And Now We Are in Ohio!

Fall is definitely in the air and it is also getting chillier.  After weeks of Indian Summer with daytime temperatures in the the high eighties and nineties, a cold front has come through with rain, wind and a definite drop in the temperature. We had been thinking about going up to Maine and then coming down the east coast to eventually winter in Florida.  Because of our detour for repairs, it is getting late in the year to head north without thinking about the possibility of snow...

My friend Cathi sent me a page and one-half note of lists of places to see and things to do in Maine (where she used to live) and New England.  I also had a list of some other places I wanted to see as well as visiting out friend Wayne in Waldoboro, Maine.  After we sat and talked about it for a while, we decided that we would wait until Spring to visit New England when we wouldn't have to sweat out bad weather. Then we would head back to Washington visiting North Dakota and Nebraska on the way.  We had been thinking about driving to Alaska next summer, but we have been there twice (by air) and that may not be a priority.

So, with that decision made, we headed south into Ohio today.  We stopped at a Welcome Center and chatted with the friendly fellow on duty.  When he found that we had never spent time in Ohio, he suggested we head towards Chillicothe (south of Columbus) and do some exploring in that area.

The country we drove through today was a little more open then where we had been in Indiana.  There are STILL lots of fields of soybeans and corn -- and corn and soybeans!

One thing I did notice -- the majority of the houses in Ohio are square!  They may have dormers like this one, or they may have a porch attached, but they are square.

This perfectly square building is a county courthouse we saw on the way --

We passed some Amish farms and furniture marts along the way and saw evidence of Amish buggies along the road.  The one buggy we saw had white stripes on the back instead of the orange "slow vehicle" triangle on the ones we saw in Indiana.

 It was NOT a nice day to be driving today.  The cold front that came through brought last night's rain, but also brought gusty winds all day! Highway 23 south is two-lane part of the way, so that meant for extra concentration as well.  We drove longer then we usually like to in order to get to Sun Valley Campground outside of Chilliclothe.  We got here about 6:30, just before dark.

Aw, the joy of sleeping in!

What a wonderful feeling to lie in bed and know that there is NO reason to get up and get going early this morning! After a week of getting up at 6 AM (which is really 3 AM our time!), it is delightful to be able to roll over an go back to sleep.

We have a late check-out (1 PM) and then will go find someplace to eat brunch before we head for the Columbus airport. Our flight home isn't until 7 PMish, so we have no reason to hurry for anything today! The downside though is we will not get back to Spokane until after 11 this evening, with an hour and one-half to drive yet back to the ranch.

After spending most of our time together 24/7, it's been interesting to be in one place for almost a week with only occasional time together. I've mostly been in delegate or board meetings, while Forry has been going to seminars and?

After six days, you would think you would have seen everyone you know, but with 8000+ people in attendance, we were still running into people last night -- and getting more hugs! Life is GOOD!

And Several Days Later --

I don't know what's going on with my computer -- or the internet at the ranch! I have NOT been able to connect there at all!

I had spent most of the day Thursday in Moses Lake with my dear friend Phyllis while Vic and Pam went to Wenatchee. It was a blessing to be able just to spend time with her. She slept most of the morning, so I was able to connect with Vic's wireless network; get my Norton virus software downloaded; get all the upgrades for both Microsoft and HP. It seemed like everything was going well...

Got home and attempted to access the internet and nada! I couldn't even get the computer to recognise the aircard...

We went to CleElum Saturday morning for the Memorial Service for our friend Dr. John Anderson at the Middle School Gym. The gym was full and it was a pretty amazing tribute. We heard a lot of stories about his Norwegian sense of humor and about all that he had done for rural health. It was good to see my former AHEC colleagues who were there. The community had a dessert reception following the program. There were three tables stretched the length of their school cafeteria loaded with cookies, cakes and other sweet things!

After the service, we went into Ellensburg to the AT&T store. They suggested that I delete the aircard software from the computer and then let the aircard reinstall it. I did, it reloaded just fine and voila! the computer could again see the aircard.

Got back to the ranch, had three bars, connected just fine, but then again it would not connect to the internet!

We flew to Columbus, Ohio today for the biennial Mennonite Church USA convention. We are at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and when we checked in I did get the password for their wifi system hoping that I could get it to work at least. I plugged in the computer, tried the aircard and it worked perfectly! I just don't understand what is going on!