Simon Says, Part Deux

Last night, it took me an hour to upload one picture, and I had only one bar of 3G network. Oh, well, the best laid plans ....

In case you didn't figure it out, I was going to play a guessing game having to do with this:

That's right. We've moved into another State! After Ohio, we cut through a corner of Pennsylvania, then we spend the rest of our journey in New York State. So Bryce took a picture of the sign at the State line between Indiana and Ohio. What did the other boys do?

Ryan was so excited that he immediately had to take a picture and send off a text.

And Jonathan was rather bemused by the entire process, and was probably trying to think up a palindrome that includes "Ohio" after passing the shade of the last tree in Indiana. Beyond is nothing but flatness for miles to come.

Since we've been having such spotty reception with WiFi and with cell phone reception, we have named one of our favorite stopping places for lunch the "dead zone." When we go through small towns, we look for an old cemetery. It makes for a quiet lunch time, the boys can take a nap if they want to, and believe it or not, we meet some interesting folks -- dead and alive. For example, we stopped at an old cemetery on the Indiana side of the border between Auburn, Indiana and Hicksville, Ohio. The only sign of life was a man who was out among the headstones making repairs, using epoxy and a wooden board as his tools. He was a volunteer who, along with his wife and another elderly gentleman, headed up genealogical studies in the area. He invited us to sit in the shade of the church entry and joined us while we ate.

The church was empty, and had recently been sold, but the cemetery was still in use even though the church had no clergyman and no congregation. Our cemetery caretaker pointed out a stained glass window and expressed the hope that the future owners would realize how historic the old church was. On the east wall was the first GAR window in all of Indiana.

I had never heard of the GAR, so had to look it up. GAR stands for the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization similar to the American Legion, but its membership was centered around people who had served in the Union army. The window shown above was commissioned by the daughter of a Union soldier, and was probably installed sometime in the late 1870's. Amazing what you can learn when you're sitting in a "dead zone" and start talking to the local residents!

Tonight, we are in Bowling Green, Ohio. The name of the town reminds me of my father-in-law, Wyn's father, Joseph Thomas Aubrey. He was a Welsh clergyman who defected to the Church of England, but when I knew him, he would go every afternoon to the bowling greens, where all the old age pensioners were very competitive at lawn bowling and/or croquet. I'm not sure whether they actually do lawn bowling here in Bowling Green, Ohio, but it's a pleasant memory for me.

To get back to trivia questions, do you know why today was my last day of riding with three sixteen-year-old boys? (Did you know it was my last day?) Starting tomorrow morning, I'll be riding with just two sixteen-year-olds, plus the now seventeen-year-old Mr. Bryce Nurding, our fearless team captain! Happy Birthday, Bryce! Can you guess what Bryce is going to do on his birthday? He's going to cycle for about 85 miles so he can sleep on the south shore of Lake Erie near Vermilion, Ohio. I want everyone to work really hard to make sure we have a good tailwind tomorrow. Make his day easier on him!

Since we were in Michigan and Indiana for such a short few days, I wanted to leave everyone with a pleasant photo of the area. We will soon be seeing all the heavy population of the east coast, so there will be more people and less nature (which should please Jonathan).