Monday was my last "free" day in Ohio. I had to drive a great deal on tuesday to get back to the airport and squeeze in one more SCer visit that I could NOT imagine not seeing.
Woman has a love of barns. Not the new tin things that are very functional and completely unremarkable. The old ones made of wood that are often painted red. I also love barns. The same type. We decided to take a day of driving in the countryside hunting down picturesque old barns, with a lunch break and short visit with her Dad. Sweetie was more than happy to stay behind and do some homework for her summer classes. I think she just couldn't bear the thought of having to put up with me when I got into my photographer's frenzy and did crazy things to get pictures. Woman hadn't seen this so she was still gullible enough to offer to be the driver while I got some photos.
We stopped for gas and I made an observation about woman. It's something I had seen a couple of other times that week and something that I think people probably already suspect. She was one very remarkable teacher. So much so that her former students stop her and give her hugs and hellos when she's out and about town! You don't get that kind of response to even an average job effort. She's a very special lady.
There are quite a few barns between woman's hometown and her childhood hometown where her parents still live. We would be cruising along and visually scouring the horizon. With short notice I'd say "there! let's try to pull over and get THAT one!" and she'd look for a driveway to pull into. I'd leap from the car and start "stalking" around the barn or other yard structure and take pictures. Every once in a while the barn was part of a property where there were houses nearby and someone would wander out wondering what was going on. I'd introduce myself and ask if I could take some pictures of their barn. I could see this mix of disbelief, humor and crazy person tolerance in their faces. I guess this didn't happen around those parts often. I ran into some animals, a few dogs and sometimes malicious vegetation. It was a very good day.
We pulled into woman's childhood hometown around noon and picked up her mother. We had a lady's luncheon at the golden arches. Before we left to do that I got to see the house woman grew up in. Cozy! Looked at the pictures of her family growing up. It spoke of a family that loves each other and finds a way to stay connected. Afterward we went to visit her father who is in a assisted facility. I like him!! Such a character and I swear the man oozes charm. ;) Woman had stopped to pick him up some pretty roses for him to enjoy and we all chatted. The staff and other residents wandered in and out of the room and you could tell that they all were pretty comfortable with each other. I felt honored to meet more of my extended family. With hugs and a promise to send him a picture of the golden gate we headed back home, stopping to take more barn and country pictures as we went.
We had a relaxing evening that night. Me uploading and editing my pictures, dinner at the local mexican restaurant followed by ice cream at the local ice cream spot. It was a little sad to realize that early the next morning I'd be heading out to conclude my vacation adventure, but all good things really do come to an end.
I'm going to show you a couple of barn pictures, but I also wanted to show you the other creatures I ran into on my barn hunting adventure!
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