On the Road Again

Enough philosophical pontificating. A holiday weekend is upon us and it’s time for road trippin’. You get three guesses as to where I’m headed; the first two don’t count.

Today was a working day for Mark. Since my three-hour commute was a bit delayed by a malfunctioning computer and cable TV, I made it to the Toledo area just as he was wrapping things up for the weekend. He was taking Friday as a vacation day, but since there was so much we wanted to see and do, we didn’t waste any time. We hit the ground running as soon as I arrived.

Our first stop was at the Maumee Library. I needed stamps for my National Parks Passport. Fallen Timbers Monument National Historic Site? Check! Fallen Timbers Battlefield National Historic Site? Check! Fort Miamis National Historic Site? Check! And now that Mark is officially a Buckeye, he obtained a library card as well. Missions accomplished!

It was then on to Re-Décor, a very cool consignment shop for home furnishings Mark had discovered in his travels around the city. He wanted to unload the coffee-table-that-came-as-part-of-a-trio-but-was-replaced-by-the-cocktail-ottoman-which-matches-the-couch and this was the perfect place to do so. The gallery is housed in, well, an old house and offers everything from furniture to accessories to wall art to select dinnerware and glassware. Mark found several things he wanted to purchase, but decided he should probably sell the coffee table before he started spending money.

The next stop was a record store Mark had also happened upon. He had previously visited and located in the dollar bin two more Woodstock albums he needed for his wall collage (10 Years After and Mountain). But because he hadn’t enough time then to look through everything and felt he was cheating by perusing without me, he decided to wait until I was back in town to check it out further. Another major score when seven more albums went home with him (John Sebastian; Keef Hartley Band; Janis Joplin, The Who; Crosby, Stills & Nash; CCR; and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band). Several others were also available, but he’s set his limit at $6 per album. Besides, half the fun is flipping through stacks of records to see what we can find … and reminiscing about the good ‘ole days. Only nine more albums to go!

Our final destination was downtown Perrysburg. Every Thursday evening they host a Farmers Market. It turned out to be quite the happening. By the time we got there they had sold out of ribs. Major bummer. We did buy two bags of kettle korn for our weekend travels, and then proceeded to check out the town and waterfront.

The historic community of Perrysburg was platted on the banks of the Maumee River in 1816. It and Washington D.C. are the only two towns in the United States laid out by the federal government.

Perrysburg was named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, whose naval victory in the Battle of Lake Erie helped bring an end to British occupation of American soil. A bronze statue of Commodore Perry stands at the head of Louisiana Avenue and overlooks the downtown area.

The historic district also boasts an impressive collection of commercial and residential Victorian architecture dating back to the 1830s.

By the time we finished poking around, most of the market vendors had packed up and gone. We detoured to Jet’s. Not the BBQ ribs I had been craving, but greasy two-for-one cheeseburgers and French fries were a welcomed substitute.

Let the weekend begin!