O-High-O

Traveling to Ohio took us through some spectacular areas that we had not seen yet. And, ahh yes, the turnpikes. We are unaccustomed to the pay-as-you-go system of road useage. The Pennsylvania and Ohio turnpikes were a real eye-opener...reasonably good roads with fast drivers. We called our friend, Pam Enck in Montana, and told her we were passing through Pennsylvania and on to Ohio...travelling on the turnpike. She told us that we'd better get used to the pay stations...there were a lot of them! I felt as though we were being nickled and dimed to death.

As I also mentioned; there were fast drivers. None of them traveled the posted speed limits. I almost thought I was back in 1990s Montana...you probably remember that time...Montana had a "reasonable and prudent" speed limit (110mph, no snow, no problemo) for a couple of years. It appears that East Coast drivers use the speed limit signs as their minimum speed. In addition, most Western states...Montana, Idaho, Washington, etc, have construction zone speed limits that are not just "recommended speeds"...if you get caught speeding in them, I guarantee you'll get an expensive ticket. In construction zones in the East, we would slow down to the posted zone speed and get passed by virtually everyone behind us! I could almost see the shaking fists and heads as they blew by. No slowing down for them...no sirreee! Why should they? There were no cops that we saw in +500 miles of turnpike driving. In fact, we didn't see a highway patrol car until we got back to Montana. But hey...I'm just saying.

(Actually, we did see a county sheriff later on, but that's for the next blog)

Karen and Karen

Our 1st stop in Ohio was a visit to Herb and Karen Seil's home in Vermillion. These are the island friends that own a Beneteau 361 like ours. Vermillion is located on the SE corner of Lake Erie. They live in a subdivision that is along the marina waterways, where they are able to keep their other sail and fishing boats tied up in their backyard.

What a wonderful visit!! We were given a ride around the marina in their Boston Whaler, then later had dinner at the yacht club. The next day we tried to sail on their sailboat (Aaranda) out on Lake Erie, but the wind didn't cooperate. As you can see from the pics, our meals on their patio were in beautiful surroundings.

The bridge over the main part of Vermillion Marina

Herb and me enjoying the backyard scenery

The sailboat "Aaranda", named for Aaron and Amanda

Some of the condos along the waterfront

Technical difficulties are easy to fix...just spend lots of $$$

Shortly after finishing this year's 1st stateside blog, our laptop crashed. It seems the numerous times it had been dropped and the 2 years of Caribbean humidity and "salty" environment took it's toll; the viewing screen was blank and mysterious console lights flashed repeatedly. The "geeks" where we originally bought it said the motherboard was "fried".

Then came the Oregon Skyline Trail Riders annual trail ride for me with Dad and Brothers 3 and Nephew 1. Karen wasn't invited....guys only, due to numerous guy behaviors. Can't divulge anything except some edited pics....what happens on the trail ride stays on the trail ride.

Meanwhile, Karen flew to Las Vegas where her Dad and Mom picked her up and drove back to their home in Mesquite, NV. There, she spent much quality time with them and made meals fit for a queen and king...and princess.

After she returned to Oregon, we made a beeline to the nearest Best Buy for a computer purchase. A good deal was made....lots of $$$ spent and out of the store we went. But all was still not well in our blogging world; we still couldn't do much about the blog as all of our pics and other data was on the old laptop hard drive. Sooo, off to Idaho and a visit to friends Greg and Cyndi Pruett. He was able to remove and recover the data off of the old hard drive and install onto the new laptop. Yeah!

Now, here I am...enjoying Led Zeppelin, ACDC, etc on the Itunes file whilst composing this here blog! So where was I last....Ahhh yes. Virginia. Beer marinated burgers and visits with some of our kids. Karen and I sure enjoyed ourselves. Next we were off on our drive to Montana, through all of the states to get there. (Cody drove our pickup from Montana to Virginia, so we drove it back).

Our 1st stop was to the United Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, PA. The park service is in the process of finishing up the 1st phase of the memorial, to be ready for this year's 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on our country. A number of years ago, we had traveled to Pennsylvania and New York and visited the World Trade Center site. It sure does evoke strong emotions in me to see those places and think about THAT DAY. I pray we, individually, and as a nation never forget their sacrifice. May all of the souls of the men, women and children lost in the attack, as well as the servicemen and servicewomen lost since then rest in peace in GOD's hands.

One of the many display boards discussing the flight and its final resting place.

Karen is standing next to the temporary fence, looking down towards the field
where United Flight 93 came to rest. (the grassy area at left-center of the pic)

This is one of the original farm buildings the aircraft had flown over, inverted,
just before crashing in the field. It has been turned into a temporary
visitors center.