On the Road to Buffalo

Leaving our beautiful hotel room in Akron, we made our way to the Interstate towards Youngstown, a place where my Dad lived. The trees were just beginning to change in this part of Ohio.

It was awesome because we took a road all across Akron, through their downtown, to get to said Interstate, revealing a beautiful city. Don't get me wrong, I do love going to England, but seeing what America is like is pretty darn great! So, Youngstown is due East of Akron, and from there we headed North back on a small highway, taking us through many small towns, and, on occasion, past houses that caught my attention for either their beauty, or quirkiness. You decide which category this house alongside the highway fits into!

Eventually we came to a little town called Andover where we got gas and Mr. Peck look a little roadside nap. Me? I roamed around. The day was bright and sunny, which was good for our drive, but did little to help me capture the magnificence of the Copper Beeches turning purple. What a sight in person!

We, are, of course parked adjacent to their town square with business looking like this:

Yup, heading into dairy country! Stopping in a small donut shop, I had a little chat with the proprietor who told me they were expecting a very cold and snowy winter. How much snow? She said on occasion they get up to 125 inches in a bad winter!!! I cannot imagine, can you? Businesses only went about a block from this center, including the Town Tavern with the helpful sign about firearms posted on the exterior.

Once Bruce felt refreshed, onward into the countryside. For the life of me I cannot decide who exactly these figures are meant to represent. I am certainly impressed with the self serve sign and paying on the honor system, something we saw multiple times in our travels.

Eventually, we made it to Pennsylvania..

Driving U. S. Route 20, we kept on going, again through some small towns that all looked similar to this one, nearly always with American flags flying.

Above there is a link to the highway information from which I learned two things: U.S. Route 20 is the longest road in America, and secondly, the 0 represents a coast to coast highway. I had no idea the numbers actually signified anything, did you?

Our drive took us parallel to Lake Erie, but in the actual city of Erie, Pennsylvania, we got up close.

In the coming days there were all sorts of personal connections to people and places. In this case, Steve, Bruce's boss was born in Erie, and when the weather was hot, he told us his Mom would load up the kids and visit this same park!

Up next? New York!

Grape country! Not only are there plenty of wineries along the route, but so many, many grape vines that totally perfume the air.

It was just beautiful with rolling hills and grape vines as far as the eye could see. I kept hoping to get an actual grape picture and finally Bruce spotted some quite close to the highway. Unfortunately I was facing the sun, making for a not so great photo, but here it is nonetheless.

Apparently, a good deal of the grapes are bought by Welch's for grape juice and jelly processing. We did stop at one winery for a sample with, let's put it this way, mixed results. :)

How about this for a small downtown?

According to this article, the arch was erected in 1913, one cool fact, with a second cool fact being that George Pullman was born in this little village of almost 1,500 souls.

Only about 85 miles to go....

Into Buffalo we came, a city where I also lived as a child, in not one, but two different houses which I will show in my next post. From what I hear or read, Buffalo is a declining city, and while we did drive by loads, and I mean loads, of abandoned factories, like this one below,

I came away surprised at not only how big it is, but lovely as well. Our real destination for the day, however, was not Buffalo, but NIAGRA FALLS!

Crossing the Peace Bridge into Ontario,

we missed our first exit, but with the aid of our trusty iPad, I steered Bruce in the direction of the Niagara Parkway, one of the loveliest roads on our trip. The houses!! The trees!! The Niagara River!!

Looks pretty peaceful doesn't it? Finding our way to the Doubletree was a cinch, and after dropping off the bags in our 15th floor room, with views of the Falls, we made our way down to the hill to see them up close!! Bruce had been there before, having built a Red Lobster in the area, but for me it was a first, and I can emphatically say I was not disappointed! We'd heard the views were best from the Canadian side so that's why we stayed there. The American, and Bridal Falls:

Pretty darn spectacular with that viewing platform! So, there are a million photos taken of this scenery, so mine is nothing new, or outstanding, but wow, are the Horseshoe Falls really something with the mist rising from the powerful drop.

Should it interest you, I'm including a link HERE with facts about the Falls. Along with loads of other tourists, we kept walking until finally I saw the rainbow effect!

Along the way, a young family asked if I would take their photograph with the Falls in the background. Sure I would! Turns out, and here is one of those connections, they were from London, where both the Mom and Dad worked in Shoreditch, the part of London where Matt first lived!! They, along with their two adorable boys, were taking a road trip to Chicago where the Mom will be running in the Chicago Marathon. Amazing! Eventually, as our paths kept crossing, I asked them to do the same for us.

Making the steep walk back up towards our hotel I was filled with gratefulness for being able to spend so much quality time with Bruce. Furthermore, I was thankful that Bill and Fallon were taking good care of Baxter, allowing us to be able to make the trip.

Looming in the background, however, was Hurricane Matthew, speeding towards the coast of Florida, but you know me, ever the optimist!

Loving life,

Gail

Ohio!!

I'm not sure what I thought about Ohio before we drove through it, but now that we have, I'm here to report that, at least on all the back roads we took, things are looking very lovely. Again, super neat and tidy, which may seem normal to some, but if you go out in the country much in Florida you are bound to see some pretty scruffy homes and properties. Seriously, we barely saw a one that fit that description!

The roads through the Amish country are rolling and the traffic looked mostly like this all of the way!

I had no idea about how much corn is grown there, which I think I mentioned before, but it bears repeating. There are loads of towns one can visit, however, our destination was Berlin, Ohio. Stopping first in Millersburg, we picked up a map of the area, which should we visit again, we will know much more about the surrounding communities. Millersburg has loads of antique shops, most of which were closed on Monday because they stay open on Sundays when the Amish shops are closed. I can't tell you the number of small towns with squares that looked similar to this one.

Traveling on Rt. 62, we arrived in Berlin at lunchtime, choosing to eat the buffet at an Amish restaurant, the name of which I've forgotten. I wanted to try everything! I am not a huge chicken fan but the Broasted chicken was terrific! As were all the puddings. The mashed potatoes with browned butter were addicting to a potato lover such as myself. Here's a recipe I found for that method of cooking chicken which I will definitely be trying myself.

Inside the restaurant quilts were hung for both decoration, and sound barriers, with the same quilt on either side of these panels. I learned that a local shop made them, so that is where we went after lunch.

I needn't tell you that Fall is a marvelous time for traveling; good weather and pumpkins everywhere!

In keeping with an Amish tradition, quilts are a big thing in these parts, including this "quilt garden" in front of the restaurant. Bonus points for an included buggy!

While I was shopping in the Helping Hands Quilt Shop, Bruce was kind enough to spend the time looking at the numerous quilts on display. Following that we visited a fantastic shop across the street--oh my goodness, it was such a wonderful surprise! Their website is pretty pathetic, but I can assure you their products were not!

From there we pressed on towards Akron, passing through several other small villages.

Every now and again, Bruce would take a road off the main one, for me to see more of the countryside which was beautiful. I was dying over these haystacks, or whatever you call them!

I read there are several sects of Amish, some of whom don't keep their farms particularly tidy. I did not see any of those, only pretty ones equipped with windmills as they choose not to have electricity.

Another thing I was so delighted with are the "Christmas trees" which became more plentiful when we got into New York. It's a cinch these folks don't go to gyms, instead, take a look at the woodpile on the right side of the photo...that must be some serious exercise!

We continued on our way, again with little to no traffic, even as we got closer to Akron;  I'd steered us to a road that although was four lanes, the traffic was very minor. I might mention here what an enormous gift having an iPad was. Oh my goodness, it was great being able to watch our every move, that is until I ran out of roaming data. Of course, I have no idea what that means to us, but the notice did appear while we were in New York. :)

Beside the road......a plane adjacent to a corn field!

Amazingly, the road I'd selected heading towards West Akron was perfect. Exiting the roadway, we were super close to the hotel about 5:30 in the afternoon. Once we found it, Bruce had me look up the address to the house where I was a baby. Only 2 1/2 miles away, right off the road where the hotel is located. I guess I must have planned it this way? Anyway, using the iPad we drove there, finding the owner out mowing his lawn.  Bruce parked across the street, and I got out with my notebook containing the photos I wrote about in this post. I stood on the sidewalk for a few minutes and he completely ignored me, but you know me, I would not be dissuaded.  Eventually, he parked the riding mower, and I gave him my spiel about having been a baby in their home, with zero recollection etc.

You can tell by his body language he was not exactly thrilled to see me, however, after a bit he warmed up, especially when Bruce got out of the car, coming over to chit chat. Turns out Jim is an electrical contractor who eventually asked Bruce questions about a construction lien! I took this photo of the front of the house as he and Bruce chatted in the setting sun.

So here is something so crazy cool you will probably hardly believe it. Years ago, our Mom heard from the neighbor across the street, whom she had remained friendly with all these many years. Mrs. Remark told her that the new folks in our home had discovered a "time capsule" that our brother Pat put into the wall during a renovation our Dad did there. As I was to learn from Jim's wife, Ella, there was a major fire in the late 90's that destroyed much of the inside of the home. During the reconstruction they discovered a note our brother Pat had placed inside a baby food jar, presumably one of mine. Ella brought out the photo albums filled with photos of the fire damage to share with me. Here's the super cool part...one of their three sons, got another jar, put a note in it of his own AND included Pat's note!! She could not find a copy of Pat's note, however, she did show me the photograph of her son placing the new capsule between the studs!

Isn't that remarkable??? I tell you, I was a little teary eyed following our visit. If you've been a reader of Camera Crazy for any length of time you know how nostalgic I am. I told Bruce, that is the home where I learned to walk and talk!!! He, of course, was a gem about the whole thing. xx

By the way, the neighborhood was gorgeous with big, beautiful homes, and a park about two blocks away. I immediately called Maureen after the visit and she asked if Mom's peonies and lilacs were still there...no Maureen, a lot has changed in 60 years.

Our hotel was gorgeous!! A Hilton, booked with points, it was a beautiful way to end a beautiful day.

Should you be wondering, my stomach behaved just fine. After fourteen days of my phone alarm going off at 9, 3, 9 and 3, tonight I will sleep through the night, hoping the pills worked their magic!

Onward to Pennsylvania tomorrow,

Gail

Drive, Eat, Sleep--Repeat

Technically I did none of the driving, but the title wouldn't be near as catchy if I'd included riding, don't you think?

So, the yard is cleaned of storm debris, the pool is clean, the laundry is going, and I've been to Dr. Parillo for a follow-up visit. Now it is time to blog!!

Let us get started with the statistics of our fantastic journey:

• We flew 892 miles to Cinncinatti.
• We flew 1,318 miles home from Manchester, NH
• Bruce drove 1,300 miles!
• We traveled in parts of six states, as well as Canada
• Our interstate traveling was at a bare minimum allowing us to go through countless towns, villages, and beautiful countryside

From my window seat....

So that's the dry stuff, let's get into the good stuff, shall we? I heard from a few of you that you could not wait to see the photographs from the trip which was a very nice thing to hear.  I hope you are not disappointed, because not only did I not take a gazillion photos, the ones I did are just so-so for various reasons, one of which a lot of the time it was too sunny! How about that? Too sunny? Yup, lots of glare when I did not want it, or I had to shoot into the sun, which is never a good idea. Nonetheless, I will try to paint a picture of what we saw and experienced.

Saturday evening we landed in Cincinnati, immediately heading to the rental car lot where Bruce allowed me to pick the car we would spend the next week in. Naturally I went for the red Fiat, in lieu of there being a MINI Cooper available! Interestingly enough, or at least to me, there was a super cute little car on display in the Cincinnati airport.

Unfortunately my photo of the whole car was not good, but I did get one of the back which shows the super cool wood-like detail. Those of us of a certain age surely remember cars with wood siding, often playing a game when one was spotted on the road. I guess you could call punching someone in the arm while shouting "Woody" a game?

Our first hotel was in Dry Creek, Kentucky, allowing us to be quite close to the Ark Encounter. On the way I saw this water tower I thought was amusing, but it was only just last night, while going through my photos, that I saw the dead deer on the side of the road, something Bruce would point out on occasion in the upcoming days.

The dark line at the bottom is the car, as I shot this through the windshield, something I would do over and over again on the trip.  Dry Creek is a mighty small town, but we did manage to find an Italian restaurant for dinner. I'm thinking only in middle America, the housekeepers could get away with this:

Mostly we stayed in Hamptons because Bruce did have quite a few Hilton points. The operative word here is DID, because while booking the hotel,s I pretty nearly used them all up. After eating breakfast at the hotel, we drove around a bit to see what we could see. Mostly everything was neat and tidy, a theme of our trip, a beautiful surprise.

Some people expressed both surprise, and consternation, that we would go to the Ark Encounter, but after having seen it for ourselves, we are glad we went. The largest wooden structure in the world is eye candy for a carpenter! It sets atop a high hill, and visitors are driven to the site in buses. How is this for scale?

Mostly the lumbar and HUGE trees used as poles throughout to hold it up are from forests that have been previously stressed by either fire or disease. I'm terrible with boat terms, but here is one end of it from the outside.

Generally, when viewing construction, of any type really, Bruce has quite a critical eye. He deemed the workmanship here as remarkable.  This is inside the end I'm showing above.

Wherever possible they used ancient woodworking practices, including the joinery shown below.

There are fake animals, very well done I might add, and loads of things to read explaining their position that the Noah and the Ark story is not just plausible, it is fact. I suspect most visitors believe the later. In any case, it is very well done, so should you find yourself in that part of Kentucky, it is worth a visit.

Because the ark did not open until noon, and I had no idea how long we would spend there, our destination was not the customary 200 miles away that I planned for the subsequent days. Instead we spent the night in Jeffersonville, Ohio.  But, of course, we had to re-enter Ohio to get there! 

The bridge over the Ohio River separates the states, as is pretty common around the country. We crossed the Connecticut River while heading into New Hampshire six days later. 

What I did not know previously is that there is a heck of a lot of corn grown in Ohio, with fields looking very similar to this one outside our hotel window.

Once again we stayed in a Hampton Inn. Yeah for points!! The front desk clerk steered us across the street to a bar-b-que restaurant that she said was the best place in town. Also they are the only place in town with beer as just across the street it is a dry county. Imagine that!

As to the bar-b-que, I can't tell you because neither of us had it, however, they do have a pig thing going on.

A beautiful sunset greeted us as we walked back to the hotel where we went to sleep almost immediately. Our usual bedtime of 9:30!

Yes, we kept up our usual early to bed, early to rise routine which suits us just fine. 

Throughout the trip we took the road less traveled with almost no traffic whatsoever which was another wonderful surprise.

Tomorrow we will visit the Amish country together, as well as my birthplace, a definite highlight of the trip!!

Seated, but not in a Fiat,

Gail

On the Mend and On the Road

Looking up my lab report on the medical portal from the doctor's office I read the words, toxigenic c-diff. Sobering words when you think of it like that. A toxin. Yikes, no wonder things weren't working as they should. That said, at least for now, I am good. In fact, I feel better all the way around. Perhaps it is the medicine, perhaps it is the tiny bit cooler weather, but this week I was out riding most days and I finally got to a milestone. Yup...4,000 miles ridden.

It has taken me forever, but there it is. One day I rode up to the bank to deposit my check from SunDance, (anemic if you want to know the truth), and from there I decided to head over to Cypress Grove Park to see what I could see. I saw some butterflies and a super cool moth.

Do not ask me how that photo came out so good because I don't know the answer to that! As well, the little yellow butterflies are hard to get a shot of because they flit about so much, however, somehow I got this pretty little picture.

Riding around I went over to the dock where I met a grandmother and her grandson whose name I am embarrassed to admit I've forgotten. Something like Jace? He was the most serious little two year old I think I've ever seen before.

Although they were leaving the dock when I arrived, he turned right back around to watch me, never saying a word. In fact, he was either so enthralled with me or my bicycle, he would not leave so I walked my bike over to the playground so that he might follow. Grandma said it was almost nap time and she wanted him to play just a bit before they left. Indeed, he did follow and Grandma let me take his photo before I took my leave. Those eyelashes!

Bruce has mostly been home, working quietly at his desk. I asked him if he missed everyone wanting his attention at the same time and he said no. There has also been time for some television watching and naps so that is good. Now that he is not worrying about me and the job, things are looking good. Thursday evening we needed to go to the restaurant to check on some lighting after dark. My goodness the food was delicious! On our way the setting sun made for a dramatic sky but what was really cool is seeing all the birds flying off from the power lines.

The day has come when the trip begins. Bruce is out mowing and I am furiously typing before packing and giving Baxter a bath before he heads over to Bill and Fallon's house for the week. Can't have him going over there smelly now can I?

All the hotels are booked, and it is a good thing Bruce prints everything out to put in a notebook we will take with us. I was stacking them up when I discovered that I had two reservations for the 4th and none for the 3rd!! Yup, Akron and Niagara were both booked for the 4th. Fortunately we got that sorted out pretty easily. The hotel in Akron is quite close to the home where I was a baby/toddler. On Google maps the house that came up with our address was not what I thought I'd remembered from photographs and sure enough it was not. I got out one of the pages of the album our Dad made, and here it is with Mom pregnant with Carol. In the photo where I am sitting on the grass, Pat is to the left of the frame.

Further web searching and I discovered the house is still there so I cannot wait to see it! Amazingly the address is 182 Melbourne Avenue. Why is that amazing you ask? Because later in life we lived in Melbourne, Florida! In fact, I graduated Melbourne High School.

Our trip will take us to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, back up into Ohio, our first night in Jefferson City, Ohio, dictated only by the mileage. From there we will travel through the Amish country, then on to Akron. From my research I've learned that the community of Amish in Ohio is greater than anywhere else on earth. We may head over to Youngstown where our Dad lived, then head north to the road hugging the shores of Lake Erie on into New York, and over to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Sightseeing along the way and one awesome thing about Bruce is he is great about both stopping when I want to see/photograph something and he'll even turn around and go back! Then we will cross New York on the scenic route, on into Vermont and end up in Manchester, New Hampshire. In fact, this time next week that is where we should be if all goes according to my plan.

The last few days I've been hither and yon with no ill effects which is really something. I've had no worries, I've not needed to plan my excursions with great care, just went about my business. Last night before we fell asleep I told Bruce how amazing it felt to be able to do that after months of uncertainty and frankly, staying home a lot to avoid problems. May it ever be...

And now, packing! Typing this it reminded me we need our passports! Yikes, I bet I would have forgotten that had it not been for my trusty blogging.

On the mend and on the road,

Gail