Day 32

Friday - August 17



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Woke up and enjoyed a nice breakfast with Patty as Rusty had left for work.

Today's morning hours were to be spent checking out the haunts of my youth. So we headed through Cleveland on I-90, past Jacobs Field and The Terminal Tower. Then east past the lakefront airport to what is now called Martin Luther King, Jr Drive through Rockefeller Park past Chester and Carnegie Avenues to the base of Cedar-Fairmount Hill, now called Cedar Glen Parkway. Up the hill to the Heights (NightTown Bar is still there!) off on Fairmount and up to Ardleigh and over to Roxboro Junior High. I must say here that all of the old neighborhoods are in as good or better condition than when we left Cleveland Heights in 1967. Very impressive. Then out Colchester to Coventry (where the little cut-off has been removed) so back left and then right on Fairmount again to the end (almost) of Fairfax Road. Then down Fairfax past Geoff Barnes' and Charleton Mills' houses, past Margie Carpenter's, past the Dye's to 3073. As you can see it is remarkably the same. Tree and shrubs by the screened porch gone and the porch has been enclosed. No more front walk or hedge. Otherwise I could have just stepped up and played Puke like I never stopped. Almost did.
Then up to Fairfax School which has been completely demolished and replaced on what was the end of Fairfax Road (which now ends at Wellington Road.) Then down Lee Road (Seitz-Agin is still there!!) to the Cedar-Lee Theater and Cleveland Heights High School. Next up Cedar to Goodnor to Meadowbrook to Canterbury then up E. Scarborough to Princeton and then past the Moatz's and Steinmeyer's down to 2462. It's different but still the same and very cool.
We headed out to University School, passing the First Baptist Church that we all attended so faithfully, where we took a small tour of the school finding pictures of Dad and Bill and me.
Next out to Burton Township and Revelstone which looked great. Then in and down to Pine Lake which we drove around but did not stop in. (I know, Mom. Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.)
From there we scooted down to Gambier on I-71 where we met much too briefly with Tom and Gloria Edwards. They are well except the Tom is battling glaucoma. He is blind in his right eye and trying to save the left. Next to the Admissions Office where I was surprised to see some old friends still. Annie and I went on a tour of the campus. Some impressive new buildings and other remodeling. I then took us on a little tour of the village where we initially discovered that the first house I lived in has been torn down. And they never even consulted with me! I pointed out the drain pit into which Sarah crashed while learning how to stay erect on a bike.
Finally off to our final camping destination. East on 229 and 36 to Newcomerstown then south on I-77 to Cambridge where we took on provisions for our last night: bratwurst, potato salad and s'mores. I had hoped to get into Pennsylvania but it was too late for that so we headed for Barkcamp State Park just west of Wheeling. I'm sure it was known as Belmont Lake when I lived in Knox County.