At 5:00 this morning Randy and I were up and putting the finishing touches on our house and ourselves. Meredith arrived at 5:30 on the nose, and by 6:10 we were out the door, everything dead-bolted, and we were on our way. Randy is driving his truck, and I am driving my Rendezvous. The reason for two vehicles is that we will not be driving home together. Now, while that may sound ominous, it's not! It's really a matter of creating the easiest way to get Randy's mom home from Texas, via North Carolina.
On the way home next week, Randy will be taking a side trip to Nags Head, in the Outer Banks, to pick up his mother, Fran. Fran will be flying north from Texas with Randy's sister's family, then be coming home with Randy to visit in Akron, where she will visit for three weeks, staying in the homes of all three of the Gillenwater siblings, sort of like a time-share event.
We have a reservation tonight at a Comfort Inn in the north part of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and we had to drive approximately 450 miles today to get here. We made exceptionally good time, but as two of us had not eaten breakfast, by about 9:45 AM we were ready to stop for lunch/brunch. We ate our picnic of egg-salad sandwiches and fruit on the banks of the Ohio River in Marietta, Ohio. We sat on the concrete tiers that face the river arena for the stern wheeler boats during the Stern Wheeler Festival Days that we have attended when my sister and her husband lived near Marietta.
We used the restroom at the historic Lafayette Hotel, then we were out of town and back on the road. We had a few gasoline stops and bathroom breaks, notably one at Beckley, West Virginia, near the Tamarack West Virginia Arts building.
On we drove. Our GPS unit, Thelma, is so wonderful. I don't know how we ever got anywhere without her. At exactly 3:50 PM, just as Thelma had predicted, we pulled into the parking lot of this Comfort Inn. (The funny thing is that Randy has borrowed his brother's GPS unit, Thelma II, and they have actually disagreed on the route to take!!!) Thank goodness for cell phones car to car.
We ate dinner at La Torrendos, a real Mexican restaurant which is fairly close to our motel. We have a bit of motion sickness from riding for more than nine hours. (You know that Randy and I don't like "power driving." We're more the ambling type........the "roamers.")
We anticipate a lovely evening and a good night's sleep here.
We have rented a beach house in Ocean Isle, North Carolina for a week, starting tomorrow. It's the beach town where my former husband and I used to take our kids for beach trips when they were little. Meredith actually selected the house online and we did the entire rental by computer. It's a house that sleeps more than the three of us, but we couldn't convince Stephen to leave home with us. (Meredith's little Yorkie, Boogie, is staying with a friend.) I cannot believe that I failed to mention the destination.............except in the title...........
.............but I guess that's because we so infrequently HAVE a "destination!"
Friday, July 15, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Columbus, Revisited
Randy and I went to Columbus for my STRS appointment, to investigate retirement, for me. We arrived early and took a walk several blocks to stroll around the state capitol building. We've decided that of all the state capitols, Ohio's is the least good-looking. It just doesn't have that regal look that others, with domes, do.
The meeting went well, was well-understood, and we left STRS to go to German Village to The Book Loft, the bookstore with 32 different rooms full of books. I bought a book about ghosts and a WW cookbook and a pile of greeting cards. Randy bought some construction books.
Then we went to North Star Cafe in Clintonville, north of Columbus, to meet up with Janet Lipkin Fish, who I truly have not seen since 9th grade. We've struck up a friendship via Facebook over the past two years. She is retiring right this minute and had steered me to the counselor I met with. I had a 6 dollar bowl of soup and Randy had a 14 dollar hamburger. Then we had four 3 dollar cookies..........egads.
We then went to "Short North," which is in the northern part of the city. Lots of galleries and cute little boutiques are there. We strolled around, checked out a few shops and galleries, and decided it was too hot to be there.
Since it was July 1st, Columbus was celebrating what is called "Red, White, and Boom!" and half of the city was not even at work (which is probably why we had no trouble driving around.....) and at night there was to be a huge fireworks display.
Randy and I ordered a big pizza and ate that in our suite at the Comfort Inn, then stood in the parking lot and watched what we could see of the fireworks, rather than be in a huge crowd. We also took a very short dip in the hotel pool.
On Saturday morning, it was raining, but we had planned to attend "The Gallery Hop" at Short North. Unfortunately, the rain kept a lot of people from going there. We went in and out of galleries, not buying anything. We found The North Market, on Spruce Street, (I think) and enjoyed a very leisurely walk through this old city market. (It is a small version of The West Side Market of Cleveland.) We ate a couple of samples, and I bought 6 large square screaming yellow dinner plates for summer entertaining at one great little kitchen shop. A farmer sold me some wheatberries at half what I've been paying at Giant Eagle, also.
We walked back to our car, parked on High Street, and ate coney dogs at Phillip's Coney Island, while we watched Retro TV.....Fess Parker in Daniel Boone, then Robin Hood. Across the street, at Jeni's fabulous ice cream shop, we had 2 scoops of ice cream for $8.................delicious, cold, and we needed it at that moment.
Home in the late afternoon via Lodi Outlets.
The meeting went well, was well-understood, and we left STRS to go to German Village to The Book Loft, the bookstore with 32 different rooms full of books. I bought a book about ghosts and a WW cookbook and a pile of greeting cards. Randy bought some construction books.
Then we went to North Star Cafe in Clintonville, north of Columbus, to meet up with Janet Lipkin Fish, who I truly have not seen since 9th grade. We've struck up a friendship via Facebook over the past two years. She is retiring right this minute and had steered me to the counselor I met with. I had a 6 dollar bowl of soup and Randy had a 14 dollar hamburger. Then we had four 3 dollar cookies..........egads.
We then went to "Short North," which is in the northern part of the city. Lots of galleries and cute little boutiques are there. We strolled around, checked out a few shops and galleries, and decided it was too hot to be there.
Since it was July 1st, Columbus was celebrating what is called "Red, White, and Boom!" and half of the city was not even at work (which is probably why we had no trouble driving around.....) and at night there was to be a huge fireworks display.
Randy and I ordered a big pizza and ate that in our suite at the Comfort Inn, then stood in the parking lot and watched what we could see of the fireworks, rather than be in a huge crowd. We also took a very short dip in the hotel pool.
On Saturday morning, it was raining, but we had planned to attend "The Gallery Hop" at Short North. Unfortunately, the rain kept a lot of people from going there. We went in and out of galleries, not buying anything. We found The North Market, on Spruce Street, (I think) and enjoyed a very leisurely walk through this old city market. (It is a small version of The West Side Market of Cleveland.) We ate a couple of samples, and I bought 6 large square screaming yellow dinner plates for summer entertaining at one great little kitchen shop. A farmer sold me some wheatberries at half what I've been paying at Giant Eagle, also.
We walked back to our car, parked on High Street, and ate coney dogs at Phillip's Coney Island, while we watched Retro TV.....Fess Parker in Daniel Boone, then Robin Hood. Across the street, at Jeni's fabulous ice cream shop, we had 2 scoops of ice cream for $8.................delicious, cold, and we needed it at that moment.
Home in the late afternoon via Lodi Outlets.
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