Roadsides in Ohio

When our goodbyes were said with our last family stop in MI before departure, I didn't expect to have a surge of emotions.  I suppose I haven't fully stated the context in which we are traveling that might shed some light on that emotion, so here is a note on that.

May-Corey graduated with his Masters in Business Administration.  All those hours he spent "staring at the computer" (as I referred to it) actually produced something....an alarming sized stack of technical writing he constructed over the course of two years...and a diploma of course.  This meant that his assistantship/job/source of income also ended with it.  But the "Business Masta" was ready for a rest while he continued to pursue career/job applications.

June-I ended my job working with "at risk youth" in order to prepare for Danforth's arrival.  Danforth eventually arrived on the last day of the month, our parenting journey began.

July-We had a couple weeks of intro-to-parenting, a week of travel, a week of moving out of our first "home" apartment of two years. And into the motorhome.

August-We sold our car, sorted through most of our possessions and got rid of/gave away/sold/and put into storage.   And then proceeded to travel around the state visiting wonderful people as previous blogs express.

So when we said goodbye to Michigan and goodbye to family in Detroit, emotions in the form of glistening eyes came from the reality of the bigness of what was ahead.  I have left home as a 17 year old to live in a foreign country for a year...yet, somehow this seemed bigger.  Because of the small dependent life we have to take care of, to form a life for, to support, and to love.

And that's what makes traveling to the other side of our country, feel worlds apart. 

OHIO

Hitting the road mid-day, we sang our "On the Road Again" theme song, with great smiles on our faces.  Only stopping to grimace every time we'd rumble and bang over top of every pothole, ice-cracked, crumbling piece of pavement.  So much banging was happening, in fact, that we experienced our first stomach-dropping moment.....scccrrraaaapppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

As if the entire backend was dragging.....

Pulling over, we soon discovered, the on-it's-way-out rusted portion of our muffler found it's way to the ground.  "Well" Corey stated, "maybe this will help our gas mileage".

Nothing critical, and we were on our way again.  The rest of the drive went "without a hitch" and we arrived at the next place/hosts on our "itinerary", Colombus.  This would be the last pre-planned stop until Texas.  Our hosts were former college friends of Corey's parents, were very kind and generous, and also happened to live in a very well kept neighborhood.  We certainly felt like quite an unusual eyesore with our bull horns and whatnot, but at this point, our pride for appearance is swallowed and we're just going with it.  

We toured around Colombus with our hosts, and did our best to play the role of "touring tourist", of course, we needed to introduce Danforth to the "ropes" of it all.  He slept most of the time.  (He is still recovering from his first two vaccinations from a couple of days before, poor guy).

Also notable, was Chuck, our host who took us to his mechanic to get our AC checked on (something prior research showed us might be $200).  You see, going South with no AC in the driving portion of our house, just wasn't going to cut it.  Long story short (partly because I don't fully understand the mechanics of it), the converter Corey had purchased for $30 in Detroit paired with some mechanics who decided to not charge us for their time or equipment use...left us with air conditioning, in what I saw as a bit of a miracle.  What a blessing.  

Ohio was great, but we're ready for some mountains and greenery in Kentucky.  Next stop!

But wait....there's more.....stomach dropping...first engine pop we'd heard in over 2000 miles with our house.  Not willing to risk it, we pulled into a BP and while Corey checked over the engine, I cooked up our first meal in a glorious BP station.

Not seeing anything substantial, wondering if it may have just been something we ran over on the highway,....we decided to move forward.   Things were running smoothly, we were on the edge of our seats...  Just when we felt things were good, several more jolts/pops in the engine.

The side of an expressway is no fun, especially in a large box-shaped wind catcher.  With every car and semi, our home shook.  We battled the stomach's nerves, while Corey waited for the engine to cool so he could prod around a bit to check things out.  Danforth and I did the gazing at one another thing, that parents do, while I distracted him from the intensity of the sounds going on around us.  He is surprisingly more aware than I ever thought babies were capable of.

Tightened the spark plugs, and went for it.  We made it longer than the other two stretches, and were feeling quite alright....when it happened again.

Pulled off on an exit...and thus began our search for a mechanic in farm-country-Ohio.  Apparently the auto store we were looking for, was located directly in the center of a corn field...as driving back and forth and back and forth confirmed.  We eventually pulled into Clarksville, a bit frustrated.  Which, according to the 2010 census, had a population of 548, and the town very much looked like it.  

And as you might guess, to our mildly frustrated delight, were sent elsewhere. 

Elsewhere, was Welmington, OH.  A much larger town with much more capable mechanics.  At slower speeds our engine wasn't popping, but we still drove like walking on eggshells (if such a thing can be said).  If some element of Southern hospitality was creeping in, or just people having compassion on two young travelers with a newborn, this community has absolutely brought us in and taken care of us rather than taking advantage of us.

We spent the night in a....yes....Walmart. parking, lot.  Never thought I'd find refuge or relief in one of those.  But tucked into the corner where the "chirpers" hide away in the greenery....it felt extremely cozy and appropriate.  We had a substantial meal, and strolled in the top-notch airconditioning, and bought ourselves a radio (motorhome one failed on us), a head of broccoli, and some carrots.

The mechanics have grown to liking us, and we to them.  As they worked on our engine, we enjoyed lunch.  Never thought I'd be cooking meals in a mechanic lot while someone worked on our engine 10 feet away, but you never know where the road may bring you.

My battery is running out, baby is fussy again, and our engine should be good to go.  So that's all for now.  We're going to attempt another Walmart lot in Cincinnati tonight (or stay here due to a potential storm that might be passing through) and head for Kentucky (Mammoth Caves) in the morning.  But one can never be quite sure with an engine that throws all sorts of curve balls at ya.   Oh, and they started with replacing the spark plugs, so we'll just see if that resolves our stomach-dropping sounds!

On the road again,

M