ANOTHER WEEK IN OHIO

Yvonne and Jean at West Branch State Park preparing to serve for weekly Ice Cream Social



Ed and Gary waiting to scoop ice cream




And here they come!!



We thought this would be a weekend without rain. Ha ha ha.  Here it comes!!  Watch the clouds roll in.




John, you had better hurry and get it covered!!  John was from First Friends church.  He and his wife, Joyce, were here at the park for a week with children and grandchildren visiting.



Labor Day picnic.  Rich, Lynn and Richie back from vacation and it was good to see them and hear about their fun.  Nice to have Gary's friend, Rick, with us also!!



Fellow Camp Hosts here at the park, Yvonne and Pete, joined us for the picnic also.  Great to make new friends!!



Sitting around in the shade to chat a while.



Ben joins us later with friend, Holly, from Hawley PA.



Spider webs everywhere, every morning!!  I'd forgotten there were so many in Ohio!!



The buzzards are out every evening.  We watched them while at the office checking in new campers for the weekend.  They must have nests nearby.



This evening was a wonderful night with The Keelings!!  We drove over to Cortland Ohio to Calvary Baptist Church to hear them.  We were thankful that they had not had to cancel because of Randy's week in the hospital.  He had a real scare this past week with his heart.  But God is still in the Miracle business!!  We also got to see the six week old grand baby.  They are such awesome singers and so much fun!!  Love the Base who is also the very talented piano player.  They did not do the trumpets tonight because of Randy's health, but will be out with that again soon.  We learned that they will again be at First Friends for a Christmas Concert in December.  Sorry that we will miss that, but we did see them last year. 



Take care and God bless.  Hope that you have another great week!!

AUGUST IN OHIO

It is hard to believe that August is long past and summer is turning into fall.  We look for leaves to be turning soon as the nights get cooler.  I am looking out the front windshield at the campers and I see that many are in jackets.  I am not willing to give in yet!!

The hundred degree temperatures were hard on the lakes in the area though.  The water levels are sure down on Berlin and West Branch Lakes.  This is a picture of the water level here at WB, one section of WB Lake is dry and turning green.  Looks like they will have to get out the lawn mowers!!

 

It's birthday time!! Rich and Lynn and Richie treat us to dinner at Red Lobster, Audrey's favorite!!


Our month consists of five days per week cleaning camp sites, monitoring the campers, restrooms and beach in our section of the camp ground. In addition, we do more things that they call duties of the "Friends of the Park volunteers".  It's not bad serving ice cream and root beer floats on a hot evening and checking in guests for an hour on Friday evening, but we could do without the rest.  We are so different than the rest of the workampers here as we really do not live like campers.  This is just our home.  We never realized the difference until we got here.  We do not have full hook-up here so we are glad for the nice bath houses with showers and laundry that Ohio State Parks have. 
One day when returning from a shopping trip to Ravenna, we happened upon a car top carrier.  Since we sometimes have had to make trips without the motorhome, we have needed more space for stuff.  So we stopped and picked it up for only $20 and Gary is now fixing it up to carry securely on top of the Jeep.  Shame that he did this once before and we did not have the foresight to realize that we might need it again.  We sold it since we did not have a place to store it.  We decided now that we will just put it back on the Jeep each time that we move and it will go on the dolly right along with the Jeep.  I don't want to say that we are accumulating more as we really try not to.  It is just that there are occasions when it will come in handy. 
I have been with scrap booking friends both at the retirement center and at the Alliance Mall Scrap booking store.  It has been so much fun catching up with all of the friends.  I am catching our grandson's book up to date also(just one year).  I have also had to go to Mentor several times as my next older brother has not been real well. We have also rented a storage unit to stop infringing upon our son.  He is thinking of selling his house, so it was time for us to make other plans.  Because of Gary's art and my china, we are not ready to be without some things in storage.  One day we might want to settle back down.  But we are certainly not ready yet!! 
Gary can always find car shows to check out and friends to go to McDonald's for coffee with while I am off on my own jaunts. 
One evening we met with friends, Don and Lois, from Florida/Ohio who have quit going south to winter.  We met them at the Dutsch Haus in Columbiana and took our Grandson along.  It was a great visit!!
Our Grandson is back in school so we miss him coming to the camp ground.  We did drive back and forth to help him get to his Band Camp and Band practice before the football games began. We want to get to at least one game to watch them march and play. 
We also took off for Mountaineer Park for an overnight stay for relaxation and games.  That was Gary's treat for my birthday.  Of course, dinner out is always nice too!!  We spent an evening with Donna and Ray Symons for dinner at Island Creek Grille near Berlin Lake.  We had not been there before and we found the prices good as well as the food.  Ray said that he has been there three times and has not been disappointed yet.  So that is a good sign. We will try it again.
We stopped to see Diane Hergenroder who has stopped traveling back south for the winter because of her health.  Then I went back another day and joined her, Jane, Phyllis, Tammie and Katy for a wonderful quiche that Katy made.  It was so much fun catching up on news!!  
We also spent a day with our son, Ben, in Mentor moving my brother back into his Retirement Community.  He is so much happier there.  Just hope that his health holds up so that he can stay there. At our age, one never knows.
The day after my birthday we drove down to Pickerington OH to attend a 50th Wedding Anniversary party for fellow RVer's Bill and Bette Lyons.  We made it an excuse to stay overnight also.  The anniversary couple did not have a lot of time to visit, but we sure did visit a lot with their other guests!!

Bette and Bill with son, Bill, officiating.

 1962 and 2012
Still young at heart!!

Tastfully done!!

Who says those joints don't work?  Bill and Bette proved they are still young and agile!!

Harold and Judy Bloom, RVing friends who we met at the same time we met Bill and Bette when we went out to dinner back in 2006.  It is a unique story and Bill shared it with the guests.  They had been written up in the Canton Repository when they were in the final stages of getting ready to "hit the road".  So we wanted to find out what they knew that we did not and we called the CR and gave them our phone number to pass on.  The result was dinner out and a wonderful continuing friendship.  We met up with them each year here in Ohio and in Mesa/Apache Junction AZ and had many good times!!

 
Getting re-acquainted here with Harold and Judy was a plus for the weekend!!  They have since stopped traveling, but had some awesome stories to tell of driving their 4x4 out over the desert!!

 One of the wedding attendants spent time with me also, sharing her interest in scrapbooking and also telling of her hobby of spreading smiles as MoJo the clown. 

Even though I often forgot to take pictures for the Blog, you can see that we have been having fun.  We have a couple more short trips planned before we leave for the south in October.  So stay tuned and stay healthy.



FIRST FRIENDS CHURCH ANNUAL BBQ FOR FRIENDS DISASTER SERVICE

A wonderful fund raiser for Friends Disaster Service, groups of people serving people who have lost homes or had severe damage from a natural disaster, anywhere across the country.  When attending the BBQ you could look at photo albums showing many people giving of their time to work on those projects.  Of course, many friendships are made that last a life time, as well as the opportunity to share God's Word with people in need.

Welcome Friends!!
Nancy and Terri greet guests attending the First Friends Disaster BBQ

The food line begins here, with a half chicken roasted over an open pit.  YUM!

And the line continues to the beverages with desserts on around the corner.
These fine people are part of our SS Class!

While eating and visiting with many friends, we were entertained by several fine musicians.  However, I missed getting a picture of our friend, the pianist, Marian Christensen, who played first.

Pastor Pete Fowler and father, Terry

Quint Bryan, Disaster Service Advocate and his son



Don and Bonnie Conser visiting



Jeanne and Wayne Wilson

Roxanna and Galen Beck "Good food, serious business"



Time out for a smile!



Ray and Linda Zepernick



Ron and Mary Lou Shively



Daddy, Pete, takes time for a hug from his son and friend!



Best friends, Carla and Jane



Dick and Jane help feed the crowd!

It sure looks like everyone had fun, judging by the smiles!  And no one went away hungry!  There was even hot dogs for the non-chicken eaters. 
I have seemed just as busy since I got back in Ohio, so the Blogs are mighty slow coming out.  Sorry about that!!  And then sometimes we go out and I forget the camera or we are so busy talking that I forget to get it out of the case.  I sure need to get back on track.  Maybe some new travels would help.
Stay tuned for a new Blog again soon.  Hope that you are all having a wonderful summer now that the hundred degree temps seem to be behind us.