"Let's All Go Home Again..." (America, September 2010)

By the time September rolled around, I was very excited to get back to America and back to Ohio. My trip to seattle in May was excellent but you can't beat Ohio in the fall for my money. Also, I had not seen my niece and nephew for 9 months, which for little kids means you miss A LOT. Before I made it back to Ohio, however I took a few detours, borrowed a car and did some road tripping. From Hondo I flew into DC where I spent a fun couple of days with Joe Shultz. We went out for drinks and yummy food, he showed me his office downtown and I did some sightseeing of my own walking around the monuments. The highlight was definitely a Belgian restaurant with delicious food and even more delicious beer. I also managed to sneak in a quick lunch with my friend Lynn Walroth from high school, and Lynn was even kind enough to lend me her car to do a little road tripping. Despite nearly not making it out of the parking garage, I was soon on my way to Philadelphia to meet up with some of the old Sphinx crew for a wedding. We spent a fun few days in Philly...eating, drinking and being merry. Nathan was kind enough to lend me some nice clothes on which I proceeded to spill pizza sauce on. Sorry Nate! It was great to see the old crew again, just like old times, except for all of the smart phones everyone had, directing them everywhere. No one in America just walks around any more exploring. It's quite sad. Pero así es. Here is a shot of some of the gang at the wedding:

Left to right: Josh, Nathan, Ben, Frank

I hopped back in the borrowed Camry and headed back South. Around DC I turned West towards Charlottesville, VA. I arrived at the home of Tom and Anna Sullivan around 5pm. Tom and Anna are two of my favorites from the Peace Corps days...they had just had a baby a few months earlier and I was eager to meet little May Bird Sullivan. She was huge! Quite the chunker, truly. Anna beams as she says "she's in the 98th percentile for weight for her age." It was fabulous to hang out with them, albeit short. We checked out downtown Charlottesville and Anna, May and I took an excellent hike the next morning. We met up with Tom for lunch and then I made my way out of town back to DC. I got the car back to Lynn's place and she let me crash there before I flew out the next morning...back to Ohio!

It was a packed trip while I was home. I got to see my sister's new house and was welcomed up to Caca's new house on the third floor by a very excited Riley Jo. I got see the legendary Harvest Home Parade, tailgated at OSU for the Miami game and even got to hit up Red River Gorge with my brother-in-law Joshua for some climbing. The weather was amazing at the gorge and the place was deserted. We had a fantastic trip...great climbing and good pizza from Miguel's. I suited up again for the Yidiots, shagging a few screamers hit to right field and even got a hit. Had a good time chattin in up with the yidiots on the wall afterwards as well, smoking cigars and regaling them with stories of the third world. Then I got some Skyline with Dad, can't beat that with a stick. Here are some shots from home:

The toughest crowd in Cheviot, the Ranzes! That bench and those chairs had been chained to the street sign for three weeks.

Greemaw and Riley Jo getting ready for the parade.

Brothers Scott and Joe showing their support...not so much for the names on the cups as for the contents of the cups!

My nephew Conrad hanging out on the porch in Norwood. He's a ladykiller, this one.

The kids hanging out with Dad and Paw at the zoo...Joe was re-stucco-ing the inside of the flamingo house. Wild.

Another one of Conrad at the zoo with his "Little Brother" hat...he and I have that in common! I will be the first to come to his defense when Big Sister is picking on him...

The tailgating crew...friends from yesteryear at OSU: Tynan, Nathan, Josh, T, Amy, Ben, Joey...I got a bunch of crap for not wearing buckeye gear, but at least I had the right colors.

While I was up at OSU I got to see the new student union for the first time...it was wild. The old student union was a place where I spent SO much time in college...and it was just this old run-down building...it did the job fine but this place was immaculate. I got a sweet tour from my new unofficial stater buddy Shannon Flynn, all the way to the Stater office! This picture depicts the bricks my friends and I bought to immortalize ourselves in the union, er, I mean support construction. Strung together the words under our names are a verse of our Alma Mater, Carmen Ohio. Sweet.

Through a random and fortunate series of events, I also managed to cross another state off of my list. A last-minute road trip to Vermont capped off my time in Ohio masterfully...nothing like being spontaneous! I flew back to Columbus the day after getting to Vermont and shared a delicious El Vaquero dinner with some good friends from college. Oh man El Vaquero sounds so good right now. Anyway, dinner was with Suzi and Sean McClory who are expecting a baby next year (Congrats guys!) and David Morgan and Hannah Merril, who are getting married in June 2011. Dave and Hannah even let me crash on their wonderfully comfortable bed that night. The following morning I headed out to visit the Kreiners, Matt and Melanie who had just had a little baby named Jackson the week before...it was great to meet the little tyke and have a little coffee catch-up time with my good pal Matt. Lots of big changes for lots of people! I made back to Dave's house only to find out that my parents had forgotten to grab my suit on their way out of Cincinnati, which I needed for my cousin's wedding that night. Without blinking an eye David took me upstairs to his closet and started choosing and ironing things. Lucky for me I had been crashing with just about the best-dressed friend I have! This would be the second borrowed suit on this trip. My friends are incredible. I didn't spill anything on this one, though.

So the whole motivation for this journey back to the states was my cousin Leslie's wedding. She and her now-husband Daniel had been engaged for about a year and a half or so, dating for many more years than that. I had been looking forward to this day for a long time. Not only for the part about celebrating Leslie and Daniel getting to spend the rest of their lives together, but also because it meant a super-fun time with my family. Living in Honduras means I miss most family functions, even the big ones like camping trips and 4th of July. So I was looking forward to making the best out of this one. It was a beautiful wedding at Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus and we had a blast at the reception afterwards. Don't invite the Ranz cousins to your wedding, unless you want behavior like this:
Mike, Jason, Shane, Seth, Brad, Dave (hidden) and myself...exploring the foliage

It was very fun to catch up with everyone. The shuttle took us back to the hotel afterwards and noticing that familiar hungry look in everyone's eyes, I took it upon myself to walk to White Castle and buy 2 30 packs of hamburgers. There was no other choice. I used my local knowledge (and sniffer) to seek out the closest CRAVE castle and they were ready surprisingly quick for 2am. I was hailed a hero amongst my family before we headed back to the hotel to grab a couple hours of sleep. The next morning I was on a 6am flight back to Honduras.