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Grandma Joan & Grandpa Bill  
01/11/05 - 01/13/05 - Columbus, OH (Photos)

A visit to Caroline's Grandparents in Columbus & a quick trip to her ancestral Amish town

 

We left Chicago on Tuesday morning and headed for Columbus to visit Caroline's paternal grandparents, Joan Huber and Bill Form.  After driving through a torrential downpour and flooding roads, we arrived in one (well, two, I guess) piece(s).  Joan had many stories to share regarding Caroline's family heritage, including stories about Caroline's great-great-grandparents, who came (separately) to New York from Czechoslovakia around 1911 and met subsequent to their arrival in the US.

 

We highly recommend the Columbus Museum of Art, where we saw a Georgia O'Keefe exhibit, among other interesting works of art, if you are ever in the Columbus area.  The weather was beautiful that day, low 60's and dry.  Caroline was SO excited to finally get some decent weather after days of driving in horrible rainy and/or cold conditions.

 

After a nice visit with the grandparents, we left Columbus and headed off for Caroline's Aunt Nancy's place in Bethesda, MD.  After getting our oil changed, we decided to take a detour before leaving Ohio to the Amish town of Kidron, OH, which was founded by Caroline's great-great-great grandfather (I think I got that right) on her father's mother's side (Grandma Joan's, that is).  Kidron is a small town, approximate population of 300, so there is not much there, but it was interesting to see the Amish in their dark, old-fashioned clothing and horses and buggies living alongside the modern folks in town.  Unfortunately, it started to rain as we drove into town so we didn't have much of an opportunity to get out of the car, but we did stop at Lehman's hardware, where we enjoyed looking at their amazing selection of gas, wood and coal-burning (yes, coal!) stoves and brand new retro-style kitchen appliances. We also enjoyed gawking at the Amish shoppers in their dark dresses and black bonnets the store (just kidding!). 

 

After leaving Kidron, we continued on the scenic route through Ohio, Pennsylvania and into West Virginia.  The rolling hills would have been even more picturesque if we could see them better through the rain.  We stopped for the night at the Best Western Mountaineer Inn in Morgantown, WV so Caroline could catch the latest episode of The O.C. and so Scott could enjoy the hillbilly southern accents of the other hotel guests.  We particularly enjoyed listening to the hillbilly author that we had breakfast near this morning, who, incidentally, is no longer writing angry-woman stuff, and has evolved to writing survival guides.

 

Now we're off to complete our journey to Bethesda, about 3 hours away.