Visiting the Buckeye State

Last week was fall break for us. I think everyone in the family felt like we had come to the end of a hard run triathlon by the time the break arrived. Last Tuesday we pointed our van toward the Buckeye State for a long awaited vacation. We got a lot of rain, but I think we all had too much fun to care.

HOCKING HILLS. We spent the first part of our time away in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio. There are several state parks in this area and with the cool days and the trees changing color it was a great time to go and enjoy some hiking. We rented a very nice cabin near Logan, Ohio.

As it turned out Tuesday was the rainiest day of all the days we were away. This made for a miserable drive, but at least we weren’t sitting at the cabin wishing the rain would stop.

The next day we went to the Rockbridge Nature Preserve to hike the trails there. We weren’t deterred by the light rain that started when we got there, but Vicki and Jenna turned back about three quarters of a mile in when the rain got significantly harder. The boys and I forged ahead to see the natural bridge, but we were drenched when we got back to the van.

We decided to find some lunch and go shopping after we changed clothes so we drove in to Logan for pizza. Our shopping took us on to some outlet stores in Nelsonville and Rockbridge where we enjoyed poking around places like an Amish stores and antique malls. That evening we went to the movies to see Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Thursday morning we planned to eat breakfast at a place based on a brochure we’d picked up only to discover they were only open for breakfast on the weekends so we wasted a lot of our time driving and then retracing our route. Once we had filled up on a large brunch we hiked around the Old Man’s Cave area which was really pretty.

When we had worn ourselves out hiking we returned to Logan where we toured the Columbus Washboard Company. This is the only place in the United States where washboards are still made. The company employes five people, two of whom actually assemble the washboards. These two ladies--who are part time--turn out some 40,000 washboards a year in addition to giving tours of the factory. This is down from the 1.5 million washboards a year the company produced back in the 1930s.

After the tour we found some supper, browsed around another antique mall, and headed back to the cabin a bit early to enjoy playing some games together.

ON TO AKRON. We headed north on Friday to visit my cousins, Grant and Robin Luton and their daughter Lyndsey for a couple of days. After we arrived Grant took us out to see a few of the local sites. That evening we enjoyed supper together.

The next day, Saturday, we went with them to worship. We all really enjoyed their services. That evening Grant’s brother, Bryan, and his family came over for supper. Bryan and Mem have four adorable children and we really enjoyed our visit with them.

All too soon the evening was over, and our vacation was drawing to a close. Grant and Robin fed us a wonderful breakfast Sunday and sent us on our way home.

A SURPRISE GIFT. The last time I visited the Lutons I took copies of a CD I had made from an old audio recording of my grandmother, Joella Swann. She was their aunt. This time I took another CD they weren’t expecting to get.

I think it was one day back in the fall of 1997 that I got a phone call from Mr. John M. Covington. His wife’s brother and sister-in-law, Jennings and Edna Luton, were visiting and they were talking about my dad. He called to invite me to come over while they reminisced so I could hear their stories. My dad and Jennings were first cousins and spent time together in the summers when they were kids. I asked if I could bring a tape recorder and they were only too happy to oblige. So, as we were preparing to leave for our trip I dug up the tape, digitized it, and took the CDs with me.

I arranged with Robin to sneak the CD into the CD player while Bryan and Mem were over for supper. She turned it on while we were talking over dessert. It was really neat to see Bryan and Grant both stop in the middle of the conversation as they realized they were hearing the voices of their late parents, uncle, and aunt.

BACK IN THE ROUTINE. Now that vacation is over we are back in the routine. The only exciting thing to report here is that Ben made the middle school basketball team again this year. We don’t have a schedule yet but we know this will keep us going two nights a week for a while.

Joe