One of the great things of living and traveling in an RV is that you get to visit with family and friends that you may not see very often. That certainly was the case today. Rich, who was my roommate at the dorm we lived in during our freshman year at the University of Michigan, way back in 1968, came to visit us at our campground here at the Brighton Recreational Area. He and his wife, Joy, arrived mid afternoon. As they stepped out of their SUV, I was surprised to see that they had hardly changed after all of these years.
I had forgotten but Mary Margaret had remembered that the last time we visited was about 20 or so years ago when Rich came to visit us when we lived in Southern California. When she mentioned that, the memories of their visit flooded back to me and a smile crept on my face as I remembered the great time Rich and I had playing golf together.
Mary Margaret has such a great memory and has many times pulled facts out of the air of things we had done so many years ago that it just amazes me that she can retain such details from our very active and full lives. Another memory she shared with us was of when we visited Rich and Joy at their house way back in 1979 when we were living in Delaware. Rich, Joy and I were dumbfounded by the details she shared with us about that visit. As she went into the details of that visit, including how close in age our respective babies were, a dim memory of Rich and Joy’s house came back to me. We had spent only a couple of hours together as we were driving to Kalamazoo to visit with her parents. Nevertheless, that visit was well retained in Mary Margaret’s memory. Wow!
During Rich and Joy’s visit we had a chance to catch up a bit and share what we each had done with our lives. It was wonderful learning all of this and sharing old memories of time shared during university days. We also talked about the friends we had back then and what we know of them today.
Rich and I both grew up in the Okemos/East Lansing area but did not go to school together nor did we know each other. However, we did share friendships with some of the same people. Thus, Rich and I had a fun time rattling off names of old friends we shared and talking about what we knew of their current status. It was great!
Since we are staying in a recreational area, we all decided to continue our discussions while we explored the area around our campground a bit. We found a trail that led through the woods and followed it to Lake Bishop. During our hike, we continued talking about our pasts and friends we once knew. Along the way we stumbled on a fat green frog sitting on the trail. We learned that Joy has a hobby of learning about frogs as she gently moved the frog into the shade of the forest around us. She is a gentle soul who has spent her life caring for and helping others.
All too soon it was time for Rich and Joy to leave. We so enjoyed their visit and were sad to see them go. However, their short time with us was great and we greatly appreciated their making the effort to come and see us. We are hopeful that it will not be so long before we can get together again.
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 