Weekend in Bluffton (etc) Ohio

On October 17-18 Denise and I traveled to Fort Wayne and then several spots in Ohio to do some shopping, and visit some college friends and camp friends. We also went out to see Goshen College play Bluffton University and Eastern Mennonite University in volleyball.

We both took the day off work on Friday, and after sleeping in and finishing up packing, we drove to Ft Wayne and went shopping at Glenbrook Mall. I bought a new fall coat, and a few sleeveless and short-sleeved tops from the sale racks that I probably won't be able to wear until next spring (because now it is too cold).

After a fun time shopping we drove to Van Wert, OH where we met college friends Krisi and Jill for supper at Pizza Hut. Jill lives in Van Wert with her husband and two boys and Krisi lives in Oakwood, about a 20 minute drive north. We had a great time catching up on each other's lives and talking about the problems with Ohio school funding, the upcoming election, the Bluffton bus tragedy, and many other things.

Krisi and Denise

Me and Jill

Jill and her youngest son Jace

All of us together - Denise, Jill, Krisi, and Deanna

We stayed overnight at Krisi's house in Oakwood, a very small town near Paulding. We stayed up too late talking and trying to get her to join Facebook.

Krisi's house

Saturday morning we drove to Bluffton, where Denise was meeting Marcia at Common Grounds Coffeehouse and I was driving on to Lima to meet my friend Lisa for breakfast.

Lisa and I at breakfast at Bob Evans.

After our (late) breakfast meetings, we both ended up at Bluffton University, where Denise did stats for two matches of volleyball and I was a spectator.

The scoreboard scrolled through this message and several others about a million times through the course of the afternoon.

I had not been back to the Bluffton campus since the bus accident in Atlanta in March 2007 that killed five Bluffton baseball players and the bus driver and his wife. They have upgraded the baseball field with donations and constructed a memorial next to the field that is nearly finished.

A sign at the site explained the different elements of the memorial, gave information about the accident and listed the baseball team members.

The sculpture for the memorial is not quite done yet. The sign said it was to be installed September 2008 but in mid-October it wasn't there yet.

An overview of the memorial. When the sculpture is complete it will go on the brick platform in the middle.

The plaque about Zach Arend, one of the players who was killed in the accident. My friend Krisi had him as a student in high school the year before he died.

After the volleyball matches were over we stopped to see two friends we know from Camp Friedenswald. We used to work with Kate Gundy and Diane Huber in the kitchen during Men's Retreat, but we haven't done that in recent years. It had been several years since I had seen either of them so it was good to connect again.

Denise and Diane on the porch of Diane's house.

Denise and Kate eating supper in a sunny Subway.

It was so good to see friends I hadn't seen for a long time! Now it is everyone's turn to visit me!