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Jim Lewis goes into the Army, and my work in WWII After WWII, I venture into fiberglass, Marrying Mike, and my heart problem Getting Dick Newpher to join me at Glastic
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In Briarhill we noticed a motorhome parked in a neighbor's driveway with a "for rent" sign on it. We rented it for a day and enjoyed it. Then we rented it for a month and drove it to Prince Edward Island in Canada to visit Bonnie's parents and relatives. We bought the motorhome and took a trip to Houston to visit Bonnie's son Jeff. Along the way we ran into a terrible rain storm. The roof leaked over the driver's seat, and also onto our bed in the back. I tried to stop the leaks but couldn't do much. But, in spite of the problems, we were "hooked" on motorhoming. We traveled far and wide in that motorhome. We spent a lot of time traveling out west. Our ultimate motorhoming pleasure trip was with a group of 20 motorhomers who had signed up for a professionally guided tour through Mexico. We started from El Paso, TX and after driving south for a couple days all our rigs, we boarded a train. Our motorhomes were boarded on the train, too, each on a separate flat car. These became our homes for a slow train trip through the countryside of Mexico, wandering west to disembark in Sonora, after which we drove back to the USA.
Another memorable RV trip took us to Lake-of-the-Woods. I'll let Bonnie tell this story:
"We were traveling west, and we made stops often (like every 100 miles at least). One such stop was at The Narrows where there was little of anything. There was a Trading Post. Whenever we leave a vehicle Bonnie and Roger hardly ever roam in the same direction. The Trading Post was as it sounds: touristy. Bonnie did find a counter with Waterford crystal and looked for Roger, who was no where to be seen.
"Roger was not to be found in the Trading Post, but during the search Bonnie found a door leading into another store: a bait and tackle shop.. There Roger was buying a rod and reel and bait.. Bonnie was certain he was no fisherman and neither was she.. He would not answer when asked by his wife what was the plan.. He just picked up the purchases and went out the door with his new wife following, and crosses the street to where there were numerous outboard fishing boats. Well Bonnie did not like the look of what was about to happen.
"There was a gang plank that past all the outboards and led to an office.. Roger did not rent an outboard but the smaller of the two houseboats for one whole week! By the way, it included an outboard that is considered to be a "dingy". Now Bonnie had some purchasing of her own to do.. groceries. How does one buy for one week to have enough and yet not too much for 21 meals.. including seasonings?? Having fresh fish was certain NOT to be included. Pancake mix was one purchase, and it became our mainstay.
"Lake-of-the-Woods was aptly named and we enjoyed the pristine scenery and we learned early to abide by the buoys and map given to us. Roger was an adventurer. finding unusual narrow places to TRY to get through and finding he could not always be successful. You see, this place was full of lakes with channels leading to them.. Roger did not want to follow a map totally, and eventually, we did have to replace a propeller. (by this time Roger is no stranger to replacing propellers on outboards.)
"The most significant lesson we had for our marriage was on this trip when we came out of a channel (Roger at the helm) and the weather had changed for the worse.. the lake was choppy and the wind getting stronger. The houseboat rocking from side-to-side and the cabinet doors were flying open with breakable dishes and glassware tumbling out. Bonnie caught them and put them in the sink as fast as she could while slamming the doors shut again. Roger finally got the rocking under better control and was able to land in a small cove.
"The next morning it was sunny and beautiful once again. After breakfast, and all was washed and buttoned up, Roger untied and asked for the engines to be started and back up. Then he discovered the houseboat was solidly beached because the wind the night before came from the rear and pushed water into the cove which now had drained out. Bonnie went into a frenzy... scared to death... babbling to take the dingy for help, to do this, to do that.... Finally she ran out of breath and while catching it Roger turned and announced, "We have another problem on board: too many chiefs and not enough indians." It was the right thing to say at the time, it brought a quick halt to my panic.
"It took until mid-morning, but they finally got the houseboat floating again. This type of teamwork also worked in the ten years of motoring around the country in our RV.
My son, Tom, is a game player. He plays games of all sorts, most I have no interest in, but we do both enjoy chess and card games. Mike got Tom a board game called GO for his birthday during our Shaker Hts. era. He liked it, and he showed it to me. We both found it fascinating. Then Mike found a notice in the newspaper about a local "Go club" which met once a week at a nearby Chinese restaurant. The club was a motley mix of East Asians, Anglos and even some East Indians. I went to one of their meetings, and I got help learning more about the game. I attended more meetings, and soon Tom and I were regulars. One day the restaurant closed, and the meetings ceased. So I looked around and found a library which let us play there.
Upon further searching, I found out about the American Go Association. I told the players about the AGA and encouraged them to become AGA members. As we traveled with our RV, I put together a list of these clubs and the names of persons to contact at each one. Thus we built an up to date AGA Go Club list. Roy Laird in New York had been trying to establish an American Go Newsletter. My contact names & addresses were added to his list. I
I had joined the Mentor Harbor Yacht Club long before I was married. There were several distinct classes of sail boats and each would have it's own Sunday races. I loved sail boating, especially the racing events. When I married Mike, she started coming with me to Mentor. Mike did not enjoy the racing, not even a quiet Saturday afternoon sailing cruise. But there was always a wingding Saturday night party at the club. She enjoyed these parties and she was never ready to go home until after midnight. I didn't enjoy dancing. Neither did I enjoy the socializing.
I belonged to the Cleveland Skating Club for many years. (before it was the Skating Club it was a tennis club in Shaker Heights) I did a lot at the club over many years, first with Mike, and then with Bonnie. I helped organize an "Everyman" Tennis tournament, and I promoted Curling. The kids also enjoyed the Skating Club. They played tennis, hockey and curling there. Bonnie and I started playing tennis there and I introduced her to Curling. We had great fun with this and we usually had our dinner afterward with the curling group. This togetherness was very heart warming.
I enjoyed working around the yard at our Solon house but I was a bit reckless. On one occasion I was on a ladder replacing the dog line (wire) that had fallen off at the second floor window. As I came back down the extension ladder my foot slipped through a bottom rung and caught my Achilles' tendon ripping it and I couldn't stand on that foot. Bonnie drove me to the hospital. They bound up my ankle and told me to stay on my back and keep my leg elevated.
On June 22, 1988: A branch of the big oak tree in our back yard interfered with the beautiful sunsets I could teasingly see from my desk in early evenings. I decided to cut down that branch. It was about fifteen feet above the ground but I had a tall extendable ladder which I leaned against the tree. Using the extension ladder and going up approximately 6 ft or so I sawed off a limb that was objectionable to me. As the saw almost cut through, the limb started to twist and turn and as I watched it I knew I was in trouble. When it broke off it wiped me off the ladder sending my back side to land on the exposed root structure of the tree. The pain was excruciating.
At the hospital Dr. Waggoner said, "I don't believe it, but the X-rays show no broken bones."
But there were lots and lots of sore muscles. I remained in the hospital a week, unable to sit but I did manage to get on my feet to walk down the hall occasionally.
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Jim Lewis goes into the Army, and my work in WWII After WWII, I venture into fiberglass, Marrying Mike, and my heart problem Getting Dick Newpher to join me at Glastic
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