Weekend in Wooster

We left Friday to drive 8 hours to Wooster, OH to visit Peg and John. We made our estimated 6:00 arrival time by leaving at 8:15, which gave us 45 minutes for construction traffic, rest stops, and lunch. The trip over has the illusion of taking longer because of the time change.

John made pizzas on the grill for supper. He’d made two batches of dough in case we were really hungry. I learned the trick of stretching the dough out on parchment paper so it would not stick to the peel. We only ate two of the pizzas. I shared my trick of freezing the half-baked dough, which works very well and makes pizza a quick and easy supper on another night.

After supper we played Mexican Train down to the 5’s. It was very, very late by my standards (11:00 local time). Whew, what a wild and crazy night!

Saturday began with heavy rain. After a lovely breakfast of sticky buns, we headed to Lehman’s in nearby Kidron. Lehman’s began as a genuine Amish store. It still has a vast selection of oil lamps, hand-cranked washing machines, wood stoves, and propane-powered refrigerators (for homes without electricity). It has, however, largely given itself over to the tourist trade. A few years ago, they added on, more that doubling (it seems to me) its space and adding a little cafeteria where John said he had the worst hotdog he had ever eaten.

East entrance to Lehman's

I got a new French-style rolling pin, which is essentially a cylinder of cherry wood, to replace my spindle rolling pin (widest in the middle and tapering toward each end). The spindle never worked as well as I hoped it would. I also got a wooden spatula to replace the one I set on fire (what is that smell?) while I was still getting used to a gas stove. (Note to self: don’t leave the spatula in the pot.)

New rolling pin (front) to replace old spindle rolling pin (back)

Finally, I got a bottle of Cheerwine. Terry and I liked to watch Unwrapped on the Food Network. It has recently been reincarnated with a new host as a show called Rewrapped on the Cooking Channel. We like the factory footage. Anyway, a show that we recently watched featured a segment on a soft drink called Cheerwine. We never learned what flavor it was. A Google search revealed that I could get it locally at Farm and Fleet, but they were out of stock when I checked. Cheerwine is not cheap ($2.29/bottle), but the good news is that you only have to buy one bottle, and it is sweetened with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup.

Cheerwine "Legendary Flavor"

The Amish don’t shop much at Lehman’s, although I did see a group of 4 older Amish persons conversing in a language I didn’t recognize. Peg said it was a form of low German. There were horses and buggies parked across the street, presumably by other stores where the Amish do shop.

Horses and buggies on a rainy morning in Kidron

There were also buggies at the Mennonite Relief Store, which is a resale shop similar to Goodwill. They are very organized at the Mennonite Relief Store and put all the clothing on racks by color. There is also a side room with two giant frames for hand-sewing quilts for auction and a loom with hundreds of warp strings on spools (I wanted to ask if I could take a picture, but the man who was weaving was deep in conversation with a friend whose wife was coping with cancer. Not that I was eavesdropping.) for making rugs out of denim strips. I bought one of these rugs years ago and just brought it out again now that Della is gone. In addition to the weaver, another man was cutting strips of used denim and sewing them into long, long pieces for the weft. I was just darned glad I wasn’t the one who had to string that loom. Holy smoke, what a job. My guess is that they only do it once and keep a close eye on the spools so they can tie the end of one spool to the beginning of the next.

After a stop at the Hospice thrift store, we went to the local food store (store for local food, not food store nearby), Spoon. Spoon was selling mulberries by the pint. I can’t imagine why, except that it is June and the real food won’t be ready for another couple of weeks. Mulberries are totally a lesser fruit.

We went back home for lunch. I split the Cheerwine into four juice glasses. “Legendary Flavor” it said on the bottle. “Dr. Pepper,” I said as soon as I tasted it. It was a cherry coke.

“Dr. Pepper is better,” Terry added. Well. We can say we’ve had it now.

We speculated on the histories of the two beverages. Now that I am at my computer, Dr. Pepper was first served in 1885, while Cheerwine production started up in 1917. The Carolina Beverage Corporation, which makes Cheerwine, has the distinction of still being owned by the same family after all these years.

We finished the last 6 rounds of Mexican Train and then taught Peg and John how to play Farkel. All the while we were watching the sky and the radar trying to decide whether or not we wanted to go to Akron to see the RubberDucks play baseball against the Erie SeaWolves. The rain stopped; we decided to go. Terry made a motion that we agree to leave without discussion as so as any one of us got cold. The motion carried. I asked to borrow a sweatshirt, since I had expected it to be warm when I packed. John brought me two sweatshirts. I chose the one that said “Born Again Skeptic.” I took along the stadium blanket that I always have in my car, and Peg took a towel to dry the seats.

By the time we got to Akron, it was a beautiful, warm, sunny evening. I didn’t need the sweatshirt but wore it anyway, expecting the temperature to drop and sunset. I left my stadium blanket in the car. We didn’t need the towel either.

We were completely wrong in thinking that there wouldn’t be that many people at the game because of the rainy weather. We had to park a good distance from the stadium entrance. On our walk, we passed a remnant of the Erie Canal at one of the locks.

Erie Canal in Ackron--note waterfall in back where the lock used to be

John poses by the ticket booth while Peg and Terry wait to get tickets

We got great seats behind first base in the last row, right in front of the Chick-Fil-A vendor. I love Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in spite of their conservative politics. Even served out of an insulated bag and without the pickle, it was really good.

Peg, me, and John by the Chik-fil-A vendor

The view from our seats

It was Star Wars night at the RubberDucks game. During one of the inning breaks, there was a contest among four boys to see who could make the best Wookie growl. Two of the boys were not in costume. One  was dressed as a storm trooper (in white and gold). The youngest boy was the cutest little Yoda we had ever seen. The other three didn’t stand a chance. Even though little Yoda’s Wookie growl was pretty lame, the audience whooped and hollered the loudest for him, and he won the contest. He was just so adorable!

Isn't this kid in the front the cutest little Yoda you have ever seen?

I noticed a timer behind home plate. Peg told me that some teams are adopting new rules to try to move the game along (thank God!), and these included limiting the amount of time for each pitch and the amount of time to change teams after three outs. The batter and pitcher now have 20 seconds after the pitcher gets the ball to make the next pitch happen. The batter can’t step in and out of the batting box a million times until he gets his cup just right. The pitcher can’t dither with the catcher about which pitch to throw. The teams have 2:25 to get into position and get the pitcher warmed up. These are very good rules. They would be even better, in my opinion, it the pitcher could not interrupt the process to throw the ball to first base in an attempt to catch the runner off the plate. I have never seen the pitcher get an out this way. John disagrees, feeling that this stupid waste of time is somehow integral to the way the game is played.

Pitch/team change timer on the left showing 17 seconds

The RubberDucks did not pull their starting pitcher in time, and the SeaWolves (which we all agreed was an odd name, since Erie is not by the sea, and there are no SeaWolves in any case—but how much better is RubberDucks?) got 5 runs in the sixth. The RubberDucks came back with 4 runs, but Erie won 7 to 5.

We left after the last out, wondering why there wasn’t a rush for the door. Just as we got to the car, fireworks started. We watched what we could see from the sidewalk.

We had a leisurely breakfast of French toast and sausage Sunday morning. We got on the road about 9:30 and got home a bit after 5:00. Gaining an hour on the way back is so much better. It was a very fun weekend.