The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Footprint Tours parks bus
After 34 years founder Pat Morrisson to retire, as will assistant Jane Pogorzelski, on Oct. 31
With a lake and river as the city’s front yard, Lorainites are sitting on a goldmine — and many residents don’t realize it, said a tour promoter who has become a local expert on travel and tourism.
Oct. 31 is the last day of operations for Footprint Tours Inc., 401 Broadway in downtown Lorain.
Company founder Pat Morrisson will retire, as will her assistant, Jane Pogorzelski, who has served for years as second in command organizing bus tours out of the city.
They made their decisions late last year, before the novel coronavirus slammed the travel industry in the spring, Morrisson said.
The motorcoach trips have resumed this year, albeit with lower numbers of riders to allow for safe social distancing on the buses.
“I firmly believe that travel is good for people,” Morrisson said. “It’s good for older people, for our seniors.
“Mywords to Lorain are — and this comes from my 34 years traveling — is that you people are sitting on a gold mine and you have no clue.” — Pat Morrisson, founder of Footprint Tours
“It’s good for students in school,” Morrisson said. “To get people out and see how others live, how things are different, to learn, to me is so important. I just think that it’s very important to travel.”
Personal favorites include Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, an excellent location for learning about life in the 18th century.
Another is Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.
More than 150 years after the Civil War, the battlefield still creates a strong feeling of American history, Morrisson said.
Closer to home, the Christmas concerts of the Cleveland Orchestra were a treat — and included opportunities for audience members to sing with the orchestra and its choir on “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
“Education has really been part of my goal in travel,” Morrisson said.
Getting started
It is a philosophy that is rooted in Morrisson’s own experience growing up in Lorain.
Her Girl Scouts troop planned a visit to Washington, D.C.
At that time, the group traveled from Lorain to Washington and back by train
Morrisson said she strongly believes in Girl Scouts and she served as a
troop leader while raising her family.
But at least two decades after her own trip, train travel no longer was practical when it was time for her to lead the troop to the nation’s capital.
Morrisson called a local motorcoach company and the troop made it to Washington and back.
“When I came home, I think my husband would confirm, the words out of
my mouth were, when do we go again?” she said. “Because I thought it was a cool experience, not only for the girls, but for me.
“And I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Two years later, another bus trip followed, next to Savannah, Ga., the hometown of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low.
Morrisson would spend seven years planning other Girl Scout trips until she resumed her career as a biology teacher.
Being away from school, Morrisson said she found it difficult to return to the classroom, but her husband, attorney John G. Morrisson, suggested more travel.
Footprint Tours Inc. officially formed in 1986 and kept rolling for more than 30 years.
Morrisson’s final trip will be a day in Columbus visiting the National Veterans Memorial and Museum.
Downtown business
Morrisson’s current office is .in the Duane Building, where her husband maintains his Lorain law office.
“My business did not de
pend on downtown Lorain,” Morrisson said. “I was in the business of taking people out of Lorain.
“And we didn’t have a store.”
There were bus pickups in downtown Lorain and the Sheffield Center shopping plaza, so travelers did not have to show up on Broadway for Footprint Tours.
Travel is a luxury, not a necessity like eating or keeping a residence, so economic downturns affected the business more than its location, Morrisson said.
This year, Footprint Tours has resumed trips with COVID-19 precautions such as temperature checks for passengers and assigned seating on the buses.
After the trips, Morrisson said she asks passengers to call if they develop any COVID-19 symptoms in the next week.
So far, she said she has had no reports of the disease among participants.
Potential in Lorain
In retirement, Morrisson said she intends to travel and work in her garden when she’s home.
She has helped to develop the MainStreet Lorain group andwill continue that.
Morrisson has seen dozens of other cities — and the potential of Lorain.
She said she hopes local residents can embrace the transition from Midwest industrial capital to tourist destination, because there could be a great future doing so.
“My words to Lorain are — and this comes from my 34 years traveling — is that you people are sitting on a gold mine and you have no clue,” Morrisson said. “This place has got a river and a lake.
“There are cities all over this country that would give their eyetooth for a lake and a river. The possibilities for tourism are just unbelievable in my mind.”
The switch from industrial to tourism is difficult because people don’t understand how economically strong Lorain could be if the city focused on tourism, Morrisson said.
“I just think there are so many possibilities for tourism in this town,” she said.