Wednesday 9. Seventy four years ago today my brother Carl was born. So sad he is gone. What might we both be doing together now were he alive and both of us retired?
The Geese! They were a nuisance all night. The three young bikers said they had a terrible time sleeping as the honking was close by them and the honking went on all night. We heard them too but not being as close and inside a house we slept quite well.
It seems as if ever since we were on Central time for a few weeks we have been getting up later. But it must have been soon after six when we got up today because E&R were on their way by 7:30 following Miriam’s breakfast of eggs, home fries and onions. Of course there is always grapefruit and coffee.
Our meditation from II Corinthians 5 was apropos for our journey. The commentator in Rejoice spoke of their camping trip in the wilds and then how we can return to nice homes again whereas the refugees of Darfur and other places have little hope of anything for the future and their tenting is far more primitive than our three young biking friends. How blessed we are, or is it a noose around our necks that strangles us from seeing Jesus as the source of all our need?
The three young men left camp with a cheerful wave about 8:30. I sent their photos and more stuff for the Blog.
I put a little water in the tanks not being sure of our next facilities. We were on the road after ten.
Today we drove through some of the saddest looking Amish homes and farms -- dilapidated – that we have ever seen. Is it by choice to be humble or are these just extremely poor people. The farming implements were very antiquated compared to the Lancaster Amish.
We arrived at Findley Lake State Park about 11:30. There was no one on duty so we had to find a site and fill out the papers. They were closed from noon to one so we parked in a lot to have lunch. A park officer stopped by and we paid the money to him. It is a most lovely park but there is no water or electric on site. We needed to go to their maintenance shed to load up.
We parked and relaxed in the mostly shaded spot. I read more of Phil Clemen’s book on the Sermon on the Mount. It is a most refreshing book.
E&R arrived about 4:30 after an 80 mile day. They also noted the same thing we did about the Amish.
We used charcoal and made fish tonight. It was great plus the rice mix Miriam made.
This evening it took a long time trying to come up with tomorrow’s camp site. We all want to go to Oberlin College that has a significant museum on the UR. It was an early college that took in Blacks. From there they do not want to go too far like today. We settled on an expensive KOA South of Cleveland.
We watched the 3rd segment of the 2 CD DVD “Africans in America.” These excellent programs (4 shows totaling 6 hours) are produced by PBS. Hopefully they can be run at LH or shared with friends. We were all tired and some dozed a bit. It was 10:45 when we hit the sack.

Thursday 10. Today it is four weeks since we left home. It has been a great four weeks.
I must have been awake at four or earlier and could not sleep. For a while there was a Barred Owl calling “Who-cooks-for-you-who-cooks-for-you.” It has been a long time since we have heard that call – nice.
We were all up at six and after a hefty oatmeal breakfast, we all gave each other our usual goodbye hugs and kisses. They were off at 7:30.
We took some time to read the Mennonite Weekly Reviews and then pulled out of this lovely camp site about 9:30. We drove around to see some more of this large campground.
We arrived in Oberlin, 14 miles north and made several circles around the college campus looking for either the UR museum or the rail tracks. When we pulled over to the side a man out for a walk came and favorably commented on the MH. We asked if wanted to see inside. He was pleased and said this is just what we need, if I can convince my wife. We are just about retired. He stayed and chatted quite a while and then told us how to find the tracks just about two blocks away, where we had driven by before but looked the wrong direction. Miriam took photos of these railroad tracks with ties coming up or perhaps going down into the earth figuratively representing the Underground Railroad. He didn’t seem to indicate that there was much in the museum about the UR but talked about quite a number of houses with secret passages where slaves hid until they could get to the boats on Lake Erie just 8 miles north to cross over into Canada.
We left heading across country nearly directly east for a Wal*Mart and then the Streetsboro KOA campground. No Wal*Mart Super center so we settled for a Giant Grocery store. Our local Giant Store card would not work in this Giant so the women in back of us let us use hers. It seemed that the GPS took us way out around. They seem programmed to take you on Interstates as much as possible. As expected the KOA is nice, if a little pricey. It is relatively level but shade-less on a rather warm day.
When we called to let them know the camp site number, E&R said they had a shifter break down and spent some time in a bike shop. At 1:30 they estimated there were still 30 miles to go. It will be about five when they get in, hopefully.
I worked to get on the strong WiFi here without success. In the process all my customary AOL settings disappeared and it would not let me have the “Broadband” setting. I worked a long time at it and have no idea why AOL should have changed.
We took a walk – a long one from our campsite way out at the end – to get some tissues, check out their home made fudge and see about the WiFi. They gave me a brochure from their WiFi Company with numbers to call, none of which were operational. Finally another 800 number showed up. When I called it, I was told I need to sign up for the service and pay to the tune of $2.69 per hour of use. Forget it.
The cyclers arrived at 5:30 and told their story. They spent three hours in a bike shop getting repairs. The cable to the rear de-railer broke. After leaving the bike shop they discovered that the camp address was not correct and were told they had another six miles to go. It turned out to be only two, but those were two miles off the bike route, not something they are enthused about. This was another 80 mile day and they were beat. However, after showers and clean clothes it is always amazing how they feel so refreshed Anyway, they arrived safe.
We had a delicious supper of leftovers to clean out the frig out on the picnic table. It was a bit cool, but endurable.
We continued at the table to work out the next several days’ stops. Again the plans are for a couple of short days – 50-60 miles. To accomplish that we will look for a spot to boon-dock tomorrow near Austinburg and then call them with the location.
A woman pulled up in one of those John Deere “gators” and stopped and talked. She was working a cleanup. We asked her if she was the manager. “I’m the owner,” she said. She continued, my husband left me and I got the campground, but the Lord helped me. She came over and sat at the table with us and talked about the business and its operation. She also asked about the bike ride and gave E&R some directions for leaving via a better route. I said to her, ”From something you said earlier it sounds as if you take your faith seriously?” She picked right up on that. She had been a faithful active member of a church but her husband turned out to be faithless. She did not indicate if that was true before marriage or happened later. Gradually church involvement fell by the way. When her husband left in her desperation she searched out and found a church and a faithful woman who hung with her praying with her every Tuesday morning at breakfast. She did not know how she could have gotten through her loss without the support of this new congregation and this faithful Christian woman who still prays and shares breakfast with her each week. Now she is very involved in the church. It turned out to be a very refreshing evening. By the time she left it was dark and she needed the headlights on her gator.
As big a day as the bikers had they still needed a few games of Rummikub to unwind. “We feel just fine after showers and Miriam’s good supper and we do not need to get up early tomorrow. So we played until eleven. Everyone won a game but poor Paul.