~Sunday~ We got up at around 7:30.
Bob took Frances and Vincent for a walk, and then he got some (lukewarm) free coffee for us from the lobby.
After a while, he walked over to Bob Evans and got us sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits, some apple juice, and a cup of coffee, which he brought back to the room.
We both shaved before packing the car up and getting back on the road.
to pack the car
We rode for about an hour to Florence, KY, where we met Bob’s brother, Charley, at the Panera Bread near the Florence Mall and sat outside for lunch, so Frances and Vincent could join us. Bob and Charley had the half-sandwich with chips, and I had the Asian Sesame Salad.
Several people said hello to Frances and Vincent as they walked by, or sat nearby, and I enjoyed watching Bob and Charley interact and catch up.
We left there at about 2:00, and shortly thereafter, we passed through Cincinnati, where Bob caught these pictures:
Going through the downtown area, we were struck by this hotel, which reminded us of the Holiday Inn Downtown Raleigh.
Radisson Hotel Riverfront Cincinnati
We stopped at a rest area past Cincinnati and before entering into Michigan.
John, Frances, and Vincent in Ohio
At one point, I started getting a little drowsy, and we played Catch Phrase with our homemade categories and words/phrases. Bob’s are lost, because he wrote them on paper. I was able to capture mine since I’d stored mine in a Google doc.
- Dogs
- It’s a dog’s life
- Dudley and Leon
- Hair of the Dog
- It’s raining cats and dogs
- Tethering
- Pupperoni
- Dog tired!
- Water bowl
- Doggone it!
- Let sleeping dogs lie
- Raleigh restaurants
- The Station
- Rey’s
- Peace China
- Donato’s
- The Borough
- The Second Empire
- 518 West
- Tyler’s Tap Room
- Snoopy’s
- Brio
- The Borough
- Half-price apps
- Arthur
- Kelly
- How Do You Q?
- Fried green beans
- Getting your hand stamped
- Liz
- Fifteen
- You look fine as hell, boo!
- The Dawson
- Flex
- Flexing your muscles
- Candy urinal
- Go-go dancers
- Bear night
- Shirtless drink free
- The Roast Grill
- Swill
- Trailer park prize night
- Loading zone
- Charging station
- Places
- Oh, the places you’ll go!
- Epcot
- Dollywood
- Over the rainbow
- Paradise
- Bridge over troubled water
- Korner Kafe (Rex hospital)
- Historic neighborhoods
- Lexington, KY
- The right palm or hand (Michigan)
- Names of playlists Bob has made for me
- Rain
- More rain
- Still raining
- Colors
- Motown
- Sweet dreams
- Go, Winnebego, Go!
- Zzzzzzzz
- Upbeat Barbra
- Jesus music
- Food
- The Sputnik
- Spam salad
- Apple-of-your-eye cheescake
- All-you-can-eat buffet
- Cornish hens
- Chowder bowls
- Cocktail wieners
- Key lime pie
- Vichyssoise
- Dum-Dums
- Health and beauty aid products
- Spray gel
- Shampoo & conditioner
- Head & Shoulders
- A Touch of Gray
- Vaseline Intensive Care
- Chapstick
- Ricola cough drops
- Irish Spring soap
- Claritin
- Sonicare electric toothbrush
- Facebook
- Like
- Haiku Ninja group
- Most recent
- Timeline
- Comment
- Friends
- Check in
- Events
- Scrabble
- Relationship status
- Our mutual friends on Facebook
- Greg Anderson
- Leon Carl Green
- Glenn Hunt
- Laurel Gallion
- Mary McVeigh Nowlin
- Andrew Warren
- Patti Boyle
- Michelle McKinney
- Jen Riehle
- Susan Elliot
We arrived in Battle Creek at just after 8:00, after enduring a detour on 127N.
We stopped at Pursley’s (a.k.a. “Lee’s of Battle Creek”), which wasn’t far from Charley and Barbara’s house.
All I wanted was some seltzer water, but I encountered a gentleman whom I think was the owner of the place. OMG, what an absolute whacko.
He didn’t have seltzer water or club soda, and led me to the tonic water, which I didn’t really want, but took just because I wanted to get away from him.
At the register he talked for at least five minutes, of which I understood no more than 10% of what he was saying. Unfortunately, he kept asking me questions and waiting for an answer, and “yes” and “no” wasn’t always successful.
At one point he asked me, “Where is the ground?” And at another time, “Where is the sky?” Then he yammered for some more minutes, and finally asked, “Where are you right now?”
Before I could answer, he said, “Wait! Wait” and he reached over and showed me the page of a newspaper that was completely in Chinese, except for the name and address of his store in the bottom right corner of the page. I just nodded.
Then, he picked up a sheet of paper that consisted of about 20 sentences, all one line long each, and he pointed to the one in the very middle of the page, and said, “See? Answer here.” And I read the sentence, which said something to the effect of, “Where you are is right here and right now and you are standing in front of the register.” As I read it, he pointed to the edge of the counter where I stood. Queue up the Twilight Zone music.
During all this nonsense, he was trying to ring up one my item, which came to $5.79. He kept pushing the register keys, clearing them, pressing them again, totally distracted by his talking, and when it was all said and done, he had rung up $579. Get me out of here!
A guy came in after me and after getting a six pack of beer, he got in line behind me and caught the end of all it. I looked at him, and we both started laughing. He said, indicating the cashier, “He cracks me up every time I come in here.”
My thought was, “I’m quite sure if I lived here, I would never come in this place again.”
We arrived at Charley and Barbara’s, and she (and their dog, Chucky) showed us around the house and to our room in the basement. Their house was for sale, and she let us know that there would be a showing tomorrow morning at 10:30, so we planned to be out of the house by 10:00.
Once we unpacked the car, we rode over to a grocery store, where we bought a few supplies, including a large submarine sandwich to split for dinner.
Bob spent about an hour upstairs with Barbara and Chucky, and I spent the time in the basement with Frances and Vincent catching up on Facebook, my haikus, my index card daily entry, my Scrabble moves, and making trip notes to help write my blog entries after the trip.