The long Trip

Yesterday was a long trip. We started off from southern Ohio and traveled all the way to Grand Rapids Michigan. We stayed in a Days Inn, after passing several hotels that looked more appropriate for roaches than people. But the Days Inn was small and clean and relatively cheap.

Southern Ohio has a neat, corn-fed look about it. The rolling gentle hills and verdant woods, are appealing and beautiful. It is classic American farmland.

We stopped for lunch with friends at Chillocothe, Ohio. Wendy and Creed are a couple we knew in college. He used to be a Methodist minister, but now is a business analyst. She was a computer technician who was laid off and is now starting a quilting business. They both looked much younger than their years.

It's amazing how much we had in common. Life had knocked them around a fair amount, and some of the knocks were similar to the ones we've had. But they are happy, optomistic people, whose faith has served them well. We really enjoyed our time together.

That afternoon, after traveling through Columbus, we passed through northern Ohio and southern Michigan. This land was rubbed smooth by glaciers during the Ice age and now is the flattest land I've ever seen. It is as though someone planted grass on the ocean. In the distance you can see neat little farms and groves of trees. In such a place, the sky becomes a central feature of the land, and the sky was gorgeous.

The area around Grand Rapids has its own distinct feel to it, that's hard to describe. Someone called it " quaint" but that's not exactly accurate. It's fairly cosmopolitian, actually. The adjective I would us is "dutch." It's a dutch doily neatly spread on a tea table. Grand Rapids is warm, friendly, but reserved. Like a tea set put out for guests. I always like it, when I'm here.

More later.