Life moves pretty fast

As Ferris Bueller says, Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

The weekend before last, Pam and I decided to stop and look around lest we miss something close to home.

We had one of those totally unplanned Saturdays. From Fairfax, we head down scenic Route 247 with the dogwoods and just a few stubborn redbuds still in full bloom.

There's a spot just down the hill from the Fairfax Methodist Church cemetery near Steve Cox's farm where, for as long as I can remember, the dogwoods and redbuds often come into bloom together. (Maybe the redbuds appear a week or so before the dogwoods, but it's always a beautiful sight.)

Ten or 15 minutes later, after leaving southern Highland County, we drive through parts of Scott, Wayne and Oliver townships in Adams County. We turn left onto Graces Run Road just past Seaman (which, by the way, would be a great community for a Southern State Community College campus).

After crossing the historic Harshaville Coverage Bridge over the meandering Cherry Fork Creek, we pass the outdoor playground at "The Cow Place." The locals know this as the former Oliver Township School. I think it's a local Head Start building now. When our children were very young, they called this "The Cow Place" because of all the Holstein dairy cattle nearby.

Heading into Unity (long known as the home of Ryan's Grocery), we pass Irene Yoder's General Store on the left. We stop and leave copies of The Highland County Press.

Driving east, we pick up Wheat Ridge Road and stop to say hello to Mahlon Schlabach at Wheat Ridge Home and Energy. They like the newspaper, too.

Some days, we drive over to the bucolic setting of the Murphin Ridge Inn.

Of course, we know there is an ultimate Saturday morning destination before Wheat Ridge winds down to Route 41, coming to an abrupt downhill stop in Dunkinsville.

That destination is Miller's Furniture and Bakery. On this particular morning, the emphasis is on "Bakery."

For the fourth or fifth Saturday morning this spring, I stop and buy a fried apple pie for breakfast. The first time I bought a fried apple pie I was more than a little apprehensive. A fried pie? Really? Who makes fried pie?

Well, the nice ladies at Miller's do. And let me tell you, one fried apple pie is never enough.

Caitlin prefers the fried blueberry pies. Pam and Meghan usually opt for the cream horns (creme horns?). For Colin, it's the extra-large, fresh soft pretzels.

They're all pretty good.

After leaving the bakery, we either cut back west to Unity, then north to the Appalachian Highway, or follow Wheat Ridge Road down to Dunkinsville.

We returned to Unity and headed north, back through Seaman, up 247 and into Hillsboro. After a quick stop at Highland County's only locally owned newspaper (this one!), we headed east on Route 124 to Rocky Fork State Park.

Our mission: A good stretch of the legs. (OK, that's an inside Ryan family joke. If you are familiar with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in "The Quiet Man," you'll understand!)

We parked the van (thanks, Bob Hottle and Higher Ground Farms) at the North Beach parking lot. We wanted to walk along the boat slips to our left, but quickly discovered that we had some backwater to navigate.

Not wanting to lose my lifelong Ridgerunner status, I found a place where the water had receded. Pam found an old 2x6 board that could be used to step across the water and we were on our way.

The loop from the parking lot, along the docks, over to North Shore Drive, up the hill, and back past the activity center probably took an hour or so. Maybe we walked a couple of miles. I don't know. But after a fried apple pie for breakfast, it was probably good for us.

I know I worked up a fairly decent sweat, so as we passed Tim Rosselott's Beechwood Pizza the second time, I thought we better stop for refueling.

By the way – and those of you who live in Paint Township already know this – but Beechwood Pizza has great food, friendly service and very reasonable prices. Their pizza reminds me of the old Cassano's pizza in the Wilmington plaza when I was a kid (a hundred years ago).

It's a similar recipe at Beechwood. If you like pizza and you haven't tried it, you should. The beer's cold, too.

After the Rocky Fork Lake walk, three of us capped off a Saturday afternoon with four games of bowling at Alley 21. The two-hour afternoon special was around $25 for all of us.

My best game (thanks for asking)? A 161.

At one point, Colin had a 115 after five frames. But his wheels came off. He ended at a buck-44.

Meghan won the final game.

On one given Saturday, without driving more than 30 miles from home, we enjoyed a visit to our friends in the Amish community, a stop at a local state park, a few games of bowling, and some pretty good food. The total cost was roughly 70 bucks. The time spent together, for me at least, was worth quite a bit more.

Now, I'm no moral authority or anything, but I do believe that life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. And there's plenty to see right here in southern Ohio. Country roads, take me home…

Rory Ryan is publisher-in-chief of The Highland County Press.