Awake: 6:06am Temp 71 sleep 5+56 sunny overnight @ Ontario, Ohio.
Obviously we had picked a quiet corner; the Super center Wal-Mart is open 24 hrs but we heard nothing.
We know there is a Catholic Church in the area but our GPS didn’t pick it up & the ladies I talked with last night just told me to head south on main street. So this morning, we head down the road a few miles & see no churches; but there is a fellow along the way just getting ready for a jog. He tells us the approx location & the distance to be around (10) miles. We didn’t allot ourselves extra time for the extra miles; in the city of Mansfield, the directions were close but still no steeple. The next fellow we stopped to ask told us it would be better to follow him & he will point the church out. We were (40) min late arriving in time for Communion. Saint Peter’s Church is beautiful, very large & very crowded; Mass started @ 7:30am & we started out @ 7:45am. Not wanting to take advantage of our free parking @ Wal-Mart or make excuses to God for our tardiness, we agreed to return to our bus & do our penance in another fashion. The next Mass @ St. Peter’s was much later in the morning.
Kathy makes a quick grocery visit to Wal-Mart & we are “On the Road Again” from Ontario, Ohio @ 10:24am. Katrina calls during her en route trip to her Masters Class in Colorado. She says she will graduate in September/October of this year.
We continue rolling along on US-30 to US-250 to Wilmot, Ohio & arrive @ the Baylor Beach Campground @ 11:34am. Due to today’s high temperature & that it’s Sunday, the Baylor Beach Park with its 2 big lakes & ample camping is very popular; there is a long line of cars on the 2 lane road backed up to either enter the park or continue driving past the park. Turning into the entrance would not have been possible if we didn’t have the steering tag axle; that made it look easy. Fortunately for us, a good Samaritan in the line up let us pull across the road & into the park without waiting for the line of traffic to dwindle, which it didn’t do for a very long time.
Today’s travel: 60.2 miles 1+17 time 6.6 mpg 9.3 gal used 50.2 avg speed
After parking & getting set up, I call our nearby friends, Mark & Joan; they offer to have us visit them for the afternoon. A good (3.5) hrs later & we are still having a good time catching up on each other’s adventures since the last time we met.
Trying to be efficient with our short time in Ohio, I call my 95 yr old Aunt Bertha in Canton & ask if a visit after her dinner time would be ok. She responds with a cheery: “why yes, of course!” Her short term & long term memory is most impressive. We talk for (45) min & realize that Kathy now has little time for making dinner before Mark & Joan visit us back @ the Baylor Beach Campground for the evening. After apologizing to my aunt for the short visit, we share a veal parmesan & spaghetti dinner @ the Macaroni Grill just up the road & then race back to meet M & J @ our bus. The plan was to watch a slide show of M & J’s trip to visit their daughter, Julie, & family in Budapest, Hungary & to hear about the genealogy study of Joan’s mother who was born & raised in the Ukraine. The evening was great; we covered all the events we had talked about & had a little wine with popcorn along the way. I didn’t realize the hr was 12:20 am when M & J talked about their 6:00am wake up schedule. We’ll be planning on another rendezvous before we leave Ohio.
Lights out: 1:23am
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