my travels

last post for this trip

2009-08-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday Aug. 1, 2009
Arrived home yesterday afternoon about 3:00 in the afternoon.
The trip Thursday from Cambridge, Ohio to High Point,NC was long and tiring mainly because of the rain and fog in the mountains of West Virginia. But it was uneventful, just slow. No car or trailer problems , arrived in High Point about 3:30 in the afternoon and set up. Had a very nice visit with the family that evening.
Friday
The trip from High Point to Wilmington was slow, mainly because of the heat. It made it necessary to drive slower to keep the transmission temperature under control. Hit a very heavy rainstorm about Wallace, but it didnt last but about 2 miles. Arrived home about 3:00. No problems. The whole trip went by without a flat on the trailer. That was a big first. In general the trip was a plesant one.
Starting to think about my next trip in the spring. Thinking about going on out west to see Yellowstone and
some of the other parks in the west and then going on to Washington and Oregon. That trip would probably make all lower 48 states that I have seen.

This post will close out this blog for now. The next trips will be in a new blog called my travels-exboater-continued

Wedndesday,July 29,2009

2009-07-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Traveled today from Crawfirdville,indiana to Cambridge, ohio.Trip wasnt too long. Worst part of trip was from Columbus to Canbridge. it was raining, just enough to be a nuicense at first, then it really came down. Lots of traffic, especially trucks on this roAD ALL DAY. nO pICINC. To top it off rest areas are very scarce. Saw two all dy.The road is under construction in numerous aeas. i hope North Carolina is doing as much as the states in this area. I Doubt it though.North Ccaroinaq missed the boiat somewhere.
If all goes well, I.ll be in High Point tomorrow eening nad home Friday afernoon.

Sunday and Monday

2009-07-28T18:02:00.000-07:00

Got up very early Sunday morning and started home. Traveled to Souis falls koa in Souix falls, hsd. no problems with the trip just long and boring, lots of corn fields and soy beans. I found several gasoline places that were selling e85 ethanol and 10 percent methanol. the 10 percent burns fine in the expy and it is about 10 cents per gallon than regular grade,
Monday Morning got up again and hit the road, traveled to rolling Acres rv park in Newton iowa. Another day in the corn. Only thing that was a surprise was that iowa wss not flat. It has been very hilly at least in this area.
Tuesday traveled to Crawfordville koa in Crawfordville,indiana. Not far from indinapo;is. Another day in the corn and the same rolling hills in illinois as iowa. wasnt what I expected. I had always heard that these were flat plains and corn raisisng places. there is corn, but not flat.
Tomorrow I go to cambridge ohio, then if all goes well Kernersville thufrsdayevening and home on friday.

saturday mammoth fossels

2009-07-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

Forgot to tell you in the earlier post. When the buffalo are eating they make a sound like passing gas the whole time.
Today I went to hot springs to see the mammoth fossel site. it was interesting to see the bones and hear how they came to this water hole of warm water to graze on the grass growing around the edges, and slipped in because of the steep bank and couldnt get out.
Sunday afternoon Souix falls koa
Finally got the pics posted. The internet at that other campground was terrible. Couldnt get it to stay on. Lost the post yesterday several times and the pics just would not go. The first picturre is a depiction of a columbian mammoth- one of the types found in this pit. The second pic is supposed to be of a wooly mammoth the other kind found in this pit. There are 59 fossel remains to date and many more years of digging.

Just as i got here the Blue Angels were putting in an air show but couldnt get pics because they were too fast and we were not on airport.
Plan is for tomorrow to go to Timberline rv camp at waukee, iowa- near Des Moines.

July 24 Mt rushmore and custer park

2009-07-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

There is so much to talk about today. This was worth the trip. Day started out by going to Crazy Horse Monument , This thing took 59 years to csrve this much, and estimates are that it will take another 50 years to finish, it is a monument to the indian culture and their western homes. Crazy horse was one of their leaders who never conceded defeat or surrendered. He was killed by a soldier. The last three pictures are of the mountain and the last one is of what it is supposed to look like when it is done. Therre are a lot of indian exhibits with this memorial and a whole range of other things are planned, Might know just as i was trying to take a last pic here, my camara battery went deat=d. No matter di had another set in the car charged. (HAH) They were dead also. So what to do , went to town and bought a bunch of aa alkaline batterys and used them to finish the day. From town i started to go to Mt. Rushmore, it turned out to be a trip. The frour pictures just before the crazy horse are the scenery up to Mt, Rushmore the way i went. Very beautiful, curving road,lots of rock formations,etc.
Before I start on Mt Rushmore, I bought a dvd that has the whole story and pics on it so everyone cdould see it. The pics i took dont do it justice.This was a very moving visit for me. There are two pics of the walk of states with each state flag and the date they were admitted to the union. The next one is of the mountain,then there is one of the ampitheater where the night program was held. THis was a beautiful program. Unfortdunately my pics didnt turn out because it was too dark and the lighted mountain was too far away. What it was, There were patrotic songs playing as we waited for the prsogram to begin. It started with a pledge of alliegance to tdhe flag,The mountain was lite up , one of the park rangers gave a talk on each of the men and their contrubitions to the United States. Then the national anthem was played . Last a troop of boyscouts came down to lower the flag and pass it amoung a group of service men to close the program. Very nice. Then ther is a plac about the carver. to read it you will have to expand it.The next four are of the carvings used as models for the actual mountain carvings.Yhis visit will stay with me as much as my visit to ft.McHenry in Baltimore.
When I left the park from the day visit, I decided that there was plenty of time so I would visit Custer state park. i took a backroad called needles trail. It was a happy accident. The scenery along this road was beautiful.The first pic up after the mt, rushmore ones is of one of the tunnels that you go thru on this road,It screws around the mountains back and forth and across one lane wooden bridges, The four pictures after the tunnel going up are of an overlook calaled norbeck overlook. The pics dont tell the story well enough. As you know I'm not given to outbursts of excitement, but I climbed up on a small rock formation here, and when i got to the top and looked out "OH MY GOD" just came out. It was one of the best sights i've seen right up there with the grand canyon. Off to the right was Mt. Rushmore in the distaance, and then all around to the left was this deep valley with Mountains climbing up in the background as far as you could see. I noticed several other people came up while iwas stainding therre and their first comment was almost exactly like mine. The next pic up is another tunnel on this road.
The nexct twelve pics are of the buffalo herd l in this park. The ranger told me that there were 500 in the herd and they roam free. Then there are two Big horn sheep in the distance in the next pic. Then a lpic of an antelope herd. Next are two pics of jackasses feeding two wild jackasses next to a sign saying do not feed the animals.Then a lpic of a deer in the distance and another pic of antelope. andd tdhe last are two pics of two faun feeding. There were a lot of deer, but i just got tirede of feeding them. After this I went back to the trainler and ate ddinner befdore going back to Mt.Rushmore for the night program atd 9:00. Got home at 11:00. Full day, butd rewarding.
There will probably not be too many more pics as i am going to start home tomorrow.
I plan to go to see a mamouth bone site this pm.
Later

July 22 and July 23

2009-07-24T05:27:00.001-07:00

Morning of July 24
Sorry about the delays, but another lousy internet connection. The pics are from Yuly 24. They start at the placed where i came up to the Misouri river, not expecting this. The sighs said roadside park with an overlook. It was time to stop for a rest , so I stopped. What a spectuacular view. The pics dont do it jujstice. The first one and two are of a commematorive plack that talks about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Not very revealing, exceptthat apparently they passede this way and came up on this view also. No, 2.3.and 5 are vies of the river from the overlook. dont sow how deep it is or how beautiful it is. No, six and 7 are of the badlands (of old west fame) as you come acriss the prarie, they just suddenly jump out at you, with the black mountains in the background. Again tghe pics dont do justice, it is really aq wildf and forbidding place with gulllys and ravines when you get up to it.
Now July 22 I came across Wisconsin From Madison goiong west, nore of the same, small hills and farms mixed with forest, until you get almost to Lacrosse, then all of a sudden there are these high hills that look almost like mountains. As you go thru them you are all of a sudden on top of the Missippi river. Not too spectactular, but wide and not too dee[ with a lot of islands , on the other side of the bridge is a dam and a lock, As i came across a barge and tow were starting to lock thru the lick, but no place to get pics. When you get across the river into Minnisota the road starts to climb thru high hills. Then after a few miles, it opens up into a plain. Then its corn and soy beans on farms mile after mile. Wxcept one pleace i started to dee tghesed wind driven electric generators on poles, i tried to cound and got to 100 and lost count. They were on both sides of the road across this higher area that ran from north to south. There must have been 300 or 400 of them stretching as far as you could see. Then all the way across Minisota i saw these things one or two or clusters of 5 or six. Must have been a Minnnisoto thing. Except they wrre all standing there staring at each other ,the wind was not blowing and the whole bunch of them were not generating enough electricity to run a good house. i guess you woulod mave been out of luck today if you needed electricity. The rest of the day was corn and soy beans on a flat or rolling hill plain. If you were into corn and soy beans it would have ben exciting, but others just boring. For those interrested I will say that the corn is starting to make tassels, so i guess its ok.
Finally got to soiux falls for the night.
Wednesday 23. Day started out more corn and sooy beans , but just before I came to the lMissouri river i nogticed tdhat the land had changed to more rolling hills,and thee were more cattle and grass mixed with wheat, corn and soy beans. Also saw seveal wheat harvesting crews traveling thru the area.After the missouri river the land really changed,it it was wheat, and gras land. Gradually it bacame grass land. At one spot, when I was talking to Mike, i saw ouly one small house in the distance and not another sign of civilization. Thena little further, saw an areas of only grass, no houses. Erlier in the day I passed the town where Laura engles Wildidng worte her little house on the prarrie books, It really was on the prarie. Then as you rode across this area all of a sudden you began to sense these mountains in the distance.then areas that looked like high piles of excavation dirt appeared. Yhis was tdhe badlands coming ito view. Went thru the edge of them almost to Rapid city.
Today I Am going to try to go to Mt.Rushmore.

July 21 Madison,Wisconsin

2009-07-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

No pics today I didn't see much that was worth taing a pic of.
First thing I reserved a spot for tomorrow night in souix falls, South Dakota at the koa there.So I will be leaving early in the morning.
This morning i went into Madison to sightsee. The town is old looking as most northern towns are. Yhe capital building is crowded in among many large office buildings in the center of town. The university of Wisconsin starts in the downtown area with high rise buildings that face right on the street. These are busy city streets too. it didn't take long for me to discover why There were so many bicycles and mopeds around. That is really a big place.Apparently their agriculture schools and researdh labs are with this school because i saw a building that was named the soil science building and another one that was a poltry research building. Then I saw a girl pushing a card down the street with what appeared to be a lot of young plants in it, It goes on for a really long way. Their sport fields for soccer, tennis, softball, etc are on the other side of he campus beside a lake. I didn't see the football stadium , so i suppose it is somewhere else. They have build a really big medical complex onto the campus, Hospital, research labs, and biomed labs for all kinds of stuff. This all appears to be new so they have invested a lot to see of money into medical research.
All over downtown includingthe streets around the university there was construction going on. Stimulus money being put to use i bet.
Came back to the trailer to eat lunch and then had planned to go back to the dells area for some more sightseeing, however when I got out there, it bagan to rain hard.
I drove around a bit, but I wasn't going to get out in that to take pics or look around , so i came home by a different way to see some more of the area. Just hung out for the rest of the afternoon.
Thats it for today. until tomorrow.

July 20 Wisconsin Dells

2009-07-20T17:41:00.001-07:00

Today was a good day. Went to Madison early to Sears to get new battery. Was in and out in 30 minutes. Back to trailer before 10:00. Then I started out to Wisconsin Dells ( there is relly a city named Wisconsin dells.) I scouted the city over. Man what a place. It puts Myrtle Beach to shame. There are more dollar type stores selling junk than I have ever seen. Itg spreads out in all directions along the highways. I bet there are 500 stores. Then on top of that there are maybe 50 motels, then about any restaurant that you can name, then there are the water parks everywhere, then several Minitature golf, on top of this are the roller coasters maybe ten, and several other kinds of attractions. I've never seen anything like it. Myrtle Beach is a small time place compared to this. I havent yet mentioned the water rides on the Wisconsin river, the ducks, two or three tour operators with bigger boats, and then the jet boat rides. I took two rides on the boats because it was a 1/2 price for the second trip. These took up the rest of today.
The first picture is of one of the duck boats that I rode on. They go on land and water. Thr tour was through seveal forest trails and in between they splashed in the river and drove around the river as a boat. It was fun.
The last time I saw some of these was in the intercoastal waterway near camp Le Jeunne. But those had 50 caliber guns mounted on the deck and they were full of armed marines. The Marines still use a craft like the duck.
It turns out that Wisconsin dells in addition to a city is an area along the Wisconsin river that was carved out be glaciers from a layered sandstone formation. Dells means flat rocks. THe last pictures of this group are of the slower boat trip up the river with some stops at a couple of spots. The second pic is a view across the river of one of the cliffs from a high spot. The third pic is of a table rock formation where the tour stopped to see a german shepard jump out to the table and back. Do you see the dog in the pic. If you do, you are seeing things, i missed the dog jump. The dog is already on the table area. The fourth and fifth pics are views of rock formations in a canyon at the second stoop on the tour. The sixth pic is the tour boaat I took, The Last pic is of a rock formation along the river. The river bank on b oth sides of the river where we were crusing is state protected forest. The scenery was beautiful.
Tomorrow I am going to try to go to Madison for some sightseeing and then there are a couple more things that I want to see in the dells area.

July 19 Madison.Wisconsin

2009-07-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Trip down here today was easy and uneventful. At last a warm day. i was able to sit out in the sun this afternoon and have happy hour outside. This is a good KOA. they promised water,electric, sewer, washers, and internet. They have all of these and different from a lot of the campgrounds, wverything works well. The owners are the people that you meet when you come in and they work behind the counter and out in the area. They are nice people, and rvers in the off season, and as they said they travel too so they know how important it is to have internet that works.
Arrived here about 1:30 this pm, got set up , ate lunch, and the did the laundry. Then it was happy hour time. They gave me a good scoop on what to see and do in the dells, so tomorrow I plan to check it out, after I get a new battery in the expy. Yesterday when I had the car serviced they told me the battery was on it's last legs, so I figured I better get it changed before I go off to the west and need it.
Plan now is to be here two days, then start off to Rapid City , SD. Plan is for it to take me two days to get there, but they will be long days so it could turn into three.
More tomorrow maybe with some pics.

July 18 about appleton

2009-07-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry no pics today. the trip to Appleton was a bust. I did get the oil changed in the expy because it was past due. So that was good.
Appleton was a dissapointment to me the city itself is old. THe downtown area was something else. It lookedd like they dan made sosme attempts to modernizeit. There were two big hotels that looked fairly new and some sort of convention center. But many of the streets were blocked off as being under repair. On top of that the one street that was useable was blocked off with a Saturday farmers market. Really made a mess of it. I looked around some but it was hard. The river front that could have been an asset to the city was not accessable due to homes and other things. Several of the factorys along the river were shut and abandoned. Anyhow I came on back to the trailer and hung out, took a walk to get some exercise. I didn't realize just how big this campground is , it must be at least 100 acres and has a boat launch area back on a lake that is fairly big and empties into the river that goes on by the town, It must be fairly good fishing because a lot of the campers here bring their boats. The other thing that surprised me was the number of tent campers. The cool air doesn't seem to bother them, they just build a fire and sit around it. But its cold at night.
Thats it for today. Tomorrow I am going to move down near the Wisconsin dells for two days ro check that out. I will be at the Madisson KOA.
later
Clyde

Jluly 17 At Green Bay

2009-07-17T18:00:00.001-07:00

Today was another cold wet day record low highs in the area. I went to Green Bay to see some of the town and Lambeau stadium. It was an interesting tour. The first pic is of the atrium entdrance from the outside0 very impressive to walk up to it. Pic 2 is of the atrium- they were setting up tables for a hall of fame invocation dinner todmorrow night. The guide told us that they have four gormet chefs on the stadium payroll. It seems that they have weddings and receptions up above the atrium, and all kind of meetings and dinners here. THey rent out parts of the facility all year long. There was even a reenlistment ceremont scheduled for later in the day today in one of the boxes upstairs. Pic three should be a view of their practice facility.its very impressive with two indoor fields 70 yards long and several tents for out door workouts. Pic no.four is anotherattempt to get the tractice facility, Not good. Pic five i dont know what it is. Pic six is of the playing field. This is a piece of work. About 18 inches below the surface is a network of plastic pipes running back and fourth across the field that can keep the surface at 55 to 69 degrees in the coldest days. Then the field is sowen with Kentucky Blue Grrass seed from New Jersey because their soil conditions are like Green Bay. Them They hired two sewing machines from Europe that sewed 7 inch long plastic strips all over the fields so that it always looks green. There is a staff of three people who take care of nothing but the field. Pic 7 is of the scoreboard and some of the box seats/ Pic 8is another view of the field. Pic nine is tdhe heisman trophy that Bart Starr won.
All in all it was very impresive stdiu,.
Tdomorrow Iam going to Appleton to see The University of Wisconsin and the city.
I will be leaving Sunday for the dells area and staying at the Madison KOA. There ubtil Wednesday and thenoff th South Dakkota.
Later

July 18 Oskosh

2009-07-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

SORRY ABOUT DAY LATE,BUT HAVE A POOR CONNECTION TO INTERNET AGAIN.
Ysesterday was a very good day. i went to Oskosh to see the eaa museum. It was a treat for me to see this. It is a vast facility, and they were getting ready for the annual convention in two weeks. in addition to the museum, there are two airfields. the local airport used by everybody, the big eaa field that is used for conventions that you see most of on tv. This is a huge field, they will have about 6000,000 visitprs here for the fly in. Also there is a grass strip between the museum and the old hanger area where many old airplanes and prototypes are displayed as they would have looked in the early days. Now to the pics. The first one is the front of the nbuiding as you would see it arriving. The second pic is of the first commercial space ship in landing configuration Note the tail in a flat configuration for more control. The third pic is the space ship in space configuration, Note the tail is up. This was neat that the tail went thru changes as they were telling about the flight on a big tv scrfeen behind the display.
The fourth pic is a view of the military hanger. Note the small red plane in the foreground. This is a remote controlled plane that was used in world war two for pilot fighter practice, It was a target plane, and later was used for reconnnince. The wing in the foreground with the star should be familliar to Wilmingtonians. It is the exact same plane that is on the battleship north carolina sternusedd for world war two sea missions.
The fifth pic is of serial number four of the p-51, this was an xp51 model. Origional was hand bnuilt as a prototype
Pic no. 6 is of fat boy the second atomic bomb. Yjis was one of the models that were used for testing. It was interesting to note that the mission was almost scrubbed because the tail fins would not fit in the planed, They ground a couple of inches off of the top of the fin so it would fit.
Pic no 7 is of the rear of the building from the old hangder area to give you an idea of the sie of this display area.
Pic no. 8 is one of the early models of an autogyro plane that was built early in ww 2 for the military.it was rejected because Sykorskey was building a true helicopter, using some of the patents that he had leased from the company that built the autogyro.
Pic 9 is another view of the rear of the museum.
Yhe next picture is of the old time hanger area and the grass strip in fromt of it . This is where most of the old prototypes are.
Pic 11 is of the spirit of St. Louis replica that is hanging in the main lobby.
Pic 12 is kof the main lobby area as you come in. Veryimpressive.
Icould have shot a lot more pics, but didndt want to load up on things.
Very good day.
Footnote for Mike I finally went into an Aldies grocery. THat place should be labeled big lots. Turned me off when they wanted a quarter to just get a crocery cart. Then when I overheard a couple talking about the rotten fruit in the produce section and saw the day old bread in the bread section. Then I left without anything.
Thats it for yesterday.
Today is spiting rain again and cold. I'm in a sweater again. iplan to go to Green Bay and see lambeau field.

JUly 15 Traveling

2009-07-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

THis post is dated 15 but is being written on the morning of the 16 th,. Funny story, I was supposed th have internet here,but the web site didnt appear on my computer last night but only briefly, then disappeared. I thought i would try again this morning before I complained about it. I discovered that my computer would get the web site if i turned it about 45 degrees to the taable and raised it up off of the table a little. In this location it seems tobe ok. I guess I had the computer turned last night and then turned it a bit to type.
No pics today
It started out dull,rainy, and windy. The first 35 or 40 miles of this trip were more of the same-woods all about. Then it started to open up a bit, In 19 milers or so down rte 27 some farms appeared. The further I went the more and bigger the farms became,mostly dairy farms. AS i turned east and south it was apparent that I was in the cheese mqaking part of the state. Laterin yhe dat the weather turned ouy nice, about 70 defrees and a light breeze Arrived at yogi bear and ask if there were any cancelations for a site with sewer connections. luch there were. I got a full hookup so I feel better about that. Internet is tengo-slight chargwm but worth itfor speed.tomorrow I plaan to go to Oshkosh so maybe pics,
Later

July 14 Hayward,wisconsin

2009-07-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today dawned cloudy and spitting rain, cool 60 degrees and the wind was blowing. I spent the morning doing some chores and balancing the checkbook.Early afternoon it was still raining and it was time to go to the lumberjack show. The literature said rain or shine, but I just knew that I would be the only idiot there. Surprise,when I got to the arena, the stands were about 3/4 full in the covered section. By show time the stands were full in spite of a light rain and cool weather. It was a good show. Yhe pics dont do it justice because of the jokes and things that i could't get.
no.1 is the end of the show (note the blue shirts from getting wet.-coolday about 61 degrees and light wind. rain had stopped.) no.2 is a pole climbing race. No 3 is a canoe fight. No.4 ,5, AND 6 ARE a log rolling untilone gets spilled three times.NO. 7,8,and 9 are more of the canoe fight . No, 10,11,12,and 13 are of a race accross the pond on logs that are floating free. No. 14,15, and 16 are race to run out on limber pole and get a stick. first one done won.-lots of falling in. no 17 and 18 are of kids sawing logs. This was a cute stunt, While there was an intermission, they invited the kids in the audienced to come down and take turns sawing logs. After the sawed, each was given cut off piece of log as a souviner. no. 19, 20,and 21 are of a pole climbing race at the beginning of the show. No, 22 is a comedy act about swing a rebbit from a log. The end of the act was a little chair that they gave to a little girl in the audience.
No.23 is of a limber pole stand chopping race. nop.24 is a log sawing as part ofs a team race. no.25 and 26 is a log rolling part of the race. No, 27,28, and 29 are of an ax throwing contest.no.30 and 31 are a log chopping race at the start of the show.
It was a good family show that had something everyone could enjoy. Good clean fun.
Interesting side light. There was an amish family sitting in the row ahead of me. Mom and dad two little boys, and a little girl togather and on down the row were three boys and another girl ( teenage)that was part of the family. The girl apparently had a thing for one of the boys because he was sitting in the row back of me at the beginning of the show and she kept motioning for him to comedown and sit next to her. There were two boys and a mother sitting next to me playing with their cell phones. The little amish girl was about the same age as one of the boys, and she kept sneaking a peak at him playing with the cell phone. I think she was envious. Anyhow at the end of the show she wispered to her miother and apparently ask if she could go down to the stage with all the other children when they were invited after the show to come get sawed pieces of log as souviners. Dad must have ssaid yesbecause she ran down.
Good show i enjoyed it.
Tomorrow is moving day again to YOGI BEAR JELLYSTONE PARK at FREMONT. From there i can go to Greenbay and Oshkosh and Appleton. Also because I am staying four nights I have a free one. I may use it to regroup and clean up for the final turn to South Dakota and then home.
Later

Monday July 13

2009-07-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

Left ishpeming about 9:40 am today and arrrived here at 2:00. Another day of driving thru the forest. This whole upper peninsula it seems is forest,either national forest or state forest. There are a lot of campgrounds in the area, but they all are either dry campgrounds or only have water and electricity. If you are a tent cmper or one who likes to hike, this is the place. Lots if hiking trails, ski trails and even bike trails.On the trip over here today I sw two doe on the edge of the woods and one that had been hit by a car. The main signs of civilation were where the road came close to lake superiior, and there were cottages and summer places. The strange thing was that when you crossed over into wisconsin there was about 10 miles of farms. Then it was back to forest.
The good news is that it was another spedctular day. sunny and warm but not too warm all day,
Arrived in Hayward without a problem. Hayward is a town of 2125 population,but it has a couple of grocery stores.
i came here to see the lumberjack demonstration that is here. I read about it in good sam magazine last year. Ill try to go tomorrow. Then Wednesday I am going on to yogi bear jellystone park in Fremont, wisconsin. it is between Green bay and oshkosh so I thought I could do both places and appleton from there without moving.
I may stay there five nights, I had planned on four ,but the fifth one is free and free is good.
Thats about for today.

July 12 Ishpeming,mi

2009-07-12T18:35:00.001-07:00

Take a look at the picture and see if you know what it is.
Today I woke up to a bright sun and comfortable weather. Left sault ste marie about 10:00. Had a leasurely drive over here to ishpeming (thats the correct spedlling). Most of the way was through national or state forest, and not too much to see. However, when i got to the area between munising and marguette there were some great views of lake superior. the land was a little hilly, and you could look down on the lake. Arrived here about 2:00 after stopping for lunch and gas. The evening is cool, but not uncomfortable. Nearly the best day I have seen in a while. Tomorrow I am going yo go on to Wisconsin.
Now for the picture. I took a drive into Marquette to see what the town was like. Its an old town, but they have cleaned it up and modernized many of the buildings in the downtown. All along the lake front is park for seveal miles, marinas, bike and running paths,and picnic areas. At the north of the town I noticed this structure. When I got close to it I could see that it was an unloading facility for coal for a powerplant across the road ( thats the round thing in the middle. The lake freighters dock here and with their self udnloading booms, they ubload coal into this hopper and it is conveyed to the plant, The big red structure is a loading facility for the freighters . The iron ore arrives in hopper cars. If you look closely, you can see them sitting on top of the structure. There are chutes that lower down into the freighter holds, and the iron or is emptied thru the bottom of the railcars directly into the ship hold. Pretty slick and non labor intensive of loading these ships/
Until tomorrow

July 11 at soo canals

2009-07-11T19:20:00.001-07:00

2

Today was a tour day except for the last photos taken at 9:00 tonight
The first photo is of a retired great lakes freighter that is a muswum, The pictures was taken from the bridge looking back toward the stern. This ship is 688 ft long and 68 ft. wide. It belonged to Republic steel and was used to haul ore totheir mills. The last photo for today is a side shot of this ship so you can get a sense of the size. Inside is a museum of the great lakes aritfacts and displays about the lakes and an exhibit about the edmund fitzgerald that was loat in 1975 with all hands. Museun is very well done and educational.
The next series of pics is of the tower of history.It haS an interesting history. It was origionally commisioned by the cathollic bishop for this area as a modernistic depiction of christ on the cross between the two thieves and was to be part of a new modernistic catholic church on the site, However it overrran its budget and had money problems and didnt look exactly like it was supposed to so it was turned into a history museum by the churhc and depicts their influence on the region and the history of the region going back to indians fishing the sault (falls in french).
the first pics no. 2 is looking at the river from the history tower. No,3 is looking east down portage st. No, 4 is looking down at the van camp museum. No, 5 is looking west of the van camp. no 6 is looking down portage street west toward the rv park where i am, no. 7 isthe history tower - must turn on side , it didnt fit the other way. This was taken from almost a block away.
Pisc 8 and 9 go togather. no 8 is the bow of this ship in the lock it is very close to the doors into lake superior, No 9 is the stern. It barely cleared the doors in the st marys river for closing. I couldnt get all of the ship in these two pics, there is about 1/3 in the middle missing. This ship is 1000 ft long and 105 ft wide.It is one of the biggest ships that will fit in the lock Footnote- when it left it just barely went under the international bridge. pic no. 10 is the ship approaching the lock up the st marys river. No, 11 is another shot of the ship approaching the lock.
This is the reason i am so late tonight with the post. it was about an hour going thru the lock and left at 10:00 pm
I found a coo web site this afternoon when i was bumming around in the corps of engineers visitors center.it is a real streaming video of the locks and what is happening. Only thing it is a little time delayed for security reasons.
www.boatnerd.com
Yomorrow is a travel day I am going west across the upper pedninsula to ishpeming. Next day will be hayward wisconsin.

July 10,2009 Another exciting day

2009-07-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

No pics today, but a very exciting day.
This morning I toured around the area looking at the scenery. Came home and ate lunch, while lunching I called a nice lady named Opal and made reservations for Sunday night at a place in Ishpeming, michigan at the Country Village rv park for one night. Excited yet? It gets better. Then I gathered up my dirty clothes and did the washing. After that I took one of my propane tanks to have it filled. Then I went down to the locks and watched another ship lock through. Then I came home , had a liylr happy hour and went to dinner at Applebys. A thrilling day. I should mention that you can see these looks very well on Google earth. Also there is a web site that tracks these ships coming into the canal approaches and leaving. I will try to get it tomorrow.
My location is 46 degrees 29.309 north and 84 degrees 18.624 west, you can also see this rv park on google earth.
Right now it is thundering like crazy. The canadian weather person is promising thunder storms for tonight ,AGAIN. Yhat was my day. Until tomorrow

Julu 9 2009 saukt ste marie

2009-07-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today started out With a crossing of the Mackinac bridge. That was a treat. They were workingon the bridge so traffic was slow and one lane. I got a very good look at both shores and Lake Michigan and Lake Huron on a clear day, The drive up to Sault Ste marie was routine from there. Traffic was light and the road was good four lane. TThe interesting thing was that the first 25 or so miles were hilly and forested. Not many signs of life, the the land flattened out and was very flat the rest of the way. Some farms, but lots of woods.
I checked into the rv park and was asking the girl behind the counter about boat tours of the locks. She said that I should go today since it was nice and tomorrow was supposed to turn off bad again. I took her advice and went on the tour. The drop in the locks was about the same as the one going into the dismal swamp from Norfolk. oF COURSE the length and width are bigger. They didnt even come close to the lock thru sante cooper dam above charleston where we bought the houseboat. That wa 60 ft or so and was that scary i have pics at home to prove it.
There are four indipendent locks in the system THw two that i have pics of here are the loarger ones. the other two are smaller and not used unless traffic is heavy. All four of these are american locks and are run by the corps of engineers. There is one lock on the canadian side that is smaller and only operates from June 15 ultil winter. It was down for gate repairs now.
The best part ofthe day i stumbled onto accidently. After I finished with the boat tour , I drove down town to look around and went along a road that paralleled the locks. When I got to the far end i saw these two big ships starting into the locks. There is an observation deck in the middle of the locks, and that is where i took the ship pics from. Now to the pics. They are in reverse order with the ship passage first and the tour pics last,
The first pic is of the big ship leaving the lock after jit had been lowered. The second pic is of the back of the ship and the turblance that it generated. The third pic is of both of the ships in the locks after they had been lowered down. NOted height in later pics The fourth pic is the bow of the ship in the near lock ready to drop. Note how tight it is. Rhe fifth pic is of the ship in the far lock, and the near ship comming in. The sixth pic is the ship in the farlock-750 ft.long and just wide enough to fit in the lock. Yhe seventh shot is of the ship in the near lock just starting into its lock. the eight pis is Another shot of the near ship just entering the lock. This ship is also 750 ft long and had about a foot of clearance on each side. It was loaded with iron ore. the ninth pic is Another view of the ship in the far lock, Note how high up it is, the tenth pic is another view of the two ships. The eleventh pic is a view of the edison power plant from the tour boat. This plant was built in 1902 by the origional edison electric company, It is a quartermile long and is still operates today. The canal that feeds the water from lake superior to the plant makes an island out of the downtown of sault ste marie. When this plant was built it was considered one of the wonders of the world. The twelveth pic is a view of the canadian city. it is a city of about 70,000 people.
Yhe thirteenth pic is more of the canadian city.
The fourteenth pic is a pic of a three masted wooden ship that locked down with the tour boat The fifteenth pic is of the alcan Steel plant on the canadian side. it is owned by a group of Indians (from India). It produces about 5000 tons of steel a day and is the largest employer in the area. The sixteenth pic is A VIEW OF THE BRIDGE OVER THE LOCKS TO cANADA. The sevententh pic is a close up of the bridge and the canadian railway brides that go over the lock, Yhe eighteenth is a view from the tour boat inside the lock before raising up. The ninteenth is the lock door closing behind us. Twenty is a pic of the locks as we entered them. twenty one is another pic of locks as we entered, twebty two is view of the locks from tour boat
Twenty three is another view of the canadian side. The last pic is the tour boat.

July 8 area travels

2009-07-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today was kind of a take it easy day. I toured around the area and went thru the ice Breaker Mackinac ( retired in 2906) .
Made a trip down tho a town named Petosky(Thats a good spelling Don) It was about 30 miles south of here. One of the ladies in the office told me it was an interesting drive. Jt was interesting. it went past two lakes that had summer homes all around them. Then it went down along an arm of Lake Michigan, very pretty scenery. Interrestingly there were several golf and ski resorts along the way because the road went thru some hilly land. The big surprise was the town. It was right along the lake.,but it showed on the map as a very small place, Veryhard to find on the map. It was anything but small, seemed like a good sized town with a nice center and a couple of shopping malls. Even had a super Walmart and Lowes,and Hone Depot. plus others. I was able to replenish my supplies in Walmart.
After I got back and ate lunch, I started out down the shore of Lake Huron. Jt was not nearlyso developed. First town of any size was Cheboygen. It was fairly big and along a river, only thing of real interest was the new, Ice Breaker Mackinac that was stationed there. I came back to Mackinaw city and decided to tour the old ice breaker (third [pic), It was interesting to see the internal working of the ship.
While I was on the stern, I took the first pic of the macinac bridge. The last pic is of the marina where the ferrys dock for trip ti Macinac island.
Tomorrrow I,m moving up to sault ste marie for two days and three nights.

July 7 trip to mackinac island

2009-07-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

I'll try to make this understandable. Today started out cold about 55 degrees and with wind,but since I was here I decided to go ahead over to Mackinac Island.
It was an easy 15 minute boat ride over.I had expected only a tourist place, but When I got started with a Horse drawn carriage tour of the Island, I found it to be more than a tourist spot. (first part of the carriage tour was in a cart like the one in picture no,8) It became apparent that this had been an important island and stopping place since indian days before white men came. Then it was a fur trading point for the early trappers. Soon the British built Fort Mackinac to control the area and the westward access,rhen the town grew up around it. After the revolutionary war in 1797 the americans took over the fort, Then in the war of 1812 the first battle of the war was fought here with the english retaking the fort and holding it until after the peace treaty. Jacob Astor was the principal fur buyer for many years here, After the civil was,the island became a tourist attraction and summer place as the fur trade died. The army kept a post here for many years, and it was declared the second national park made. Later it was given to the state of Michigan as a park and to this day it is largely a state park,
.
Now to the pics: The first one is of the famous grand Hotel from the water. The second is of the city and the entrance lighthouse from the water. The third one is the city docks with the fort on top of the hill. The fourth on is a closeup of the Grand Hotel. YOU must pay a fee to just go in if you are not a guest , ten dollars. Thats to keep out the common folk. There were two movies made here, one in 1947 with Ester Williams and a second one in 1979. They have a vip suite in the back that rents for 3600.00 per night, Elvis Prestly used to come here regularly.
The fifth picture is of the old lighthouse at the harbor entrance and Round Island Round Island is all Hiawatha national forest. The sixth pic is a hotel on the waterfront. The seventh pic is a view of the main street. The eight pic is a hotel on main street with one of the horse carriages like are used for part of the island tour. The ninth pic is a better view of this hotel. The tenth pic is anothe view of main street. The eleventh pic is a view of the state port at the east end of main street. Twelvth is a duplicate of eleven. thirteenth is firing the canon at the fort. This is just a cerimonil reenactment for show by costumed characters. The fourteenth pic is a view of the state port from the fort. The fifteenth is a view of the town from the fort. The sixteenth is three of the soldiers actors at the fort that had just put on a musket firing demonstration. Seventeenth is a pic of the fort entrance. Eighteenth is a pic of the north side of the island. tHE ninteenth is a picture of the unique three horse carts the were built by the rv manufacturer Jayco for the island cariage company to take tourists on the second part of the carriage tour of the state park forest area, some grave yards, and military areas that were used be British and American soldiers. no. 20 is of a butterfly house for a collection of butterflys=dont ask me how this fits the area, but there it is. No, 21 is another view of main street. No,22 is a view of the mackinac island bridge that connects lower Michigan with the upper Peninsula.
All in all it turned out to be an interesting day. Started out cold,but warmed up later. The town is touristty, but interesting. There are no cars or motorized vehicles, except and ambulance, and a fire truck. There aregolf carts on the course at the grand hotel, but a $500.00 fine if you get out of the course. You can see horse drawn carts moving the luggage from the hotels to the boats. Most of the seasonal labor appears to be college kids for the summer. Its a place I think Anita and Lindsay would realyl like.
After i got started,I had a good visit. Learned a lot. It surprised me how big a role this place had played in early american history.
Forgot to tell everybody I'm so far north that it doesnt get dark until about 10:15 pm.

mackanaw city july 6 2009

2009-07-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Today was a travel day. Had no problems with car or the trailer, except the wind really got to blowing toward the end and bounced me around a bit. The trip was interesting.i was watching the farms go by infairly flat land and thinking Michigan was really a farm state. something I had never thought about. Then about Mile 193 on I 75 the whole thing changed, THe land became rolling hills and covered with some kind of forest growth. It became dense forest forest for the rest of the way up here. At some point I saw a sign that I had just crossed the 45th parallel-1/2 way to the north pole. The day started out sunny and about 72 degrees, it became cooler as I came north until it was\53 degrees. Gradually the sky had become cloudy also. Until it was spitting rain when I got here, Now ( evening it is raining hard).
I hope it clears up tomorrow, I want to go to Mackinac island on the ferry for the day.Then Wednesday I can look around here and see some other things. I should get some interesting pics tomorow of the island and maybe the big bridge.
Thursday I am going on th Sault Ste Marie to see the Soo Canals and Go over to Canada for a Daytrip. That should produce some interesting pics also.
I will be staying at Aune-Osborn rv park at Sault Ste Marie- right on the lake by th canals.
until Tomorrow.

Sunday evening July 5 2009

2009-07-05T13:36:00.001-07:00

The first picture is of the covered bridge leading to the Bavaian Hotel. IT was fabricated on land by a 70 year old man and his son over two years, while the foundations were being put in by another commpany. The bridge is put togather entirely by pegs except for the nails in the shingles on the roof. When the bridge was completed on land, it was jacked up and put on rollers, then a block and tackle assembly was fastened to a capspan on the other side of the river and two oxen turned the capspan for twelve days to get the bridge across the supports, when it was across, it was lowered into place.
The second pic is of bronners christmas store. This store is open all year around sellling nothing but christmas things. they have anything you can imagine for christmas. Although the pic doesnt show it this store covers an acre and a half, it wraps around it an elbow shape. Big place.
I think i've about looked Frankenmuth out. Tomorrow I'm moving to mackinaw city for three nights and plan to go over to mackkinac island one day.
Thats it from here for today.

frankenmuth sunday July 5 in am

2009-07-05T07:53:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning
I didnt post last night because the internet was down here.
This town is like a fairy tale or something from disneyland. Every fairly new building is in the Bavarian style, even Mc Donnalds. I have included some pics today and will try to send somemore tonight. The last pic is of a hotel,restaurant, and outdoor beer garden on the main street. The one above it is of Zenzers chicken restaurant, gift shop,etc. (almost every business has a gift shop). The one above that is a view across the river of a tourist shop area. There are parks and open spaces everywhere. The next one up is a view of the walk along the river. Talk about turning a sows ear into a silk purse. THis is a dike that the corp of engineers built in 1955 to keep the town from flooding during the spring melt. Its a really beautiful walk. The third one from the top is a view across the river to the Bavarian Hotel,another large open space. The second one from the top is a front view of the Bavarian hotel on the other side of the river. There is an old time wooden bridge that connects this hotel and a town park to the main part of the city. Pics of bridge tonight. The first pic is the HENRETTA II of Fraankenmuth. Its a nice boat that takes about an hour tour of the river with the usual spiel about the area. i went yesterday afternoon and it was interesting and pleasant.
I'm really glad I came here. John Zimmermen (Betty's son) had said it was an intereting place and he loved it. (He is working up in Saganaw at a hospital there, but is gone to Texas right now so I missed him).
I'm going out today to look around the town some more. Its a small town with a population of 2400, but every sreet is tree lined and the homes are all neat with well groomed lawns. The town parks are very well kept, and even the local schools look very nice with soccer fields,baseball diamonds and the local high school football stadium look nice. It main street usa as one would imagine it. The one major exception is the White Star milling company just off of the main street. Its a typical flour mill and stands out. They are the major miller of Michigan White wheat tha goes to many bakers including Sarah Lee.
Until later.

July 3 2009

2009-07-03T12:20:00.001-07:00

Missed a day yesterday (July 2) because the owner at the koa where I was staying didnt like the idea of me uploading pics while they were trying to handle reservations on their dsl line. Seem he was on the end of the line and it really slowed down.
Yesterday I went ot the Gerald ford museum in Grand rapids. It was inpressive, The pics were taken there.
The first pic is of the memorial outside.The second
is the cabinet room in the white house. The third is his oval office. The fourth is the presidential seal in the lobby, The fifth is a piece of the berlin wall. amd the last is the outside of the museum. There were a lot of things from his trips, and his wifes gowns,and news stories pertentant to his time in office, Well done , but not terriably exciting.
Left this morning for Jellystone park in Frankenmuth. No problems arriving, a fairly easy drive over, Haven't had a chance to look around yet, but this seem to be be a nice well run place. Fireworks tonight.Going to be here until the ninth and then I'm going to Mackinacaw city until the 13 th when i plan to go on up to Sault Ste Marie.
Until Tomorrow,

July 1 at Ludingdton

2009-07-01T17:15:00.001-07:00

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Went to Ludington today. Weather ws still cold and it drizzled all day. Temp was 53 at beach in Ludington. Not a nice day wind was off of the lake at about 10 mph.
The first pic is of Ludington state park and the dunes, it was a shame that the weather was so cloudy that you could barely see the dunes. As far as i could see these dunes are better and more of them than the dunes at Cape Cod.
The second pic is of the harbor entrance and the lighthouses marking it. The haze and mist make it hard to see. There was a ship out in the lake, but you cant see it in the pic. There wern not many bathing suits at the beach.
The last series of pics are taken at a place called
White Pine Historic Site. It was a collection of buildings that had old items in them pertaining to the theme of the building. The little building needs no introduction.The next one is the hardware store and looking down the street. The next one is of the fireouse, it had several old engines inside. The last one is of some historic statue that was taken from in front of the town hall andd refurbished. THe place was interesting in that it indicated the loging backkground of the area in the late 1800's and life in the area at the time. I didn't know that there had been a maple syrup business in the area in earlier days.
Ludington seems to be mainly a tourist type town. The down town was full of little shops and cafes. Many of the homes in the area were tucked back in lanes or small roads leading to them. However it was a clean well laid out town and seemed to be well maintained.
If it had not been such a miserable day this would have been a good visit.
Tomorrow I plan to go to Grand Rapids and the Gerald Forde museum.

Weddnesday june 30, 2009

2009-06-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

The last image is a picture of A summer day at Muskegon
beach. It's cloudy, thretening rain, the wind is about 12 mph off of the water out of the west. The temperature has risen all the way up to 57 degrees. The water temp has warmed up to 53 degrees. A really good summer bech day in western Michigan. HAH HAH.
Thhe second and third pictures are a museum that I stumbled onto while looking for the beach. its of a world war two submarine that is a national historic place because of its feats in the war. It sank 30 japanese ships and damaged 14 more, and rescued severl downed aviators during 15 patrols over three years during the war. It has more sinkings than any other submarine that survived the war. The other picture is kof the Great lakes Naval Museum which houses memprbilia and pictures form naval efforts during world war two. It also hosts sea scout activities. Kind of like the Battleship North Carolina. The submarine was interesting you could walk thru it and see all of it. it was in very good shape and some parts of it were still working like the desiel engines and some control room things.
Spent some time looking around Muskegon. You can see the effects of the recession here. More homes for sale, and more empty commercial buildings. However there are a lot of abandoned factory building that i ddont think started with the recession. i think that a lot of these factories had closed up long before this year or last year. It reminds me of the area around Beaver Falls with all the old factory buildings standing idle. I will say that they seem to be making an effort to get their economy going again.I noticed a large building that had a sign on the front Amazon. It looked full and busy, I would assume that it was Amazon.com. In addition rhey are having that music festival for a week that I mentioned last night. The beach areaslooked rather deserted of tourists on the streets for this time of the year, and the boat yard still had a very large number of boats on the hill, and had advertisments for slips available. Not a good sign.

Thats itd fort today, tomorrow I plan to go to Ludington for he day.
lzst night as I was comming bacck from diner, I saw a big doe standing in a clearing beside the road. She was a really nice looking doe.

Tuesday June 29, 2009

2009-06-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

This is written on Wednesday Morning because i had a problem getting on the internet here. Hope I rresolved it now.

Made the trip to Muskkegon with no problems, although it was tiring. Very windy and lots of traffic. Michigan drivers are worse than Wilmington. The weather here is a surprise, cold and rainy. Last night I put the blanket back on the bed. Temp was 53, and raining. I thought I had seen the last of that blanket for this trip. Today is rain showers and cool about 65.
One interesting item from Sunday. i was driving on us 12 going into Detroit, As I mentiondedd in last blog they need to bulldoze that part of town. Well when I watched the 10:00 news Sunday night one of the large buildings I hd noticed because it obviously had been a very nice building at one time about 5 stories high and set back from the road a good ways on a landscaped area that had gone to ruin, was on fire. Apparently homeless had been in it and it caught fire about 6:00 Sunday. i had been past it around 3;00.
There is some kind of music festival going on here from June 25 until July 5. Tonight they are having the girl from eastern north Carolina,Kelly Pickler. Croud last night was huge when I went out to eat.
Today I am just going to look around and try to get the lay of the land here.
thats it for Tuesday

Sunday June 28,2009

2009-06-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

Today was kind of a slow day. Got up late and cleaned up\(shower) then I worked out the trip route to Muskegon for tomorrow. After that I took a road trip. Went to Yipsilanti and looked around. Nice little town, clean, and the downtown seems to still be busy. Then to
Detroit by way of several towns along route 12 including Deerfield. There was a Ford factory there that went for about a mile along the road. Very modern town. From there went into Detroit. The outer city needs to have a bulldozer taken to it and started over again. However the downtown area after you cross third street is as nice as any of the big cities that I know. They have cleaned up the area along the river and there were a lot of people down there taking advantage of the day. I ran across one area called Greektown that was alive with people walking on the streets and going into the shops, A nice surprise on Sunday afternoon. that was it for today. Tomorrow is off to Muskegon.

Saturday june 27

2009-06-27T17:56:00.005-07:00

No pics of Ann Arbor. the camera went dead. In any case there wasn't much to take interesting pics of. more later in blog.

I call these Pics Saturday night at Fords pond. This is the small lake where the Detroit/Greenfield KOA is located. As you can see from the pics its loaded with campers. All of them are having a good time. It may be a bad time, but this campground is loaded with campers, it almost sold out. maybe the sky is not falling after all.

The trip to Ann Arbor was interesting,but not great, On the way there I drove thru several sub-divisions looking at homes that might be forclosed or for sale. I would bet that there are more homes for sale in Wilmington than here. The ones i saw ,i probably could count on the ten fingers of my hands. I was really surprised.
Ann Arbor reminded me a lot of Ashville, in that they had revived their downtown with a lot of small sidewalk cafes and shops. The place was really busy. Lots of people there. Geneally the rest of the town was like most any medium size town. The University of Michigan is another story. It is spread all over town, The stadium , basketball field house and several athletic things were in what was called the west campus, the hospital and medical center were in a campus several miles away, the business school and some others were in what was call the center campus (it was all over a large area just away from downtdown).
The east campus was out to the east of town and had several things like the school of architecture, music school, and space research area. Also any number of research and development buildings spead over a very large campus. Most of them were hardly visible to each other. Buildings were very modern. I didnt think it was that great, although, i must say they had facilities for almost all areas of learning.
Nothing planned for tomorrow, little sightseeing in the area maybe. On Monday I am going to move to Muskegon KOA until July 3. From this area I can go to Grand Rapids to see the Gerald Ford Museum and other things and I can go up to Ludington to see the beachs and Lake Superior.

greenfield

2009-06-26T17:33:00.001-07:00

I really don't know where to begin with this days story. Arrived at Greenfield about 11:00 am and didn't leave until 4:30. What a great place. I'll begin by trying to describe the pictures.
The first one is a map of the park, its 81 acres in all.
The second one is a water wheel at the grain grinding mill. The next one is four men in period costume playing croquet.The next one is Sir John Bennets clock shop from england. The next is one of the horse drawn carrages that circulate thru the park that you can ride.
Then the origional home of a Mr. McGuffey of Mr. McGuffys readers. The story goes that he had writen a poem in one of his readers that Henry Fords wife enjoyed, and Henry set out to find a copy of it and then started collecting from this.The next one is the Georgia family farm of the Maddox family. The windmill si one of the last working windmills in the United States.THe next is the origional Robert Frost home where he wrote many of his poems. Then these are the slave quarters for Heritage plantation in Savannah. Then Edisons workshop from Menlo Park-this is only one of three buildings in the workshop group. Thsi is a puppet show booth,one of many little shows going on around the grounds for children.The carosel is an origional 1913 carosel with hand carved wooden horses and it gives rides. This is the Wright Bros home from Dayton. The brick buildding is the Heinz home from Pittsburg. The next one is me riding in a Model t (real 1913 model t) around the park. Rhe next two shots are model t s. These were circulating constantly giving rides. The next two shots are what is called main street. very well landscaped area. THe next is a man on an old bicycle, he constdantly circulates around for pics. Then this is the train with a real coal fired engine. It runs completely around the park. Fun ride.
The brick building is a real working roundhouse from somewhere. The last two pics are of a lady in costume.

There was so much to see and do. This should be a must for familys with kids especially. Almost all of the buildings are the real thing that was transported here and re set up. Inside of them are furniture, pictures,writings, and machinery that came from the origional building. Things like the train locomotive are real antiques that have been moved here and rebuild.
This place is a history lesson in itself.
There is a charter high school on the grounds that Henry Ford started. It now serves Wayne County,the students have to apply and are chosen by lot from the applicants. The only stipulation is that the parents have to get the kids there. They said that thay have a 99 % graduation rate. While we were there I saw several summer discovery campss that were going on here to teach the history.

The place is designed to be historical in nature,but it is set up so that it can be fun for the whole family. Really a good job.
As a sidelight, while I was riding the train around, across the street is a Ford autotest track. You could see several cars running aroud being tested.

All in all this was a great experience that i could recommend to anyone.

WhileI was writing last nights blog we had a really bad electrical storm.No damae here dbut around the region therre were over 100,000 homes without power.

Tomorrow I am going to try to go to Ann Arbor to look around.s Supposed to be a nice place,

2009-06-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 25,2009
Yesterday was a moving day. Packed up at Middlebury and moved to Detroit/Greenfield Koa in Yipsilanti Mi. Very uneventful move, Weather was hot, lots of traffic and road construction. Arrived about 2:00 pm and set up the trailer and just took it easy the rest of the day. This koa was a plesant surprise, seems to be very nice,clean, have a private lake for fishing and a swimmming area that isn't too deep for the kids with water slide, also a playground. The area where i am is wooded and shady. Good place.

Today i set out for the greenfield/ford museum and rouge ford plant tour. That was the best tour of the factory, only problem was no pics. It was an overhead walkway where you could look down on the floor where they were putting togather ford 150 truck bodies. It is just amazing to see an empty body come in and move from station to have all the parts put in, The beds were assembled on another ilne next to the bodys and the doors were assembled across the room. Bodys and beds came togather automatically and the doors were put on last before going to another area of the plant where the motor and wheels were added, then to testing area. I was facinated as to how the whole thing worked and how sophisticated it was. They had assembled 287 trucks by noon. I've helped build a lot of plants, but this was way above them.
After lunch I spent a couple of hours in the Museum, Lots of old cars and machinery of all kinds. Patrick would have enjoyed this place. lots of historic machinery. Really an educational place Anyhow i took some pics, one of the entrance gate, and one of the area in from of the museum. There were some old memory raisers too. The DC-3 was like the airline that I used to fly from San Antonio to Mcallen when i was courting dee just before we got married. In the afternoon when the sun was hot, there were a lot of thermals over the Texas desert,that old plane shook like a dog that just had a bath, rattled, and the wings flexed up and down, oil came out of the cowling behind the motors is a steady stream, Very comforting flights,The old Ford-Ferguson tractor is just like the one that I learned to drive on about 1943, There was a Studebaker coupe liked the one we had just after we were married and used to move our things 13 times in the first two years,but it was in a dark place and pic wouldnt take the cars are a presidential limo from Roosevelt,the car jfk was riding in when he was shot in dallas, and the car Reagan was using when he was shot,
This whole area is Ford country, Research offices,development offices, battery research buildings, experimental engine biuldings. From the amount of cars around these buildings, you would never guess that the auto industry was in trouble,
Tomorrow I amgoint to the Greenfield village

2009-06-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 23.2009
Today was a down day. Resting up after a long day yeterday. Did some routine items around the trainler getting ready to go tomorrow. Went to the grocery store.
everthing seems to check out in the trailer. Ready to move on tomorrow.

2009-06-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

June 22 from Middlebury KOA.
Left Wilmington Sunday morning and went to Kernersville for Fathers Day. We really had a good time . WE had all the family except David there for the afternoon.
I got up at 5:00 AM this morning and left Kernersville at 5:30 Am. and arrived here at 5:30
pm 12 hours and 660 miles. Trip was uneventful except for one event that I surely would like to know the whole story about this,

I was about 65 miles west of Columbus Ohio and 70 miles east of Ft Wayne Indiana. It was a beautiful summer day 87 degrees, very little breeze; clear and only a few puffy clouds in the sky. This is in the middle of a farming region in western Ohio, you looked in any direction, all you could see were corn fields or wheat fields;REAL COUNTRY. This section of road was a two lane road. I came up to this small rural midwestern type farm town named Patapokata.Really small town the main highway came in at one end of town, down the main street and out the other end. I was almost out the other end of town when this cemetary caught my eye. IT WAS A REALLY BIG CEMETARY-ABOUT TWO SQUARE BLOCKS. It looked to be two hundred years old. In fact I would bet that there were more people buried there than were alive in that town, the lawn was manicued.I couldnt see a weed or any uncut grass,even the ditch between the lots and the concrete highway. Most of the headstones has some sort of artificial flowers ond them and the veterans headstones each had a little flag on it, You could tell that the town really cared for this cemetary.
As i got almost to the end of the cemetary a strange event startled me so much that it took a couple of seconds for me to grasp just what was happening. I would have taken a picture but it went past so fast that i was out of range before it hit me. In anycase I bet this is being duscussed around more than one dinner table in that town, and probably at the local garden club. In one corner of the cemetry next to the road at the end of the cemetary, there were three or four headstones that looked to be newer than any others and they didnt have flowers on them. One of the headstones was by itself toward an open area of the cemetary. Id noticed a car on the road beside this headstone and saw three women ( i couldnt tell their exact ages, but probably in their thirtys)had spread blankets in front of the headstone and over yhe grave, They had on bathing suits and were lying on the blankts sunbathing and lookidng like they were enjoying a day at the beach.

In anycase it broke up my trip thinking about what was the real story.
Tomorrow I'M going to stock with grocerys and do a couple of things around here then Wednesday morning i will leave for Yipislianti for four days to see greenfield, and the henry ford musieum, visit Ann Arbor before movinfgon.

2009-05-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 17
I'm home now for a month or so, so there will not be any more entrys until i get back on the road.
Came home last friday May 15. Left the trailer in Middlebury and drove home. about 900 miles. Left at 9:47 am and arrived home at 1:20 am . No problems, except for spats of rain in the mountains and a wrong turn I took at Wytheville and went 20 miles out of the way -10 out and 10 back.

2009-05-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday May 14
Today was a good day. Last night I was watching tv and it was very staccicy. I heard some discussion about digital tv channels in the area. I decided to set up my converter box, since I would need it anyhow when I got back.. Set it up this morning and much to my surprise there were 8 digital channels, clear as cable. All the time I've been here i have been trying to listen to news on channels that were not good.Nobody here knew about them.
Then I went to a rv supply place that had surplus. Looked around, but didnt buy anything. However if you needed something this would be a good place to look, it was just like Sailor Man for boats in Miami
This afternoon the weather was beautiful. I went to South Bend to look over Notre Dame. What a nice place. Pics are of the stadium, some dorms, and quadrangle that was in the middle of the campus, dthe faamous gold dome. Then the alum assn building, and a book store. What a bookstore. While I was walking around I saw a sigh tdhat said This dorm was the best female dorm of the year. Then it hit me no coed dorms here
As I was walking past the stadium, I noticedd that there were a lot of tv ststions setting up outside, and I wonderred why. Later i found out that this was graduation tomorrow.Still didnt make sense. When I got back tothe trailer, I heard that President Obamma was going to give the graduation speech, then it made sense as well as the studentsset up just outside the campus rallying against abortions.
Thats about it for today. packing up to start home tomorrow.

2009-05-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

Wednesday may 13
No pics today. Rain off and on all day. Went to Keystone today. Took a tour of the Cougar manufacturing line this pm. This was a good experience. We got to see units being made first hand and up close. Contrary to other manufacturers.Keystone is running this line almost wide open.They say that they are sold out on cougars until july. Thats about the end of the model year.
As I was driving down to shipawana yesterday it struck me that almost as if by magic,farmers were planting corn like crazy in big fields, really big fields.
Tomorrow the weather is supposed tobe better, and I plan to make another try at Notre Dame in the afternoon, All set up to start home Friday as soon as I put the trailer in storage.
Thats it for today.

2009-05-12T12:56:00.001-07:00

May 12 Tuesday
I found a place that you should never turn a female loose with money or a credit card. SHIPSHEWANA > this is the biggest flea market I have ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice.The first pic is a map of the layout.Can't count the booths. There is almost everything you can imagine here in the line of knicknacks, Amish furniture,clothes,food,tools, etc. I wandered around this place for three hours and did not see all of it, maybe 3/4. There was a big crowd here when i got here at 10:30. I had a hard time finding a place to park and they had only opened at 10:00.
Anyhow it was a real experience, I'M glad to see it. the town is named shipshewana,i guess because the fleaq market and some restaurants and other little money magnets(shops) are all there is to the town.
This was the big deal for today. Tomorrow I'm going to tour the keystone factory in goshen.
bye for today

2009-05-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

Monday may 11-added item
Ijust found out that if you click on the photos they will come up full screen. AwSOME:::

2009-05-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

Monday May 11
pics were leftovers from indy yesterday. blog would not put up but 10,so here are the rest of them.
Today I went to visit an rv manufacturer and toured the factory to see how they were made. was about what i expected. Got to see the sewing shop where they turned the fabric into all kinds of seats, bed covers and many things inside the rv. Thought of Lindsay and he desigh and coordination of all these pieces.
Tomorrow i am going to visit a very famous flea market. Supposed to have almost anything. Might be interesting.
Wed I am going to tour the keystone factory (people who made mt trailer.)
Then Thurs wather permittingi am going to try notre dame again. plan to leave friday in middle of morning for ome. expect to be there late sat or sumday.

2009-05-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening
Had a great day today. Woke up this morning and it was sunny and warming up with a slight breeze. great day. So I decided to go to indianapolis and try for the speedway. On line they said tickets were 10.00 but didn't say anything about parking or if there were any tickets available. I decided to chance it, I thought the worst that could happen would be they were sold out,but I could get a couple of outside pics at least. I took their driving directions off of the web site and set out. In indianapolis, I followed their directions and drove right up to the place. I noticed that there were hardly any cars around, and as i drove by one of the gates, i noticed they were selling tickets. Turned into alot across the street and paid the man10.00 to park and ask him wherre to see best, he told me in the fourth turn up high to see the whole oval. so i did. The view was spectacujlar, and some of tghe pics are from there. Later I decided to try to get some pics of pit row and walked dthat way.About 1/2 way there I ask on of the guards where I could get some pics of the pits, he told me down by the next gate. Walked in and sat down in box 33 right across the speedway from pit row, there were very few people there.
Like watching from across a two lane road. The speeedway is not as wide as you would think. These guys were going past at 220 mph.like here he goes. Ihope the [ics are clear enought so you can see some of the stuff.
anyhow I enjoyed if and saw more than i had hoped for. No problems going or comming back, except it started rraianing about 50 miles from the trailer.

2009-05-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday may 9
Today was a real bust. Started out for South Bend this am. got on I 90 and headed west. Wind was blowing 15 to 20 with gusts to 40. It started to rain fine mist almost like a fog so I turned on the wipers, in a minute I wondered why the window was streaking instead of wiping. Then I looked at the temp- 42 degrees. the rain was freezing on the winshield. defroster cleared up the problem. When I got to south bend things were not much better so I decided it was time to go back home. too miserable to sight see.
This afternoon, later it stopped raining but the wind was still blowing 15 to 20 and so i took off and scouted out Goshen for the Keystone factory where i want to visit Monday and then drove throught the country side back to the trailer.
Weather looks better tomorrow so i think i will try to go to Indianapolis for some of gthe Indy 500 time trials.
that is it for today

2009-05-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

May 8
Today was a travel day. left sandusky in light rain west on I 90 to Middleberry, in. Got here about 12:30. No problems. Set up , ate lunch and then took a nap. Tomorrow i am going to scout around a little,Maybe go to South Bend to see Note Dame,or down to indinapolis to check out the motor Speedway. Depends on weather.
Thats it for today. very uneventful day. This canpground is amazing. When i arrived there was hardly anyone here. Now it is almost full,people just started to roll in here about 3:00 and havent stopped yet,tents, travel trailers, fifth wheels and rvs. This is not a small camground either. Also they will let me store my trailer herre while i come home next weekend. Amazing

2009-05-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

The last pic is for all you good wilmingtonians. This was taken in downtown sandusky. Note the FREE PARKING There were lots like this all over town, and not a parking meter in sight. Goes to show you there is another way. Downtown Sandusky haS mostly cleaned itself up, many of the old buildings have been converted to comdos, and the waterfront area has a lot of nice marinas, there are only a few old abandoned buildings.
Started out today to visit some of the local sites. Lighthouse pics are of Marblehead light that marks entrance to sandusky bay. Place wasn't open yet,not until memorial day.
From there i went to visit Kelley Island. Had to go by ferry. A 30 minute ride. One of the pics is of trucks lined up to get on the ferry, I wondered what they were going to do on a resort island.
I found when i got on the island that it was basically one big limestone mine in the middle. it seems that they have been mining limestone in this area for over 100 years. Pits are everywhere, even around marblehead. But to the credit of the company mining, they are filling in the old pits and planting trees. Marblehead was and still is a big limestone exporting port. the perimeter was resort cottages. The main Reason I went here was to the limestone carvings that the glaciers carved out when they came down during the ice age.
There are three pics of these. Then there are some pics of the old summer homes alongthe lakefront,very nice. Also a nice marina where the ferry came in. however generally the area is just waking up heading for memorial day season opening.
I wanted to visit some of the other islands,but the ferry service to them wasnt running yet. Besides it started to rain hard so I came back to the trailer to write this.
Tomorrow is moving day going to Elkhart in.

2009-05-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

Wednesday May 7,2009
Spent the morning shopping for need items in walmart and making reservations for next week, Will be at Elkhart co/middlebury Koa
middlebury, in 46540 Ph 574 826 5932. But you can always reach me on my cell phone.
This afternoon started to rain after lunch so I decided to go to visit the Edison Birthplace home. See pics ,brick house is his birthplace, the other house is a museum.. It was in a little town of milan, ohio He was born there on february 11,1847. Not that interesting a deal,but inside. Found out this town was a big port in the middle 1800s. Seems they had a canal in the stream behind his home. It was the biggest grain port in the country at the time. They build lake boats here that took the grain up to the erie canal so it could go down the hudson to be exported. Tomorrow i plan to go up to the lake and try to visit some on the islands.
thats it for today

2009-05-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday evening May 5
Came from Mt. eaton to sandusky today . not a long trip, probably about 100 miles. Easy drive through farm country and small towns. The interesting thing is that the countryside turned from rolling hills like the piedmont to flat farm country, almost plains.
arrived about 1:00 and set up camp.
Dave called later to tell me he had mowed the lawn and had some mail for me.
Tomorrow I'm going to explore the area,There are several things that sound interesting. Pics if any of them are worthwhile.
Thats it for today.

2009-05-04T16:52:00.000-07:00

Monday evening
Today was a do little day. spent most of the day gettingf used to my new computer.Windows vista is different, I,ve said a few choice words over it. All in all i was lucky i guess, I only lost my trailer life program that has campgrounds a,my games and the quicken that came with this one is hard to get uset to.
I plan to leave in the af for Sandusky Ohio for three nights, Want to see the area and it willbreak up the trip to elkhart,
I wikk be staying at Sandusky/bayshore estates koa
Ph 800 962 3786.
Thats about it for today.

2009-05-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

Late Sunday night
When i opened my laptop this morning to start to write yesterdays post, surprise/ The led screen had been broken somehow and i couldnt see anything. So i went to Best buy to see about getting it fixed. They said it would have to go to their repair center and would take about two weeks=not good. And the cost would be near a new one. I now have a new hp laptop,and a compac laptop with a broken led. Took most of the day to get to wooster (20 miles) bs
uy new one and have the data from the old one loaded onto this one. Lost a few things thatcouldnt transfer butI have cds at home to reoald them,
I have made reservations fofr tuesday at a koa near Sandusty by lake erie. Plan ro be there about three days then on to indiana near elkhart.Send some locations and phone numbers tomorrow

2009-05-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

monday May 4
Saturday turned out to be one of those days that one remembers from travels. Started out early (about 8:30) for dayton. As i was leaving, I noticed a lot of horse and buggy traffic in town. Then as i got about 1/2 way to the town i passed a local grocery, there were a lot of people there. The strange thing about this was that all of the men had on black suits and black hats, Even saw a couple of men walking to town dressed this way, some of the young men were riding bicycles , but they had on stocking caps and nice clothes. Didnt see too many women and those i saw were in the buggys. In town i turned the corner to pass the bank, The bank was packed and there were about 20 men standing outside waiting to get in =all dressed in suits. I finally figured out that they probably worked in one of the plants nearby and had been paid and were waiting to cash their checks,
Across the street from the bank was a grain elevagtor, there were a lot of men there, and buggys and horses everywhere, about a mile out of the main part of town i met a young lady pushing a babby stroller, making big time ti town, Then a little way further, the crowning sight- an elderly man dressed in a black sit and hat in an electric handicapped chair (hoveraround type driving down the midddle of the road to town. Looked nlike a saturday one used to see in westerns-everybody came to town for the day,
Rest of the trip to dayton was undeventful. However it was well worth it., Theairforce museum and memorial was very impressive, I took the picture of the memorial of ther china burma area because Earl Moore (boating friend) had been one of the people that carried radio transmitters into the nmountains on mules and their backs to guide the fliers who flew these missions. All in all I thought it was as good as anything in the Smithsonian in dc.
Then I went to the wright brothers home and work shop across town. That was also interesting .The quality of the bicycles they were making was as good a the best racing bikes today. Amazing when you look at their tools.
All in all a very impresive day. i must admit that i shed a couple of tears at some of the memorials in the air force museum.
didnt get home until late. I just caughtd mrs. yoders cafe for dinner at 8:00 so it was after 9 when i got home and ditred.

2009-05-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 3.
sorry for the delay in posting. Yesterday was a long day and I didnt feel like posting when i get home.Thiis morning when I opened my computert the led screen was broken in half and useless so I am sending this on a new hp laptop. As soon as i get used tdo it ill post photos and notes from yestserday and today. Probably tomorrow.

2009-05-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

Friday May 1
Started out today by going back to the restaurant where i had dinner last night. Wanted to get a pic of the area a little away from the restaurant for horse and buggy parking including horse manure on the ground.
Then I took a drive down to the south a litte way to get some pics of amish life. An interesting thing is the contrasts in life. About 1/2 the farm houses dont have electricity connections. Yet almost every home has at least one sideline and some two.Almost any kind of home industry you can think of. Many times these industrys have grown into major businesses. The biggest example is Wayne Dalton- they have a huge office and manufacturing plant. The second thing you can see in some of these pics isthe simplehome life - clothes washed without eletricity and hng outside to dry. Then another thing, they do not want pics taken of them they think it is a show of vanity . To get the one pic of the man and woman to show typical dress, I had to do a drive-by shooting out of the window.
Then I went to a typical farm for a tour and talk about amish life. It seems there are two brands of the same thing in the area amish and menonites. The Menonites generally are more tuned into our life style They use electricity and cars and send their children to our schools. Th amish dont drive cars, they dont use elecricity, and they dress in the type of clothes in the pics. Their children go to school to only the eight grade. They are the ones still riding horse and buggy.But, they work hard. If you drive through the ountryside afgter dinner, some of them are still working in the fields. Forgot to mention they use horses to work fields- no tractor.
Forgot to mention that I took a side trip to a cheese factory. Thats two of the pics They make swiss cheese Guggisberg cheese factory. Never had seen this operation before. Bought some cheese-it is very good.
Very educational place.
Tomorrow I Plan to take a day trip to Wright-Patterson air base.

2009-04-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-28T13:46:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-04-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

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.