We got on the road Wednesday shortly after 9:00 and drove straight up I75 with only short stops to Atlanta, arriving in mid-afternoon. Along the way Rachel called to take us up on our offer to bring dinner to their house. So after setting up the camper at the Marietta RV Park (where we stayed last year, too), we went on-line to find some take-out food. I had a hankering for Middle Eastern so that’s what I searched for and amazingly there was an Iranian/Persian place right across the street from the RV park. We ordered what sounded good, picked it up and got to Rachel and Michael’s around six. Michael’s mom, Kelly, was there for the week to help out with the baby. We spent a nice evening chatting and admiring little Michael Louis Savage Bednarz while we ate the yummy food. It turned out that the owner is a patient of Michael’s, who knew the place well and told us that that owner was a scientist in Iran who had escaped the Ayatollah after the Shah of Iran was taken down. He couldn’t work in the US as a scientist so he opened the Falafel Café in Atlanta. Interesting story! We headed back to the camper soon after 10:00.
Thursday morning it was easy to take down the camper since we had done such a minimal set-up for just one night. We made good time but as we got into Tennessee we got into a large system of rain that would plague us the rest of the day, as we drove through the mountains. We had found an RV Park online called Oh, Kentucky! that was in Berea, KY and looked pretty good—until we got there. We parked in a puddle covered spot and dropped the camper so we could try to find something to do in Berea. First we went to the very nice Cultural and Craft Center at the next exit up I75. From there we headed into town, which has an artsy, folk craft, historical part of town, but pretty much everything was closed as we arrived around 5:00. We went on to Berea College and learned more about this historic institution, begun in 1855 and offering a balanced student body of blacks & whites, male & female. This is what their website says: “Berea College, founded by ardent abolitionists and radical reformers, continues today as an educational institution still firmly rooted in its historic purpose "to promote the cause of Christ." Adherence to the College's scriptural foundation, "God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth," shapes the College's culture and programs so that students and staff alike can work toward both personal goals and a vision of a world shaped by Christian values, such as the power of love over hate, human dignity and equality, and peace with justice.” They are committed to offering free programs to the most needy and promising students, primarily from the Appalachians. We walked through historic Boone Tavern and then went to a coffee shop to try and wait out the rain. There was a walking tour with cell phone audio guide that we might have done in better weather. Checking the weather online we saw that the rain wasn’t going anywhere for a long while so we gave up and returned to set-up the camper in the rain, securing it as quickly as possible but not even setting up the jacks.
The rain finally stopped during the night but the temperature got down into the thirties and I saw sheets of ice fall from the top of a slide-out on a nearby RV when they were closing up Friday morning. We dried things off enough to close-up and drained the waterlines and added anti-freeze to the traps so we wouldn’t have to worry about them as we continued north. Even with the extra steps we took, we arrived in Cincinnati in time to take niece Karen Weese and their daughter Julia out for lunch. We got a “tour” of their new house in their suburb of Montgomery and then played Wii with them until Jeremy got home from school. We quickly greeted him and then hit the road about 4:15 to drive to Carmel, IN. We grabbed a quick bite to eat for dinner and arrived in time to see the grandkids before they went to bed.
Jordan’s party was Saturday. Linda Nuttall and AJ had come down on Thursday and the boys were pretty wound up after two days together. Linda worked on a veggie tray while I made 4 batches of playdough. As the boys arrived they started playing with toys and getting together as a group. After a bit they gathered around the table to snack on the veggies, juice boxes, and sliced fruit. Jordan had presents from the family to open while the boys watched and then we had his Captain America birthday cake, thanks to Cessa Andrews-McMullan, cake decorator extraordinaire. The time ended with the boys playing with the playdough I had made. Amazingly everyone got the color they wanted and they got to take it home, along with a set of cookie cutters that Sarah had tied together with ribbon as a favor. It was a very nice 4-year-old birthday party! Craig’s parents and sister, Angie, Ken & Jen, Linda & AJ, the two of us and the 5 Penquites had bean soup for dinner and then the boys and Analyn went to bed and the others hit the road, Connie, Bill & Angie to a nearby motel and the rest to drive home. By the time we got to bed Marv and I were both really tired and it would be a short night because of the time change.
Sunday Craig took the three kids to Mass with his parents and Angie while Sarah, Marv & I went to St. Peter’s UCC to sing with the choir. There were only three other singers so they were pretty happy to have us, I think. Craig dropped the boys off for Sunday school and took Analyn home with him. It was a nice day with lots of sun and temperatures in the sixties so we all spent a lot of time outside playing and riding bikes. Sarah & Craig went to Lowes for some things while Marv raked sweet gum pods in the backyard and I played with the boys. We all watched MSU beat OSU in the final game of the Big Ten Tournament (Craig was disappointed) and then found out that MSU would be a #1 seed in the NCAA Tourney and OSU would be a #2 seed. We got Jordan’s choice (Chinese take-out) for dinner and watched the DVD of Pete’s Dragon that we gave him for his birthday. It was a nice end to a very nice weekend with our kids and grandkids.
We stayed with Analyn while Sarah took the boys to school on Monday morning. When she returned we packed up the truck one final time and drove over to Sam’s with Sarah in her car so she could buy some things she needed and fill her car with the gas that was $3.72 there instead of the $3.98 most places. As we drove north we realized that we would be in Auburn around lunchtime so we had Ken meet us at Subway. We got back to East Lansing without any problems, following rain in many places but never driving in it. During the almost seven weeks we had been gone we had hiked at least 44 miles, as tracked on my Phone, and that doesn’t include all the incidental walking we did around campgrounds and in towns. We biked around 154 miles. At the end of our trip we had driven 5125 miles and used 315 gallons of gas. The gas prices ranged from $3.17 (we saw it soon after for $3.06) to $3.79, making this the most expensive year yet. We were gone 52 days. We had seen much more of Florida and found some places we hope to see again someday. Best of all, we had great weather and returned to mid-March temperature of 60s and 70s in Michigan! The winter that wasn’t continued.
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