Kauffman Reunion August 2011
Well, another trip for Hunk and me. This time back to my previous "home" of Ohio. A few weeks ago my Favorite Oldest Son wanted to know if we were going to the annual Kauffman reunion in Urbana, Ohio. I had given it a bit of a thought, but after he mentioned he wanted to go, then it made me want to go, if for nothing else than to add Megan's and Alexa's names to the Kauffman "Book." The "Book" is a large homemade notebook with the names and dates of births, deaths, weddings, and other info regarding the Kauffman family going back to my Great-great-grandfather. Unfortunately, the only relatives I really "know" who might be going would be my Uncle Vance and Aunt Ginger, their son Rick, and my Great-Grand Uncle Philip. The last few years the reunion has been held at the Ohio Caverns. I've been through the caverns twice, but that was many, many years ago, so think we will go through them this year. But now I'm ahead of my story...
We decided to leave early Thursday morning, meeting around 5 a.m. So I got up at 4, having gone to bed at midnight. Fortunately, I had pretty much packed my bag for the trip ahead of time. Hunk and I had gone to watch Michael, Becca, and Dawn on their slow-pitch fall ball team. Their team won handily both games and they all three played very well. After the game we went to Baker's Square as none of us had really had dinner. Never mind that it was after 8 p.m...'cause it was Free-Pie-Wednesday after all!! Thus, by the time we got home I was wired and couldn't go to sleep, so played a rousing game of Cafe World and then Pioneer Trail. The 4 o'clock alarm came much too soon, but I did get up and managed to do a 17-minute jog on my treadmill. Yeah, Michael. It was a slloooowwww jog, but a jog nonetheless. Then I showered, dressed, and had a couple pieces of cinnamon toast and about that time, John, Karen, and Megan showed up and off we went, leaving around 5:25.
So how many times can you say "road construction"? Road construction was literally on every road we were on. In spite of that though we continued to move along fairly quickly and didn't have any major delays. We would stop every couple of hours to either pick up some Diet Coke or to lose some Diet Coke, but that was okay. It gave us a few minutes to stretch and let Megan out of her car seat. What a trooper she was on the trip too. Karen said this was the longest trip she has had to be confined to a car seat and I must say she has done better than I would have. As it was I had to keep moving in my seat constantly as I was getting quite stiff and sore having to sit in one position for so long.
Our only stops, however, weren't just at gas stations. We made out traditional stop at Humburg Cheese near Tomah, Wisconsin. Picked up some cojack and beef stick and that was our morning snack along with some Ritz crackers. Also bought some seedless blackberry jam but will have to wait till I get home to try that out. Our next major stop was Wisconsin Dells. Picked up some chocolate and walked through a few stores, but didn't find anything I really wanted to buy. But we did DO something though. We went into one of the photo shops, dressed in western garb and had our picture taken. Thank you Karen for going along with me on this one. I think it was a grand idea and I bet you agree with me now. It was a lot of fun. I think Megan liked it too, but not so sure about John and Hunk. You'll understand what I mean when you see the pictures.
For lunch we stopped at a place that was once a gas station, but there really wasn't anything there anymore. The only thing it had going for it was some shade, but that was about it. Didn't really want to stop there, but I wasn't seeing any roadside rest stops like we normally do. Our lunch was tailgating out of the car. We had sandwiches, fruit, chips, and cookies. Very tasty and quite satisfying. Oh, did I mention the "traveler that was sleeping about 40 feet from us. We didn't bother him (or maybe we did, I didn't ask) and he didn't bother us. Anyway...
Most of the rest of the day was spent driving to Ohio. We decided to go the whole way so we would be set up for the Kitchen Aid tour the next day. We got down to Greenville, Ohio somewhere between 8-9 p.m. The hotel wasn't too bad. I've certainly spent a night in a worst hotel (I bet you know what I'm talking about a.k.a. California). Hunk and I crashed in bed, slept very well, and got up around 7 a.m.
Started the day with continental breakfast at hotel, then off for the tour. Since Hunk and I had been on the tour the last time we came to Ohio, we decided to take care of Megan (She wasn't allowed on the factory tour) while John and Karen went. So the three of us went to Loew's to check out the plumbing dept and then off to McDonald's where I had a yogurt partfait and fries and Megan and Hunk shared a hamburger. Hunk got the meat and Megan got the bread...go figure. After the "snack" we went back to the factory and checked out the park next to the factory. Hunk busied himself picking some kind of nuts off the ground and picking leaves for Dawn's classroom for show tell, except I don't know what to tell since we don't know what kind of nut it is. Hope you like it all, Dawn. The tree had some interesting bark, so took a picture of that too. Which reminds me, sorry I don't have pictures, I'm really slipping up Maybe tomorrow. Then after the tour we went to downtown Greenville and visited the Kitchen Aid store/museum. They had a little child's kitchen there so Megan got to busy herself playing with all the stuff there, while we shopped. I think she had a great time.
After that we decided to head over to my cousin Rick's store in DeGraff, Ohio. On the way we had to got through the town of Piqua, where I lived the first few years of my life. The house really is pretty sad looking. Next door to the house there was a garage sale going on so Karen and I thought we'd check it out. Turns out the lady who lives there is the ex-daughter-in-law of the lady ( Shirley Sloan) who lived there when I lived in the house. Apparently, one of Shirley's sons owns my old house and rents it out. Not only that, this guys either lives or has a cabin in northern Minnesota near the Canada border. Small world. After that we drove a bit around Piqua and then we were off on the final leg to Rick's antique store. Very quaint little store. They've only been in business since May but he has quite an inventory. I was impressed. Spent maybe an hour there. He told us how he got into the business and some of the good "sells" he has had. By the time we left Rick's we all were more than hungry, so stopped at a nearby state park and had a picnic lunch of the rest of the food we had from Thursday. It was a very nice park with a pretty lake. The bathrooms were awful I must say, literally holes in the ground. I guess you could call then outhouses. It made we wish I was a boy, 'cause I certainly did want to sit down. It was like looking into an abyss. Not that I wanted to see what was down there mind you, but it would have been helpful knowing there was only crap down there and that a raccoon wasn't lurking around down there. I don't know what a raccoon would have been doing down there though, so I did sit down...I know TMI, too much info.
After lunch we drove over to see Lori, (Rick's wife). Two weeks ago she fell off a horse and broke 12 ribs and had some bleeding on the brain. She seemed to be in a lot of pain, duh, so we didn't stay long. Before we left we went out to see her 2 horses and Megan even got to feed them. That was worth the trip just to see the horses. I told Lori the next time I come down I want to go riding with her. Hope we will be able to do that. After leaving Lori we headed on to Urbana and hit the usual spots - my grandma's house, the cemetery, then on to Springfield where we got a room at the Courtyard (same place we stayed last time we came). Had dinner at Applebee's across the street from the hotel. The food was good, but unfortunately Karen got her food piecemeal, first her steak, later on her shrimp, and finally her baked potato..very strange. Thanks Hunk, we're blaming this on you. Can you believe your meal came okay, albeit you didn't get a big serving of ribs.
Oh, and remember the reunion and the people I know that will be going to the reunion? Well, Rick won't be going now because Lori can't work for him at the store. He may come later on, but I pretty much doubt that he will come. And Vance and Ginger...well found out Vance had surgery a few days ago to repair an abdominal aneurysm. We're going to stop at their house tomorrow to see them, but of course they won't be going to the reunion either. Okay, that leave Uncle Philip...
We decided to leave early Thursday morning, meeting around 5 a.m. So I got up at 4, having gone to bed at midnight. Fortunately, I had pretty much packed my bag for the trip ahead of time. Hunk and I had gone to watch Michael, Becca, and Dawn on their slow-pitch fall ball team. Their team won handily both games and they all three played very well. After the game we went to Baker's Square as none of us had really had dinner. Never mind that it was after 8 p.m...'cause it was Free-Pie-Wednesday after all!! Thus, by the time we got home I was wired and couldn't go to sleep, so played a rousing game of Cafe World and then Pioneer Trail. The 4 o'clock alarm came much too soon, but I did get up and managed to do a 17-minute jog on my treadmill. Yeah, Michael. It was a slloooowwww jog, but a jog nonetheless. Then I showered, dressed, and had a couple pieces of cinnamon toast and about that time, John, Karen, and Megan showed up and off we went, leaving around 5:25.
So how many times can you say "road construction"? Road construction was literally on every road we were on. In spite of that though we continued to move along fairly quickly and didn't have any major delays. We would stop every couple of hours to either pick up some Diet Coke or to lose some Diet Coke, but that was okay. It gave us a few minutes to stretch and let Megan out of her car seat. What a trooper she was on the trip too. Karen said this was the longest trip she has had to be confined to a car seat and I must say she has done better than I would have. As it was I had to keep moving in my seat constantly as I was getting quite stiff and sore having to sit in one position for so long.
Our only stops, however, weren't just at gas stations. We made out traditional stop at Humburg Cheese near Tomah, Wisconsin. Picked up some cojack and beef stick and that was our morning snack along with some Ritz crackers. Also bought some seedless blackberry jam but will have to wait till I get home to try that out. Our next major stop was Wisconsin Dells. Picked up some chocolate and walked through a few stores, but didn't find anything I really wanted to buy. But we did DO something though. We went into one of the photo shops, dressed in western garb and had our picture taken. Thank you Karen for going along with me on this one. I think it was a grand idea and I bet you agree with me now. It was a lot of fun. I think Megan liked it too, but not so sure about John and Hunk. You'll understand what I mean when you see the pictures.
For lunch we stopped at a place that was once a gas station, but there really wasn't anything there anymore. The only thing it had going for it was some shade, but that was about it. Didn't really want to stop there, but I wasn't seeing any roadside rest stops like we normally do. Our lunch was tailgating out of the car. We had sandwiches, fruit, chips, and cookies. Very tasty and quite satisfying. Oh, did I mention the "traveler that was sleeping about 40 feet from us. We didn't bother him (or maybe we did, I didn't ask) and he didn't bother us. Anyway...
Most of the rest of the day was spent driving to Ohio. We decided to go the whole way so we would be set up for the Kitchen Aid tour the next day. We got down to Greenville, Ohio somewhere between 8-9 p.m. The hotel wasn't too bad. I've certainly spent a night in a worst hotel (I bet you know what I'm talking about a.k.a. California). Hunk and I crashed in bed, slept very well, and got up around 7 a.m.
Started the day with continental breakfast at hotel, then off for the tour. Since Hunk and I had been on the tour the last time we came to Ohio, we decided to take care of Megan (She wasn't allowed on the factory tour) while John and Karen went. So the three of us went to Loew's to check out the plumbing dept and then off to McDonald's where I had a yogurt partfait and fries and Megan and Hunk shared a hamburger. Hunk got the meat and Megan got the bread...go figure. After the "snack" we went back to the factory and checked out the park next to the factory. Hunk busied himself picking some kind of nuts off the ground and picking leaves for Dawn's classroom for show tell, except I don't know what to tell since we don't know what kind of nut it is. Hope you like it all, Dawn. The tree had some interesting bark, so took a picture of that too. Which reminds me, sorry I don't have pictures, I'm really slipping up Maybe tomorrow. Then after the tour we went to downtown Greenville and visited the Kitchen Aid store/museum. They had a little child's kitchen there so Megan got to busy herself playing with all the stuff there, while we shopped. I think she had a great time.
After that we decided to head over to my cousin Rick's store in DeGraff, Ohio. On the way we had to got through the town of Piqua, where I lived the first few years of my life. The house really is pretty sad looking. Next door to the house there was a garage sale going on so Karen and I thought we'd check it out. Turns out the lady who lives there is the ex-daughter-in-law of the lady ( Shirley Sloan) who lived there when I lived in the house. Apparently, one of Shirley's sons owns my old house and rents it out. Not only that, this guys either lives or has a cabin in northern Minnesota near the Canada border. Small world. After that we drove a bit around Piqua and then we were off on the final leg to Rick's antique store. Very quaint little store. They've only been in business since May but he has quite an inventory. I was impressed. Spent maybe an hour there. He told us how he got into the business and some of the good "sells" he has had. By the time we left Rick's we all were more than hungry, so stopped at a nearby state park and had a picnic lunch of the rest of the food we had from Thursday. It was a very nice park with a pretty lake. The bathrooms were awful I must say, literally holes in the ground. I guess you could call then outhouses. It made we wish I was a boy, 'cause I certainly did want to sit down. It was like looking into an abyss. Not that I wanted to see what was down there mind you, but it would have been helpful knowing there was only crap down there and that a raccoon wasn't lurking around down there. I don't know what a raccoon would have been doing down there though, so I did sit down...I know TMI, too much info.
After lunch we drove over to see Lori, (Rick's wife). Two weeks ago she fell off a horse and broke 12 ribs and had some bleeding on the brain. She seemed to be in a lot of pain, duh, so we didn't stay long. Before we left we went out to see her 2 horses and Megan even got to feed them. That was worth the trip just to see the horses. I told Lori the next time I come down I want to go riding with her. Hope we will be able to do that. After leaving Lori we headed on to Urbana and hit the usual spots - my grandma's house, the cemetery, then on to Springfield where we got a room at the Courtyard (same place we stayed last time we came). Had dinner at Applebee's across the street from the hotel. The food was good, but unfortunately Karen got her food piecemeal, first her steak, later on her shrimp, and finally her baked potato..very strange. Thanks Hunk, we're blaming this on you. Can you believe your meal came okay, albeit you didn't get a big serving of ribs.
Oh, and remember the reunion and the people I know that will be going to the reunion? Well, Rick won't be going now because Lori can't work for him at the store. He may come later on, but I pretty much doubt that he will come. And Vance and Ginger...well found out Vance had surgery a few days ago to repair an abdominal aneurysm. We're going to stop at their house tomorrow to see them, but of course they won't be going to the reunion either. Okay, that leave Uncle Philip...
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