Day Thirty-Two Jeffersonville (OH) to Geneva (NY)

For a last day on the road, it wasn't too bad. Not totally anti-climactic, not over the top, chock-full of excitement. Yay. A moderate day.

It was another tennis day - Federer was playing for his seventh Wimbledon - Murray playing for the first Great Britain win in a lot of years (76 apparently). Mom was rooting for Roger. When I woke up, I checked the TV and found that the match didn't start until 9 am our time - local Eastern Time! And we had to check out at 11 which didn't give mom much time to watch the match. Oh well. (It is odd to me that watch and match don't rhyme...) We did get to see the only set that Andy Murray won. And it was 4-4 in the second set as we headed out the door.

The last time packing the car made me happy. Lugging all that stuff and fitting it into the trunk and the back seat, though relatively easy, was still a bit of a pain. And we missed breakfast. In the recap, I will talk about the whole trip. When will the recap happen? Probably in tomorrow's post or a bonus post. We shall see. Into the car and over the bridge, we headed off on the last day of driving, with almost no plan in mind. The only thing I was thinking was that it would be good to stop around lunch time so mom could watch more of the tennis and we could have a good break.

Turned out to be a day dominated by rest area stops. At the first one I checked the tennis score and tried to find an interesting place for lunch. There was no wifi that I could detect. Poop. But my 3g was fast enough. The tennis match was now tied one set a piece and the third set was tied at one game all and was suspended! Great, I thought, we can still drive for a good while and mom will still be able to watch more tennis. I picked an interesting sounding place located in Strongsville, Ohio, called The Brew Kettle.

The Brew Kettle stop took us a little out of our way - not too terribly - just more closely to Cleveland than the GPS had wanted us to go. It took me a little zipping around to get us into the correct parking lot. And there were a lot of people already there! On a Sunday! Wait, we were going there on a Sunday...We got a table immediately and asked Taylor, the hostess to put tennis on the television. It happened just in time to see Federer walking off the court with this trophy! Glarp! Poor mom. For the next few hours, all she could ask was if they ever re-showed tennis matches. Well, at least she got to see that he had won.

I had some beer and ate a little of the fish and chips that I ordered for mom. All was good - more on the brewpub blog (eventually).

We stopped several times in the next few hours. Twice for potty breaks, once for gas. Mostly, we just drove. And drove. Not that it was that far, in the greater scope of things. At times, though, it did feel like Geneva was receding instead of getting closer. But we did eventually get there. I emptied the car and opened up the house - it was a bit stuffy after being basically empty for a month. Made mom her leftovers from lunch for her dinner, and found a can of yummy chef boyardee lasagna in the pantry for me. Together we watched Masterpiece Mystery. Then bed. Yay!

In the next few days, I will be catching up and doing all the things that I have on my to do list. It will make for an exciting life and riveting blog posts, I am sure! One of the things on my to do list is to put a lot more pictures from the trip up on facebook. Someday.

First Rest stop in Ohio

Our lunch location

A rest stop in NY that still has a pedestrian bridge

Arrival Documentation

reblogging and blogging and blogged

How does one know if one has been reblogged? I can't imagine that I have, but anything is possible. The stats continue to amaze me. I am getting visitors from all over the world. True, not many of them, but still...

More tennis yesterday. Not a lot more, but still...I like that phrase - but still...

Finished reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - moved to tears here and there. I would recommend it to people who like to read. :) Whether or not I will read his first novel, Everything is Illuminated, remains to be seen. I doubt I will get it from the library before we leave. Yup, we are leaving. Friday. Lots to do before that...

I got a call out of the blue - I like it when that happens - from a professor of mine from Hobart and William Smith. She is producing an opera and was wondering if I wanted to be in the Chorus. I told her I would be interested in helping out in any way that I could - and that I was traveling around the time of the performance, so I wasn't sure what I could do to help. There is an organizational meeting on Wednesday at Houghton House. Yippee!

Wednesday is also a doctor's appointment for mom. Life is good.

Oh, I get to take another bike for a test spin today. It might be "the one." Why can't finding a relationship be like buying a bicycle? :) Hmm, maybe it is...Now I just need to find a good "bicycle shop!"

Will Kelly, my Chinese English Student call again today? Anything is possible...

Pictures from June 19, 2011:


Now, who wouldn't want a piece of that? :) I like self timers on cameras!


And there it is - the camera that I have been using for most of the past 8 years!

Juicer

I bought my mom a juicer several years ago. Hmm, I wonder how many years ago...Anyway, she never used it. Understandably. It is huge and intimidating. And has a lot of parts that need to be cleaned.Cleaning right away works best. Anyway, I have mentioned it here before. I just like it. I think once a week or twice a week for fresh juice is not a bad thing. Yesterday's juice was grapes mostly, plus one nectarine and one apple. Yum! I have another watermelon to make more juice, but that will probably wait until Monday or so.

Two things I would like to accomplish in the nearish future: clean out a second drawer in the dresser in my room; I need a place to put pants and things. And one pass through one of the attic rooms. The front room. It is fairly neat already, but I would like to take a look and see if there is anything that is crying out to be gotten rid of. And maybe I will make that the sale room - put anything that might go up for sale in a yard sale in there. Anything is possible...

Oh, I tennised yesterday. All by myself. For about 20 minutes. I figure I need to start out slow. My hand was about to be sore from holding the racquet. It has been at least ten years, maybe longer, since I put racquet to ball. So two dozen serves, a dozen forehands and two dozen backhands and I called it a day. Yippee!

I give out cards as frequently as I can and hope that they don't all end up in the trash. I gave one to a woman from Brazil yesterday who I have crossed paths with a couple of times already. Perhaps people actually look at the blog. Not one has actually contacted me from the card. Yet. Hope springs eternal. There are very few good correspondents out there. Jeff is probably thinking that I am a bad one for not having responded to his last missives - but I will, Jeff - I will! And others - well, isn't it polite to ask questions of the other person? To show that one is interested in the other person's life? Statements do not a dialogue make...Oh, I still haven't heard from or remet the Turkish girls. Oh well.

Pictures from June 18, 2011:


Mom wanted me to mark my tennis balls for some reason. So I did.


Not a lot of people playing tennis yesterday. Maybe I will go up again today...

Unexpected can be great!

I had a plan in mind. I often have a plan in mind. I like to have a plan in mind. That way, I haven't failed to plan or planned to fail or whatever that saying is. So, my plan was to go to the bicycle shop and test ride some bikes. I would really like a bike. I walked all the way down there - all the way being about 6/10s of a mile. And found they were closed. Always closed on Wednesdays. Whatever. I did, though stop at the bank and at a game store in town. I wish the game store luck. I can't imagine what their daily nut has to be. Digression, gotta love it.

So, anywho, I was mildly disappointed that the store was closed. Well, that just means that I get to go today. Yippee. I decided to continue with my plan and walk to Wegman's - another 6/10s of a mile. But I got sidetracked. I hadn't, as of yet, actually made it inside of Eddie O'Briens. And I don't know how often I will frequent the place. But I am getting ahead of myself. I went in and sat at the bar. I wasn't planning on staying, but Morgan, the bartender was too darned beautiful (sorry Morgan, had to say it) sweet, intelligent and personable for me to just say "hi" and leave. She was great and I know that whatever she does in life, she will do it excellently (with all of the caveats that go with life). She fed me lots of tastes of beer that I have already had. Yippee. And then a $1.50 pint of Yuengling - which, after all the tastes, wasn't too bad. I also met Greg. And a server named Tracy. And another server whose name escapes me just now. Maybe it will come to me. Anyway, I had a grand time with Morgan at Eddie O'Briens.

On my walk to Wegman's, I came across three young women all dressed the same, in Belhurst shirts. I spoke with them, because that is who I am. They are, it turns out, here working for three months at Belhurst. From Turkey! I will, one day, know their names. I apologize, but Turkish is not a language that I am familiar with, and their names were a challenge for me to absorb. They were on their way to the Big M market (Madia's) to get some groceries. I "made" them go to Wegman's instead. I think they were happy about that. Instead of making them walk home again, I walked, quickly, to get my car, so that I could drive them home. Sweet kids! I hope to run into them again before their time here is over.

So, the long and the short of it - say yes. Make a plan and take what comes - go with the flow - see the possibilities and pick the ones that offer the most growth, not the ones that offer the most safety or comfort. Life is too short for that.

I also went out to the Beef and Brew. It has quickly become my hangout of choice - at least on Mondays and Wednesdays. Met a whole slew of college staff members. Fun was had!

Pictures from June 8, 2011:


Step two - buy tennis balls - step one was accomplished when I brought my tennis racquet up from Clayton, NC. Now, I just need to get my butt out there and hit some balls. Sigh.


Can't help myself - I like taking pictures of the Seneca Lake!


This was in the shade. The other side said 97!


Taps and Morgan at the very end. Someone actually eager to be in a picture!


More of mom's peonies.