.

On August 2,we made it to the farm of our college friends, Kathy and Gary, whom we hadn't seen for over a decade. Wonderful visit, good food, met their grown-up children, Lee and Kate. From there made our way in 2 days time to Archibold, OH camping on the grounds of the Sauder Museum. This is a fantastic pioneer village we visited when our children were small and it is even more thoroughly developed now. The campground was real nice too. Since we were still not using Adventure Cycling maps, Reuben spent time every evening on his iphone finding a route that might be safe. He indeed found some great county roads for us and we really enjoyed the riding in Northwest OH. We crossed the Maumee River in Napoleon, stopped for groceries in Holgate and continued on to Road X in Leipsic, OH to the first home we bought in 1979. The 100 plus year old farmhouse had been remodeled, landscaped and looked beautiful. We took the chance of knocking on the door of the neighbor down the road, and sure enough after 25 years they remembered us. Paul and Pauline invited us in their kitchen and we chatted as if it had been just last week since we had seen each other. Then on to the home of Jed and Mary where we spent the night, had a great meal together and caught up on children and grandchildren. Over the years we had lost touch with them as well and it was heartwarming to be able to step right into the relationship. When I had called Mary the previous week to let her know about the cross country bike trip and a possible visit, there was a long silence and then she responded: Reuben owes you big time for this one, doesn't he?

It was country roads all the way to White Star Park campground in Gibsonburg, just about 20 miles from Fremont OH, the place where we bought our 2nd home. I used to bring the kids to the swimming hole - an old stone quarry - at White Star. It looked just the same. At the campground we met Nancy and Rick, RVing from Michigan who enjoyed hearing about our adventures.

We also met Cindii and Tim, cycling east just as we were. They had left from Arizona and had been cycling for 7 years! After hearing this, Reuben asked if they were the couple who had had melons dropped on them from the top of a cliff when they were in South America. Cindii said yes! It turns out we read one of their books in preparation for our trip! They had since published a 2nd book and were working on the 3rd about their travels through Southeast Asia. They were traveling, speaking and selling their books, plan to overwinter in the midwest and leave for travels to India in Feb. They were heading to New York for a family event but were not excited about the urban route on south shore of Lake Erie. Reuben suggested they take the ferry over to Ontario and after much discussion over donuts, they copied our maps and headed on their way. We keep hearing about them as we travel through Ontario so we know they have made it so far.

Our friends in Fremont, Gregg and Joann, hosted us with good food and company, even sharing their infant grandson with us so I could get a baby fix. We had a wonderful time with them. Gregg, a fellow cyclist, met and rode with us going into, and later leaving, Fremont. We attended Mass at our previous church, St. Joseph, which had been beautifully renovated since we had left 18 years ago. We also saw our old house on Wilson Ave. It was beautifully kept up, landscaped, with a big flag pole out front, flying the American flag. However, during our first evening there, we received some very sad news that our friend Chris had passed away in California. We had been praying for her recovery every day of our trip and many of the physical discomforts I experienced from cycling I had offered up for her. We continue to pray for the repose of her soul and for her family, especially her husband John.

On Sunday August 9 we headed over to Sandusky to visit Aunt Mary and Uncle Mel. We took another day off with them - I like this every other day off business - and were very lazy. Swimming in the lake, sailing, a sailing rescue, visiting hoards of cousins and their children, eating more great food, a yacht club dinner, toft's ice cream. We had so much fun.

On our way to Genoa, near Toledo, to visit my sister, Patty, we got caught by a mean looking thunder storm. We ducked into a Big Boy just in time to avoid a lot of water and lightning. We had a great overnight visit with my sister and her family, heading up to Michigan the next morning. We were concerned about this day of urban cycling but it turned out ok. We made a brief stop in Trenton to visit my brother, Brian and his family especially our 1 month old grand niece.

Next was Dearborn to spend a couple days with Reuben's parents. The people at Henry Ford Village were so interested in our adventure that they requested a TV interview to be shown to the residents on their in house TV station. We are the feature on 'This Is The Life' and have a DVD to prove it! Ward and Peg walked us all over Henry Ford Museum and Village. We hadn't been for a long time and it was great. We both remembered seeing the bicycle built for ten when we were kids and by golly it is still impressive even now. We also enjoyed a great visit and dinner at Kathy and Louie's house in Ferndale (Reuben's sister and brother-in-law).

From there it was up to Ann Arbor on Aug 15 to my parents place, visiting my brother Tim and his family on the way. They were all standing by the street with camera in hand to see the crazy Californians on a tandem. Also on the trek that day we stopped for a quick visit with Reuben' cousins Kathleen and Homer Rose, spending a couple hours catching up with them before completing the ride to Ann Arbor. Homer provided us with a back country route into AA, and so we foiled Pop's plan to get a picture of us riding up the street (he was positioned in his van across the street waiting with camera in hand but we came in behind him).

We dropped the bike off at the shop to get new rear wheel and began our time driving a motor vehicle. Pop had fixed up the old purple truck for us to use while getting around MI. We had lots of fun putting the final touches on the anniversary party with my sisters and nieces. By Friday August 21, many of the relatives had arrived, including our 3 children, 2 husbands, 1 fiance, 3 grandchildren for the weekend celebrations. We were pretty pleased that our 2 two year old grandsons had not forgotten us.

The anniversary luncheon was wonderful. So many people came. Of the immediate family only one sister-in-law and one nephew were too ill to make it. Many of our cousins also came and it was fun catching up with every one. We continued to party down with (just) the immediate family for dinner that night as well. Many of us siblings and our children were also able to make it to Mass the next morning and we filled one section. After Mass, Father Tom gave my parents a special blessing and the people in church gave them a standing ovation that would not stop.

Then the vacation started. We rented a beautiful home for a week on Hemlock Lake from Jim and Carol. Our 2 girls and their families vacationed with us that week and we were joined off and on by various members of both of our families This was a great way for the girls, Corinne and Jackie, to introduce their 'babies' to the extended family. A few days we had 4 generations present!! We ate, played games, boated and enjoyed life.

Reuben and I made another change in our plans. Originally we were going to leave from there on August 29 and continue our cycling trip east across the Detroit river. But another plan was in the works. Our friend, Chris who had passsed away, was originally from Toledo, OH. We had missed the funeral in California, but there was to be a Memorial service in Toledo on Sat. Sept. 5. This was almost a week after our intended departure from MI. Reuben scoured the maps and discovered that we could indeed delay another 6 days and make our target to Portland ME in time to fly home Oct. 1. We would continue east from Toledo, back to Sandusky and take the ferry across to Kingsville, Ontario.

So, with additional time on our hands and off the bike, we left Hemlock Lake and drove up to Portage Lake where Reuben's brother has a cottage. We spent a few days vacationing with Reuben's family there, boating, eating, playing games. It was well spent time. On Monday, Aug 31 we drove back to Ann Arbor, spent Tuesday rearranging our belongings, shipping back all of our camping gear and buying needed supplies. We were well ready to continue this journey, so blessed to have spent 'slow time' with so many of our friends and family.