18 july 2014 Cleveland

From Vancouver, with a relay in Detroit, we flew to Cleveland. There my “American brothers” Bob and Ken and also Kens wife Emily were so kind to pick us up at the air port. As I told before, at the age of 17 I was an exchange student in a family in Cleveland. I went to the senior year of high school. With the family we still keep dear contacts. “Mom” is almost 93 and I wished to visit her again. Dad unfortunately passed away some time ago. We were very much pleased with the kindness and hospitality we met. Part of the family got together. Also some friends of 45 years ago were there. Contacts were renewed, persons’ lives discussed (family, work, relations), some politics (misseled plane Ukrain, Israeli-Palestinian conflict), having meals together. During the decennia we met “brother” Ken and Emily on several occasions: More than 12 years ago we went to their daughter Carry’s Bat Mitzvah. Last year both couples visited half of Italy in one week. Ken is writer. He advised me to write in my blog about many more things than just the cool facts. Not just questions related to my ponyanddogtrip, like a sick horse, a lame dog, but also feelings, considerations etc. Well, I don’t like to publish my insecurities, but may be it’ll make the story more interesting, so I’ll try.