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.