07/07/08

Left Gene's cabin and headed for Oil City, met former Mayor Joe and his buddies Joe, the township supervisor, and Fred, a fellow gadfly, at Spill the Beans Cafe. Mayor Joe claims he was ousted from office by a drunk. Joe the super shared some porn on his phone with us. Hit rain on the way down RT62 (nice scenic road), but they were just showers off and on. Having forgot to change from his dark glasses, Uncle Eddy(Harold) had some issues with vision, but no incidents. We managed to stay off the interstates much of the time and got to see. Unfortunately, we had to do I 80 for a few miles to I11 South and back to 62 to get to Canton. Pulled into a KOA around 8 and hit the rack.


07/08/08
Left the KOA at Canton and headed for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which everyone agreed was sort of a disappointment. Spent a couple of hours there and then decided to head for a KOA close the Detroit. What was not a disappointment was Taggart's Ice Cream, which we found after the Hall of Fame. Following Bear (Gene) has taken us through parts of Ohio that no tourist has ever seen nor ever will. In fact the places we have seen would rival that old series on TV authored by Charles Kurault. He has taken us through actual neighborhoods so we can see how people interact in their own environment without outside forces influencing behavior, kind of like watching an ant farm. At one point he stopped and asked a homeless person if they knew of a good place to eat . Of course all the guy could think of was MacDonald's. Thinking better of it, he found a construction worker a couple of blocks down, who was not from the area, but knew of a good place for breakfast(Lindsey's). Here Bear met a guy named Ron, who was wearing on electronic sign advertising the restaurant. He got a picture, but it may not turn out too well. The guy eats there twice a day unless he is going to the Olive Garden, and he had the girth to prove it. There being no shortage of construction workers on this trip, we should eat pretty good. Weather was more of a challenge on this leg of the trip. As the sky turned black ahead, I suggested we pull off and suit up. Uncle Eddy (Harold), put on his rain gear and helmet, but Bear, figuring it wasn't going to last long, didn't. Bad move. This storm was heavy for a while and lasted a couple of hours. At one point we lost Uncle Eddy, who had to stop and change glasses again. The nice thing about the storm was that the temperature dropped from the 90's to 70, a welcome relief, and it only rose another ten degrees afterward. getting on toward 7 we found a place to eat called Aimee's Pizza Factory which had great food. I got a salad and huge piece of lasagna, which Uncle Eddy graciously polished off, and Bear got a salad and pizza, 8 inch with onions. Uncle Eddy got a sub. Leaving there we had to do some Interstate again. Approaching Toledo from the south we were greeted by a huge Islamic Temple, the Islamic Society of Greater Toledo or something like that, kind of a shock. Well, we made Ypsilanti (yeah, that is a town) KOA by 9 and just hit the rack. The office was closed so they left the light on for us. Tomorrow it is the Henry Ford Museum and then maybe a dash to the UP.