Friday evening I went to Red Fox, an old watering hole, for a prereunion gathering. Thing was that there were all kinds of other people there and nobody wore name tags. How would I recognize class mates from 45 years ago? I made a name tag w/ my name and class of 1977, the year was wrong but on purpose. Several people saw thru the ruse. I visited w/ several identifiable classmates.
Sat AM I drove down to ride the Mohican Wilderness trails, some run under a zip line company, Tree Frog. I hoped that I might run into classmates up in the trees. No such happening. The trail was littered w/ blowdown damage from the dericho 2 weeks prior. Purpose built trails. The start was rude w/ a steep climb into the woods. Tree parts that were bigger than I could ride over forced me to bash thru the brush on the side of the trail. Not much fun, The zip lines are up in the hardwood canopy above the trail. I could hear voices and seldom saw a person. Short effort and good grunt.
My ride was to be rewarded by a dish of hard ice cream @ a gas station where after previous rides I savored pure fat uptake. The gas station replaced the ice cream w/ cuts of beef to support the probably 1000s of campers and recreators floating the Black fork river. dang. Wally rd follows the river valley. It seemed that every flat opening was a pay camp ground. White RVs packed door to door. Just no way to recreate. On the way down the river was empty. Hours later on the way back the river must have had a 1000 floaters on it. There are numerous canoe liveries in the area to meet the Fun Center of Ohio recreationists needs.
I stopped @ my dad’s house for a shower then drove into the reunion. Dad gave me turn by turn directions. I plugged the address in the gps to see how it would route me. Just say that following gps directions is not always the way I would choose. However, where I am not knowledgeable of the locale, I accept the route.
reunion: class of 1967, 250 graduates, 50 attended, 33 are dead, a bunch didn’t respond, and a bunch more were missing. 2 of my buddies attended. Tom and I on freshman spring break did a conoe trip from one of the liveries I passed earlier in the day. A local newspaper reporter happened to be there who took our picture and wrote an article, thrust was students on spring break. All the people attending the reunion wore name tags, senior picture connoted class mate, school mascot, the falcon, indicated a guest. This way I was able to recall something about them. Women wore them on their chest, above a breast. I broke eye contact to read the nametag…. . I made it till 10:30 then left. Did not find any tribe members. No one was interested enough to engaged in conversation nor tour my home. One classmate is from Augusta, GA. I asked her if she knew Bill and Liz and she did.
Sunday I drove back down to Mohican, this time the State Forest to ride the 24 mile trail, it is part of the Mohican 100 ultra endurance mtn bike race series. The trail is well signed thus not requiring a map. Hot day. rain threatening. This was my 5th time of riding the trail. Really well made and maintained as the dericho damage had been all cleared away. I rode all but one feature. Hard ride. 23.74 miles in 3 hrs, climbed 3116′ imagine the elevation gain in the state of Ohio. Maybe 20 rigs @ the TH prior to my stop yet I encountered 4 riders. Only 4 rigs were in the TH when I finished. AM riders.
last night our full family visited an old close friend for dinner.
Stayed in town @ my sister Lynn’s house. More hot weather. Hot hot hot. And no rain, almost NOAA defined drought.
Rest day today. Tues I will prolly ride Mohican again. Thurs I leave for Brown County Indiana.