Americana

We've been in northern Illinois having fun with Ron's brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Mary. They graciously allowed us to park in their driveway for a few days - thank heaven for friends with large driveways. I guess we should really thank the neighbors who have been staring at this rather large RV for three days.

Looks like a perfect fit to me.


Just for Ron's relatives, I'll post this picture of him and his siblings that I took two years ago when we were here. What a good looking family.


The family grew up in a very picturesque small town in Wisconsin. Maybe all of us would be better people if we had grown up in that environment. Today we attended the 'Founders Day' annual celebration. As an example of how cute the town is, just look at the town hall. Excuse me, village hall.


The festivities included a giant rummage sale, beer garden, food booths, and a parade. The bagpipers were my favorite. (I don't think they were local.)


I caught the gymnasts in mid flip.


These two reminded me of somebody, but I can't think who.


This group was called the 'Dancing Grannies'. As you can see, they're all in step.


There weren't any horses, but they did have the dragon at the end of the parade in case he left any road deposits.


With money being tight, I'm thinking about a part time job. This looks like fun. (Just kidding about the job.)


I thought this little girl was adorable as she admired the fountain.


Thankfully the rain held off, but we outran some really scary-looking clouds on our way home.

Cows and Dunes

We were surprised by the welcome center (or lack of one) coming into Indiana on I70. Most states have elaborate places staffed with friendly people ready to advise you on where to spend your money in their state. We can only assume that Indiana doesn't care about tourists. The info center had a couple of racks of pamphlets and no staff. Luckily I had an AAA book and perused it for any attractions along our route - I70 to Indianapolis, then north on I65. Well, I realize my interests are not the same as everyone else's, but I only found one roadside attraction that drew me in. And it was fantastic!

Fair Oaks Farms! Conveniently located at exit 220 of I65, the dairy farm is home to 30,000 cows! And the main attraction for me was the rotary turntable where 72 cows are milked simultaneously. I got a kick out of watching the cows happily move onto the turntable, contentedly chew their cud as they rotate while being milked, then back out when done. This last was done more gracefully by some than others. We thought one was going to lose her nose.

Here's the turntable - it operates 24 hours a day and each cow is milked three times a day. If you blow it up, you can see all the cows waiting their turn on the ride.


How now, brown cow. . .


They also had a birthing barn where you could watch a calf being born. With that many cows, it's a constant happening. I actually missed this blessed event, but here's the little guy before he can even stand.


And here's one that was born a few hours earlier. Imagine a baby weighing 80-90 pounds. Yikes!


Then it was on to our planned two-night stop at Indiana Dunes National Seashore. Indiana boasts 26 miles of lovely beach along Lake Michigan. We stayed at the National Seashore campground and were glad we arrived mid-week. Even with the small selection of available campsites, we managed to find one in some sun (for the solar and satellite TV.)

The next day we worked hard to see it all. First we stopped at Mount Baldy - a 126 foot dune that moves south about 4 feet a year. In about 10 years, it will hit the parking lot.


We hiked up to the top. They're trying to stabilize the dune by closing the trail up the south face (good luck with that,) but have a new trail up the west side through the woods. Yes, there are woods on the dunes here. Now hiking up a 126 foot hill doesn't sound like much, but the trail is mostly deep sand and your progress reminds me of the 'two steps forward and one step back' saying.

Here we are at the top where you can see there are grasses growing to help stabilize it. The view was definitely worth the climb.


But the main part of the dune shows why Mount Baldy is so named. The sand blows unrestricted up the northern slope, then falls down the other side. I'm sure those trees will be smothered soon.


Then we hit a couple of trails at the west end of the lakeshore. It's great to see all these people out enjoying nature. If you look closely, you can see the Chicago skyline in the distance. I calculated it must be at least 30 miles away.


We thought the water would be really cold, but Ron said it wasn't too bad.


We took a couple other short hikes. This one also climbed a dune, but had nice steps.


And this one traveled along a lake which would be hard to kayak with all those plants.


On the way back to the parking lot, I couldn't resist this prickly pear cactus bloom.

More Ohio Sights along I70

I'm ashamed to say I'm behind in the blog. I take such pride in keeping it up and tease people who don't, but I have to admit that we're already in Indiana. However, I can't just skip over the great things we saw in Ohio, now can I?

In downtown Columbus, they appropriately have a copy of the Santa Maria. She really is a contrast to the city skyline in the background.


Although I'm not an art expert, even I have heard of Georges Seurat's painting of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Okay, maybe I didn't know the name, but it looks familiar.


The topiary garden in Old Deaf School Park is a landscape rendition of that painting. It was created in 1992 by James T. Mason who felt that if art can mimic nature, why can't nature mimic art?


I loved the idea and was fascinated by the results.


The topiaries represent 54 people, eight boats, three dogs, a monkey and a cat. Some of them still need to fill in a bit, but it's an amazing sight.


We had asked some friends who are Ohio-based WINs for suggestions along the route. One place they recommended that I probably wouldn't have visited was the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton. Wow! Am I glad we went!


They had a huge assortment of flying machines, from this 1909 Military Flyer built by the Wright brothers. . .


All the way to rockets for space travel,


With more planes than you can imagine in between.


This B-29 Superfortress dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.


I'm drawn to the 'stealth' aircraft. With a 172 foot wingspan, I couldn't get a picture of the B-2 on display. Besides, it's invisible.

The museum is billed as Ohio's #1 free attraction. I'm tempted to say it's the best free attraction anywhere. Ron even found the plane he worked on while he was in the service. Unfortunately by that time my back was complaining and I had gone back to the RV, so no picture.

In and Around Zanesville

We spent the weekend parked at the Moose in Zanesville - great spot. We highly recommend it to our fellow Moose RVers. We went in for their Friday night dinner special which was out of this world. It consisted of melt-in-your-mouth roast beef and gravy, real homemade mashed potatoes, and succotash! For those of you who aren't familiar with succotash, it's a mixture of corn and lima beans. Good stuff.

We also found this sign for our friend Max who always told his kids they were having fried bologna for dinner.


Zanesville is located at the confluence of the Muskingum and Licking river. In 1814 the original Y-Bridge was constructed to handle the crossing of these waterways. We went up to the overlook to get a picture of the current bridge, but I liked the one on the cover of the visitors guide better. I sure they won't mind.


Ron is very interested in arrowheads and the making of them. Near Zanesville is Flint Ridge where the Native Americans quarried flint which they used to make arrowheads and other tools. All over this area are distinct depressions which are their pits from 2000 years ago, covered with a layer of dirt over the years. The visitor center was built over one of these pits that had been excavated to show how it looked then. Don't ask me why I didn't take a picture of that - it would have been a good one.

What I learned was that flint isn't always grey. At Flint Ridge it comes in many colors.


Then we headed over to the Newark Earthworks, a system of prehistoric ceremonial Indian mounds. The section open to the public is a circle 1200 feet in diameter with 8 to 14 foot high earthen walls. Amazingly, most of the rest is used as a golf course. Here's a picture of an artist's rendering of the complex.

The circle that we saw is the one way up in the right corner, so you can imagine the size of this.

Speaking of size, then I had to drive by the headquarters for Longaberger, makers of fine baskets. You have to admire a company who builds a seven-story picnic basket for their executive offices.

When I was in Columbus for business in my former life, I went to the Longaberger Homestead where they make the baskets. At the time, I didn't know about the headquarters. Can you imagine my thoughts when, driving through rain and clouds, suddenly I saw a giant basket in the foggy distance. I thought I was seeing things.

Returning to the National Road from my former post, we found an original section that had been bypassed when route 40 was built. I love the looks of the brick and nice curbing, but it was a bit bumpy to drive on.


Then we found the Fox Creek "S" Bridge, one of the few original bridges on the National Road not destroyed by the construction of Route 40. They built the bridges on the National Road to cross the water at a 90 degree angle, even if the road approached at a different angle.


Lastly, if my father's neighbor Nancy is reading this blog, here are the flowers that I bought for her. Don't they look nice? To bad I couldn't give them to her.

National Road Museum

It's actually called the National Road-Zane Grey Museum and it's just off I70 near Norwich, Ohio. It certainly deserves the 'gem' rating that AAA gave it. Did you know that U.S. Route 40 is designated the National Road because it has its roots in the first federally funded road built in the US? I didn't think so. And the National Road has quite a history.

As our guide explained (after he told us this was his first tour,) back in the 1700s, potential pioneers had trouble traversing Ohio because of the thick forest that covered the land. Ebenezer Zane (grandfather of author Zane Grey) contracted with Congress to open a trail for riders on horseback across Ohio which he completed in 1797. Although "it was a tight fit for a fat horse," thousands of settlers journeyed down Zane's Trace to build settlements at St. Clairsville, Cambridge, Zanesville, Somerset, Lancaster, and Chillicothe.

Although this was helpful, it obviously wasn't enough so in 1811 construction began on the National Road. By 1828, the road was completed from Cumberland, MD to New Concord, OH (near where the museum is) and by 1838, it ran all the way to Vandalia, IL. The road was originally just dirt, then crushed stone, and was completely bricked during WWI to accommodate military traffic.

Relating to early travel, the museum had an original Conestoga Wagon. Probably one of the few still remaining after 200 years. The guide told us an interesting story about the brakes. The braking system was a block of wood that rubbed against the wheel to slow it down. Somewhere along the line, it was decided that adding a piece of leather to the block would keep it from wearing down as quickly. Since they had leather soles on their shoes, they started attaching shoes to the block. This is where the term 'brake shoe' comes from. Now I don't know if that's true or not, but you can see the shoes in this picture.


The museum had a nice collection of cars including this steam-powered car from around 1899.


Here's a close up of some of the workings.

They also had an interesting section on Zane Grey's life and a beautiful collection of pottery for which this area of Ohio is famous.

But my favorite part was a simply incredible 136 foot long miniature diorama depicting the progress of the National Road from its beginnings to modern times. I could have spent all day studying the faces on the 1 1/2" figures. Each one was unique and perfect. I'll just post a few of the many amazing scenes.

This was the beginning where the workers built the road by hand.


I blew up a section so you can get a better look at the people. (Keep in mind that I'm taking these pictures in low lighting and through glass.)


My favorite scene was this one where the horses seamlessly flow into the background painting.


They showed an early river crossing.


And as things progressed, a swing bridge that was in Zanesville.


The B&O railroad came through in 1854 bringing a whole new dimension to travel.

To complete my story on the National Road, it was renamed U.S. Route 40 in 1926 and somewhere along the line, sections of the road were straightened. You can still see some of the original brick road in places, which I'll post next time. I've rambled enough for now.