Ohio Travels

We spent the last two weeks of September circling around Ohio, visiting, giving workshops, and generally enjoying scenery that was new to both of us.

A - Allegeny State Park, NY

B - Geneva, OH

C - Cincinnati, OH

D - Celina, OH

E - Falling Waters, WV

After two days at Allegeny State Park, which was nearly deserted on a Monday and Tuesday after Labor Day, on Oct 14 we traveled to one of our Harvest Hosts wineries, Virant Family Winery in Geneva, OH. Charlie Virant helped us get situated at the edge of the parking lot, then gave us tastes of a number of his wines. We liked his Mya's Majesty, a light-bodied dry red blend named after his dog Mya.

That evening, we enjoyed dinner with our friend Darren Warren, one of Tom's coworkers at SNBL, who is now working in Painesville, OH, just down the road from Geneva. We had a nice time catching up on the happenings at SNBL and with our respective families.

On the 15th, we made a one-night stop in Columbus, OH so Barbara could have her eyes checked and order a years' worth of contact lenses at Costco. The next day we drove down to Cincinnati, where we stayed for 4 nights at the Family Motor Coach Association campground. Over the weekend, we went across the Ohio River to Kentucky for some genealogy research. One of Tom's ancestors immigrated from Ireland, served in the Revolutionary War, and farmed near Union, KY. He is buried in a family plot that is now on the 18th hole of a golf course! The county library in Burlington has a large collection of local history and genealogy sources, so we spent a few hours filling in some details for Tom's records. We also enjoyed a nice dinner and visit with Jim and Kathy Maurer at their lovely home just north of Cincinnati. Jim was one of Tom's regular golf partners when they both attended annual Society for Toxicological Pathology meetings.

On Monday the 19th, Barbara helped Donna Simmons, a friend from our histology days, give a workshop on writing a scientific paper at the National Society for Histotechnology Annual Symposium. We also visited with a number of old friends at the Charter Members reception that evening. Even though we've both been out of the field for almost 30 years, we treasure memories of our times in NSH, and it's great to see people we remember fondly.

From Cincinnati we moved on to Celina, OH for our first Eastern Gypsy Gathering - an annual RV rally put on by Nick and Terry Russell, authors of the Gypsy Journal, a publication for RVers and wanna-be RVers. We first met Nick and Terry at the Life on Wheels conferences in 2007 and 08, but this was the first time we were able to attend one of their rallies. We had a great time, despite the cool rainy weather - four classes a day, vendors we patronized too generously, door prizes and entertainment in the evenings, and lots of new people to meet. We especially enjoyed the classes taught by Jim and Chris Guld, the Geeks on Tour. In fact, I learned how to set up this blog in one of their classes. Tom and I gave a session on Harvest Hosts, and also hosted a get-together for the Newmar RV owners - 11 of the 110 RVs at the rally were Newmars.

After spending last night at the WalMart in Morgantown, WV, we are now in Falling Waters, WV, just southwest of Hagerstown, MD. The drive from Morgantown was very interesting despite the incessant rain - fall colors are beginning to pop, and I-68 snakes up, down, and around through the mountains of northern West Virginia and far western Maryland. Barbara used low gears and the compression brake quite frequently! The dramatic geology of the area is displayed in the cuts made to smooth the road - we even saw some people parked on the side of the interstate collecting coal that had crumbled down from an exposed vein. We would like to come back here sometime when the sun is shining, rather than in the rain that we've driven in all day yesterday and today! 

Tomorrow we'll visit with Judy Packard, one of Tom's cousins who works in DC, but lives in Martinsburg, just south of here.

Next week we'll visit Gettysburg, PA, then go on to Coatesville, PA to visit with Tom's daughter Tisha, followed by a week in Virginia, where we'll visit with Barbara's brother Jim and his family and do some research at the National Archives in DC.