After the hubbub of Dayton, we spent a couple of days relaxing at a lovely state park on Brookville Lake, near Brookville, Indiana. During a little side trip, we discovered the little tourist town of Metamora. It is such a tourist town that it entirely shuts down on Monday and Tuesday. The shops are in individual buildings We were there on Monday and the only shop open was 'Grannie's Cookie Jars and Ice Cream Parlor'. Her husband makes the waffle cones on a little waffle iron. She has over 2400 different cookie jars and 1000 salt and pepper shakers. Built in the 1800's, the Whitewater Canal connecting Hagerstown, In, to Cincinnati ( approximately 101 miles) runs thru the town. A water-wheel powered grist mill that is still in operation, selling it's corn meal and flour only to tourists, once produced goods to be shipped via the canal. A horse-drawn canal boat now takes tourist on short rides. There are two interesting features of the canal. One is an 'aqueduct' which carries the canal water over a creek. I don't know why it's covered. The other interesting feature are the 'locks' required to compensate for different levels in the terrain, much like the Panama Canal locks. Except that these locks are very simple and hand operated by two men. They merely move the long 'bars' (heavy beams) to swing the lock doors open or closed. Tuesday we travelled thru Cincinnati to race horse country of Lexington, Kentucky, to visit my 2nd cousin whom we haven't seen in many years. He's a veterinarian for the race horses here. We're parked on his property amid gorgeous horse farms (his 50 acres fit right in). It's raining this morning but we'll get out and take pictures later. The countryside is breath-taking, but you'll have to wait for the next report.
Stay tuned.
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At last report we were in Millersburg, Ohio, in Amish country. The next morning we took a side trip to the little town of Berlin (Burr-lun) where we visited yet another 'cheese house'. We watched them make cheese and heard about the whole process. (other cheese houses we've been to didn't show it as well). The photo below shows the long stainless steel vats (one with cheese curds in it) and a big stirring 'fork' that moved up and down the length of the vat. The store of course had samples of the 35 cheeses they make there, plus about 15 others, making it hard to choose. And they sold all manner of jellies, pie fillings, soup and dip mixes, candy, fudge, etc., etc. We finally pulled ourselves away from this pretty land and headed for Dayton, Ohio. We were on freeways for awhile and somehow the countryside is not as pretty as on the backroads. DAYTON OHIO: the Birthplace of Aviation. We spent all day Saturday immersed in aviation and were really pooped at the end of the day. We started at 9 am at the National Air Force Museum. This consisted of six huge hangars, all connected, and nicely laid out with literally hundreds of airplanes, on the floor and hanging from the ceiling, from the beginning of flight in balloons to the space age. They had other exhibits as well, such as something about the holocaust, prisoners of war, and more. From the huge B-52 bomber... To some tiny midget planes. Planes are on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. We left the museum at 2:30 pm. That's 5.5 hours on these old legs and we were dragging. We pressed on, however, and drove downtown to the Wright Brothers bicycle shop. Then we drove back past the Museum (we left the RV there) and visited Huffman's Prairie where the Wright Bros. perfected their aircraft and really learned to fly it. The flights at Kitty Hawk were the first, but those flights were just getting off the ground. At Huffman's Prairie, they developed the 'plane' to the point that it could stay aloft and learned to turn and land. They also began a flying school to teach others to fly, therefore this place is known as the world's first airport and flying school. At the visitor's center I tried a 'flight simulator', simulating the Wright's plane. It wasn't easy and served to illustrate the difficulties these men overcame with persistence. It's awesome to consider the achievement of these two men.
That ended our 'immersion' into aviation in Dayton. We retrieved the RV and headed west a short distance to Eaton, Ohio, where we overnighted and attended a small church the next morning. Afterward there was a group selling fresh sweet corn, just picked that morning, and we finally got some and it was goooood. We're now in a state park near Brookville, Indiana. We came here just to be in Indiana. Tuesday we go to Kentucky. Stay tuned. |
Who We Are
Chuck and Mary Lou have been traveling in their RV since 2002 and have lately been taking longer, extended trips. This is our way to share our experiences. Trip Reports
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