16 hour hard maximumand I got thrown out of the office for a week to recover. Between all this scrambling I did manage a diversion to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum southeast of Phoenix, Arizona.
Again this year Ohio was something to be crossed to get to and from Columbus. Not much else to say.
Over the years we had made a lot of trips, run around like crazy for a week or two, then come home to crash and burn. With this full time travel there is really no home to crash and burn so after our eight cities in eight days marathon and a full month chasing Kansas City Fountains we really needed some downtime.
We stopped overnight at Lake Loramie to see the rebuilt canal lock in New Breman before spending over two months in Columbus where we had a good hotel deal and friends we wanted to see. Then it was off to the northeast chasing the fall colors with stops in Mount Vernon, Canal Fulton, and Youngstown before heading off to the Alleghenies.
By Halloween we were back in Columbus with a new display in addition to helping the doctors and seeing friends before it was back to end the year with dad in Shreveport, Louisiana.
After spending most of the winter meandering across Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and up into Georgia we got back to Columbus in March mainly to see doctors and friends. I did not add to the picture collection on this visit before heading back to Shreveport, Louisiana to help dad finalize his taxes. We were also back in July and I just enjoyed the fireworks rather than spend time behind the camera.
In October we took a trip south to see the fall colors at the small A. W. Marion State Park northeast of Circleville which was having some very nice fall follage. This was really the best we had seen in awhile.
Recently the summers had been really dry and the color seems to go from green to muddy brown. Actually in most cases the top is bare, the middle has color, and the lower branches are still green indicating they were exposed to the cold of a clear night while the air was still warm on the shaded lower leaves.
Coming back to Columbus to visit doctors and friends we were caught in a rather severe early March snowstorm. I did get out to photograph this white stuff we are trying to avoid and included them on the Columbus and Inniswood Park pages.
While we were visiting Washington in June and July we left the truck and trailer and flew back for another couple weeks of visiting doctors and friends. We did break away for a visit the Franklin Park and some of the summer flowers that were blooming.
Third time's a charm and we made it back again for most of October and November in Columbus. Basically I have included all the pictures on these separate pages with nothing left over to put here.
We made a quick run into Columbus to see the doctors in March but I don't have any pictures to show the cold and wet and rain and miserable. Returning in June from Louisiana by way of Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana we started exploring Ohio state parks. From 25 years living in Ohio we still have our Golden Buckeye card which gives us a good discount.
Hueston Woods State Park just north of Cincinnati on Acton Lake has the campground nestled between these two small streams so tiny I can't even find a name for one of them. I really don't think I'd like to be camping here in a big rain storm. The park does have a nice trail system and the low lying boggy areas had lots of dragonflies (wings extended) and damselflies (wings folded). It was also out in the boonies and we like to have better access to town, restaurants, and attractions
We were still investigating trading in the utility trailer for a small RV trailer so it was back to Indiana, Indianapolis, and the large number of dealers available there. Bottom line we finally came to the conclusion:
After Indianapolis we stopped at Lake Loramie State Park a little north of Dayton. I was somewhat familiar with the area from working with a vendor in Minster, Ohio and we had camped here before retirement so all you get is a sunset over the lake.
Lake Loramie was the water supply for the Miami Eire Canal with the high point and lock #1 in nearby New Bremen, Ohio. At this point the lock was undergoing a major renovation. Later I'll show pictures of the final results.
Our next campground was at Delaware Lake State Park north of Columbus which was close enough to our old home I didn't need to add more pictures and far enough away to be rather inconvenient to the things we needed to do in Columbus. From here we spent most of a week camping in Pennsylvania before returning for July in Columbus with enough sanity to get a long term stay at a motel. The most memorable part of July was taking our friend Ruth Lambert to see the David Rogers' Big Bugs at Inniswood Park in Westerville.
Retiring in Columbus after 25 years, Ohio has remained central to our travels because we need to pass through every few months to help the doctors with their Mercedes payments and we still have a lot of friends in the area. I also left work with good feelings and keep in touch with many of my friends there.
Despite the common perception of winding down to retirement ours was more like revving up. On the work front, in addition to finalizing my own projects, a co-worker left an extremely messed up project for the rest of us to rescue. I mentioned before that I put in two 34 hour days but when I walked into the office like a zombie my boss got a corporate policy change to 16 hour hard maximum
and I got thrown out of the office for a week to recover. Between all this scrambling I did manage a diversion to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum southeast of Phoenix, Arizona.
On the home front we decided early not to make the plunge into a big RV and to focus on tent camping with this small utility trailer for our extra supplies. We custom ordered and picked it up from the Wells Trailer plant in Indiana. I then installed the shelves, mirror, extra gas cans on the front for an electric generator, and a clothes bar in the front. Overall one of our best ideas was the gray industrial grade boxes. We quickly discovered the translucent retail boxes just do not hold up bouncing down the road on our wonderful highways. We are also on our third iteration of shelves since we discovered hitting a big bump caused the sides to bow slightly and drop the shelves off the side supports or just bend them in the middle from the weight.
Then there were the issues of sorting through the years of accumulation, putting special things in storage, selling a lot, and filling a lot of trash cans. We have come to the conclusion that you are owned by your possessions.
We also had some fixing up on the house so in was ready for sale. Things started to get complicated when the realtor listed the house three days before we wanted and sold it immediately to people who wanted us out in 21 days. This was just as housing prices were starting to fall off the cliff so when you have a buyer on the hook, land them.
This left us with the minor detail of being homeless a month before retirement. Very fortunately my boss had just moved into a new house and let us use the old one in return for being there, mowing the yard, and getting out of the way when it was being shown. In our copious free using up vacation time we traded in the SUV we had planned to tow the trailer and Lori's RAV4 on a brand new truck which we then had to drive enough to break-in before starting to tow the trailer. Of course there were a few customizations like the cap painted to match the truck, an auxiliary battery and inverter in the bed to run a small refrigerator, electric break controller, and an alarm system. Finally here you see it packed and ready to go in front of Mark's old house.
Back in Columbus from our Washington excursion I finally made the plunge to a new Canon 30D with two kit lenses and lots of doodads. This was my first of many major purchases from B&H Photo which I highly recommend and I was very pleased to get a call from Chase asking if it was OK. We ended up with a month between doctor visits which we spent in Cincinnati. Also check out Farmer Floyd with this link for a special treat. Just playing with my new toy here in a Perkin's restaurant I got a shot through the glass partition showing both the knickknacks in the corner and the reflection from our section. Don't know if there is anything nefarious but the two ghosts very quickly left.
I'll add a lot more details on Columbus and the surrounding area later but after satisfying all the doctors and seeing friends we headed southwest to warmer climes.