Thursday April 30 from Mt Eaton Ohio.
Today is a rainy day. This morning I went back to Akron-Canton. Finally found the b of a atm. Went to Firestone country club. What a place almost made me want to play there.Dave the FIRESTONE pics are for you. Dont droll on the computer. You cant believe it.
The other pics are at the pro football hall of fame. This is well worth the stop. Only problem is that I remember most of these players. They had a lot of memorbelia, pics and statues of the hall of famers. Also had a nice gameday video. It was interesting how small a space this was put into. Also pics of the stadium. The whole thing is crammed in next to school , freeway, and road.
Tomorrow if the weather breaks i'm going to try to grt some pics of the amish homes in the area
Guys i didnt get any pics of my old home. and as i said that day the farm is gone.all gone. Im sorry i didnt get pics,but i forgot the camera until later.

April 29,2009
Today was kind of a washout.Cloudy, cool, and damp. started out with light rain and cold. Ended up cool and partly cloudy. Since weather wasnt too good , I decided to do some erands. Neded to go to bank, get grocerys and new faucet for sink (old one had litle leak i couldnt stop.) Akron was nearest b of a listed and camping world was there. Stopped at camping world first- they didnt have the kind of faucet i needed. so on to b of a. went to address listed on the web site it was a mall. searched everywhere outside. no b of a. stopped at a store and looked in phone book no b of a listed. frustrated-left. started back to canton. on the way there was another camping dealer. might know he had what i needed. Stopped at Walmart in masillion on way bck to get groceries. Replaced the faucet . two out of three. Looked up b of a again-its only an atm inside the mall (DUH)
This is a realy nice park. has everything.
Tomorow i plan to go see the football hall of fame. Not very far about 15 miles.
This really interesting countryside around here. Lots of horse and buggys on the road. If you look at some of the houses, there are no electric wires,but very neat places in general. Today i saw man harrowing a field with a team of four horses and old time harrow. havent seen that since i was a little child. Saw severl women in walmart wearing long very plain blue dresses. some had bonnets on. all had shoes that you ladies woudnt be caught dead in-looked like old time mens shoes.
Bag lady, anita, and linsay you would love this area.
there hundreds of craft shops and small business to to check out. Lots of small furniture shops.
til tomorrow

April 28
This a Pic of the campground where the canal is. not bad campground
Yesterday i made an interesting discovery at the library after i had made up my blog and closed out for the day.I ask the librarian about the sign at the campground about sandy and beaver canal. She produced a book about 3/4 inch thick and two maps. It seems that about 1805 some of the locals had an idea to build a canal from lisbon to the ohio river. They had surveys done and finally ended up building a canal complete with locks and two tunnels through high hills and a couple of troughs over low spots from the ohio canal that connecte lake erie to the ohio river. This canal went to the ohio river also at beaver,penn up to the ohio canal in the center of the state. It was really big deal in the 1835-1850 era. Apparently it opened up this part of the state to settlement. I walked down by the stream at the campground and sure enough there were the remains of a lock from this canal. lock 30. The name of this creek was beaver creek because it drained into the ohio near bever penn.
I moved today to evergreen park rv park this morning. Really nice place. paved spots,elec,water,sewer,csble, wi fi. I plan to be herre a week th visit Akron for the ari force museum there, and dave- firestone golf course, the canton for pro football hall of fame, and several amish sites near here.

Monday April 27
Tomorrow is moving day. I made reservations at evergreen park rv resort. starting tomorrow for a week. Its not too far from akron and canton, two places that i want to visit and it is in the amish country of ohio where there some other things to see. Also it is not too far from Berlin ohio where I think I have some ancestors buried.
The resort sounds nice and it should have better wi fi than where i am now. New place will be
evergreen park rv resort. at Mt eaton, ohio ph 330-359-6429.
Today i am going to look around the area here and explore the place where i am staying. It is called lock 30 rv park. The area is a protected preserve that is supposed to dae from1839 From what i ave learned it is on the middle beaver creek(no connection to the beaver river in pa) Apparently there used to be a canal on this creek clledd the sandy-beaver canal circa 1839. so thats where the name came from.

Sunday April 26.
Took a road trip today to the Beaver Falls area. I now know the true meaning of rust belt. Every large manufacturer that used to exist in the area is gone. Either there is a rusting facility, or the building is gone completely. Downtown Beaver Falls where there used to be a vibrant area is now mainly empty buildings or low price stores like dollar general. Although most of the homes are occupied it is evident that the economic level had slipped. The one bright spot seems to be that the city has invested in new municipal buildings and kept them in the downtown area. There is a large new high school facility next to the old beaver falls high school were i went. the old school is now a middle school and the old middle school has been torn down.
Armstrong cork company which used to be next to geneva college is gone-torn down, That area is new athletic fields for I assume high school and geneva college. Geneva college it appears is doing a major facelift.
West Mayfield- the area where i used to live is showing the effects of the economic problems. I wouldnt call it a slum yet,but its close. Our old house is still there and seems to have been upgraded a bit at sometime past.

When i went to the old family farm, it was gone completely except for the old farmhouse, and that was abandonded and in disrepair. The fields were all used for corn last year apparently and housing is creeping upon them.
Very sad trip for me.

Satuday am april 25. Went to walmart to stock up on some things, then came to library in lisbon th do bank and this and finish email. rest of day is going to be easy time. tomorow I plan to go over to Beaver Falls and look around.

Saturday April 25.
have arrived at Lock 30 campground last night. As marty duffy used to say. It was a real goat roping getting here. From Beckly to Charleston wva ! 77 was terrible. i would be asshamed to collect toll for that road. they ought to pay you to use it. Notonly was it very curvely and hilly, but it was extremely rough/. Had to slow down to almost 50 mph mostof the way. From there to Canton went much better. THen things fell apart. the instructions i had from trailer life maps said take rt 30 to rt 7 and then rte 419 to the campground. Things were nothing like that. I really got lost and had to call the campground to get directions. the lady that answered the phone wasnt sure of the directions. end result was that it took me one hour and a half to get there. was 6:20 when finally arrived, the when i finaly got set up it was 7:30. Happy hour.
Nice quiet secluded campground, but the wifi that they advertise is weak. Only goodfor email so postings will be scarce for next couple of days.

Thursday 4/23
Weather finnaly turned off good. Started the day with tour of miners village at the mine exhibit- old homes that a typical miner family actually lived in,single miner home-furnished very small room for bed, table, small stove,and a wash basin. Need to add that all the homes and buildings, including the church, hd outhouses.
The superintendents house was more elaborte with three stories and much better furnishings. Last place was the one room school- had 8 grades in one room tht could be divided in two with a sliding wall. The school from 1925 was using the same McGuffy reader that i had in 1935.
There was an old singer sewing machine like mother had in the miners house,and in the superintendents house was an old upright piano ( grandmother had one in the living room, and grandad made mother take lessons on it-she really hated that piano. There was alson old rotary phone like grandma had in the superintendants house.
The other exhibit here was a mid 1800s log cabin display. Buildings were that old- they had been moved here from around the state.
In the afternoon i took a trip to the new river gorge. That was something else. Had the longest steel arch suspension bridge in the east. The interesting part of this was that there were coal mines and towns down in the gorge,even a power plant, and railroad tracks on both sides of the river still in opertion. I took some pictures from the top and bottom of the gorge. I hope they show up.
That was some ride down and back out by road(very loose term for what was there).It was hardly as wide as the expy with hairpin turns up and down.
As I was leaving the bottom, three rafts came floating down he river.
Tomorrow is moving day to lock 30 in lisbon ohio.

April 22 Wednesday. Beckley,wv.
Woke up today to a Snow storm today.Temp 33 degrees. A real Blizzard. lasted until afternoon. After lunch went out to look around town, but weather was not very good.
Finally went back to campground and decided to stay another day since this one was lost and didnt see very much. However I did go on the mine tour since it was underground and the weather didnt matter. It was very interesting. The tour guide was an excoal miner so he knew all about the mines and there was a lot of eqment that he explaind.good trip. No pics today maybe tomorrow

April 21,2009 From Beckley wv.
No internet today. left wytheville, va about 10:30 am heading to beckley wv up hwy 77. At start 333 miles on trip meter. weather was cold with rain showers. Hwy 77 is through the mountains. Very hilly. Lots of good mountain scenery.Very ineresting how spring is comming to the mountains. Different sides of the hills have very different stages of green, depending on the directon they face. Arived at Beckley Demonstration Mine exhibit about 1:00 Miles at 415. Trip slow because of mountaain climbs. No problems though.
From the store(check-in area) to campground VERY VERY interesting. One lane road very steep with accending 90 degree turn in middle. Litle rain shower made road slick, made it alittle dicey to get up. tomorow i will ry to get some photos to post.

Apr 20 Underway at last. Left the rv storage at 8:06 a.m. Trip up as far as WINSTON sALEM was uneventful.Stopped between Elon and Greensboro at roadside park and had lunch. The dogwoods along the road were very pretty. No problems getting here.
The sighting of Pilot Mountain at mile 128 as you came up the hill was spectular. From Mt Airy up to the blue ridge parkway the views comming up the montain were very beautiful. I wish someone else had been driving so i could look. Fron Fancy Gap to Wytheville was interesting but hilly.
The hill coming up to Fancy Gap was something else, but the old expy took it in sride. That's one tough machine.
Arrrived at the park at 3:24 Pm/322 miles.About what I had scoped out. AT 4:00 I had set up and was pouring a wine. It was a long day but not bad. thats it until tomorrow. Plan to go to Bexley,wva and stay a couple of days.

April 15,2009
Took a shakedown trip Apr 5 and 6 weekend to highpoint. A very good trip. had a blowout on the trailer on the way up in Raleigh right on I 40 at exit 301 -very busy place. i stopped on the shoulder of the road to call good sam to change the tire since i am not too keen on changing tires on a busy freeway. While i was on the phone waiting for good sam to answer( at least 15 min) a worker from N.C. D.O.T. came and rapped on my window. he offered to change the tire for me for free. Seems that is his job to keep traffic moving on this road since any little thing causes big pileups. He did a terrific job and I was on my way very soon,-good sam never did answer- I hung up.
We had a very enjoyable time . visited Childress winery in Lexington. thought it was comparable to anything we saw in California.
On the way home , about 50 miles from home, I heard a thumping noise and a lot of vibration on the right rear of the tv. Pulled over to the shoulder and checked all the tires. Looked ok, but i decided to proceed to the nearest exit slowly for a better check. About 1/2 way to the exit the noise stopped. At the exit I examined the car and trailer very carefully and still saw nothing wrong,so i proceeded to go home slowly.
Tuesday morning i crwled under the tv and found about 3 ft. of tire cord wrapped around the right wheel, but nothing else seemed amiss. Today i took the tv in to have it serviced and the tires rotated and balanced. Surprise- when they took off the right rear tire, ther was a spot about the sixe of a hand near the edge of the tread where the tread had been pulled off of the steel belt, and around the circumference of the tire a section of cord had been pulled out fron the edge of the tire ( the piece i found earlier). Replaced the tire . Now Everything on the trailer and tv is ready to go.
Plan is still to leave early Monday morning Apr .20

Planning the trip

April 03,2009

I am setting out on an extended trip this summer to tour the mid west , Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota,and South Dakota. The plan is to leave on April 20,2009 and tour through Western Pennsylvania,Ohio, Indiana, then return home for a couple of weeks. Later return and continue the trip for an indefinite time.

This will be a daily log of the trip with photos where appropriate, and the trials, tribulations, and good times of the trip.