KG here coming to you live from Columbus Marina. I hope you are all having a good Thanksgiving - that you have at least one loved one to spend some time with and can feel gratitude for something that is going well in your life.
I will admit that at times since we started this trip I have had to force myself to name some things I’m grateful for as the Great Loop isn’t always everything I expected. But then I’m not sure what I expected since (as most of you know) I really didn’t participate in the planning of this great adventure and just showed up on 9/4 with my bag packed ready to set sail. Today has been a perfect example.
We woke up to outside temperatures in the upper 30’s. We were both grateful that we are in a marina hooked to shore power so that our space heater was able to keep the cabin in the 50s which is plenty warm for sleeping. We decided that we would take our bikes out today despite the fact that the predicted high was going to be 52 degrees since there were to be light winds. We found the Columbus River Walk trail in town and took our Bromptons there for a 9+ mile bike ride on the trail and the town. This was my first time on a bike since injuring my ankle and I was definitely feeling my injury, though I was still able to keep up with Tony. I’m so grateful that I was able to work with my sister Frances - DPT - to get it healed as quickly as possible since I’ve needed two working feet to safely anchor and dock the boat.
Back to our bike ride - we were the only people on bikes of the few people that were out and about Columbus on Thanksgiving. I was just suggesting to Tony that we bike over the town’s pedestrian bridge (which is at the start of the River Trail) when we saw this sign under it:
A bit scary - not sure why they haven’t torn down the bridge yet. We heeded the sign and after completing the river trail visited the town’s soccer complex and then the cemetery - called the Friendship Cemetery.
We are not usually ones to visit cemeteries, but we heard a great deal about this one at the Town’s Visitor Center. This cemetery, founded in 1849, originally encompassed 5 acres but has been expanded several times to its current area of 65 acres. One of the sections that was particularly poignant was the row upon row of confederate soldiers (2,194 in all) that were buried there. These were all soldiers that survived the Battle of Shiloh that I wrote about last week but were wounded and shipped to the makeshift hospitals in towns south of the battlefield. Churches and large homes in Columbus were turned into hospitals, but many soldiers still died after arriving, from complications. Only 345 of the confederate graves contain the remains of identified soldiers. So it was a sobering sight to see one tombstone after another with Unknown Confederate Soldier.
No matter the side of the battle these men fought on, one can imagine thousands of families waiting for their loved ones to return never knowing what happened to them.
We got back to the marina after our ride and I noticed for the first time a sign on the dock gate that said “No use of gas grill at the dock.” This shot down my plan of Turkey and Fixin’s Kabobs since I can’t help but be a rule follower. I was grateful that Tony had agreed to bring a toaster oven on the trip - he’s been wondering why we have it since we almost exclusively use our grill or our butane 1 flame stove - and the toaster oven has sat mostly idle taking up precious space. So with an aluminum pan I had saved from restaurant leftovers a few weeks back, I roasted my kebob ingredients with plenty of garlic and spices and threw together a wild and long grain rice pilaf and we had, probably, the best meal yet that we’ve cooked ourselves on this trip. Sorry about posting a food picture but here’s a glimpse of our feast.
One of the things that has stood out to us since we arrived here in Columbus is the extravagant Christmas decorations that are already everywhere. I don’t usually decorate for Christmas until the week before but our site seeing put us in a holiday mood so while I was waiting for the food to roast (toast?), I decorated with MacGregor sized decorations. This is about all we have room for - note the tree is in a water bottle holder for a sense of scale - it stands 3 inches to the top of the star and is made of Lego pieces.
And there you have a glimpse into our quiet Thanksgiving. I’m a fan of the BIG Thanksgiving surrounded by extended family and good friends but we had a lovely quiet time together on and off the boat today. I’m grateful that Tony and I and our families are strong and healthy and we’re able to take this time to see the parts of the country that aren’t usually travel destinations but are the places to stop on a water journey. I’m grateful that Tony’s diligent attention to details over the years has made it possible for us to take this long break from the hustle and bustle of our lives and meet so many kind and interesting people and appreciate the diverse plant and wildlife that surrounds us in this country. And I’m grateful to my friends who so far have been there when I need a sanity check or just need to talk to someone who is not a Looper. Thank You!
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