Sheep Guarding Llama

Medifast Status: Day 56, Down ~29.5lbs

It was a mad rush for us this morning to attempt to get up and get the girls packed and out to the funeral home by ten in the morning.  Even without needing to pack up the car just getting the girls ready is hard.  It takes twenty minutes or more to get there from Alliance so even though we left before ten we were rushing and a bit late.  We had to be there an hour before the funeral service so that we could get the car into the procession lineup.

The girls did quite well at the funeral.  Keeping two young girls quiet, even for a short funeral, so no small feat.  But both did really well.  The service was very nice.  There isn’t much to say about a funeral service.  It is quiet and sad.  My only grandfather that I ever knew is now gone.  My paternal grandfather died five years before I was born so Grandpa Myers was the only grandfather that I ever knew.  I only have one remaining grandparent now and I am not the eldest male in the Myers’ line.

After the service everyone went down to the Indian Run Church not very far away from East Canton and had a lunch there provided by the church.  This wasn’t even the church that my grandparents attended but apparently a lot of friends and family do currently or have attended there.  We didn’t expect there to be very much for us to eat there, midwest church food is pretty far from what works for vegetarians on Medifast, so we were already planning on just visiting and then going back up to Louisville to go to Grinder’s afterward.

On the drive back from Indian Run we got stuck at a broken train crossing and had to drive all around to find an alternative way back north.  Then it was up to Grinder’s.  This is our new place to eat when in Ohio.

After lunch we returned to grandma’s house and spent the afternoon with the family.  Dad left to drive back to New York this afternoon.  We are pretty sure that we are going to drive up there tomorrow evening.  We wanted to spend more time in Ohio but there is a ton of work to do for the wedding that is coming up in less than two weeks and Dominica really wants to get out to Frankfort so that she can help out with that.

Medifast Status: Day 55, Down ~29.5lbs

We were exhausted this morning and slept in rather late.  Even so it was not that much sleep and we are changing hotels today from Canton to Alliance so we need to pack up the car and move everything again which takes a very long time, but the hotel is Alliance is about twenty dollars cheaper per night so it makes up for the move.

We were late enough that we needed to go straight to the funeral home rather than meeting the family at grandma’s house.  We were the first to arrive but were less than ten minutes ahead of everyone else.

We got to see the family for the first time at the calling hours for grandpa.  This was the first time that nearly everyone got to meet Luciana and the first time seeing Liesl in quite a long time.  This was Liesl’s second trip to Ohio.  There was a lot of family there.  We were at the calling hours for about two hours.

Grandpa’s obituary was posted online at Tributes.com:

“Ralph D. Myers Age 85, of East Canton, passed away Wednesday June 22, 2011 in Aultman Hospital. He was born October 1, 1925 in Mogadore, OH to the late Roy E. and Alverna (Goodenberger) Myers. Ralph was a 1943 graduate of Hartville High School and was a WWII Army veteran. He was an East Canton area resident for 63 years. Ralph was a member of First Christian Church where he was active with the Berean Sunday School class and was a member of the DAV. He retired from the Hoover Company in 1987 after 41 years of service and retired from Osnaburg Local Schools in 1993 after 16 years of service. In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by one daughter, Karen Miller. He is survived by his wife, Doris Arlene (VanVoorhis) to whom he was married 63 years; three daughters and sons-in-law, Marlene and Don Ryan of Louisville, Cheryl and Dennis Lillie of Louisville, Gayle M. Myers of N. Canton; son-in-law, Tom Miller of New York; four grandchildren, Scott (Dominica) Miller, Gwendolyn (Michael) Grossi, Brett and Monica Lillie; two great-grandchildren, Liesl and Luciana Miller; two sisters, Ila Ruthrauff of Texas and Beulah Pool of N. Canton.”

After the calling hours Dominica, Liesl, Luciana and I drove up to Louisville to look for food.  Between our vegetarian needs and now my Medifast needs it is really hard to get food that we can eat.  We tried going to Mike’s Milann’s but they are not open on Sundays.  That was the only restaurant that everyone thought would work for us.  We thought that we were probably going to have to drive some distance when someone recommended that we try out Grinder’s, also in Louisville.

Grinder’s turned out to be an amazing find.  We had no idea that there was something like this in Stark County, Ohio.  Grinder’s is like a local version of TGI Friday’s or Appleby’s but far better.  The menu is extensive, the food is really good and unlike the national chains that have all made a deliberate point of snubbing vegetarians, Grinder’s goes out of their way to have awesome vegetarian and pescatarian options including a dedicated vegetarian menu and an in-house made veggie burger made primarily from quinoa that is one of, if not the, best we have ever had. We are definitely coming back to Grinder’s and telling everyone about it.  What a great find.

After finding a late lunch we returned to my grandparents’ house in East Canton and spent the evening with the family.  Everyone was very excited to get to spend time with Luciana.  She was very popular.

We turned in early this evening.  By nine thirty we were on our way out to Alliance so that we could check in to our hotel there.  We are staying here for a few days so, for the first time since leaving Texas, we will get to get up tomorrow morning without having to reload the Acadia before heading out for the day.

Even getting to the hotel before ten we were still unable to actually get to bed before midnight.

Medifast Status: Day 54, Down ~29.5lbs

We woke up this morning and it was a mad rush to be able to get out of the hotel.  When you have to pack and unpack the car and two kids and Oreo it is quite the massive ordeal.  It takes hours to get back on to the road.

It was nearly noon when we finally got moving again.  Later than we wanted but we needed the time.

Having finished the epic yesterday, today we finished reading “The Disappearing Spoon” which Dominica and I had started listening to months ago.  It is an awesome book.

After we finished our in process book we started reading Bill Bryson’s latest book “At Home” which turned out to be really good.  We really enjoyed listening to it and it worked well for keeping us awake for most of the drive.

The girls did well today on the drive.  Not as well as last night but it was a much, much longer drive.

I drove all the way from Springfield, Missouri to Massilon, Ohio.  At that point I was so tired that Dominica had to take over for the last twenty minutes into Canton.

It was around three in the morning when we finally got in.  Late but we made it.  We will be in Ohio for several days now.

Medifast Status: Day 53, Down ~29.5lbs

As expected, today was a long day.  I ended up not being able to make it into the office at all as I needed to stay home to help with the packing and watching the girls as much as possible.  There was just so much to do.

It took all day to get the car packed after the errands were run and the kids were taken care of.  Luciana had a last minute doctor’s appointment, for example.  Pushing to get everything done before we leave is tough.

By the time that work was done and we were able to get the house in order and the car all loaded it was roughly nine thirty.    It was a bit later to get on to the road than we had been hoping but not completely horrible.  It is going to be a long night, definitely.

Our goal for tonight is to get from Texas to Springfield, Missouri.  Not really that far although it sounds really far.  Dallas and Springfield are closer than they seem.  It is less than eight hours.

The girls did really well on the drive tonight.  Both Liesl and Luciana slept the whole way and were little angels in the back seat.  I can’t believe how well they handled the drive.

On the drive Dominica and I wrapped up listening to “The Epic of Gilgamesh” which I had started reading on my last drive down to Texas.  I’ve been pretty remiss on keeping up with my book reading so it was nice to knock one out.  The epic was really, really boring in general although it does offer some really interesting insights into ancient history and how our ancestors viewed the world.  The influence of the epic on later literature is really important and it definitely provides a new way to look at literature – even if the epic itself is a painful read.

We arrived in Springfield pretty late around five in the morning.  We knew that pushing on all night wasn’t going to work so we just got a Quality Inn there and spent the night.  I was decently tired when we arrived there.  I did all of the driving tonight.  The trip through Oklahoma is a long and boring one.

Tomorrow we will be driving on to Canton, Ohio.  I’m expecting that it will be decently late by the time that we wake up and make it out of the hotel.

Medifast Status: Day 52, Down ~29lbs

I worked half of the day from home today so that I could watch the girls to allow Dominica to try to get things ready for us to leave for Ohio tomorrow.  In many ways it is good that we were already planning on leaving in a week because we were partially ready and had a lot of our trip planning already done but we were planning on leaving in more than a week and the work to be done was spread out over the next eight days.  Compressing everything into less than two days is not at all easy.

I did manage to get lunch from Rockfish for Dominica today and brought it home with me to make lunch easier.

At the end of the day, most everything is ready.  The car needs to be packed and that can’t be done until tomorrow due to the heat – nothing can sit out in the Texas sun in June.

Watson came over this evening so that we could run through what needs to be done to take care of the house while we are gone.  The plants can only go a few days without being watered and the foundation has to stay watered too.

We figured out tonight that we still had meals from La Cima to use and tonight is the last night that we are in Texas until next month.  So Watson and I headed over to La Cima and picked up take out for Dominica.

Overall…. there is still a ton of work to do tomorrow.  It is going to be a long day.