Sundown

That's the sun setting behind our daughter's house in West Virginia. The sun has set on our trip as well. We left WV Tuesday morning and headed for Virginia. We took route 50 from central WV over to Winchester, Va. and then route 17 down to Fredericksburg, Va. What a terrific route it turned out to be. It took us right up over the Allegheny mountains with stunning views and fall colors at their peak. It also took us up and over quite a few 9% grades with tight twisty curves. But we went up and down just fine, if slow.

We got to Fredericksburg about 3:00 and set about finding the military visitor center. Signs directed us West to the Chancellorsville site but there didn't seem to be much there so we returned to Fredericksburg and found a different set of signs that led us to the National Military Cemetery visitors center.

By then it was 4:00 and they close at 5:00. We inquired about Diane's ancestor and were shown where his grave was located. Then I pushed her up the hill and over the grass until we found it. There are 15,243 sets of remains interred there but the identities are known for only 2,473 of them. Luckily, one of those is Diane's Great Grand Uncle, that is, her Great Grandfather's brother. He was a member of B Company of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness. When we visited the family plot in NY last fall, we saw that his name was carved on the family monument but there was no headstone for him. I did a bunch of research and found his military record and his burial spot. This was our chance to check it out. No one else in the family has ever been to the grave site.

By the time we returned to the visitors center it was almost 5:00 and I just had time to get some names of references to pursue for further research. Then we headed South out of town to a huge shopping complex. After snagging some snacks for dinner, we settled in for the night in the parking lot of a Walmart. The temperature remained mild over night and the site was well removed from the highway so it turned out to be a good choice. In the morning we headed right down I95 and then I85 to home. We got home just at noon. I filled up at the Flying J near home and was pleased to see that for the last tank of fuel I got 11.8 mpg, the best I've recorded so far.

Altogether, we've been gone about 6 months and have traveled about 7,000 miles. It has been a good trip. There have been highs and lows but we're both glad we went and did what we did. We'll never do a trip West like that again but we'll certainly plan more trips. The motor home has proven trouble free on the return trip and I feel confident taking it anywhere this side of the Rockies. For us, this is the ideal way to see the country and visit family. Thank you all for following along with us.

Local Color

We pulled out of our Ohio campground Tuesday morning in the face of what was predicted to be heavy rain and wind. I had been watching the radar over the past several hours and it looked like a reasonable chance to move so we decided to take off and see what happens. Well, the storm turned out to be a non-event. We ran into light rain a couple of times but nothing dramatic at all. It was only 182 miles so we arrived here in mid afternoon and set up in the driveway.

We have been fortunate that we have enjoyed really great weather on the whole trip back. The last couple of days have been overcast but the sun is just starting to appear today and it promises to be beautiful. Ever since we crossed over into Wisconsin and then into Michigan we have been able to observe the changing fall colors. While nowhere near peak, there are some stunning views none the less. We're really enjoying it.

While we were in Arizona I had the constant feeling of being out of place, like being in a foreign country without knowing the language. Now that we're back in the East the weather patterns and the plant species and the flow of the land is familiar and comfortable. It's a more peaceful feeling.

Archery season for deer has started this year around here. A customer brought in an eleven point buck yesterday to our daughter's husband's butcher shop. Our daughter's family has gotten three deer so far this year, two bucks and a doe. State law allows them to get as many as six apiece between gun and bow seasons but that's way more than they've got room for in the freezer. Each fall they clean out their freezer and give away whatever meat they have left over from the season before so we're bringing some back with us.

We'll hang out here until after the Columbus holiday and then start home but not in a straight line. We're going to take some country roads across the hills and into Virginia and wind up at Fredericksburg. Diane's great grand uncle is buried in the national cemetery there, a victim in the Battle of the Wilderness in the Civil War. We're going to visit his grave and get information on his unit and their campaign. Then it's home from there about mid week next week.

Old Timey Time

We left our son's place in MI yesterday 's and, after fighting with Michigan traffic and lousy roads, we made our way into East central Ohio. We are camped at the Amish Country Campsites in Winesburg, Ohio in what seems like the center of the Amish settlement area. We hear the horse drawn buggies going by frequently.

After settling in yesterday we took today to roam the area to see favorite spots and find new ones. Probably our favorite spot is Lehman's Store. We started there this morning. In case you've never heard of Lehman's, it's a store which got its start providing hard to find items to the Amish who settled in the area. They sell all those old time products that we used to rely on before there was electricity and indoor plumbing. Pretty soon the survivalist crowd was looking for the same type of products. And since a lot of the stuff was either antique or retro, Hollywood came calling to equip movie sets. The store today is a blending of five barns which have been moved and attached to each other making a maze of rooms inside. They have a lot of everything from kitchen appliances to wood stoves to kitchen ware to books to toys and hardware.

Diane had to check out the cookbooks.

If you've ever been to an old time field days, you may have seen the setups with the hit and miss engine turning an old fashioned ice cream maker. Lehman's has 'em for sale, complete and ready to go.

They have one entire room dedicated to lamps. Kerosene, gas, and electric. Lamps and lamp parts are there to build or repair just about any type of lamp you've ever seen.

They have the most complete stock of kitchen tools, equipment and accessories that I've seen anywhere. My eye was attracted to these turned rolling pins.

It goes on and on. It's really worth a stop when you're in the area.

Leaving Lehman's, we travel Southwest to Millersburg, a town with a designated historical district with a glass museum. Then it was on to Berlin, the closest that his area gets to the commercialism of the Lancaster,Pa. area. But it's still fun and they sure have some terrific items from the local woodworkers. Wood furniture built from solid oak or cherry seems to be the area specialty and there are lots of makers to choose from.

Just North of Berlin on route 62 is Heini's Cheese Store with over 100 kinds of cheese and many other goodies. We bought some Lacy Baby Swiss and some Farmer Cheese. then we went across the street to Kaufman's Bakery. They have the biggest selection of breads and rolls and pies and cookies to be found. I got a blackberry pie and Diane got some peanut butter cookies, among other things. Then we went up the road to Wendell August Forge a rather unique place that has  various plates and bowls made from aluminum or pewter or brass sheet which is pounded into engraved molds.

All that shopping and looking had us tired out by that time so we went on up the road to the Amish Door Restaurant for dinner. Reminiscent of the big restaurants like Good N Plenty in the Lancaster area, this new operation offers family style, buffet and menu ways to order your meal. They have an attached bakery and also a gift shop and an inn. The food was very good and the service was outstanding. The prices were very reasonable. We were too stuffed to be tempted by the bakery but we did find some black raspberry jam in the gift shop.

One last stop one the way back to the campsite lead us to the Gateway Place, a shop which specializes in Ohio wines. We had a delightful time chatting with the hosts while tasting some of the local wines. And of course, a few bottles managed to accompany us out the door. Then it was back to camp. Tomorrow, we'll head out of Ohio and on to West Virginia to our daughter's place. The forecast is for thunderstorms and wind but we're going to head out and  see how it goes.

A Day At The Museum

Yesterday all of us visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. Dearborn is  western suburb of Detroit and we came from the Northeast all the way across the city. I was glad we had a GPS to guide us. There were many turns and the traffic was very busy and fast. The museum is part of a complex called Greenfield Village. The museum has an Imax theater as well as exhibits and the village has Thomas Edison's Menlo Park lab and the Wright Brothers bicycle shop among other feaures. It also must have a steam powered train as we kept hearing the loud whistle all the time we were outside. You can also get a bus ride to a tour of the Rouge Truck Plant where you can see the whole auto manufacturing process in action, depending on production schedules.

Right off, let me say that this is a first-rate, Smithsonian class museum. The exhibits are extremely well done. Some of the topics are exhaustively covered and others are shorter but all are done well. We elected to visit just the museum and let the village go for another day. The museum itself will wear you out. We were there fours hours and we were all just beat by the time we left. We hurried through a lot of it but you keep telling yourself that you need to see it all. Really, to fully appreciate what is shown you need to do it over several visits so you can read all the signs and get the full picture. Of course, most of us just try to cram it all in.

The museum is heavy in transportation themes but also has exhibits of jewelry and clocks and a good one on the timeline of the development of the country from  the Declaration of Independence up through the Civil Rights struggle. For example, they have the bus that Rosa Parks boarded.

When you come in the main museum entrance you find yourself staring up at this DC-3.

They must have had quite a time getting that one in here and mounted. They have an interesting set of exhibits of aircraft and their place in history without trying to cover the whole range. For that you should visit the Air Force Air Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

They had a good Wright Flyer.

And they had a good exhibit of the barnstormer era.

Like any good museum they had a variety of interactive activities and displays. With the barnstormers you could stand on a biplane wing and watch a projection of what the wing walker would see. Good if you have a strong stomach. And then they also had a station with materials and instructions for folding a paper airplane and then a range to test it out on. There were also some dioramas such as this one depicting the Ford Trimotor Transport.

One end of the museum is given over to a display of rail transportation from the early carriages to the largest steam locomotive ever produced, the Allegheny Locomotive. This engine is just staggering in its size, even bigger than the "Big Boy" locomotives. They could haul a line of 160 cars loaded with coal or reach speeds of 60 mph.

They had two independent sets of six drive wheels that could each swivel to go around the curves making it an articulated locomotive. You can climb up into the cab and dream of highballing down the line.

Perhaps a quarter of the display space of the museum is devoted to automobiles, from the earliest to the latest. One interesting display is that of the various presidential limousines.

As you would expect, the display of automotive technology is definitive, containing all brands and technologies. It was also quite varied and had some early RV related exhibits as well.

I was pleased to find this display of the GMC unit that Charles Kurault used while producing his "On The Road" series.

One of the aspects of the museum that I particularly enjoyed was that while the various display contained the details of the item, they also gave the historical context of the item so you could see its' importance and why it might be displayed.

To extend the atmosphere of the transportation section, they had displays of classic advertising, including a McDonald's sign. Just to the rear was Lamy's Diner where we stopped to eat lunch.

They also had another lunch related icon.

One section was entitled Made In America and had displays of everything from automobiles to light bulbs to Eames chairs.

As a woodworker, I was interested to see the inclusion of this bandsaw and early planer.

The display extended to furniture and even cast iron stoves.

Another section of the Made In America display dealt with power, most specifically the development of the power generation that made manufacturing possible. It started with the invention of the steam engine to pump water out of coal mines in England and then progressed to the perfection of steam engines which allowed them to be efficient sources of the energy needed to run factories. I've never seen such a display of stationery engines, even at the Smithsonian. And they are huge. And there's lots of them. Some are so large that the building was designed around them. The largest is the last of the monsters that powered the Highland plant that made the model T's. It was so big that I couldn't get a meaningful picture of it. But here are some of the smaller ones.

There were other sections, too. One on agriculture with various tractors and other machines.

This is really an outstanding museum and a definite must-see if you can make it to this part of the country. It's going to take two days to see it, especially if you attend the Imax theater. There's quite a lot of parking and even a lot for RVs and other large vehicles. They have special displays throughout the year. One on the Titanic was just wrapping up this week. It cost $10 extra and was just more than we wanted to do. I'm really glad we had the opportunity to include this in our trip.

Frank...Who?

We arrived at our son's house on Friday evening after traveling some down the West coast of Michigan. We ran in and out of rain the whole day. We stopped at Friske Orchards for some jam and an apple pie to go with the sharp cheddar Wisconsin cheese I had bought just before crossing into the UP. We traveled down to Traverse City to look at the shops there but when we got there I found that I had misjudged the town. It is both a college town and heavily tourist oriented. All of the parking is meter controlled and there was absolutely no place to park a large vehicle. So we made a pass through the shopping district and hightailed out of town and across the state to our present location.

Saturday was cold and rainy and Sunday was cold and windy. But Monday we were determined to get out and see stuff again. We got up in the morning to greet frost on the ground but the day turned sunny and pretty decent after a while. We had been tipped off about a little town North of here and decided to check it out. After some time wandering the back roads we finally found Frankenmuth, MI.

Frankenmuth is a small country town settled by German immigrants in the mid 1800's. It was pretty much like any other small town until the mid 1900's when a trip back to the old country inspired some of the town's occupants to redecorate their buildings in the "Bavarian" style. This really changed the look and feel of the town as more buildings were redone and shops featuring the theme took off. Of course, tourist dollars are at the bottom of the makeover. But, they've done quite a job over the years. There's even a Bavarian McDonald's.

We parked at the visitor's center and wheeled around town from there. In front of the visitor's center was a creative example of what to do with hay bales.

We have been to other Bavarian style towns like Sugarcreek in Ohio and Helen in Georgia and I think that Frankenmuth has done the best job. It seems to have the right blend of shops and restaurants and is pretty easy to get around in. Many of the shops have the same China sourced stuff we've seen all across the country but there are others that are pretty unique. I saw an authentic pair of men's lederhosen (leather pants) for sale ($280). One restaurant features their "famous chicken dinner". Somehow when I think of German food, chicken doesn't spring to mind.

The lead picture today is of the Bavarian Inn, owned by the family that started the make over. It has three floors of dining capacity and features a glockenspiel tower.

A town like this had to embrace Octoberfest in the fall and they have the brewery influence to do it. We found the Lager Mill first.

It is a brewing museum and a beer store combined. They have one of the largest collection of European and domestic micro-brews I've come across. The highlight of the visit was discovering that they had the Founder's Breakfast Stout I had been searching for. This is a dark creamy beer with heavy coffee influence and is the best stout I've had so far.

At the other end of town is the Frankenmuth Brewery. They have a store where you can purchase beer and shirts and also a brewpub for dining. We ate lunch with tanks of beer looming over us.

I was primed for a traditional lunch and I was not disappointed. While Diane had the fish and chips I had to have Brats and kraut and beer.

Like many brewpubs they have some of the old plumbing on display. I don't know what this valving setup does but it sure looked neat.

After lunch we walked the upper part of town stopping at a cheese store, a woolen store and some others that were very nice, if pricey at times. Of course, I couldn't come away without some good beer so a full case of Frankenmuth Octoberfest now rides in the coach.

Now we'll coast for a couple of days and then take another look around.

Catching Our Breath

Yesterday we left Appleton, WI and crossed over into Michigan to drive the scenic route along the North shore of Lake Michigan which took us through the Upper Peninsula. At one point we stopped at a rest area for a break and I took Curley down to the shore for a look. There were threatening clouds all day but almost no rain. The wind was whipping the waves and it was pretty chilly looking out over the water. I was struck by the fact that just a few days ago, we were in country where every drop of water is precious and here I was staring out at one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. I couldn't see the far shore.

We crossed the Macinaw Bridge over into MI proper. There's a toll for crossing the bridge. For motorhomes it was $5 per axle, so it cost us $10. They were repainting the bridge so it was mostly down to one lane all the way across. There was also a high wind advisory for trucks and RVs so we went 20mph all the way. Here's what it looks like from our campground.

We're camped at Roberts Landing Campground just North of Cheboygan, MI. It is very nice and while there are a few other rigs set up here, I think we're the only ones home today. I got up early and watched the sun come up over the lake.

It's been very quiet here and I've been taking my time getting going this morning. Just now it's raining lightly and I'm having an extra cup of coffee before we hit the road. Today we'll go down the West coast a ways through Petosky and down to Traverse City. I had wanted to visit the Founders Brewery in Grand Rapids but it looks as though they don't have brewery tours. That being the case, I'm going to try to find some of their beer in Traverse City. Then we'll probably make a beeline for our son's place further South after that. With a little luck we'll find a seafood place to have fish fry for supper. Here's what our setup looks like today:

Rush and More

Well, there it is! We saw Mount Rushmore. And if you haven't yet, you should. We left Sturgis, fueled up in Rapid City and drove into the Black Hills to see the Presidents. It really is very impressive and very well done. The visitors center has a very informative movie and interesting exhibits. The gift shop even had one of the living rock drillers there that you could meet and talk too. I'm glad we went.

After the trip up the hill to see the Presidents, we went up a whole bunch of other hills. They don't call it the Black HILLS for nothin'. I spent a lot of time in second gear. We went generally South and wound up taking the scenic Wildlife Loop Road through Custer State Park. You know, there are over 1500 bison in the park and we didn't see a one. The roundup is this weekend so they must have all been in hiding. But we did see some turkey and deer and antelope.

About half-way through the loop, we were accosted by this group of highway men ...er donkies. They were begging for food from all the cars.

After we left the park we found our way back up to I90 and headed East about 50 miles where we made a stop at Wall Drugs.

Since it was getting late, we ate dinner in their Western Art Cafe and then spent the night in their parking lot. I didn't notice when we parked that the main rail line goes through about 100' from where we stopped. But I noticed in the middle of the night!

The next morning we headed out of town on route 240, which is a loop road that took us through Badlands National Park. It's only about a 30 mile drive but you'd think you left this world from the look of the scenery.

They also had some of the hiding bison but we did manage to come upon this group of wild sheep resting at the side of the road.

Back out onto I90 and down the road. Our next stop was in Mitchell, home to the famous Corn Palace. Each year a theme is chosen and designed to be constructed of nothing but different types and colors of corn. Over 275,000 ears of corn are sawed down the middle and attached to the front of the building to make the murals.

And, as always, there are photo ops.

Mitchell is also one of the locations for Cabela's outfitters, so we just had to stop and see if there was anything we couldn't live without. I guess you know the answer to that.

That wrapped up our sightseeing for a little bit and we went on to a Cracker Barrel in Sioux Falls, SD to boondock for the night. The best night we've ever spent at a CB. This morning we hit the road after once again fueling up and made tracks East to the tune of 475 miles.

Tonight we are at a Walmart parking lot located in Appleton, Wisconsin. A storm has just blown through and tomorrow looks to be anther great day. From here we're headed to the UP, Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We expect to end the day tomorrow just into MI proper after crossing over the Mackinaw Bridge. Then it will take a couple of days of wandering down the West side before turning East to our son's place. That should put us there on Saturday. Right on time.