Day 270-271 – 2/18-19/12 – Batavia, Ohio

Milford to Batavia; Distance = 22 miles; People met = 11+

We began the day getting to know our hosts Kara and Joyce a little better. Joyce showed us pictures of her dogs, family, rafting trip and former home in Austin that became a mini-sanctuary for animals, particularly screech owls. She also shared a story of her sister’s band Frozen Foot, so named because of a homeless person that she sheltered whenever he came in to warm his feet.

We ran into Josh for the third day, along with his friends John and Jillian. They knew we would be coming by their place and were out on the banks of the Little Miami waiting for us. They came over to our side of the river and we talked again about trails and Josh’s upcoming journey walking to Missoula, to where John and Jillian will be living soon.

Josh and John with Jillian hidden in the back (sorry, Jillian)

We had fairly strong coffee at Joyce’s, and a beer from John. The combination of the two diuretics led to seven trips to the restroom that coming night, the first of two we spent at the Faith United Methodist Church in Batavia. My body is not capable of handling that well at this point and the frequent trips meant a lack of sleep.

Kind Michelle, custodian of Faith UMC

Still, I was awake enough Sunday morning to pack up our stuff before people started trickling in for Sunday school. I gave an hour talk at Sunday school, then a 10 minute talk during the church service. I did not get pictures of everyone, but we met Howard and Ruth, Bob and Gladys, Maggie, Gary and, of course, Pastor Dave and Bonnie Phaneuf.

Bonnie and Pastor Dave

Pastor Dave and Bonnie took us out to lunch afterwards, partly in celebration of Cindy’s birthday. Cindy had another celebration of sorts that evening at McDonald’s while we were posting to the Internet. She was able to read all her birthday greetings on facebook. We also met Robert Barney there, as he overheard us talk about what we were doing. He runs a business that helps to send links and publicize sites on the Internet and said he was going to help us out with that.

Robert Barney of Monitors and More

In between lunch and McDonald’s we made our way from Batavia to Bethel, stopping to break once and chatting with Glen, caretaker for Trautman properties.