Ian and Sky at Bob EvansI woke up early yesterday--before the sun came up and could not get back to sleep, so I finished the last blog post. But that left me very tired and not very creative with my last post. Well, I slept in today and am feeling so much better--I can feel the creative juices flowing today! I will need it with another long drive of nothing. I will apologize ahead of time to anyone from the Midwest for my cynicism and boredom! But today actually ended up being quite eventful in spite of the long drive with nothing planned. Our morning started with breakfast at Bob Evans restaurant that was next to our motel. This is actually the first eating out we have done since we left. The place we found out later is a chain and is basically a Denny's. But man was it good in a bad sort of way. I chatted it up with the waitress, telling her our tale and praising her up and down for the wonderful food that has been served to us. No camping stove, no digging through a cooler, just food served to me at my request. How nice!
First of all, I have to apologize for my geography faux pas--I always think that Indiana is west of the rest of the "I" states as I so fondly refer to them. But it is actually the most east. So, we got on the freeway in Illinois, and saw signs for Indiana. As I drove along, passing many major city signs: Chicago (Illinois), Memphis (Tennessee), Toledo (Ohio)--added in the states, since most Californians do not know any geography past the Western states. It is all just East to West Coasters. Anyways, the only signs I saw for Indiana stated Indiana--no major cities. I thought, how sad! Indiana must have a low self esteem. All the other states must be laughing at it. There are no major upcoming cities advertised, like all the other states, saying "Hey, by the way, there is absolutely nothing of interest in Indiana. So, just pass through, because we have nothing to offer you." I mean there is the ever famous Indianapolis--where are the signs?? Pictures to prove this.
Oh Look, Indiana is coming up...
But there is Chicago and Danville--that looks much more interesting!
There are all 3 signs together--which place would you choose? Hey look, there is Toledo and Detroit--let's go!
A couple of hours into our drive, I see a big billow of smoke up ahead and it looks close to the freeway. Some excitement, I think--a brush fire. Some emergency trucks pass me, but as I get closer.....
Holy cow!!! I think, not really processing the sight at first. There is a mini van off the side of the road and the front end is dented in. There are 5 young guys under the overpass, watching the event. I am assuming they were in the mini van. The car is overturned in the middle of the freeway and just blazing. An ambulance is leaving as I get up to the accident, so I hope that means that they got the guy out before the blaze started. If not.....It was crazy! The other side of the freeway was shut down completely and who knows for how long. They were not even trying to control the fire yet! Actually there was no fire truck present yet. I thought that was kind of odd. There were police cars and emergency pick up trucks driving to the scene and an ambulance on its way out, but no fire truck--sort of important in this situation!
A big issue I have been working on during this whole trip is time. I have always been very focused on time. If I plan to be somewhere at a certain time--when going on a trip--and have a late start, I continuously calculate in my head how much later I will arrive and what time I would have been there, if I left on time.. During this trip, I have been trying to let go of this mind clutter. I started out strong in the head trip of time each day, and most days have been foiled by waking up later than expected due to the time change. So, if we woke up at 9:00 am it is actually still early for us west coast time, but did not allow us to get an early start by the time we packed up and reorganized the car. Or each time I thought we would make good time, we would go through a time change and lose an hour. I have finally let go of time and just allowed us to arrive whenever we arrive. Calculating has not made our trip any faster or made us get anywhere any sooner. By letting go of calculating, it has allowed me to let go of an underlying stress to "get there". I find I have an underlying level of stress when I am focused on time and can not fully enjoy the moment in front of me. So one of my lessons on this trip is to let go of time and just be. Whatever and however it unfolds will be perfect.
We landed at the campground I found on line early that evening. We landed in New London, Ohio. I spoke to a woman in the morning who ensured me that they had a camping spot for us. She was a warm woman and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with her. I felt very good about my choice. The night before I opted for another motel room, because the owners of the campground I found in that area, did not exude any good energy and appeared difficult to say the least. I followed the directions to the campground and it led me up a driveway that went past their house--the woman had described it to me in case no one was at the campground when we arrived. I thought--oh boy, the campground is on their property. But it was so quaint and sweet. I met up with the husband in the campground. He was very personable and gave us a choice of some spots. I noticed a small playground at the back of the campground. I asked about it and there was 1 camping spot away from the small circle of other sites that was set by the pond. I took it immediately. Granted the whole campground could be walked in a few minutes. The "swimming hole" aka pond was actually quite murky--not for swimming, but made for nice ambiance. It had a spouted fountain in the middle and a very small sandy beach. The husband gave me the low down on the folks staying there--some were year round and some seasonal, but all more long term than us. We set up camp and then took a walk to the pit toilets--gross smelling, but very clean. Ian was not so hot on these toilets, even though he is used to port-o-pottys when we do festival camping. We took a walk around the pond and gave each of the campers a "howdy". I found it interesting that people would choose to live here all year or for the summer. Given that it is quaint, it was still strange to pick some one's property to camp out at for long periods of time. There was a young guy--in his 20's and his significant other--she looked a little older hanging out at the pond. He fished all evening and then first thing in the morning. It appeared that was all he did--I think he was a year 'round camper with no job, just a drive to fish in the murky pond. So interesting.
Ian loved the spot and said it was the best place we have camped so far. I found that interesting, but there was definitely a tranquility about the place. The temp was perfect and no crazy winds to blow us away. The husband was tending to the grounds and as he walked by, we started to chat. We talked for quite a while. He was a big history buff and gave me the low down on the Native American history in the area. He was married with 3 teenage kids, but no older than myself. He talked about the campground, which is his love in life; something he has always dreamed of doing and hopes to expand in the future. He was sooo happy to hear that Ian loved this camp spot the most. You could see his pride in his place exuding from him after I shared Ian's love for the property with him. He was so knowledgeable, yet so simple minded at the same time. He was a pleasure to converse with, until it was time to retire the kids to the tent.
Once in the tent, the kids had a quick snack and all of a sudden Skyler spit out something in her hand and stated--I just lost my tooth. It is one of the bottom front teeth, and has been hanging on by a thread. I had tried to pull it 2 days ago and it was not ready yet. So out it came!
Skyler decided to wait to call the tooth fairy until we get to NH. So I will have to make sure I put in the call, once we get to my sister's house!
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