Pat fought the weather & the weather won.

Pat's adventure - Day 23

The phone rang this morning at 4:30 a.m. It's so scary when that happens. We always expect the worst, don't we...because who would call at that ungodly hour if it wasn't a dire emergency?

After gaining a foggy conciousness and realizing it was my phone instead of one of our alarm clocks, I picked up the cell phone by my bed and the voice on the other end said, "Hi Sis! Did I wake you up?"

"Yes, Pat. It's 4:30 in the morning."

"Oh, sorry. Hey I'm in the bus station in Cleveland, waiting to catch a bus to Sandusky..."

Now if you read my last post about Pat's adventure, you're probably wondering how he got lost going from Sulphur, Louisiana on his way to Ft. Myers, Florida and ended up in Ohio, so let me catch you up.

After his 2 days of wandering in Sulphur he made it to somewhere near Lafayette, LA. Remember that he's been dealing with rain storms and wind pretty much the whole trip and I think he had just had enough. He called me on Thursday and asked me to check online to see if he could catch a bus from Lafayette to somewhere near Vermilion, Ohio, which is where we all grew up. Much of our extended family still lives in that area too.

It seems that whenever Pat is tired of wandering, he either ends up in Ohio or Phoenix where things are more familiar and there's some family around. He said he wasn't ready to come back to Phoenix (probably trying to avoid the heat and desert as long as he could)...so he chose Vermilion. I don't blame him. I would love to be in Vermilion this time of year when the leaves are turning and there's a chill in the air, schools have started and the sweaters are starting to come out. If he hangs around until October 15th he'll be able to go to the Woollybear Festival! They didn't have that when I was in Ohio, but I hear it's a lot of fun. Knowing Pat though, he's not a big fan of crowds so it's probably not something he would look forward to.

I was able to confirm that there was a bus from Lafayette to Sandusky, which is relatively close to Vermilion. So he headed for Lafayette on his way to Ohio.

When he arrived in Lafayette, he packed up as much as he could in his backpack and daypack and sold his bike, bike trailer and whatever he couldn't carry on his back at a pawn shop. He caught the bus and arrived in Cleveland this morning...not sure how he ended up in Cleveland instead of Sandusky, but don't even want to ask.

Anyway, as of this morning, he needed a place to stay in or around Vermilion, so I started making phone calls and hunting online to see what I could find that would be cheap (he doesn't like to spend a lot of money) and short-term (like nightly or weekly) until he can decide what he wants to do. Hopefully he'll get into a longer term situation if he decides to stay there for a while. Fortunately it's off-season for the tourist areas in northern Ohio so there are some places near the lake that aren't too expensive. The thing that really amazed me is that so many of these places look the same as they did over 30 years ago when I lived there. Time stands still in Vermilion in some ways. Take a look! Boy do they bring back a lot of memories! How fun!

Some of these websites start with music so be careful if you're in a quiet place.

Cottages at the Water's Edge
Lakeland Lodges
Wild Waves Motel (this is probably where he'll be staying)

So as I write, Pat's on his way to the Wild Waves Motel from Sandusky, which is about 10-15 miles to walk. He was thinking of calling a taxi, but we'll see if he decides to spend the money. Who knows how long he'll stay in town. The last time he went back there he stayed until it started getting too cold to get around easily. Since he doesn't have a car and the public transportation in those small towns is pretty sparce, he usually gets tired of being out in the cold...we'll see how long he lasts this time...

If you're in the Vermilion area and want to get in touch with him, send me an email (hannfamily@cox.net) and I'll give you his cell phone number.