What an amazing three weeks! Because our granddaughter Jennifer was graduating from high school, we needed to be in eastern Ohio the 27^th of May. We had a number of options, among which was to simply fly in the day before, and home the day after. When I was working, that was often the only viable option. But this time I wanted to do a driving trip that would allow other things along the way. It started out to be a simple matter of moving through time and space. But as you’ll soon see, it quickly became an incredible trip down memory lane.

Shortly before the trip actually took place, Fran’s niece and husband decided to move to Colorado Springs, Colorado. We volunteered to keep their little two year old, deliver him to Springs two weeks later, and haul the remainder of their household goods that space required them to store until a later date.

So we left Phoenix the morning of May 14^th, with me driving a rental truck, and Fran following behind in our car. Charlie rode with me in the truck. We were able to disable the passenger air bag, so he was treated to riding in the front seat where he could see and comment on the passing scenery. He’ll never be content to ride in the back seat of a car again, and it was so much fun to see the passing scenery from a two year old perspective!

I arrived in Des Moines, Iowa that night, then spent the 17^th, with our friends from our church in Phoenix. I attended the high school graduation of their grandson, Jonathan, then had dinner with the family. I tried to see an old high school classmate while I was there, but she couldn’t free up the time.

I spent the 18^th moving further east. Interstate 80 on the south side of Chicago is undergoing a major rebuilding effort over a distance of about 15 miles. The traffic jam entering the area was about 5 miles before the construction zone, and there were no posted suggestions for avoiding the area. To add insult to injury, they have a toll booth set up right at the beginning of the construction area and charge you fifty cents for the privilege of driving through the mess. If you’re going that way any time in the next year, be sure to find an alternate route.

After that visit, I continued on to the college I attended for the 1961-62 school year. Findlay College has become a University, and the four buildings I remembered now cover many city blocks. Despite only attending one year, I was welcomed like a returning graduate, and given a very nice tour.

After driving around to see some other places I remembered, I moved on to Sandusky, Ohio, another city in which I lived for a number of years, to again see places I remembered, some fondly, and others not so fondly. After collecting Fran at the Cleveland airport, we drove on to Brookville, PA for more memories.

On Saturday, the 20^th we drove the 10 miles from Brookville south to Shannondale, and my father’s Miller ancestral home. We visited graves of my parents and grandparents, and saw the headstone we set for ourselves after our last visit. We then spent several hours with my cousin, Lloyd and Jeanne, in the home in which my father was raised.

We also met this family. We discovered the two sons are about fourth generation cousins of mine, and are still members of St. Marks.

On Wednesday we drove to Carrollton, Ohio. We spent part of that day with daughter Jeanne and family, then Thursday with son Vern and family.

On Friday the 26^th we drove north to a community near Youngstown to visit with a group of seventh generation Plyler cousins, all of whom have an active interest in Plyler genealogy. We learned much. We aren’t operating in a vacuum in our family research as we thought for so long.

On Wednesday, we drove on to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where a young friend of ours in a Major in the U.S. Army. Wayne and Kathy live on the base in a house designated as a historical site. Absolutely beautiful. This fort was established in 1835, and many of the buildings date from the years before the Civil War, up to the turn of the 19^th Century. It was a nice visit to see how their family is growing. We went to dinner in a local restaurant. It was an old place that for many years was a bar with about 16-20 tables specializing in good food. Because it was primarily a bar, smoking was always thought to be a necessity. But this winter the owners were finally persuaded that their business would not be hurt by converting to a non-smoking establishment. Imagine the reality - the non-smoking bar is more popular than ever. On a weeknight it was difficult for patrons arriving after we did to find an empty table. Sort of makes a lie of the smoking advocates’ position.

Well, the fun and visiting was over. Thursday and Friday were just driving days, with Phoenix and home our objective. We have piles of laundry to do, and I mowed the lawn early before our Summer heat became a problem.

Some impressions:

As we left St. Louis on Wednesday morning, we saw approximately 15-20 state and county police cars on the east bound side of the highway operating an apparent speed control operation. Isn’t this a major bit of overkill? Really, Missouri, if you have that many police officers and cars to devote to speed control, I think you need to have a hard look at how you are spending the taxpayers’ money.

The budget hotel industry is hardly budget based any more. The so called free breakfast is hardly breakfast, and certainly not worth paying extra to have. In one Super 8, the ‘juice’ was Sunny D, and the muffins and donuts were universally dry and stale. Many Super 8s that have been our choice over the years are reaching Holiday Inn prices, and Day’s Inn and Comfort Inn are just very expensive Super 8s. The pool and spa at the Super 8 in Albuquerque was so dirty, we wouldn’t get in it. The local Board of Health needs to look. Many of the local Owner/managers are good business people from a particular foreign locality. But they tend to make it a family business with brothers, wives and children taking an active part in the day-to-day operations who simply don’t demonstrate the good customer skills necessary in this industry. An exception: ‘Jack’, who owns the Super 8 in Brookville, PA, and is from Nepal, is a shining jewel in an otherwise dismal picture of the industry. As we have many times in the past, we made most of our reservations through Hotels dot com. On at least two of our stays we were able to hear what the hotel was quoting walk-in traffic, seven to ten dollars less than we had paid through the internet providor. We were very disappointed, and will probably not use them again.

I have a ‘beef’ with the trucking industry. Truckers have this habit of leap frogging past each other at speeds sometimes only a mile or two different from the one they are passing. When the trucker decides to pass his fellow driver, he changes lanes without regard for overtaking traffic. Several times I was forced to brake very hard to avoid a collision with this inconsiderate and even careless driver. The truck traffic on many Interstate highways is so heavy that an additional lane needs to be added to just to handle the truck volume, and still allow passenger cars to maintain flow.

6/4/06