ROAD TRIP PT 5

We met Aunt Dot, Louise and Steve at Diana's house about midmorning
Tuesday and after a bit of discussion on where we might go it was
decided to start with Lehman's Hardware and then decide where to go
from there afterwards. We took two cars: Diana rode with Cheryl and
I and Aunt Dot went with Louise and Steve. Diana's husband Gary
was dealing with the crash of their computer so he wasn't able to join
us.


It was another great day weather-wise and we saw a heron wading in
a river as we waited for a traffic light to change. We stopped for lunch
along the way before continuing on to Lehman's.


Lehman's is located in Kidron, Ohio in the heart of the Amish country
and is huge. When the owner decided to expand he purchased an
Amish farmer's barn and had it reconstructed beam by beam next to the
original store. It's as much of a museum as a store, with old machines
and products displayed along the walls and in the beams overhead.
I got a few laughs from the copies of vintage signs for sale, such as one
for Ted's Root Beer (as in Ted Williams, which was sold in New
England during the 1950's.)and some of the other signs with sayings,
such as "If You Remember the Sixties, You Weren't There!". There was
also the toy section, with an electric train running through the rafters and
metal peddle cars like the one I had as a kid displayed on a shelf by the
windows. A quick glance at the price tags told me they were a heckuva
lot more expensive now


The other wing of the store had modern stoves, refrigerators and stereos
manufactured with old fashioned exteriors from the 19th and early 20th
centuries. The workmanship was amazing and nice to look at but they
were definitely well out of my price range. Outside next to the building
was this humongous farm machine with a huge chain attached to it,
though I think any attempt to steal it would be noisy enough to attract
quite a bit of attention.


It was nearly 5pm and it was decided we'd drive out to Lake Atwood
to the Lighthouse Restaurant which is located in the West Marina on
the lake. It's a nice location with a good view of the lake and we sat out
on the patio. The food was good and I enjoyed the dinner with the
exception of the large business party of about twenty men who were
so loud that on occasion it made it hard to carry out a conversation
at our table. Afterwards Steve and I walked down to the water and he
told me about how Lake Atwood was one of several man made lakes
built during the Depression. Quite a few people boat on it or camp
by it, and it's such a pretty spot I could see why!

After dinner we all went back to Diana and Gary's home and I finally
saw a live deer. (We'd seen four dead deer along the side of the
highway on the trip out.) I'd missed a small group of them earlier
that Diana had spotted but this one was grazing in a field by the
road.


It had been another good day and it had been a thoroughly enjoyable
visit with my Aunt and her family.


But it wasn't over yet!