Going Home

Last Saturday, I took a trip to Erie PA.  One of my best friends in life, Ruth, was in the hospital.  If you're serious enough to be admitted to the hospital for days, you definitely should have visitors.  Especially your good friend from Ohio needs to go in and see you!

So, last Saturday I headed in by myself.  With my back, I have a hard time sitting in the car for two hours.  So, I make a lot of stops, walk around a little and start going again.  It takes me awhile, but I get there, eventually!

One place between here and there that I always like to stop at is the Flying J truck stop.  They have very clean bathrooms, and there are always a lot of people around.  It's one place that a girl can go by herself to take a break.  Bonus!  I pee here on every trip home.  TMI??

When I pulled into the parking lot, the roof of the Flying J was like something out of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds!  The seagulls were everywhere!  I was in too much of a hurry to pee when I got there so I had to go in and take care of business first.  By the time I got done and came out, most of the birds were in the air or gone.  But, I thought it was a cool shot.

Now that I look at it, maybe they were just mugging for the cameras!

As long as I was in Erie, I HAD to make a stop and see Aunt Mary.  I lived upstairs from Aunt Mary growing up and she is like a second mother to me.  I think it's against the law to go into Erie and not stop and see Aunt Mary.  For real.  You will be offered bad coffee (sorry, Aunt Mary!) and whatever she has on hand.  Luckily, I walked in with my own coffee, so I was off the hook for some of Aunt Mary's coffee.

We had a lovely visit!  And, I even got her to agree to a picture.  I thought she looked better than she's looked in awhile.  She's the cute as a button one on the right.

When I left Aunt Mary's, I had to do a walk around the old homestead.  I grew up in this house, remember.  First, the house itself. 

We were on the second floor while Aunt Mary lives on the first floor.  The enclosed porch in the foreground brings back a lot of memories.  More than a few dates ended in that porch!  Aside from those memories, I had to walk around the house and check out all of Aunt Mary's flowers.  She may  not work on them like she used to, there are still a ton of blooms all around the property.

One of the memories of this house and blooms are the lilac bushes on the side of the house.  There were two huge bushes on the side.  They grew so high that I could reach out of my bedroom window on the second floor and pick lilacs off of that bush!  In the springtime, my bedroom always smelled of lilacs.  That was one thing I asked for when I bought my house.  I wanted a lilac bush of my own.  Thank you to Mike and Mary Jane for planting one here for me!

But, back to my story.  This is a shot of where my bedroom window was.  While the bush had been cut back a few times since I've lived there, you get the idea.  You like my superior photo editing capabilities?  I put an arrow in there to show you my window!  Go me!!

These lilac bushes have to be over 40 years old.  They are changing from what they were when I was a kid.  They used to be a beautiful purple color but they now look more pink to me.  Granted, I'm color blind, so what do I know.

I finally left home and headed back across town to the hospital.  Another walk down memory lane. 

This tavern here used to be named something else.  I celebrated my 19th birthday in here!  Everyone in there knew I was under 21 except for the owners.  Someone (my sister Barb!) finally turned me in to the owners and I got kicked out.  Damn, that was harsh!  I think I was a few months short of my 21st birthday by then though.  It was only two blocks from home so it was very convenient.  Oh well, easy come, easy go. 

From here I drove by another favorite place in town.  Damn the diabetes and the diet!  PULAKOS CANDY!!  Sorry, Malley's, but you can't hold a candle to Pulakos.  This is truly pieces of heaven for your mouth.  They make the BEST chocolate covered strawberries.  When I lived in Houston, it used to cost $40 to get a dozen of the chocolate covered strawberries overnighted to me.  Yeah, once in awhile, I just had to fork over the money and make it happen.  It was worth every penny.  Great memories here!

I finally made it to St. Vincent's Hospital and let me tell you, it's changed!  This is where I went to Nursing School and let me tell you, nothing looks like it used to some 30 years ago.  There are parking ramps and offshoot buildings where houses used to be.  I could barely find the ER!  Lucky for me I DID find the ER and took full advantage of their valet parking.  I had no doubt I'd never find my car again if I parked it.

I had a great visit with Ruth and her husband Jeff.  I respected Ruth's request that I not take any pictures of her in her hospital bed.  But, I did take a picture out her window!  She had a great view up on the 8th floor.

It's hard to see in this picture, but if you look at the horizon on the left of the building in the middle, you can see a sliver of Lake Erie!  Hey, a room with a view!  You can't beat that!!

On a happy note, Ruth was finally released from St. V's last Sunday, a day after I went to visit her.  She is home, continuing her treatment and getting better and stronger every day.  Keep up the good work, Ruth!   Hugs from Ohio!

So it was a great day.  I got to visit with Aunt Mary and with my brother Jim, and I got to spend the afternoon with Ruth and Jeff, catching up, goofing off, cracking jokes and just getting some great face to face time.

I made it home in one piece and I consider that a successful trip.  Once in awhile, you just have to make a trip home.