Day Thirteen by Dave Schultheis
Saturday, August 9, 2003 - Jefferson, Ohio
There were sprinkles a few times overnight. There were also cars coming and going every few hours. I was uncomfortable (felt dirty and sticky), but nevertheless managed to get some sleep.
I was awake and up around 6:30 a.m. and dressed while sitting. Clean socks felt good! I also put on my long-sleeve M.A.M.B.M. "Great Gardner Gabfest" shirt.
One by one, people got up and wandered over to the main area for a cup of coffee.
Roger Elmore and Grog had rolled in overnight, but didn't know exactly where we were, in the dark, so they had found a grassy area near the office and camped there. When the sun came up, they rode around the campground and found us. Grog was riding, shall we say, an "interesting" motorcycle. I think heard him mention that he had about 95,000 miles on a gasket. Roger's recently acquired FLHTI was looking great!
I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Wild Flower (Kathy F. from Virginia), who had been helpful to me in the past, then sat and talked with Banker Bob and Beccy for a while.
At mid-morning, the call went out for everyone to assemble and prepare for a trip to Broadfield Manor so that we could take Eddie to lunch.
The group left about 10:30 a.m., and rode out to Madison OH and onto the grounds of Broadfield Manor at 11:15 a.m. I was the last one in, and parked at the end of a long line of bikes, photographed by Roger _the other one_ Peterson.
It was good to see Terry H. from New York again; he had ridden over in the FXJ with Banker Bob & Beccy.
We waited quite a long time for Eddie's mom Anne to arrive, but in the meantime we enjoyed the sunshine, talked with each other and some of the other patients, and some of us had a mini-lunch at the Family Day festivities that happened to be going on that day on the lawn in front of the building.
While we were waiting, I got a cellular phone call from Bob Carroll's EVLTWN. He had been unable to reach T.L. or a couple of others, so he called my number. He was still recuperating from surgery and had been unable to make the trip. Several of us took turns talking with him and sharing what was going on, unaware that this would be the last time that many of us would talk with him.
A few of us had the opportunity to go up to Eddie's room, but he was out for some type of therapy at that point, so we admired the memorabilia on the walls before walking back down to the courtyard area.
Anne arrived around 1:15 p.m. in her car, then had to start the red van and bring it over to the building. Anne and Tom B. and some helpers got Eddie into the van and the whole group left about 1:35 p.m.
We rolled up to Eddie's Grill (no relation) at Geneva-on-the-Lake at 2 p.m., parked all over the place, and ordered lunch. I had a good and healthy cheeseburger with root beer, and a strawberry shake. Eddie's wheelchair was placed where he had a good view of all the halter-tops walking by. While I wasn't lookin', Roger _the other one_ snapped a photo of the Slug flag on the rear of the Road King. Yes, I _was_ parked in some kind of phony-baloney yellow zone.
After dining, I walked down the side street to Lake Erie (about a block), admiring some of the old homes and cottages for rent along the way, and wondering if the owners would even deign to rent to the likes of us.
The weather was beautiful and we all had a great time eating, girl-watching and socializing. We left sometime after 3 p.m. and got back to the campground at 4:10 p.m., where it was 80 degrees.
A little while later, I decided to go down to the bath house and take a shower, since it was non-prime time. It was good to be clean again, but it was a lot of work to get dirty things clean and then keep clean things dry. (Feet, socks.) I got back to the campsite a little after 5 p.m. feeling much better.
Tom B. & Cheryl and I decided to go into Jefferson for dinner, so we left at 5:50 and got to the Subway Sandwich shop at 6:00 p.m. The "ambiance" was just fine, so we ate in their dining room. Before this trip, I had not spent any quality time with Tom & Cheryl, and found them to be wonderful people. We had a nice dinner and got back to the campground at about 7:00 p.m., 74 degrees, and greeted new arrivals Bill "Roach" Roccia from Philadelphia PA, and Curt James from Carlisle PA, the new caretaker of Boreas. Curt's flashing iridescent safety vest was an interesting fashion touch. Thankfully, there is more to Curt than the vest.
Meanwhile, dinner at the campground consisted of burgers and dogs and Strawberry Hill, among other things. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
I spent a little time talking with Steven (son of Roy from Ontario). He had only been licensed for a short time, but was lucky enough to have driven dad's new Cadillac ("support vehicle") down from Corunna, Ontario. I also got to spend a few (but not enough) minutes talking with Traci about her sidehack rig and life in general.
Somewhere around here, several net scum worked on the old red van to see if they could get the brake and tail lights working correctly, and while doing so, they noticed the serious rust damage to the van. Anne is required to park the van in a field at the facility, and between the rain, the snow and the tall grass, it has gotten pretty bad under there.
Around 8:45 p.m. a cake was brought out for Eddie's 40th birthday, and of course we sang "the song."
Afterwards, when everyone was sitting around the campfire, Banker Bob announced that the van was in pretty bad shape and needed work, as evidenced by the rust, as mentioned above. He advised that money has been coming in, but more was needed. A goal of $20,000 was mentioned, and a collection was taken up. Bob also mentioned that other things would be announced in due time: patches, etc.
The party went on for a while, but I went to bed around 10:20 p.m.
Miles for the day = 58. Miles for the trip = 3530.
Tomorrow: back on the road again, and seriously westbound.