We are back home safe and sound from our 2,000-miles-in-a-week trip to Ohio.  The three days in Ohio were great and we had a wonderful time while we were there.  But we haven’t traveled that many miles that fast for a long time.  In fact, we have never stayed out of the RV for more than one night since we moved in!

But the trip to Ohio was definitely worth the miles.  We packed a lot of family events into just a few days.  We went to Columbus and had lunch with John and Jackie twice – at the same restaurant (The Pint Room – great burgers and fried cheese curds)!  The first time we went to Columbus to pick up mail and get the birthday decorations and John and Jackie took time out of their workday to go to lunch with us.  The second time was on Father’s Day and Tom picked the restaurant because he liked the burger he had on Friday so much.

We got balloons inflated (Kroger will do it for $1 each, even if you didn’t buy the balloon there), picked up flowers, and decorated a room at Der Dutchman for Mom’s 80th birthday party.  We wore matching shirts and partied until the sun set.  We watched Carlos Santana hit a walkoff home run for the Indians, which finished Mom’s birthday off nicely.

We went to church, had the dads open Father’s Day gifts, and played Pandemic with John and Jackie in Columbus.  Pandemic is a cooperative game where everyone works together against the game to cure epidemics before everyone dies.  It was fun, although rampant epidemics that wipe out the population of earth is more a nightmare than a game.  But we beat the game together – on the easiest level.

We helped out with chores at Mom and Dad’s, played games, and went for a couple of walks.  One particularly nice walk was at the Gorman Nature Center.  Mom and I had a chance to play piano and cello together which we always enjoy very much.

We watched the Indians finish off a sweep of the Chicago White Sox with a blowout game where they scored five runs in the first inning.  Cleveland is in first place in the Central Division (or at least they were on Monday)!

And, speaking of Cleveland, Sunday night we watched the Cleveland Cavaliers win the NBA Championship in a nail-biter game that had all of us on the edge of our seats.  When they won, we sat in stunned disbelief, sure that it was a mistake.  Maybe the game wasn’t really over.  Maybe there was a last minute penalty that would still be assessed.  Maybe one of the players was illegal.  But the next morning the Cavs had still won and were still the champions.  We could start to savor the moment.

We enjoyed our quick trip back to Ohio.  We spent a lot of time playing games, talking, watching basketball and baseball, and loving being with family.  We are glad to be back home safe and sound (the RV survived just fine without us) because we can share love with the family wherever we are.