OUR LAST WEEK IN OHIO

Motor home repairs are finished so we plan to leave Ohio on Tuesday, May 30th. Our plan is to be in Minnesota June 1st. Ben, here we come, ready or not!!  Hope that you will be working locally some of the month.
We have spent the past week and this week visiting with friends and family whom we had not yet visited this time around.
Friday, May 12th  we met with Victor and his former co-worker, Mike,  and wife, Judy, at Stage Coach Restaurant in North Georgetown for their famous fish. This time I did the broiled instead of deep fried and found it to be great!! I will continue to order that there! We had a great visit with Mike and Judy and look forward to doing the same next time in Ohio.
Saturday, May 13th was to be our Mother's Day celebration at Longhorn Steakhouse.

Savannah, Richie, Victor, Richard and Lynn

It was a great visit but were greatly concerned when I realized that we were shorted by a $50 gift card! Not sure what happened to it after the waitress got it????? But they are making it right by promising to have corporate send us another card.  Thank goodness!!
My next two days were spent preparing for medical tests and I can now report that all results were good. That is always a relief.
Tuesday, May 15th  was an eye appointment for Gary with lunch following at Pop Jackson's. We seldom think to stop there, but have always been pleased with the food when we do.  Then we drove on to Berlin Center to see our Ohio RVing friends, Bill and Jane.

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 We knew that they will soon be heading west again so needed some good time with them!! Bill and Jane we wish you safe travels and maybe we can run in to you again in the west.
Wednesday, May 16th was another full day. Gary went to Victor's to do more of his outside trim painting on his house before I left for Salem for lunch with my friend, Barb, at Tim Horton's.  Barb it was such a great visit!! Thanks for sparing me the time. I know that you have much work to keep up with at home!

Following that I met with another friend, Louise, at Shaing Hai River to eat Chinese for a change. Of course, we never get caught up completely with conversation about events in our lives.  We miss our other two friends who have passed away since Gary and I have been on the road. (Gary and I hit our ninth anniversary for travels on May 31st.)
Gary and I spent the next day running errands in Salem for Janet. After I took him back to the condo, I went back to Salem to meet with my former Home Savings co-workers at Mike's Penn Grille for dinner.

Norma, Joyce, Debbie, Mike and Katy

Another Norma, another two Debbies, Janet and a fourth Debbie.
Imagine what it was working with all of them at once!

Mike has expanded his space and his menu so we were very pleased to have a room to our selves for our noisy bunch.  We never run out of things to talk about but we do run out of time. I promised them a picnic for the next visit. Seems that I am the one who does the planning for these get togethers. But we sure enjoy them!!
Friday, May 19th was scrap booking for me with friends in Salem.

Betty scrapbooking

Mary Ann really had been working on her card making!
Guess she is finished for the day!

And Eugenie just stopped by before we finished up
to visit with us.

Not sure how much work we got done, but we do visit and have lunch together. See you next time girls!
I also stopped at Walmart to see our grandson for a few minutes.  Since he is working full time there, we see very little of him. Rich, you make us proud!!
Gary was with his friend, Rick, that day to do the flea market thing along with antiquing!
Saturday, May 20th was "Men of Faith" at the Dutch Haus in Columbiana for breakfast and fellowship. Gary looks forward to that each month.
We followed that with a trip to Salem for a Library book sale. Of course, we each managed to get another bag full!. We then stopped at the Salem Community Center to see if we could sign up for Silver Sneakers to use there and across the country.  We found that since our insurances are from Florida where our permanent residence is, we have to sign up in Florida. Very disappointed as it will probably be quite some time before we are down there again. We are thinking that we will try on line. Maybe that will work as we sure need to be exercising more!
In the mean time I got a call from friend, Cheryl, about lunch out with the Bible Study girls in Lisbon. I guess that I had not kept track of that plan as it was not on our calendar. But Gary took me there and he spent that time looking for garage sales.  We lunched at a new restaurant behind the courthouse, called Love's Cafe' at Courthouse Inn B&B. The restaurant does not serve any meat and we were in awe of the many veggie, fruit, cheese combinations that they have come up with!!  And the deserts were unbelievable and unbelievable prices also!! Gary made the piece of German Chocolate Cake that I got for him last three days.  I ate all of my peanut butter pie while there. Needless to say, I did not need to eat the rest of the day!!  Cheryl, thank you for calling to remind me!!
Sunday, May 21st after church, we headed for Warren to meet up with my cousin, Larry and his wife, Betty at O'Charley's for dinner along with our son, Victor.

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This is a half way trip for all of us, so not as taxing.  Larry and Betty we enjoyed the visit and of course the food, and plan to do it again when we return to the area.
The rest of this week was spent doing many repeats, including taking the motor home to All Pro in Alliance for the repairs.
Tonight and tomorrow night, May 24 & 25th, we will have dinner with friends, Ron and Donna at Bob Evans and then with RVing friends, Bill and Esther at Ange Netta's in Canfield.  Gary is also getting his coffee break with Pastor Pete.  He looks forward to that!
Then Friday will be a trip to Akron for an Oil Change, etc. for the Honda, after which maybe I can talk Gary into some Thrift Store stops??
Our last family get together will be Sunday.  Not sure what I will plan for that. It might depend on the weather.  It would be nice to picnic.  But I have to plan careful so that there is not food left over to need to move with us.Looking forward to the time together. Wish we could do it more often!
This will probably be the last Blog until we get to Minnesota. So check back in a week or two.
God Bless You All!!

BACK IN OHIO for MOTORHOME REPAIRS and FAMILY

Since arriving back in Ohio on the 3rd of May, we have managed to keep busy most of the time.

Just before leaving Athens, Alabama Gary did get to take in a Classic Car Show.  He always enjoys those and likes to take pictures for his drawing.

From there on, we managed to keep out of the direct path of the tornadoes by at least twenty miles. On Sunday we went to First Baptist Church in Athens and got to hear their new Youth Pastor preach for the first time and had a very good Sunday School Teacher. Won't hesitate to go back there some time. The awesome part about that location was that the small RV Park was right along the freeway and plenty to do in the area.

Leaving Athens, we arrived in LaGrange KY Walmart for the night and got to feel the winds there also. We had hoped to meet up with the Evans there, but evidently they have not yet returned from Florida. 

The second day we drove on to Alliance where we were leaving the motorhome for some minor repairs. To make this switch we stopped in the Alliance Mall to switch our travel/outdoor stuff from the car into the motorhome for storing. But that could not be done until we removed the things that we needed to use during our stay in Ohio, specifically, food and clothing. When making all of this switch, Gary became aware that the battery in the car was dead again!! So we had a long wait for AAA service and then made a trip to O'Reilly's for a new battery. Since it had to be jumped several times recently, it was time! Now on to Boardman to the condo with just the car by 5:30,  It was a very lo-o-ong day since we began at 5:45 am. Gary did all of the motorhome driving. It was not my wish to struggle with the winds.

While driving from Canton to Alliance, we got a text from Gary's niece from Missouri. We were surprised that they were in Ohio. But it is her father's 75th birthday. So we made plans to have them come by and visit us the next evening. 

Victor, his cousin Karen and Andy.

After settling in the condo I also ordered pictures from Walgreen and went to join friends to scrapbook that next day. Eugenia helped me learn to use my Cricket that I have had for a year (without using it any). 

On Saturday we went to the Class of '63 breakfast at BB Rooners. Danny likes to treat the class now and again. It was a great visit! But no pictures this time. 

We made a couple stops to visit Gary's sister and then caught up with laundry and relaxed!!!

At the Salem Day in Southwest Florida we had won four tickets for a Neil Diamond Tribute Concert at the Salem High School on May 7th.  We got friends, Esther and Bill to go with us. Now we just need to get together with them to visit as they wintered in Arizona and California while we were in Florida and Ohio. Need time to catch up.

On Sunday back in our old home church we ran into other Florida returnees. We will need to make a time to catch up with friends, Bill and Jane, before they either go west or back to Florida. 

Gary began the week at Victor's for Vic's vacation day to get some outdoor painting done. With some scaffolding it went along pretty easy. And Gary has been there a couple times since to continue with the window trim. 

Victor

Gary's work

Next on the agenda for me was doctor appointments with procedures scheduled for next Monday, more laundry catch up for the motorhome bedding and throw rugs. 

Today Gary is out with his friend, Rick, for breakfast and some running around. Now dinner is planned for Stage Coach tomorrow evening with Vic and friends, and a family dinner on Saturday evening. Our grandson is working six days straight this week at his new job, so is a little more difficult to schedule time together for all. 

More plans made to meet up with more friends next week. So will keep you posted in a future Blog. Stay tuned.