Wok N Roll with us...Bob and Teri Along with Atlas and Kalani: Cleveland, OH Area 8/10/13

We just finished up two weeks in the Cleveland, OH area (Chagrin Falls and Twinsburg, with us staying at Punderson Lake State Park). We did little ‘sightseeing’ while there, mainly because it had been too long since we got to relax and visit with family and we know we will be back here again soon. Instead this trip to the Cleveland area we took the time for many visits, Bob got to play several rounds of golf with his Dad and we also got to take care of a few things like oil changes, haircuts, a damaged stabilizer bracket and even the spaghetti wire mess in our truck for our Sirius -in other words, those things in life that are difficult to have time to accomplish as traveling nomads. We had a very time packed, but good time. Bob’s sister Mary and Husband Chris, as well as Bob’s Mom and Dad live her. We got to spend time with all of them as well as with Bob’s sister Jacquie who came through on her way back to Vermont. Lots of great visits with family with many meals shared, bike rides with Mary and Golf lessons too! Teri has never played golf and has wanted to learn so we took the opportunity while being in one place for a while to do that with her taking lessons along with Mary. She has clubs and shoes now and is looking forward to getting on a golf course for the first time when we get to KY the end of August.

Our bike rides (most with Mary) in the Cleveland area were filled with nature-Herons, turtles, beavers and even a snake. We took one afternoon to drive into Cleveland to visit Cleveland's oldest publicly owned market, the Westside Market. The market is over 100 years old and is home to over 100 vendors of great ethnic diversity. We brought home with us Slovenia Sausages, green olives stuffed with blue cheese and Jewish Rye bread as well as lots of fresh vegetables (or lots for our little RV refrigerator). All was so very tasty. The Cantaloupes out front were the largest cantaloupes we have ever seen and the vendor seemed confused as to why we would snap pictures of his cantaloupes. Outside of the market we saw a new wall for ‘Before I die I want to’. We snapped a shot as Teri had just read a story about this global public art project started by artist Candy Chang . Candy Chang began the first wall on an abandoned house in her neighborhood in New Orleans after she lost someone she loved. Before I Die walls have now been created in over 20 languages and in over 50 countries. The story of these walls can be found at: http://beforeidie.cc/site/about/

Downtown Cleveland has so many neat old buildings. Lots to visit on a return. On leaving the Westside Market we noticed one of these historic building tucked in the corner of the parking lot that turned out to be St. Emeric’s Church. Like so many things in our travels, there are so many stories right in front of you that are often not heard. St. Emeric is a 100 year old plus Hungarian Parish with a recent interesting story. It was one of several churches that the local Catholic Bishop closed siting shortages of priests and cash. The parishioners, many of them second- and third-generation members of the church, challenged some of the closings, staged sit-ins and other protests. In a rare occurrence, Rome reversed the Bishop’s decisions to close these churches and St. Emeric’s along with other churches were restored. This was an important decision for the 350 parishioners, many of whom spoke only Hungarian and are happy to have their worship community restored.