Spending the night in Rochester, we headed over to our friends Rob and Lesen’s house for a cookout and a fire to see some friends before leaving New York. Pete, Dave, Rob, and I all grew up together back in Vestal, and our partners Cora, Cait, Lesen, and Jamie were all able to make it as well. It was so good to catch up. You know you’re in good company when it can be 1 day or 5 years since you’ve last seen each other and it feels all the same.

“How many eggs will you eat?” Dave asked the following morning, as we woke up at their house around 6 and prepared for the day’s drive. He and I fixed a solid and basic breakfast of eggs, scrambled, and buttered toast.

We gathered our things and tossed them back in the car, said our goodbyes to Dave and Cait, and set off. Stopping at Treetown Coffee around the corner, we picked up a couple cups of rocket fuel to wash down breakfast and caught the interstate out of Rochester.

Ohio dealt us a never-ending foggy morning as we made our way to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, south of Cleveland and on our way to Columbus. We got out and stretched our legs on the Brandywine Falls trail, ending the loop back at the falls lookout, previous home to a sawmill that helped support the surrounding Brandywine village back in the early 1800’s. Charley was thrilled to get out of the car and get a sniff or two of Ohio.

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A couple more hours on the road brought us down to Columbus. Our friends and old neighbors in Brighton, Kelly and Paul, live on the border of Cbus and Bexley and were gracious enough to host us weary travelers for the night (again).

We caught up briefly, and it seemed our friendship and conversation didn’t skip a beat. After settling Charley in the guest bedroom and meeting Murphy, the 4 legged addition to their family, we made our way to the downtown Columbus area and had dinner and a few drinks. Columbus had never really been on our radar, but our hosts showed us a great time and the food was delicious.

In the morning, the 4 of us stopped down at Cherbourg Bakery in Bexley for a couple baked goods and some coffee before we set out. Getting too familiar with saying goodbyes, we bid our friends adieu and punched our next stop into the GPS.