This trip is a bit unusual, as it has had one purpose…Connor’s college graduation! Oh, and packing his stuff to be moved from Oxford to a storage unit in Columbus for a month, and then to Chicago. It’s kind of amazing how much stuff he has accumulated in four years here – and since he’s lived in his current house for two years, he didn’t have to pack up/clear stuff out in between those two years like he did in the dorms.

We left Rochester on Tuesday morning and drove to Mansfield, OH – about five hours away. We spent the night at the beautiful campground that we happened upon last October, Charles Mill Lake Park. It’s surrounded by water and has very modern campsites…although they’re not exactly level! Mark did what he could, but we were still a bit off front to back. For one night, no big deal…we made it work!

Wednesday morning, we headed to Westerville, OH, north of Columbus, where we had a storage unit reserved. We dropped off a load of Connor’s stuff that will ultimately need to end up in Chicago…figured we could get it partway there and out of Rochester!

From there, we finished the two hour drive to Oxford, to our campsite at Hueston Woods State Park, a few miles from the Miami University campus. We stayed here last October on a bit of a surveillance mission, to scope out all of the full-hookup sites and determine which ones we liked best! We knew when we bought the RV that it would come in really handy for graduation, since there aren’t nearly enough hotel rooms in Oxford to support graduation weekend. So, exactly six months ago, when the reservation window opened, I was online at 7am to get our campsite reserved, using the list we had put together in October!

By the time we arrived at Hueston Woods, Connor had finished his very last final exam of college! Yay! He drove over to visit with us for a bit, before heading to one of his many end-of-year events.

Thursday was a clean-out and packing day. Connor had some things to return to campus (library books, items belonging to Student Government), so we got those out of the house, and also took a load of stuff to be donated. Friday, we started by heading to campus for some graduation photos…Connor was decked out in his gown and cords/medallions and we had fun going around to some meaningful and/or photogenic places on campus to get those final photos! The weather cooperated nicely!

The rest of the day was more packing and clean out, with some more dumpster and donation trips. Oxford is a bit challenging at times like this – the traffic is insane, restaurants are packed, and everything is just a bit crazy. So we headed to Hamilton, about 15 minutes away, for dinner, and then back to Oxford to pick up Connor’s girlfriend Emily so I could take some photos of the two of them around campus. Emily is a 2021 graduate of Miami, having completed her BS in three years. She has a fully remote job, so she has been living in Oxford for the last year. She and Connor started dating last summer.

Saturday morning was the first of two ceremonies…this one was the University’s 183^rd Commencement for ALL graduates, with speakers and formalities, but no individual names being read (4,600 graduates would take HOURS!). It was held in Yager Stadium, and while we were grateful there was no rain, it was toasty hot in the beating sun. Fortunately, we brought an umbrella and that helped to keep Mark and I a bit cooler. Connor was sweltering on the field in his dress clothes, cap, gown, etc. They did keep the ceremony pretty short – about 90 minutes – and everyone was grateful!

From there, we headed back to Connor’s house for a party with the four guys and their families – about 20-25 people in total. One of the guys’ parents brought cold cuts, salads, fruit, and dessert for everyone to enjoy – very nice of them! It was a fun few hours; these guys all met the first few days of freshman year in Hepburn Hall, and have been friends ever since, having moved to Hahne Hall for their sophomore year, and then into their house for the last two years. A few months back, Mark had a great idea for gifts for the four of them that tied nicely to how they all met. There was a ping pong table in Hepburn Hall, and they all spent a lot of time playing in those early weeks of Freshman year as they adjusted to college life…and that’s where friendships developed. So, Mark handcrafted ping pong paddles for each of them, and we added a sticker to the paddle that featured the three places they’ve lived as friends, as well as Miami Class of 2022. The guys absolutely loved the paddles and were so excited to sign them for each other as keepsakes of their years at Miami. Huge hit – Mark nailed it!

Later on Saturday, we headed toward Cincinnati to a place I’ve wanted to visit for the entire four years Connor has been in Oxford…Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield, OH. This place is unbelievable – over 200,000 square feet, with every kind of food item you can imagine. They have a regular grocery store, plus international foods from around the world. Entire aisles dedicated to foods from individual countries or regions – I’ve never seen such a selection of international food items anywhere. Plus a massive beer/wine/liquor section, household stuff, etc. The list goes on and on! The restrooms are a riot – looks like you are opening the door to a port-a-potty, and then you enter this large, really nice restroom. I guess they were voted “America’s Best Restroom”. We had fun walking around for a while – Connor and Emily have been before, so they were able to ‘show us around’ if you will! We had a nice dinner in a northern suburb of Cincinnati and made it back to the car just before thunder and lightning started! It was a rainy ride back to Oxford (about 45 minutes)! Grateful it rained then, and not at 10:30am for graduation!

And Sunday was the REALLY big day…Farmer School of Business commencement ceremony at 2pm. Another beautiful, clear day…but this ceremony is indoors at Millett Hall, so the weather is less of a concern. Miami has individual ceremonies for each of the six colleges where each graduate’s name is read and they walk across the stage. Farmer is a big group, with just over 900 graduates, but they kept the ceremony to less than two hours. Very efficient with the reading of the names! The graduates were seated with others in their major, but not alphabetically or in any other kind of order…so we sat roughly near where the Economics majors would be sitting, and fortunately, we spotted Connor pretty quickly once the graduates entered the arena. It’s not easy when you have 900+ students all dressed EXACTLY THE SAME…red gown, red cap…no one stands out in the crowd! And, then, again, once the ceremony ended, we had to find Connor in the massive crowd of graduates. I kept wondering…how did we used to do this when we didn’t have cell phones to text each other where we were?!?!

We took a TON of photos outside of Millett and then drove over to Hahne Hall where Connor lived sophomore year to take some more pictures in a different setting. Can’t have enough pictures of an event like graduation, that’s for sure! I’m only including a small sampling here!

After a nice dinner, we were all exhausted from the ceremonies and all the packing/clean out. A good night’s sleep and we were back at it on Monday, making more progress and doing final prep to be able to get the cars and RV loaded early on Tuesday morning. I’ve decided that for Tuesday and Wednesday, RoVer will become MoVer, as she will be acting more like a moving van than an RV!

Our plan on Tuesday is to load everything up at Connor’s, head to Emily’s and get her stuff loaded, and then hit the road back to Westerville, OH to unload most everything at the storage unit and drop Emily off at her house. She’ll live at home for the next five weeks, until we return to Columbus to pick up a U-Haul trailer, the stuff from storage, and Emily, for their big move to Chicago. Mark, Connor, and I will spend the night at a hotel between Columbus and Cleveland (because we can’t sleep in a moving van!), and then head back to Rochester on Wednesday. It will be good to get home, and we will enjoy the next five weeks with Connor…likely the last five weeks we’ll all live together in the same house.