O-H-I-O

When we left Springfield, Illinois a couple of days ago we traveled along the Old National Highway, US Route 40.  This road has become one of our favorite roads to travel and we hope to use it as we head back to Arizona for the winter.  Two lane, in and out of small towns, at times up to 55 mph and zipping along.  Lots of farms in Illinois, and flat. Once we got through Decatur we had to step down onto Route 36 and took that for a couple of hours and jumped onto Interstate 70 and was sorely disappointed.  Talk about roads needing work!  That is one bad road and I hope we don't have to travel it ever again in Indiana.  Just awful.

Drove through Indianapolis, what a traffic jam, and the road was even worse.  On the eastern side of Indianapolis we jumped back on US 40 again and sighed a relief.  We spent the night in a small Mom and Pop campground near Richmond Indiana, lots of 'good-ole' folks that obviously had their seasonal rigs parked long term there.  The sight was the worst ever in terms of level - we never put down our stabilizer jacks to make us even and secure, we slept with the RV bouncing every time we moved.  Oh well, just for one night was okay.  Pulled out by 9:30am and headed again eastbound, getting excited to get to Ohio.

We did not have far to go - only 111 miles from our previous site to here in Galloway, Ohio which is a township just west of Columbus, Ohio.  Will sit here for one week, today we are bumming around with Dennis and Meg and catching up on each other's lives.  The plans for the rest of the week are to hopefully do some shopping (need a quick couple of parts) and just plain rest and still visit with them.

Since we left July 14 from Picacho (just west of Tucson) Arizona we have stayed in 11 campgrounds, traveled 2514 miles, lived for 1 week in 95 degrees and high humidity and hated it!, camped in elevations of 7900 feet to our lowest here (800 feet), visited 6 national parks/monuments/sites and many small historical local sites, only put a little over 400 miles on the Honda CR-V, and we aren't quite "Home" yet.

One bit of sadness - was planning to visit my old church in Lorain, Ohio while home and found out that it burned down this past Thursday.  How very sad.  The church can and will be rebuilt but the memories of the place are all I have left.  The beautiful stained glass windows, the ornate woodwork, the century old pipe organ, mentoring 'my girls' on Sunday evenings at classes there.  All gone.  But the people are strong and vow they will rebuild.

We leave here next Friday and will travel approximately 110 miles north and stay at a campground in a small town called Amherst which is 8 miles from where we used to live in Vermilion, located on the banks of Lake Erie.  Will be there one month, visiting family, getting our drivers licenses and car tags done, doctor appointments, getting our last stuff out of storage at the old home, then head out again.  Only this time we will slow it down.  We have had a time commitment to get to Ohio by September 10th - making it 2 weeks early, but no commitment to get home other than to stay out of the snow.