I AM BACK!!!

Thursday, September 26, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013

Well, my good people, I AM BACK, as I am sure you noticed by the title.  All rested and rejuvenated from our little runaway weekend, which was the whole idea behind it.  We probably really shouldn't have spent the money, but sometimes you gotta take of yourselves first.

I am not sure what happened to Thursday night - I sure should have written  a blog on then.  I stayed up and watched the football game, or at least most of it.  Although, what with leaving 'in the morning' - early in the morning, I may have just forgotten.  Duh.

Anyway, I gave some people a scare Thursday morning.  I am supposed to get up and walk with Lois, as you know, and then go do whatever is on the agenda.  Well, for whatever reason, my alarm clock decided not to work, and I overslept.  Lois called - and I don't answer the house phone in the mornings, not at this time in our lives, and I don't take my cell in the bedroom (the battery runs down in there faster) - and called and called.  She walked without me, and was still worried, and drove out here and pounded on the door and I never answered.  (We have a fan running in the bedroom.)  She walked around the house, looked in the kitchen window(s) to see if I was lying there in a coma or something. Nothing.  She contemplated calling 9-1-1, but finally decided to go home, look Josh up on the computer (through me, on Facebook) and talk to him and figure something out, which she did.  So now Josh is calling both phones, too.  Then he called his dad.  Now, Ron is calling both phones, too.  Finally, around 11, I wake up.  I sat up, started taking my pills, then saw the books I was going to give to Lois today, and OH SHIT was in my mind and my cell phone rang.  I practically ran out to my desk to grab it and I vaguely wonder why Josh is calling me and answer.  Well, I soon find out why.  O ... M ... G !!!  While I am talking to Josh, the house phone rings again, I look at it (in the living room - it has a screen) and it is Ron.  So I tell Josh 'Hold On' and talk to Ron, too, only for a minute, cause Josh is waiting.  So I've got them both calmed down, and I go finish taking my pills, then call Lois and explain and apologize to her, and let her read me the riot act, which I richly deserved.
I'm still feeling about a foot tall.  I have not been able to find out what the hell happened to that clock, though.  The red dot was on.  The alarm was set to am, not pm.  I just don't know - it's possessed, I guess.

I don't remember much else about Thursday now.  I know I went down the road as I had planned, just much later.  I had lunch at Olive Garden since I was down that far for a change.  I didn't get to make the apple pies I had planned to make since I got started so late.  I sent the ingredients and makings home with Josh so they could make them while we were gone.  That's about it.

Friday.  Ah, Friday!!  We hit the road at 6:30 am.  Here is our agenda:
     Leave.
     Drive North.
     Go to Marblehead, visit the lighthouse.
     Go back to Bellevue, find a hotel.
     Go find some supper.

And that's exactly how it worked out.  It was wonderful!  We stopped in Wilmington at a Bob Evans for breakfast after traveling for about an hour, then got so involved in the trip, we forgot to stop for lunch!  Didn't even think about it!  The weather was gorgeous, and we enjoyed seeing the lighthouse and Lake Erie again.  The water was a LOT choppier than we've ever seen it!  Whitecaps, foamy, very rough.  But there were boats out and it was as pictureesque as always.  I couldn't believe how many flowers around the place were still in bloom!  So very colorful, not the blackened, deadish-looking things we have now.  Then we went back to Bellevue, got our hotel (only 60 bucks a night!), and after a bit, found a little diner type place called Track's End back out on Route 269 North to go to for supper.  We liked it so much, we went back for breakfast!

Saturday.  The main day, the main event, of our weekend.  The what-our-souls-need part.  The Big Attraction.  Here's our agenda for Saturday:

     Breakfast (yes, even for me.  Today is a walk-walk-walk day.)
     Go to the Sorrowful Mother Shrine in Bellevue.  (they have a cafeteria for lunch)
     If time, go somewhere else. (towns, shops, whatever)
     Back to hotel and supper.

That was it for today.  Just the shrine.  We thought it would take pretty much all day.  The brochures we had said it was, I believe, 200+ acres.  The shrine is absolutely wonderful.  Just to walk through those woods (you get a map in the gift shop) and stop and get your eyes (and soul) full at each shrine, statue, or grotto to Joseph, Mary and Jesus, separately and together, as well as other saints and religious people, is just so peaceful, I guess.  Fulfilling, maybe, is another good word.  I really can't put it into words very well.  I took pictures, not even of every 'place' and I took way too many, and I'm sure they don't even begin to show the ambiance of the  place. So many flowers, too.  Still so beautiful, so colorful.  Very few mums are out yet - these are all still summer flowers.  Petunias, roses, hydrangeas, black-eyed susans, things like that.  Either before or after the walk in the woods, you can visit the Pilgrim Center, the Gift Shop (luckily, we went there first, and that's where we got our map.), and the two chapels.  One, the Pieta Chapel),is all open.  It's where they have outdoor Masses.  We managed to be there the weekend of the LAST outdoor Mass.  How lucky for us!
We got done walking through everything about 2 - 2:30, so we decided to drive to the nearby town of Bucyrus, since we had pretty much driven through Bellevue the day before, looking for restaurants for supper.  We drove there and visited a country store, like the one in Mt. Orab on 68 down by the railroad tracks.  Country themed and homemade (local) items, probably like the Feed Mill here in Bethel but I don't go in there so couldn't really say.  Then we visited a sausage restaurant/store that we thought was also the factory where they made the sausage, but we were wrong about that, it was just a store to sell the local sausage, with a few (15 or so) tables in the front to sit and have a sandwich or a meal.  They would be very much at home in Holmes County!  Although I doubt they are Amish, but that's what the place reminded me of, small stores there.  While we were there, walking through the store, smelling the brats and sausages and stuff, we realized that we didn't eat lunch at the shrine.  What time is it?  It's after 3!  We decide to just eat a sandwich, enough to tide us over til suppertime, then we'll find a new restaurant for supper.  We don't want to go back to that same one again.  I didn't like the bratwurst I tried - it was spicier than I like my brats, I like just plain ol' white brats - but Ron really liked the sausage.  We didn't buy any, though.  We didn't want to chance them thawing on the trip home.  After leaving there, we found a little antique shop to walk through.  I am always on the lookout for my little cartoon character glasses.  You know, the ones with Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, those cartoon characters.  Not the Disney ones.  I have paid (and I should be ashamed to admit this) $20. for one in the past.  But they are hard to find, and if you find one, you gotta have it!
We did find us a different restaurant in Bellevue for supper.  It was called JP's Family Restaurant on Castalia Road.  Since I wasn't really all that hungry, I ordered the chicken fingers dinner (only one side) off the SENIOR menu.

Sunday.  Big plans for Sunday:  Mass (chuch) at the Shrine, drive home.  Whoo-hoo.
This is my first planned Sunday for missing football.  Starting withdrawal already (lol).

We got up, got everything packed up, and left the hotel around 8.  Went to breakfast at JP's (if you haven't noticed, we are loyal to the places we like) and I thought I had been up long enough to try to eat some real food.  I had a real breakfast - meat, eggs, and toast (NO potatoes! No walking today, lots of sitting).  Ugh.  Bad choice.  My stomach wasn't ready.  I guess at least this time it was rolling around instead of the food sitting there like a rock.  But, what can ya do?
We went to the Shrine for Mass, as planned.  It was a beautiful experience.  The cool wind blowing through the open building (it did have a roof), being able to see and hear the birds, squirrels, etc., while still seeing and hearing the ongoing Mass was something else. Smelling the flowers, too, on the wind, although I'm sure not everyone (like Ron) wouldn't get that.  Then we hit the road.  Josh sent me updates on football.  Thank God for cell phones with texts!  We stopped for lunch in Grove City at Cracker Barrel, once we hit the interstate.  Josh had asked if we wanted to come there for supper (and 'do' my birthday) and, since we were making good time, we decided that sounded like a good plan.  We told him OK, I answered his choices for my birthday supper, and on we went.  Rolling, rolling, rolling....
We got down to Josh's 6ish and enjoyed the rest of the evening there.  I'll talk more about all that later.
It was not a bad day for the day I turned the speed limit.

It was a fantastic weekend.  It was just what we needed.  We feel ready to get back to our real world now.

Monday.  Our real world.
Today, it was back to normal.
I had to get my license plates renewed (as you do on your birthday in Ohio) and I had not wanted to spend the money before our weekend away, so I procrastinated.  I also decided to go to Georgetown to get done instead of Batavia because I thought it would be a lot faster there.  I was right!  I was in and out of there in about 15 minutes.  Hoo-ray!  Then I stopped for lunch at Country Inn and decided on the BLT double decker and steak fries.  Not good FOR me, but I figured I was good all weekend and I deserve a birthday treat somewhere.  Hey, worked for me.
Then, back home where I checked the messages from the weekend and this morning.  Yay, the lady from CSB - where we went to try for the re-fi - called.  So, I call her back.  She's in a meeting.  She'll call me back.  She calls back.  "Sorry, we can't help you.  You have too many things that are late right now."  Well, why do think we need some money?  Duh.  OK, we'll have to come up with another plan.  We have fresh brains right now, don't we?
Ron gets home, we go for our little bike ride, so I get some exercise in today.  He has a bowl/can of broccoli cheese soup and finishes off the Better Cheddar crackers from the trip for supper.  I have a bowl/can of Chicken Noodle Soup with some walnuts.
I watch football.  I have a chance in our pool.  Both teams are 3-0, so I said low points tonight, thinking defense.  I know I am OUT by halftime.  Phooey.  I usually say 58 points - that's the year I was born - but NO, not this week, I went with my birthdate 29.  Guess how many points at the end? 55.  Shows me, huh?

Today gets four stars for food and exercise!!

The WEEKEND gets five stars for happening!!!