Wauseon OH
Monday (the 27th) was sort of a hectic day. We slept in till 9, as usual, then rushed around to hitch up. Then it was south down US-41 through the arcade of trees. We couldn't help but be impressed with the high proportion of red and yellow leaves, as well as the yellow leaves blowing across the road.

At Calumet, about an hour down the road, we stopped to refuel and restock our larder. Because we now were within cell phone range, Bobbi checked all our voice mails, and while Bobbi was shopping, Lew downloaded the email. He had a few minutes to try once again to phone an old high school classmate who lived in Houghton: Lou Ellyn Alexander Helman. This time he was successful, and made an appointment to meet her on our way out of Houghton (her home actually in a suburb to the south, Chassell).

Bobbi returned to the Airstream with the goodies and we quickly stowed them inside. Then it was down US-41 through Hancock and across the lift bridge, through Houghton, and on to Chassell. We met at the appointed place and took our rig a couple of blocks to Lou Ellyns lakeshore home. We easily pulled into the circular drive and went inside. When her husband Ron arrived a few minutes later, they quickly put together a substantial lunch, and we all sat around conversing about both the "good old days" as well as more recent accomplishments. Lou Ellyn had a surprisingly vague recall of events before her high school graduation. She remembered the art museum and its Swiss room well enough, but did not remember her third grade teacher, did not remember Mary Carole Spence at all (Shirley Renz had said they were close friends) and was unaware of the ethnic neighborhoods that characterized Toledo in our childhoods. She explained that they had three children: a daughter who was a family practitioner, another daughter who was an artist in Colorado, and a son -- and several grandchildren. We took photos of the two of them.


After a couple of hours socializing, we resumed our trek down US-41, MI-28, and MI-77 until we once again arrived at the Higgins Lake Family Campground and took up residence in the same lot.

Tuesday (the 28th) was boring rather than hectic. Up at 9 again, Lew walked the dogs while Bobbi prepared breakfast. We ate, cleaned teeth and dishes, stowed the few things that were out, and were on the road again by 11:10. Down MI-77 and US-2, nothing worth telling happened before we once again crossed the beautiful Mackinaw bridge. But things became more remarkable in a negative way going down I-75 and US-23 to Higgins Lake, with stops at Indian River for lunch, and Gaylord for "Wally World" -- remarkable for the humid heat that was building up. At least the vistas still were mostly wooded, and the traffic light.

We pulled into exactly the same lot at the Higgins Lake Family Campground, only at a different angle so we didn't have to bother to level the Airstream. The humid heat was stifling, so the first thing we did was to turn on the air conditioning. We were not in Copper Harbor any more, Toto.

Only after supper did we stick our heads out the door to walk the dogs and shower. But after sundown the heat and humidity abated enough for us to turn off the AC and open up the Airstream, so we had a wonderful night's sleep.

Wednesday morning (29th August) Lew actually managed to sleep in until 10! So it was a rush to walk the dogs, breakfast, stow property, disconnect, and hit the road before 11:30. But we did, and proceded down MI-103 to US-23 which we followed through the wooded landscape we so appreciated. Unfortunately, it soon was replaced by urbanization, traffic, and heat which all increased in density rapidly. And this trend continued until we turned west on Central Avenue in west Toledo. This once rural two-lane road has become a four-lane commercial madhouse where traffic barely crawls.

But the madhouse transformed fairly quickly into rural. We passed out of Lucas County into the rich farms of Fulton County, and after several miles turned south at a sign that announced "Sunny's Campground -- 2 miles south". In just a mile we could see ahead a huge collection of travel trailers to the west of the road, and turned in to take the lot that Bobbi had reserved. This proved to be a most peculiar campground -- hundreds of vacant but clean and neat trailers lined up in neat rows around several ponds and a wood lot. The grass was manicured immaculately, the bathrooms fairly clean but rather cheap in construction.

Despite the hundreds of trailers, we were almost alone in the park. Plantings and other decorations showed that the clientele leave their trailers year around, visiting them only on weekends. I'm not quite sure what they do at those visits, except get away from the city -- which I quite understand.