Don & Mary Ann Roese
in Arches National Park in Utah

McDonald’s not the only place for golden arches

Retired BJ photographer Don Roese and wife Mary Ann, married for 54 years, added The Arches National Park in Utah to their travels.

They may be there a while.

There are more than 2,000 natural stone arches in Arches National Park.

I’ve been there with my late wife, Monnie, in 1997.

Postcard pictures at every turn.

It was part of our 21-day, 1,200-mile circle of Arizona and New Mexico, through Navajo country and national parks, including the big daddy of them all, the Grand Canyon.

Don and Maryann go to Alaska so often that the Inuits think they are one of them.  New Zealand, Sint Marten in the Caribbean, Florida . . . been there, too.

 

Sometimes they even are in Cuyahoga Falls, where they live.

 

But life is not all fun and games for Don and Mary Ann, not that they aren’t big on it.

When they’re home, they go among Akron area people living outdoors in tents, under tarps at camps, under bridges, in doorways or inside abandoned buildings and vehicles.

 

Roese is among at the Peter Maurin Center volunteers who go out one evening each week to bring food, clothing and blankets to them.

The center at 1096 S. Main St. is a gathering place were the homeless can go to find food, clothing, friendship and respite from the bitter cold. 

But, for now, someone else is handling those humanitarian chores.

Don and Marian have about 1,998 more arches to check out.

From left: Meredith Roese Grom, Don Roese, Mary Ann Roese 
at Gemini Bridge in Moab, Utah