Through the Woods and Over the Rivers

July 29. A damp night was spent at Cook Forest State Park, home of the largest old growth forest east of the Mississippi. The kids pedaled off to the play ground on arrival as I cooked up a gourmet dinner of grilled cheese and carrot sticks.

We managed to get the pop top up on the van, with two of us pushing and grunting. At our stay in Utica Rich found another storage box for the top of the van and collected the last of his belongings out of the family home. The pop top is super heavy and it is a struggle to raise the roof now. We are considering staying in hotels from here on out to prevent personal or property injury.

We camped near a couple with an '86 Westfalia Camper. Their van was in mint condition, and we traded stories as Gretchen served up some cornbread cooked on their open fire. The kids didn't want to leave. It was great to be a unit again, without cousins and extended family, horsing around and reading the kids to sleep.

We found the trail of the ancient forest without a map and with personal guidance from one of the state parks maintenance guys. While Rich and I marveled at the canopy of Eastern White Pine and Hemlock the kids took delight in finding toadstools of various shapes, colors and sizes. Do we not have toadstools in Idaho?  We took more back highways winding our way through the hills into Pittsburgh for an impromptu and all to brief lunch with two of my best friends from college--and earlier. Rich listened to Karen's dad tell stories while the women exchanged surface information. Mary's 11 year old, Jorja, and the kids paid more attention to us curtailing any hope of intimate conversation. We promised to keep better touch and exchanged big hugs and headed through downtown Pittsburgh, across the Allegheny and Monogahela rivers on yellow bridges before turning southwest to Athens, Ohio and my alma mater, Ohio University.