Friday morning I drove to Cincinnati to stop at Xavier University.  There I found a beautiful campus, new construction going on and a real lack of parking.  Not to be deterred, I found a place and decided to go to the Office of Campus Ministry.  That was a good call since I met Joe and Katie who were very helpful. It was nice of them to take the time to meet with me as I showed up unannounced. There was a lot of student traffic and I left a stack of stickers that Katie put next to the candy dish, a good spot, I’m sure.

I was at the school for about 4 – 5 hours but with the lack of suitable parking, I decided to drive to the University of Cincinnati to scout things out for next week.   Then it was on to Northern Kentucky University, where I spent the night nearby.

I arrived in the morning and was totally amazed at the level of activity on the campus here.  As it turns out, this was the last day of class before the Fall Break.  I saw a lot of students walking around with laundry bags stuffed full; I’m thinking that there are going to be a lot of very busy moms for the next few days.

I set up on the corner of Spring and Patterson, a very busy intersection with a lot of pedestrian traffic, I had about two  minutes to talk to them on a more or less captive basis as they waited for the light to change.  As it was, I’ll bet I spoke to about 500 people.  Even though it was a quick chat with these kids, the level of interest seemed very high. Being set up on the corner thousands of kids were in buses and cars passing by this corner as they headed home. Many of them showed their approval as they passed by. On campus I met Daniel Miller, from England, who is the President of the Miami Entrepreneurs Club.  I found Daniel to be a very civic minded person, wanting to get involved and help others while dovetailing kindness with business.

That evening I went to 45 East, a restaurant/sports bar.  It was a nice place with a great bartender and a lot of interest on the Kindness project. There I met Billy and Danny who belong to a group which works for the betterment of the Campus.  Both were very interested and took some stickers to keep the message alive.  This was a good day.

The rain continues. Amazing how it puts a damper on my outdoor operations, no pun intended. Still, I made the most of it.  I visited a Fraternity house of my buddy Mike’s.  He graduated a few years ago and asked me to make a stop. He told me it is a group of great guys who would pass out stickers on campus. 

I salvaged what I could of the day and probably spoke to about 100 students.  One in particular wanted to get involved in a big way.  Eventually the traffic and rain got the most of me so I closed up shop and got ready for my trip to Oxford, Ohio tomorrow.

Sadly, I left Yellow Springs and aimed for Dayton.  One quick stop at the Brother Bear Coffee shop. Brother Bear gave me a “care package” to make my travels a little easier. I also took the time to say goodbye to my new friends. A local resident Kathleen’s generosity left me speechless on my way out of town.   The colder weather is a sure sign I need to start heading south. 

I arrived at the University of Dayton in the early afternoon in a steady rain and found a traffic gridlock due to some construction. Brown Street seemed to be the center of the situation.   Under these conditions, I thought it best to scout out the area and set up for Wednesday, hoping the rain will subside.

I’m still in Yellow Springs and went to visit an area called Glen Helen. There I met Mitch from the Village Greenery, a local plant shop and we hiked the area together for a while. It’s a beautiful setting that has ravines, hills and springs that are said to contain healing properties. (I have to “fess-up”, I took a bottle of the spring water to sprinkle on and in the kindness bus…I hope that was OK.)  There is a great deal of exposed limestone which creates beautiful wall faces in many areas. I learned that Helen’s dad, Hugh Taylor Birch donated it to the college. It must be nice for the residents of Yellow Springs to have such natural beauty right in their own backyard. It is good to be able to re-connect with nature when you are on the road. This was the perfect spot for me. I don’t know how I have lived my entire life in Ohio and have never been to this wonderful place. This is such a nice community I can see why people live here and I can see why people do not want to leave.

I got a call from Allison, of lasagna dinner fame, she said that she is going to start a campaign to get Bogart on the cover of Cleveland Canine Magazine.  Seems the little rascal is becoming famous on his own. Tomorrow I’ll be at the University of Dayton, about 20 minutes away.

I spent today catching up on my emails, writing letters, and making more plans, you guessed it, at Brother Bear Coffee Shop. This coffee shop has a huge following of some of the nicest people you will ever meet. The small town atmosphere is medicine for the soul to someone on the road. Everyone is so friendly. They treat you like an old friend the moment you meet them. Twenty four thank you notes went out today to people along the way.  Bogart seemed to like doing nothing for a while.

On my way to Yellow Springs, Ohio I stopped for gas when two separate groups stopped by and asked if I was going to Yellow Springs.  As it turns out, the semi-annual Yellow Springs Street Fair is going on.  Perfect for me.  The road was clear until I got to about a mile away, then I hit the festival grid lock.  I eventually wound my way around, and conveniently found a side street that was a dead end at the street fair.  I found a great place to park in that the car right in front of me had a license plate that reads, “BE KIND.”  Can you believe it?  I left a note on the windshield and later met the car’s owner, Donna.  We had a nice chat, and as usual, she was going to follow the project along the way. I met a mother and father with their daughter. What beautiful, caring parents they are to her and a blessing to them, to have her as a daughter.

It was so nice to see what a peaceful town this is.  Much of the town is the campus of Antioch College which has some beautiful classic buildings.  A nice town with great people.  The festival was largely arts and crafts and a group of people that could only be described as friendly, down to earth and environmentally conscious.

Later I found a great coffee shop, Brother Bear Coffee, that had a band playing, The Full Circle Band.  The band consisted of Scott, the father, and his 2 sons, Blaze and his younger brother Bear.  I’m guessing that Blaze was about 12 years old and a great guitar player. Bear played the harmonica with big passion.  It was a truly enjoyable evening sitting and having an evening coffee and being entertained with great music. What a nice connection Scott has with his two sons through the music they write and play.

I got some help from John, the chief of police on where I can park the bus for the night.  What a great town!  Even The Chief of Police bends over backwards to help. I wound up on a side street, nice and quiet.