August, 2002
Whew! And we thought July was a hot month! August started out even hotter. On the 1st, we left our campground in Monroe, MI and drove the RV to Marysville, OH and picked up our two oldest granddaughters. From there we drove on to Kings Island Amusement Park north of Cincinnati. We arrived at their campground in time for a late dinner and then to watch the fireworks. On Friday the 2nd we took the girls to the playground in the campground and grocery shopping and rode the tram over to the main park just to see where it went and how it operated. The girls got a kick out of cooking hot dogs over an open fire for dinner and making S'mores for desert. Tom and I were grateful, after seeing the large number of tents and popups in the park, that we were in our RV with air-conditioning. The temperature was 95-98* and the humidity was in the above 50% range, making the heat index above 110*. Ann and Matt and Merrick arrived around midnight Friday night and we had a houseful! On Saturday the seven of us headed to Kings Island. We spent the morning in "Hanna-BarberraLand." Matt's employer provided a picnic lunch for us all and in the afternoon we headed to the water park....quite refreshing. Tom and I took the girls back to the RV for dinner while Matt and Ann enjoyed some "big people" attractions, and then they came to get the older girls and took them back for some more rides after dark, and to watch the fireworks.
On
Sunday noon we packed up and moved to the Thousand Trails Preserve in
Wilmington, OH. It was only about a 20 mile drive and we were parked and
hooked up again in about an hour....an easy way to move from one home to
another! Ann and Mary went to the outlet mall in Jeffersonville, while
Tom, Matt and the girls held down the fort. After dinner, Ann and family
returned to their home, and Tom and Mary enjoyed the peace and quiet and the
air-conditioning. We spent 5 nights at the TTN park and spent the days
catching up on various tasks. Mary spent some time sewing birthday dresses
for Coffey Ann. We took advantage of the roadside stands to get fresh corn
and tomatoes, and one day we drove to the Dayton area to tour the Air Force
Museum. And we returned to the Outlet Mall to do a little
shopping.
What
we thought was going to be a direct trip on Friday, Aug. 9, from the TTN park to
the Back Forty Campground near Bellefontaine, OH became a 2 1/2 hour tour of
small college towns in central Ohio. We ran into several detours that took
us on quite a ride, but we enjoyed seeing the small towns and campuses and the
late summer countryside. Arriving at the Back Forty we joined the Pioneer
Chapter of Bounders of America for a weekend rally. John and Sharon Disher
were the hosts and it seemed like they spent the weekend cooking up a
storm. We certainly didn't lack for things to eat.....fried chicken,
potatoes, fruit and deserts on Friday night, fresh coffee cakes and muffins with
fruit for Saturday breakfast, corn-on-the-cob, potato soup and chicken Sat.
night, and more fresh goodies on Sunday. We took a break from the Sat.
rally activities to drive into Dublin, OH to join in the celebration of our
oldest granddaughter's 5th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. It was a
noisy, but fun experience. Returning to the rally we shared dinner and
stories around the evening campfire.
After
the rally on Sunday, we drove the Bounder to Marysville. Matt had gone out
of town on business and Ann had been scheduled to work. Tom and I had
plans to take the 3 girls to the Columbus Zoo for Ann's company outing.
Unfortunately, Merrick was sick, so Ann stayed home with her and Tom and I
headed to the zoo with Coffey and Chloe. We had a fun afternoon visiting
animals from around the world. It's always fun to see how much the girls
already know and can share about the animals. We stayed in Marysville till
Tuesday, babysitting during the times that all the other adults were away and
enjoying playing and reading with the girls. Coffey is so excited about
starting kindergarten on the 21st.
Which
way to the roller coaster?
Now
this is the way to spend a 100*day at Kings Island!
Picnic
breakfast at the Kings Island Campground
We're
just a couple of party girls!
Will
brushing the goats hair make it shiny?
An
outdoor sculpture at the Air Force Museum
On our
return to Harbortown in Monroe, MI on Tuesday, Aug 13 we settled in at "our
spot" in the long term section of the RV park. Most of our neighbors are
the same as when we were here in July. There must be an "end of the summer
surge" in Rvers, as the park is nearly full, and they have waiting lists for the
weekends. The weather was still quite warm but we had clouds and rain
showers off and on most days. One day we got caught for a while at the
corner gas station where we'd walked to get a paper. (We started looking at the
deli selections for dinner ideas!)
Click on "forward" above to see more of our August
adventures.
page 1
We
temporarily left Harbortown the weekend of August 23 to attend a Buckeye Bounder
outing in Port Clinton, OH. It was another weekend of fun, games, good
food and good friends at the Tall Timbers RV Resort. Some of the group
took a ride on a riverboat replica up the Portage River on Saturday and we spent
quite a bit of time over the weekend playing Bean Bag Baseball and having a
"Snake" tournament. Following the "official outing" we stayed two extra
days at the campground. On Sunday we visited the Marblehead Lighthouse
(the oldest continuous serving lighthouse on the Great Lakes whose first keeper
was a relative of Mary's) and also Catawba Island where we enjoyed a jazz
festival at the MonAmi Winery. On Monday we drove a few miles to Lakeside,
OH to visit friends from our old neighborhood who have also retired and now have
a home in Sun Lakes, AZ (the Phoenix area) which we have visited several times
and a place at Lakeside. The Lakeside home was manufactured just for them
and placed on their lot in Lakeside just over a year ago. It is a lovely
home and Lakeside is a great place to spend the summer. It is a
"Chautauqua" community right on Lake Erie and has activities, programs and
entertainment for all ages every day in the summer. The big hotel and many
of the homes have been restored and the gardens are beautiful.
Click on "back" above to see more of our August
adventures.
August, 2002
page 2
Otherwise, the last two weeks of August we made a point to visit with
some old friends and get various doctor and dentist appointments taken care
of. We shared memories of our trip to Alaska with some new RVers
hoping to make the trip next year. Good friends Kathy and Dennie Dew had
us over for dinner. One night we attended a fantastic Pig Roast at the
Spring Meadows Extended Care Center where Tom's mother resides. To
celebrate Mother's birthday we went with Tom's sister Judy and her husband Ron,
and Mother of course, to dinner at Max and Erma's. We'd been in the
Monroe, MI area all summer and finally went to visit the General George
Armstrong Custer exhibit at the Monroe County Historical Museum and also the big
statue of Custer in downtown Monroe. Custer had spent much of his youth in
Monroe and his wife returned here after his death. One of the facts that
we learned about was that many of Custer's relatives were with him, and also
killed, in the Battle of Little Big Horn. The statue of Custer had
originally been in the center of the street in downtown and when it was moved to
help traffic flow better, Mrs. Armstrong was upset, left town, and never
returned.
Over
Labor Day Weekend the RV park population swelled. All 250 sites were
filled with families enjoying the end of summer. It was quite a difference
to the peace and quiet of weekdays. We took our second car and put it into
storage, and had "last get-togethers" with a few friends and family. On
Saturday we had a fun lunch with Mary's parents and brother Bill and wife Beth
at the River Cafe in Toledo. Saturday night we spent the evening with old
neighbors, Dick and Liz Lehto. With all business taken care of, we're
ready to head west.
The
Buckeye Bounders teamed up to play Bean Bag Baseball.
Rex
and Nancy Wilsen in front of their new home in Lakeside, OH.
The
Marblehead, OH lighthouse.
Kathy and Dennie Dew smiling in their beautiful new kitchen.
The
statue of General George Armstrong Custer in Monroe, MI. You might notice
that all four feet of the horse are on the ground...which signifies that the
rider returned from battle uninjured. The sculptor said he had made the
image to portray Custer after the Battle of Gettysburg, many years prior to
his death.
Former
neighbors on Wyandotte Road, Dick and Liz Lehto.