What? No Toys at Darby Matel Park?

 

I slept later than I wanted, but must’ve needed the extra rest. Wasn’t out of bed until 810am. Quickly downstairs, I started some coffee then took a brief sniff of the weather. It was a perfect autumn morning, clears skies and 48 degrees. I felt good. Enjoyed coffee and internet for as long as I wanted. Stretched then left on a run near 930am. Ran just three miles, just as I do most Saturdays. Easy run. Back at home near 10am.

Noticed Mindy sitting on the deck with the pug. Topped off my coffee then headed out to join her. We hung out on the deck for 15 minutes tops. Mindy had to take the leash and go fetch the pug from the neighbors’ yard. We agreed to make a trip to Darby Battelle Park to hike & bike. We’d talked about Yellow Springs, but we’re planning to take Glenn, David & Anita there next Friday so we figured it might be better to do Darby this weekend.

I agreed to make us an omelet while Mindy readied. Neither one of us planned to shower since we’d get sweaty riding bikes. I whipped up a tasty omelet with fresh cherry tomatoes from our garden, spinach, bacon, garlic salt, cheese and sweet peppers. It was delicious. I made one for the dog too, only hers included only cheese.

While Mindy packed up a small cooler, I headed out to put the Thule rack & bikes on the Pilot. Both of our bikes tires needed air, too. I took care of that as well. All totaled, took me about 20-25 minutes to have the Pilot and bikes ready.

I changed out of my running clothes into clothing better suited for bike riding. We left the house around 11am. I hadn’t been to Darby park since Mindy & I were dating back in ’05. She went on about how they’ve expanded by adding many new trails and a nature center. We planned on starting there. We headed out Fisher Rd all the way to Alton-Darby Rd then south to Broad St then west to Darby Creek Rd.

The new entrance is 3 miles south of Broad St. The signage is hard to see and comes up fast, but since Mindy was there once already this summer, she prepared me for the sudden turn. Nice new digs! Before taking off on our bikes, we headed inside the new nature center. Even the new parking lot, walk, and signage is “green” and very well done. Looks built to last 100 years. Obviously put some thought into the new design.

We checked out the views overlooking the rolling meadows before heading inside. Inside, I was very impressed with the displays. A faux creek that one can crawl under and get a bottom’s up view. Then about 35’ stuffed critters’ that call the park home. Mindy’s contemplating bringing her class here for a field trip.

We spent about 25 minutes in the nature center before wandering out to get our bikes. We were going to do a walk first but since the trail we were heading on was bike friendly, why not? The trail is a wide gravely trail that winds through threes and meadows. I believe the trail is 4.7 miles long. We were located about a mile or so from the southern most point. We headed that way first which takes you to the entrance I am already familiar with. The same entrance we used to take when I was a kid. We stopped briefly to check out the bison that were corralled. Must’ve been about a dozen of them.

We peddled on as far as we could past the old ranger station and picnic area until we could peddle no further. It was gorgeous by the way, blue skies with just a few wispy clouds and a temperature of about 70 degrees. We took a quick bathroom break then headed back to the north. This time we peddled to the northern most point crossing over Darby Creek Rd twice. The north end takes you by Mr Galbreath’s old horse stables and then his old mile horse track, which is part of the bike trail but left in its original form. Very cool! With only a couple brief stops, we headed back to the nature center entrance. A slight breeze was in our face for most of the peddle back. I sacrificed my water to Mindy, who managed to down all hers on the ride out.

All totaled, we peddled about 10 miles, which was a nice complement to my three mile run earlier. Very enjoyable ride. We’ll have to do that again. That’s one very positive thing about Columbus. Invested lots of money – energy – into making it a bike friendly city.

I’m pretty sure that it was 2pm when we boarded the Pilot for home. We discussed our options: do we stop elsewhere, or simply head home. We opted to head home. A pub stop would’ve been fun but would almost certainly put a damper on the rest of our day, and we wanted to go shopping for GD Olivia’s birthday presents later that afternoon.

Arrived home around 230pm. It was a beautiful afternoon so we headed out on the deck. From the deck, I headed out to the tree house to take a few pictures with the trees no longer part of the landscape. Mindy soon joined me. We hung out in the yard for about 45 minutes. We headed inside to ready for our shopping spree. I asked Mindy to stomp once she was out of the shower, my cue to head up.

She took an abnormally long shower – about 30 minutes. Me, I am in and out in five minutes or less. We were ready to go by 4pm. We planned stops in the following order: Kohls, Old Navy, then Target. “At Kohls we planned to look at new pillows for the guest room. They were all on sale. Their selection was well picked over but we still managed to get a couple decent pillows. We were tempted to buy a couple memory foam pillows for our own bed, but they didn’t have any king-sized on the floor. I suggested we look at their website later. Mindy agreed.

After pillows, Mindy wanted to look at clothes. Yikes! While she did that, I headed to sports attire where I picked out a new pair of fall/winter long running pants. I tried on 4 pair to find the perfect pair. They were marked down 30%, and that didn’t include Mindy’s 20% coupon or Kohls cash. Looked at a few other things too, leaving Mindy plenty of time to shop for clothes. I found her in the woman’s department with little trouble. She had a handful of items in her cart. She asked my opinion about a couple of them. Uh, no. I was surprised that she put them back. She still had a couple pair of jeans as well as a couple other items too. I’m betting we were in there for an hour or so.

Onto Old Navy which is across the street and just a few store fronts down from Target. Old Navy is where I buy boxers, and have for years. I like theirs better than anyone’s and they’re almost always on sale. This time was no different. I bought six pair. Mindy suggested I pick-up a couple gray t-shirts too. OK.

We stopped in Bath & Body Works on our way to Target. There we bought four things of soft soap. Onto Target. We got separated right away but regrouped in the hair products aisle moments later. We got separated once again as we made our way to the toy department. Along my way, I was approached by three teenage boys, one in a Halloween mask and another videotaping his every move. The kid with the mask got within an inch or two of my face and wouldn't leave, the entire time dancing and singing while another kid videotaped and another laughed. This went on for two or three minutes with me becoming extremely annoyed to point where it was all I could do to restrain myself from grabbing this kid by the ear and giving him as ass whoppin'. I was hoping to encounter a store employee as I kept making my way towards toys but of course I never did find one. Had i, I would've called out the annoying teenagers for their foolish antics. Just as I was approaching my boiling point they stopped and moved on.

I got around the corner when they approached again this time the kid was out of the mask and came up and apologized. I suggested they just move on. Finally found Mindy in the food aisle in route to toys where I shared the crazy encounter with her. Then, out of nowhere, here come those boys again. Beside us, there was a small Chinese man shopping. This time he was the target and the antics the same. Right in his face to the point where his forward movement was restricted while his pals videotaped. I decided I'd had enough. I stopped in my tracks and went to the man's aid insisting the game was over and time to stop. I was fairly loud about it too. Initially the kid with the mask moved in front of me again doing his little antic. I suggested he cease immediately and move on. Inside I was raging and really wanted to punch the kid square in the jaw.

Now parallel to the electronics counter, I approached an employee and asked that they address those three teenagers annoying numerous shoppers. I only had to briefly explain what was going on before other shoppers chimed in with similar complaints about them. The employee went after them and that's the last we saw of them. The rage inside of me lived on for a while longer. I can't recall the last time I had anyone get up in my face like that, or a time when I felt about to lose it. In today's world that could've been a very bad thing. In the end I am glad it ended peacefully.

We found the toy Ashley talked about us getting for Olivia. I called Ashley twice to confirm we were looking at the right thing. Olivia initially answered and asked if she could spend the night. How cute! I explained that we didn't have kids and were out shopping for the evening. We picked out a few cute outfits too. That's always fun. Mindy picked up the Target tab.

It was something like 640pm as the sun was setting in the western sky. By then we were both hungry. I suggested Dragon Palace (formerly Ding Ho). Mindy liked the idea. We agreed to drop our shopping haul at home and then we'd head there. As we headed for home we discussed having Olivia overnight after all. Our kids would be home around 8-830pm. Mindy agreed. We called Ashley and Olivia back and asked if she still wanted to stay. Yep, she did. We figured to stop at home, head to dinner, then pick her up around 8pm.

Unloaded our shopping haul and walked the pug while at home. Back on the road by 7pm. Arrived at Dragon Palace 5-10 minutes later. As crowded as we've ever seen it. Must've been four other groups dining in. Service was still prompt. We ordered won ton soup and egg rolls to start. Mindy ordered three friends: chicken, shrimp and beef with veggies. I ordered my old favorite, War Su Gai. As always, the food was delicious and the serving sizes enormous. We both took more than half of our entrees home. I picked up the check.

Arrived at Ashley's house at 815pm. I sent a text a few minutes earlier just as we were leaving the restaurant. They were waiting outside. Olivia is always happy to see us. Loves to run and jump into my arms. Never fails. That always does the heart good.

We were home with Olivia for no more than five minutes before Jacob and Bella got home. Jim asked to bring them home Saturday evening so he & Molly could head to Cincy for a marathon race early Sunday. Olivia and Bella played for an hour or so while I watched college football and enjoyed a couple Jack & Cokes. We set-up the twin-sized air mattress in Bella's room for Olivia. Mindy headed for bed about 15-20 minutes ahead of me. I joined her around 1030pm.