I’M JUST CURIOUS – The wandering Nanas: Chapter One

by Debbie Walker

What happens when THE Nanas decide to take a driving trip? Panic of the families! Nana Dee and I are related by marriage: our children married each other and gave us two grandkids to share.

In this trip we have been named “THE Wandering Nanas.” It all got started when Nana Dee wanted to go to Ohio (and not fly there) to visit her 94-years-young Aunt Jean and then on to Pennsylvania for a visit with a nephew and his family.

With vacation talk, one thing led to another and I, Nana Daffy volunteered to drive her, making us THE Wandering Nanas (or the blind leading the blind!).

This trip could have easily been called The Laughing Vacation. We have laughed since before we got into the truck to leave her driveway! We even laughed our way through getting lost a couple of times.

We had a mini-trip with Aunt Jean. She mentioned a wish to go to lunch at McDonald’s for a burger. We aim to please! We drove to one about 54 miles from her home, it was the only one we knew of. I share with you now that we managed to go past one about six miles from her home. Nana Dee and I saw it this afternoon and just could not believe our eyes. That poor woman had been taken all that distance and time from home; we didn’t get her home until about 6:30 p.m.

Since Aunt Jean gave up her driving when she moved to a new area of the state, she wasn’t familiar with this area yet, but Jean was the one who came up with the final direction we needed to get home last night. Thank goodness.

Walnut Creek, Ohio, according to the website, ‘MapQuest,’ is an unincorporated community located in an area with a large Amish population. It is quite a tourist attraction with all their shops and activities. I never saw so many beautiful quilts in my life as I have seen here.

Since Nana Dee is absolutely a “Give me a cup of coffee” before she functions person, we were both lucky there was Der Dutchman Bakery nearby. Dee says it is the best coffee ever. For my safety and enjoyment, I want Nana Dee to get that coffee!

We came back to Der Dutchman Bakery to the other side that is a restaurant for lunch. I really liked their menu ideas. I wish more would do this. Did you ever go into a restaurant and wish you could try several entrees? On their menu you can order a combination of a couple of smaller portioned entrees. They even have a dessert choice of three smaller portioned desserts. You know how you look at them and think it was hard to choose just one. You don’t have to there. So we ordered blueberry pie, peanut butter pie and date nut cake with caramel sauce. They are not as small as I thought they would be.

I am just curious how much crazier; our trip will become as we leave tomorrow for the drive to somewhere near Pittsburgh in Slippery Rock! (I think I am nervous now. How slippery is Slippery Rock!! Depending on how crazy it really is I may add more of our trip to next week’s edition.

Contact me at dwdaffy@yahoo.com with any questions, comments or ideas for future editions. Thanks for reading!