Day 37 - 38: North-bound

Last night, Friday, for whatever reason, we were too tired to think.  So, this is the catch-up blog.

FRIDAY, June 10:  Mainly Ohio.  It is just impossible to explain how on Thursday we thought we were seeing the most beautiful part of America in the mountains of West Virginia, but today it was just as beautiful--but there were no mountains.  Ohio is filled with fields of grain and corn crops.  Some of the grain is 3 feet tall, most of the corn is between 6 and 18 inches.  Oh, and there are also the hay fields.  Didn't see much hay down--they must store it right away, but there were literally hundreds of fields that were starting to grow their second or third crop.  And these fields went on and on and finally ended at the edge of groves of trees.  The country was so flat that a person could see for what appeared to be miles and miles of God providing food for so many.

Hayden Falls, Columbus, OH

We stopped in Columbus, Ohio for a waterfall that was in the middle of the city.  It was a short walk on a board walk--very pleasant.  It was very close to a freeway overpass where we saw a couple of homeless people.  So sad.  We also read about a "corn" field.  It is amazing what ideas some people come up with!

Concrete corn field

We took some time after arriving in Bellefontaine, Ohio for lunch.  We both decided we liked this bustling town of 13,000.  There seemed to be much happening -- a thriving active small town.  In a little park in front of an old building 2 couples were having a Bible study at a table.  A man saw us holding hands and asked us a question (don't remember what it was) but that sparked a conversation.  Turns out the man was Pastor Robin Ricks.  I believe the LORD gives pastors special ability to engage people.  We never felt intimidated, just welcomed and appreciated.

We made it to our friends' house about 3:30. We were able to see how well they manage their 10 acres.  Paul, Gretchen and the animals all seemed very content.  It was good catching up for a few hours.  So thankful they have a church home and are involved.  A couple of horse drawn buggies went by while we were there.

SATURDAY (today): Slept in a little later today and took more time getting ready for the day.  We were hoping to visit an Amish store or two to look around but didn't see any.  The terrain in Michigan is much more like western Oregon.  So much different than what we encountered over the past few weeks.  Today there were ordinary farms with modest homes.  Lots of different kinds and conditions of barns and silos.  Some were very well maintained, some were ready to be torn down, and some needed much TLC.  The fields in Michigan have grass and shrubs growing between the road and the fields.  In Ohio the area between road and field was like a well-manicured lawn.  There are a lot of US flags flown in both Ohio and Michigan.  In many of the small towns we have gone through there have been US flags accompanied by banners showing pictures of hometown heroes.

We stopped in Jackson, Michigan for a coffee, saw that there was an state old prison had tours, so we went by because the website was very uninformative.  We arrived half an hour before it opened so we just had a "tail gate" lunch only to find out that reservations were needed for a tour.  So we came on to Birch Run.  We looked at "things to see in Birch Run".  Only attraction listed was the largest outlet mall in the Midwest.  You know what shoppers we are and how excited we were--not.  We did walk around 1 (one) or 4 sections--a fifth section was empty.  It took us an hour and we found nothing that to buy.

It is strange what kinds of things we do.

We probably will not be posting for a few days while in the UP--internet is sparce.