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Saturday, 05/31/03; Westerville, Ohio - Day One
Lightning and Thunder!
The weather at Morgantown, as we pulled out on schedule, was light rain showers and it didn’t improve much until we reached the vicinity of Wheeling, West Virginia. We were delighted to see the sun. However, about a half-hour later, ominous clouds were forming on the horizon and then we observed bursts of lightning. Not long after, we were in it, but good! Out came the blue paper shop towels that we had dried out previously and they were stuffed all along the windshield to catch the rain that entered. Keith’s pants leg and stockings were drenched before we found the key point of the rain’s entry. The newly applied Rain-X was pretty effective, but still there were times that the windshield wiper was in use to give a better picture of the highway. After about 30 minutes of the deluge, the sky began to clear. This happened again before reaching about 50 miles east of Columbus, then it cleared and we had hopes of completing the journey in dry weather. It was not to be! Just before reaching Westerville, another, but much lighter shower hit us. We felt we were too early to arrive at Phil and Marcia’s place, so we stopped at a Burger King for food and to while away some time.
After our repast, Keith called Phil and found that they were home. Phil said he would come out to where we were and lead us to his home. He did and both Marcia and Phil greeted us. Phil rode with Keith and Jo with Marcia. We were happy to pull into the drive of their new home on the outskirts of this old Ohio town. What a lovely place they have and they made us very welcome. A large sign of welcome was quite prominently paced in their front yard. We retired to their living room to catch up on family news and to allow the Olsons to get acquainted with Marcia and to renew their acquaintance with Phil, with whom they toured Europe in 1998. Keith’s niece, Katie, and great nephew, Ryan came over from a nearby town and Keith took Ryan for a short spin in the Victoria. Later that evening all six of us went to a very nice Italian restaurant for dinner.
The Olson’s car’s front tires were getting worn and Dennis wanted to replace them. He had called earlier in the week to Snyder’s (an antique car parts dealer in New Springfield, Ohio) and ordered a pair to be picked up on Monday morning. Keith had mistakenly thought Snyder’s was in Springfield, near Dayton. No, it was New Springfield, near Youngstown and we would have to backtrack to get them. We strategized on how best to get new tires. We called Paul Griesse, a Touring Club member living nearby to see if he had a couple of spares, but he wasn’t home. We tried to reach Gaslight Antique Auto Parts in Urbana, but they were closed on Saturday afternoon. The issue was tabled until the morrow. We all went to bed knowing we had a “day off” from driving on Sunday, but had a problem regarding the tires.
Regards from the “Buckeyed” Four
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