Ohio surprising

Dateline Delaware, OHIO - Ohio has been a surprise for the last few days. I'd sort of written the state off over the years for a number of unfounded reasons. I judged spinach before trying it, if you will. Despite crushing heat and humidity, there has been much good in this community on so-called Days Off (yeah, we don't have to carnie but we do have to work on a lot of maintenance and repair.) Ding's Marine buddy Rob and his wife Cindy have been been incredibly gracious, fun and helpful. Their church, Delaware Christian Church (good sign its initials are DCC like DIng's Custom Cycle) has what all god-fearing carnies and their dogs worship - a HUGE parking lot surrounded by grass. Pastor Al warmly welcomed Ding one morning and assured the women and small children at the daycare center on site that we were not the boogie-men. In return for beautiful asphalt, the congregation can expect a nice offering on the plate, along with a request for prayers and supplications for a safe remainder of our tour. Today, Ding and Rob sweated it out in 100+degrees at Rob's garage, installing everything needed for safe braking in the one-ton Dodge that hauls the BFT. Seven hours and five hundred dollars later, we can now safely travel again (reference Thumper 'Quality Control Officer's' post wrench inspection shot above). Pennsylvania mountain grades kicked our butts. Got all the laundry done, ordered some roof signage from a local guy (TIRES! OIL! REPAIRS!), took physical inventory (QuickBooks inventory and actual tire count was off by 6) and the bedroom window is repaired. Working on nailing down future rally contracts (Igancio and Reno have been tough), and tomorrow holds repairing BFT shoe, building rooftop frame for new signage and reorganizing 500+T-shirts (inventory in, PayPal still down but orders always shippable - email me any requests - black and white shirts - WITH POCKETS - long and short-sleeved, most sizes between small and 3x), We followed Wednesday night's great grilled ribs and salad from Cindy's garden with Mexican food tonight. Giant vat of killer guac made table-side at Mi Cerrito. Two of Rob and Cindy's three girls took Bob the Dog for a swim in the backyard of their place, while their dogs Maggie May and Indiana Jones watched. Hard to see newspapers as far away as Ohio with front page photos by my Denver Post buddies of fires raging in Colorado. Fort Collins one is under control (my old ranchito still stands) but Colorado Springs blaze sounds bad. Much more important is the welfare of our family and friends. My Pop doing well after a minor heart attack but sadly Ding lost a long-time running buddy, Michael G., who passed yesterday. Rest in Peace. We leave for Algona, Iowa Saturday. More soon. Ride safe. Hol, Ding and the Dogs.