Back Home, To Chautauqua Clouds, Rain, Perhaps Snow Tonight

With Paul Storey, in Xenia, Ohio

7:00 AM at the Lake

It's 7:00 and I have been up an hour, happy to be home on my couch, with my view of the lake, the sun rising, NPR on the radio, and coffee in my hand. Ah routine.  We had a splendid three weeks but it's always good to get home.  To quote Hal Borland once again:

"More than half the pleasure of going is in the return, as any traveller knows. To go, to see the far place, the place beyond the horizon is exciting: but to return is satisfying as few other things can ever be.  To know after absence the familiar street and road and village and house is to know again the satisfaction of home...And that is the final satisfaction of a trip, whether it is a vacation or just a journey---the return itself.  The homecoming, The trip back, and the home at the end.  To go is good, to return back is best."

Yesterday started with an early rising at our friends, the Barry's home in Oxford, Ohio.  I was able to relax in their living room, reading, writing my blog, with coffee before anyone got up,  It was a beautiful spring morning in southern Ohio, blue skies, sun rising, birds singing, trees green with newly hatched leaves. Chautauqua, on the on the other hand, has yet to see spring, no leaves yet, no green, just buds on the trees, spring flowers just green shoots, no yellows or whites to welcome us.  Around 8:30, we all were up so we went to Joe and Mary Lou's favorite breakfast spot, Patterson's Cafe, just on the outskirts of the Miami University campus.  It's a charming breakfast and lunch cafe, dark wood, great booths, and good coffee.  We all had breakfast, Joe's healthy, the rest of us broke the rules and ordered what we liked.  Hey, we were on vacation.  We went back to their house, said our thanks for their great hospitality, and we on the road for Xenia, Ohio, by 9:30.

The Barry's 

Breakfast in Oxford, Ohio

Another good friend from college and the basketball team, Paul Storey, had recently moved to Xenia, Ohio, his hometown, from Dallas, TX, after his wife Becky passed away.  We have never traveled much in this part of Ohio, so it was fun to see spring so alive in this part of the Ohio, and pass through towns like Middletown, Ohio, home of the great Jerry Lucas, my basketball hero back in 8th grade.  Xenia seemed to be a bustling town, hit by the repression like all towns, but it looks like its coming back, lots of downtown restoration as well as the ubiquitous line of fast food restaurants.  Paul bought a cosy ranch on a cul de sac, in fact, he knows just about everyone in his neighborhood from his high school days.  So it's a return to his roots for him.  He has done lots of renovation to his house and it's just about finished.  It's perfect for him, easy to take care of, convenient to friends and shopping, and fresh and bright inside.  He's done a great job of being a first time home decorator.  He had the table set with his best dishes when we arrived, the perfect host, gave us our tour of the house, and served us croissants, chicken salad, and Greek salad for lunch.  What a guy.  We had a great time catching up on our families; he has two daughters and two grand children who live on the East Coast, so he like us, is constantly on the road, to see his family.  He's a great friend, and we enjoyed the stopover before heading up to the lake.

Lunch with Paul Storey

We left Xenia just about 1:00 and returned home to the lake about 6:30, tired after what seemed like a long day.  We were surprised at how brown and colorless everything was around Chautauqua, especially compared to our day in southern Ohio, so green and vibrant.  Spring will come, eventually but it's not here yet.  We had an easy dinner of Subway sandwiches, picked up at a gas station in Ohio, 'health food,' and easily returned to our routine, enjoying dinner as we watched Stewart and Colbert, then the first two hours of Mad Men, which neither one of us enjoyed much, as it seemed off the wall, disjointed, as if Matt Weiner had no ideas as to where he wanted to go with the final season.  We went to bed around 10:30, both of us extremely tired but happy to be in our own bed.