It is a little better here at the end of March as I write this column.
Upcoming Lions Club events: The annual 5K Fun Run will be Saturday, May 27, and then the big push is on to get ready for our annual Lions Fun Festival and Zanesville’s 175th Birthday Party Saturday, July 29.
I just about forgot you will need to mark your calendar also for our fundraiser concert with “Elvis” that will be held at the Lighted Gardens, north of Ossian, Sunday, May 21, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Easter Sunday is April 9 and you are invited to come and share that day with any one of our three churches here in town. They are Zanesville Community Church of God, Tower Life Center, and Zanesville United Brethren in Christ.
The Zanesville Community Church of God is still open all weekday mornings for coffee and all ages are welcome to attend from 7:30 to 10 a.m.
As I noted in my last column, I was scheduling a short trip to see our son Jonathan, his wife Sarah, and kids Maxon, Arlo, Amelia and Ansel. Robin and I were to leave on Friday morning and return home on Sunday evening. Up until Friday, when we were on the way, it had not been decided if we were going to their house, a west suburb of Detroit, or to their log cabin house on a small lake near Gaylord, Mich. The factor was the weather prediction as Gaylord was to get six or seven inches of snow on Saturday. Still, the kids wanted to go to the cabin but Sarah couldn’t come along as she had told the neighbors that she would watch their dog for the weekend.
Well for those of you who know Jonathan, he is one of those guys who believes “what will be will be.” I am also sort of that way. Well he, after living in Michigan for over 20 years, assured us that the snow would be cleared by Sunday at noon and we could be on our way home. The kids won out so we headed for Gaylord expecting to be there at the same time as Jonathan about 4 p.m.
According to GPS, we needed to be, the last mile or two, on a gravel (mud) road. There had been some snow before and this road was full of slush and my car is a small Ford Focus. Robin was driving and needless to say she repeated “Oh my Lord” many times until we got through. The GPS turned us and then instructed us to turn down Jon’s lane. There was a Yukon sitting in the middle of the road but no driver. As we turned, ahead was Jonathan and the kids waving to come on down the lane. For some reason his car had quit and would not move. We unloaded our stuff and Jon called the tow truck that took his Yukon into town to be looked at.
We settled in at the cabin and began our great fun time with the kids. They first went outside to play in the leftover snow and then inside for table games. We just enjoyed being “on vacation.”
Jonathan wanted us to go into town to see the “Call of the Wild Museum and Gift Shop” before the snow came. He cooked breakfast. Then he and Robin went to town to pick up the Yukon. Guess they didn’t find anything wrong with it! It just occurred to Jon that it might be a good idea to leave my car in town as it might not make it the next day even through a slight snow. Good idea!
We all loaded up and headed for the museum. If you are traveling through Gaylord you will not want to miss this. The website is www.callofthewildgaylord.com or you can phone 800-835-4347.
We then headed for a restaurant to eat a noon meal before returning to the cabin. It was already snowing.
In the morning, when Robin and Jon were picking up the Yukon, I was acting as a school teacher and had picked up some flash cards at the Dream Center in Huntington that were about the United States and about moons and stars. Not only did the kids like them, but we all learned a lot we didn’t know. Of course all the time I was reminding them of family history that they may not have known before.
After we got back to the cabin it had snowed a lot but Jon still insisted that the roads would be cleared by noon Sunday. Guess what? There was not 6 or 7 inches but 12 or 13 inches of snow on the roads and the first few miles out of the cabin were not plowed! However, we packed up all our stuff and started out for Gaylord and a plowed patch home.
The Yukon slid sideways in the lane but some kitty litter in the shed got us going. We got to the end of the lane but ahead of us was just deep car tracks in the snow. We did make it maybe a quarter mile down the road just past a man that was plowing his drive with a garden tractor. Thank God we passed him as he was to help out when we really got stuck. He came down to us and could do nothing with his small tractor so he went back to his house and brought his truck.
In the meantime Robin, Jon, and Maxon were outside trying to think of something else to try. I was setting inside and then I saw Robin disappear as she slipped and fell into a snowbank. Minutes later Jon fell into one and then Maxon. We just laughed. We talked about something to make heat to melt the snow when Arlo grabbed his back pack with his survival kit.
He came out with some type of fire starter and a small sandwich bag of grass and twigs! We all had another laugh.
The guys hooked the truck on to the Yukon and only moved it a few feet when the strap broke. Our friend headed back home to get another strap. It also did not work. OK, it was time to go on up the road to another neighbor that had a tractor.
The tractor arrived and he had a chain but used the snowblower on the back to clear out the ruts in the road. He cleared a way and finally we made some progress but the chain fell off.
Luckily we were still moving and the tractor drove ahead of us. We kept moving and could now see the end of the road that would turn into a plowed street. The tractor pulled into his drive and Jon kept going but there was another truck with a plow where we were to turn right. Jon said I’m not stopping but the truck and plow pulled out of our way and we headed to town to get my car.
Surprise! Surprise! Remember it is Sunday. The garage is closed and the parking lot is not plowed.“Out of the car kids and start pushing!” It drove forward enough to get our belongings put in and we said our good-byes, jumped in the car and Robin floored it to make it out of the lot. We were finally headed home and Jonathan and the kids were to. We would both have driven about 25 miles on I-75 and then Jon would have stayed on and we went on 127 to I-69 south. Thank goodness there was no snow in the last leg of our trip.
We all agreed we would never forget this vacation. Robin told Jon, “Jon, you have a great vacation home but I know I will never come back here unless it is summer!”
I had not unloaded my many, many newspapers that I read in order to write this column. I had to wait to get home to read them as they were in the car that was parked in town.º
Another complication at the cabin is that there is a home phone but you might not be able to use your cell phone. When we were out on the road stuck none of our cell phones would work. Maybe when you are traveling you should check if phones work there and think about making emergency arrangements before you go.
