Day 26--Conneaut, OH to Erie, PA

Today my husband Jeff and I both donated Memory Miles to Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Zeis Walker, Jeff’s mother. Betty is the reason that I chose to raise money for the Judith Karman Hospice. She lived all of her life in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, until a couple of weeks before her death. She was adamant about not going to a nursing home, and this wasn’t a course we wanted to follow either. So, Jeff and I fixed up a room in our home and brought Betty to Stillwater to live what we thought were her last months with us. We moved her from Lutheran Home Care & Hospice, Inc in PA to the care of the Judith Karman Hospice. Betty lived only 10 days after the move to Stillwater, but, because of the Judith Karman Hospice, she did not die alone in a nursing home or hospital but died with dignity and love in the comfort of her only child’s home.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

I had to ride back to Conneaut, but was soon across the Ohio border and into Pennsylvania. I will ride only one and a half days in PA. My route was 7N to US-20 out of Ohio and then Hwy 5, a two-lane-with-shoulder bike route. It was much more rural than I expected, with vineyards and nurseries continuing along the south side of the road.

As I rode, I thought of my mother-in-law. I met Betty for the first time at the Rutland, VT, airport in August, 1969. Husband-to-be, Jeff, was taking a final exam at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English, where both of us earned our master's degrees, so could not pick up his mother at the airport. Betty and my brothers, sister, and Aunt Marg had flown in for our August 9th wedding. Jeff and I were married in Bread Loaf's Blue Parlor by the college chaplain.

Mom took the kids into the water when I arrived on the scene. There was another mother with six babies, too

I recognized Betty as soon as she stepped off the plane. Betty was the only grandparent our two girls, Jessica and Lucy, ever knew. She loved her grandchildren and despite our move to California and then to Oklahoma, far from her, she managed to communicate that love to the girls.

You can't see it in this photo, but the grapevines were just getting their first leaves



A field of green gumdrops; why do people like these little manicured "trees" as landscape plants?

I never saw Lake Erie today. I thought that Rt 5 (Lake Road) would be close, but the Lake remained out of sight for the ride. As I was riding along, thinking the thoughts above on a very mildly up-and-down open country road, I suddenly came to a very long, steep curving downhill and to an equally long and steep curving uphill in the woods. I walked fully half of the up side. When I got to the top, I found the first commercial establishment on the route, a BP gas station . . . and gun store (see below).

Sorry that this is blurry; my hand must have been shaking from the climb.

The front of the store was a cramped convenience store; the large back of the store was a "sporting goods" store that sold primarily guns and ammo. I bought a Starbucks, Double Shot  energy coffee drink and sat outside cooling down from my hike-a-bike. 

When I continued on, I nearly jumped out of my skin when a rider announced "On your left!" Yow! I was used to having the shoulder to myself. Though I am on Bike Route Z, I had seen no other cyclists. The cyclist, dressed in an American flag jersey, rode along with me for a bit, telling me what to expect ahead, including another hill like the Elk Creek one.

I took the high road; the farmer takes the low road to tend his fields

After this cyclist turned south, my cell rang. It was Lucy. I pulled to the side of the shoulder and talked to her for a bit. As I was talking, another cyclist--this one female in a pink jersey--zipped past. I was definitely going to have to pay attenion on this route. At least I had pulled to the right of the shoulder so she could get past.

Don't know what will be planted here . . .cucumbers? melons? squash? Something that must be planted on hills.

Bye 'n' bye, Br'er (Sis'er?) Fox, came upon the other bite out of the road . . . but just before this wall of a hill, Rt 5 detoured south because there was construction on the hill. I smiled. "Ha, don't have to climb that wall, hee hee." Well the joke was on me because the detour took me over five sets of tracks (twice) and a couple of miles south to Rte-20 . . . were I had to climb an even bigger hill. Sigh. One does what one has to do.

This one's for our Penn State family: for Jeff who got his PhD at Penn State, for Jessica who got her BS at Penn State, for Lucy who was born in State College, and for me who taught freshman comp at Penn State

When I got to my Warm Showers destination in Erie, the hosts were not home. They had told me that they had multiple engagements this evening and tomorrow morning and that I'd be sleeping in the playhouse, so I pulled into the drive and checked out the playhouse, a cute little place beside their garage . . . but very small, bare wood floor, no bed, no toilet, etc. I was not prepared to sleep on the floor--or even sure I would fit sideways across the playhouse. I guess they thought I was camping . . . or maybe that I was younger. I needed more amenities, so I pedaled down the road to a Comfort Inn, and sent the Warm Showers hosts an e-mail apologizing and hoping they were not inconvenienced.

The cute little playhouse in my Warm Shower's host's backyard

That's my day. I'm off to the guest laundry after posting this, and then I will scare up some dinner. Hope all is well with all of you followers. Until tomorrow . . .