Friday, October 31, 2008

Shopping In Vermilion



On Saturday Oct. 25, 2008 Margaret & I took grandma Pedee to meet Diane & Elaine for a day of shopping & family bonding. Margaret suggested that we meet half way somewhere like Vermilion. So off we go. We picked up my mom about 9:30am. Traveling down Reynolds to get to the Ohio Turnpike I shot through a traffic light that changed red as I was going through. I didn't see a flash so maybe there wasn't any traffic camera at that intersection and hopefully no ticket.


We met up with the girls on Main St. in downtown Vermilion. Downtown Vermilion is about 2 blocks wide. It is mostly a summer resort town. This day was no chamber of commerce day, it was bone chilling cold and very windy. The warm clothes we brought came in handy.

First off we stopped a local coffee house for a cup of joe. After warming up a bit, we ventured out to scout the local shops. I get tired quick when the shopping goes beyond 15 minutes, so I went to the car to nap. It was perfect day for a nap. The sun was warm inside the car even though the weather outside was brisk.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant/ ice cream parlor. After lunch the shopping had not been satisfied so off they went to a second hand store. Me, I retreated to the comfort of the front seat of my Camry.

You know thinking back, I probably shouldn't have gone with the girls. I don't like to shop and I know the girls were upset that I didn't want to participate in the shopping. I should have just let it be a girls day out and stayed home.




After the shopping urge had been satisfied, we parted ways. I decided to take Rt. 2 instead of the turnpike. Big mistake! The speed limit on Rt. 2 this side of Sandusky is 65 mph. As soon as you cross the bridge over the Sandusky River the speed limits drops to 55mph. Dummy me! I was still going the 68 mph, when out of the corner of my I spotted a State Highway patrolman laying in wait. No! Noooo! On go the flashing lights as he pulls out in pursuit of his prey. I looked around to see who he might be after. Not me, I said, I was only doing 68 and the speed limit is, oops, Oh NO... 55. I slowed down to late realizing that he was after me.

"Hello Officer", I said. Standing next to my door he said "Let me see your driver's license and insurance card." Knowing I was at least 12 mph over the speed limit, I knew I might have to make a hefty contribution to the Ohio State Highway Dept. He took my information and went to his car to check my history for warrants and accumulated tickets. Coming back, he gave me my papers back and said I had a clean record and that he was only going to give me a verbal warning. Thank God my clean record saved my sorry ass.

Monday, October 20, 2008

October 2008 Visit the Austin Pedees

We knew that Ryan the newest seed to carry on the Pedee namesake across Texas was about to start to crawl, get some teeth and start to jibber jabber a little and we wanted to be there when it happened. The planned trip to Austin began as a standard Internet search. Get on Travelocity or Priceline and try to find some cheap airline tickets to Austin. Normally I can find tickets for in the $200-$250 range. With the price of jet fuel going up, flight tickets are going up also. Margaret had 2 weeks off, so we decided to drive. Margaret said because we had extra time to travel, lets stop and explore a few places along the way.


We had been to Mamouth Caves in Kentucky 2 times already, but never to any of the surrounding commericial caves. We decided to stop at Horse Cave, Kentucky.




This old town is about 6 hours south of Toledo, just north of Mamouth Cave off of I 65.


The cave is called Hidden River Cave and is right in the middle of town. Main St. runs right over the top of the opening. The large opening was formed when a sinkhole colapsed. You walk down about 230 steps to reach the river that runs under the town. Polution caused the cave to be closed for many years. Once the community realized the connection between dumping garbage and sanitary waste on the land and quality of their drinking water, they managed to clean up the underground river. It is so clean that that the animal species that only live in caves are coming back naturally.

Our halfway point in our travels is Tunica. Mississippi. As I mentioned before we like to gamble there when we have the chance.


We got into Austin about 6pm on Friday Oct., 3, 2008. We didn't have any plans other than enjoying the kids and being a part of their lives.


I took many pictures of the trip and have put them on Flickr. The link is http://flickr.com/photos/60999985@N00/ .
Check back again next week at the flickr.com site and I'll have more pics of Ryan and the kids.