Day 57 August 17, 2002 Saturday, Independence, MO to St. Louis, MO (miles driven 287)
We could have spent at least one more whole day in Independence. Besides the Truman attractions Independence has the Santa Fe, Chisolm and Oregon trails running through or originating there and there is a lot of history attached to that period. There were also Civil War battles in Independence and Quantrel the raider was jailed in Independence. There were historical signs all over the place showing where the battle lines were. You could take a trolley tour of the whole town which we would have done if it hadn't been raining at the time we were downtown. Independence is also the site for the world headquarters for two splinter branches of the Mormon church as well as a visiting center for the LDS church headquartered in Utah. In 1831 Joseph Smith came to Independence and declared that Independence was Zion or the place where Christ would declare his kingdom at the second coming. He marked the place of the new temple with stone tablets and then returned to Kirtland, Ohio.
We knew that Independence was the world headquarters for the Communion of Christ which until last year was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. This is the same group that holds the keys to the Kirtland Temple we visited in Ohio. We drove into a parking lot with a building that said Church of Christ visitors center. I thought this was the same as the Community of Christ. I could not have been more wrong. This little building was the world headquarters of a completely different group of "Mormons" which had a world membership of 4000. There was a sizeable empty lot next to this little building. We learned that after the Mormons were driven back to Nauvoo, Illinois from Independence, MO, a small group left for another part of Illinois and returned to Independence in 1867. After Joseph Smith was killed in Carthage, IL, the Brigham Young faction left Nauvoo for the eventual trek to Salt Lake City. Another group came back to Independence and then came to call themselves the Reorganized LDS church under the eventual leadership of Joseph Smith III. Both of the groups in Independence laid claim to the "temple site" but the small portion with the stone tablets after court litigation wound up under control of the small group. They have the stone tablets with the 1831 markings in a glass display case.
After visiting this site we went across the street to the visitors center and temple of the Communion of Christ. What a building. It is shaped like a spiral pointing to the sky. We took the tour of the building to learn about the church and found out that this group had about 250,000 members worldwide - still a small number compared to the LDS in Utah. The sanctuary of the temple is huge with an organ housing 5000 pipes. We learned that the sanctuary is not used for regular services on Sunday. It is used for a daily prayer for peace and is also available to other groups for services. Regular Sunday services are held in the Stone Church across another street. To complete the surround of the little Church of Christ group, there is an auditorium that can seat 5000.
On top of it all there is a LDS visitors center in the same area. It seems that all of these groups are laying spiritual claim to the original 66+ acre site designated as Zion by Joseph Smith. I really didn't intend to go into such a discourse on the LDS here but the Mormon history has always fascinated me. It is a most complex history.
We left Independence at around 1:00 PM and started to head for St. Louis. Somewhere along the way we saw a sign that read Arrow Rock 13 miles, State Historical Site. We took the detour and found out that Arrow Rock, on the Missouri River, had been visited and noted by Lewis and Clark. There was a sign indicating their presence here. Arrow Rock became a river community and prospered with the river traffic up and down the river. The town itself stood on a bluff overlooking the river. In the 1840 time period an attempt had been made to excavate the banks to bring the river next to Main St. but this effort had been abandoned after 20 years of futile digging. During the Civil War a portion of this town had been burned. What remains there now is a group of buildings with shops and restaurants - quaint. Walking tours of the the old own were available but we didn't have the time. It looked like a nice place to spend a quiet day or afternoon.
We pulled into Hazelwood, a suburb of St. Louis at around 6:15. We tried for dinner at the Red Lobster but were given a 90 minute wait time. No thanks. The 5 minutes at the Lone Star Steakhouse was better.
It wasn't a super day for pictures due to the heavy clouds and the subject just wasn't there today. Tomorrow the Arch.
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Day 58 August 18, 2002 Sunday, St. Louis, MO (miles driven 50)
When we awoke and looked out the window at 7:00 AM the sky was dark and it was raining hard. There were predictions of thundershowers all day. We thought we were in for a first bad weatherwise day of the trip. Rain is sorely needed here and east so we really wouldn't complain. Church was at 10:00 AM and by the time we got out at 11:00am it was only cloudy - no more rain. One incident at church - a boy ran up the aisle to put a dollar in the basket after it had passed him by. When he went to put it in he dropped it on the floor. After picking it up and getting tangled in the ushers legs he calmly slam-dunked the buck into the basket and then triumphantly marched down the aisle to his seat.
After church we headed to the Jefferson Expansion Memorial otherwise known as the St. Louis Arch. The Arch is the tallest US monument at about 630+ feet. The second tallest is the Washington Monument and the third is the Perry International Peace Monument at Put in Bay, Ohio where we were about seven weeks ago. The monument is on the St. Louis waterfront on the Mississippi river. The monument was planned for before WWII but put on hold. The project was re-started in 1953 and finished in the early 1960's. to make room for the project abandoned riverfront warehouses had to be cleared. A church and the old courthouse were not razed.
The monument is run by the National Park Service and we had to pass thru a metal detector to get into the cavernous lobby which is under the Arch. Once inside the Arch lobby you have the choice of: (1) Tram ride to the top of the arch (2) IMAX of the Lewis and Clark journey (3) Movie of the Building of the Arch or (4) The Westward Expansion Museum. The Museum is a free attraction and the other items have a fee attached. We opted to take the tram ride and see the Lewis and Clark movie before heading into the free museum. Our cost was $16.00 for the two of us which included a reduction due to my Golden Age Pass. Without the Pass the fee would have been $28.00.
The IMAX movie running for 45 minutes was spectacular and showed a re-enactment of the journey. The aerial shots over the tops of the Bitterroot Range were awesome. After the movie we had an assigned time of 1:50pm for the tram ride to the top. There are two trams to the top. One from the North Tower and the other from the (you guessed it) the South. Each tram has 8 capsule like cars which carry 5 persons per capsule. You are assigned a capsule and are called to stand in front of the assigned tram door to prepare for boarding. After the capsule arrives you wait for the occupants to get out and then you enter. It is like sitting in a washing machine. There is nothing to see on the 4 minute ride to the top except the inner shell of the arch and the switchback/spiral stairways that are installed along the inner shell of the triangular stainless steel arch. At the top you step out of the capsule and walk up to the observation area which consists of windows in the side of the arch in the top span of the arch which connects the North and South towers. I didn't take a picture of this space as I was more exited about the view to the outside. Before boarding the tram capsules, the guide explained that the arch was designed to allow for an 18 inch maximum sway but the recorded maximum to date had been 4 inches. She said that we would feel a sway today from the weather system that was in the area. When we got out of the capsule and started up the stairs you could feel a movement in the structure. On the river side of the arch you could look across the Mississippi into Illinois. There were some barges across the river at a grain elevator, a casino river boat and a view into East St. Louis. On the west side of the arch you could get very good views of the city skyline including a look down into Bush Stadium. After about 10 minutes of this we headed to the tram steps to descent the South tower. The process was the same going down but in reverse.
Since we didn't want to leave the building for lunch and then go thru the metal routine again we opted to go into the Levee Mercantile and buy some 1800's style bread, some sausage, and some cheese and make up sandwiches for ourselves in the lobby. The store also sold coffee and all worked out well. Going out would have involved a considerable walk and lots of wasted time. We then went into the museum - a freebie. The museum is laid out like no museum we had ever seen before. The floor plan is laid out like an oval. The outside wall of this oval is a telling of the Lewis and Clark voyage. The telling is in pictures and quotes from Lewis or Clarks as a narrative. In the center of the entrance to the museum is a statue of Thomas Jefferson and radiating like spokes from TJ are theme displays such as farmers, soldiers, Indians, Independence MO, etc. Along the ceiling within each theme are year markers which indicate the decade that the display describes. Many of the displays were artifacts dealing with the life of the individuals or activities included in the theme but none of the artifacts had any descriptive tags. If you needed to know and didn't you could ask any of the numerous NPS personnel. However there were numerous historical quotes from the people that went thru the time periods described. It was an interesting concept and to my mind worked very well.
We left the Arch at 6:00 PM after spending 6.5 hours inside. This is a super site to visit. We were too tired to go out for dinner this evening so we settled for Dennys attached to motel. To our waitress we were "you guys". Tomorrow we will go back to the Arch area to see the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott trial was held and perhaps get an hour riverboat ride. Then on to Springfield, Il.
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Day 59 August 19, 2002 Monday, St. Louis, MO to Springfield, IL (miles driven 147)
We purposely got a late start as we didn't want to get involved in rush hour traffic in St. Louis on a Monday morning. The game plan was to drive back to the Arch area and take in the courthouse and perhaps do a one hour riverboat ride on the Mississippi. We went back into the Arch to buy the riverboat tickets ($18.00 for the two of us) and then had an hour to kill as the boat didn't leave until 12 noon. We roamed around the museum and headed down the levee stairway to the boat dock. At the dock there were photographers taking pictures for you to buy on your return so I took a picture of the photographer while she was taking a picture of us.
The river boat ride was narrated by a NPS guide with side comments from the captain. We got views of the Arch from the river, cruised by a riverbarge cruise towboat (just like a cruise ship but this sails the rivers), past a casino boat, past the powerhouse built for the 1904 St. Louis Fair, past some working barge docks and then made a turn and headed downriver for a while and then back up river back to the dock. The narrative part dealt with the French history in St. Louis and the role of St. Louis as a gateway city to the west. We learned that St. Louis was known as the mound city as once there were 16 Indian burial mounds within the city limits. All of these but one have been leveled. We also learned that two thirds of the US grain production passes through St. Louis for shipment elsewhere. One river barge was being loaded with grain as we passed by. Another barge was being unloaded of its cargo of salt from Louisiana for use in winter on the roads. The most spectacular views were of the Arch area. New York it isn't but it is still nice. The captain of the boat indicated where the high water mark was in the 1993 floods. The river rose 20 feet and covered about 2/3 of the levee stairway up to the arch. At the boat dock was a monument to Robert E. Lee who had been in St. Louis between 1837 and 1841 and supplied his engineering skills to moving the Mississippi channel back to the St. Louis side of the river, thus retaining St. Louis as a viable harbor.
After the riverboat we then started to walk towards the old courthouse. Along the way we encountered the church that was not razed as part of the site clearance for the Arch. It is understandable why it wasn't razed. It was the Old Cathedral dedicated in 1834. It is a beautiful church which is still in use. A new cathedral has been built in the western edge of the city so this building is now called a basilica which insures its historical status. There is a museum and gift shop which we went thru. Later while eating lunch in a restaurant mom started to read the church bulletin she picked up and we learned that we had missed a display of a cross with bullet holes in it. The organ loft in this church holds a small but beautiful organ. There is a painting donated to the church from King Louis XVIII (eighteenth) depicting the coronation of King Saint Louis IX.
After lunch we walked up to the courthouse to take a tour of this historical structure. This courthouse was the site of the Dred ScotT trial. Dred Scott was a slave that sued for his freedom on the basis that his owner had taken him into a free state for work, thus entitling him to freedom. He lost the original case, appealed and had the original verdict overturned. His owner then appealed the verdict to the Missouri Supreme court and Scott lost case for freedom again. Scott then appealed the case to the US Supreme Court and lost. At the same time the US Supreme Court nullified the Missouri Compromise which had set a geographical line which would define in which new states slavery would be lawful. North of this line all new states would be free while south of it, slavery would be permitted at the states option. The nullification of the compromise in effect could lead to slavery in all new states. While the Dred Scott decision angered radical abolitionists, the nullification of the compromise also angered moderates on the abolition issue. We all know what happened about 15 years later. We took a tour of the building and learned that the dome on the building was the first cast iron dome of its size to be built in the US. The cast iron dome on the Capitol came two years after this one. In the 1930's the city of St. Louis moved the court function to a new building and the building eventually fell into disuse and started to crumble. It was then given to the NPS which was interested in the building for its historical value. The park service has done a splendid job of restoring the building. The rotunda and the view up to the dome are beautiful.
So what was originally planned as a short re-visit to the Arch area turned out to be more than half day affair. We left St. Louis at 4:15, right in the rush hour and headed across the big muddy to Springfield, IL. On to Lincoln country.
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Day 60 August 20, 2002 Tuesday, Springfield, IL to Indianapolis, IN (miles driven 250)
Today we set out to visit the Home of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield and to also visit the cemetery and the tomb where he is interred. The National Park Service has acquired 4 blocks in Springfield at the center of which is the Lincoln Home where he spent 17 of the 25 years he lived in Springfield. The park service states that the home and area is being maintained as it looked in 1860. Besides the Lincoln home there are two other period homes open to the public. Some of the other houses on the Seventh Street are in the process of restoration while others are being rented out to government tenants. The General Services Administration is renting one and another one is the Springfield office of US Senator Durbin. A very nice place indeed to have an office on a very quiet beautiful street.
At the visitors center we were given tickets to the 11:00 tour of the Lincoln home. As in the Truman home the number of visitors per tour is limited but here it was around 12. The other difference was that they allowed cameras and also took the tour to the second floor. I am assuming that the NPS has upgraded the supports of the second floor and also the stairway to process the large number of visitors. All they ask you to do is to stay on the carpet runners. Touching any of the artifacts was impossible without climbing over a barrier. The guide took us through the house in about 15 minutes. He explained that a major portion of the house is original to the site and that some of the furniture in the house is from the Lincoln's. I knew that Lincoln was a self educated lawyer but I didn't know that while he practiced in Springfield he spent 5 to 6 months a year away from home as a lawyer for the circuit court. Thus Mary Todd had to raise the three boys without Abe being around for a considerable time. One of the boys died while they were in Springfield at age 4. Another died while they were in Washington, DC. The oldest son went to Harvard and then lived in Chicago. He was married and had three children. The three Lincoln grandchildren were married but had no children so the Lincoln line died out in the 1980's when the last living grandchild died.
After the house tour I somehow realized that my cell phone was missing and after re-tracing my steps it was found in the motel room where it had fallen on the floor under a chair. After this detour we went back to the Lincoln home area and walked into the other open houses. The NPS explained that the Lincoln House was in the shape it was because it had passed to the State of Illinois soon after Lincoln's death. They had kept it as a museum and the NPS had acquired it in the 1970's along with the 4 block area. Some of the houses on this block had been altered by subsequent owners but the revisions to these houses had been razed and restored to the 1860 appearance.
From the Lincoln Home we then drove to the Oak Ridge Cemetery where Lincoln is buried in (you guessed it) Lincoln's Tomb. When we drove into the cemetery the first notable grave was marked with a large music stand like stone that stated that the inhabitant was known as "Mr. Accordion". Another stone indicated that this person had dedicated his life to the accordion. Further along was the huge tomb of the Lincoln's. We entered the tomb into a small room and were given a short history of the burial and history of the tomb by one of two attendants. Imagine giving tours of a tomb for a living. From this room you walk down a hallway to another room where there is a grave stone marked Abraham Lincoln. The attendants indicate that Lincoln is buried 30 inches behind that stone and that he is 10 feet underground completely enclosed in concrete with steel re-enforcing. As you face the stone, behind you is a marble wall with the names of Mary Todd and the names of the two youngest sons. They are buried behind this wall but the attendants did not go into the concrete details here. The name of the oldest son is on the wall of the crypt with a note that he is buried in Arlington.
We learned that Lincoln was actually interred three times in the Oak Ridge Cemetery. For the first seven months he was interred in a city owned crypt on a temporary basis. After 7 months the city needed the space in this crypt and he was then moved to another site in the cemetery for 5 years until the permanent tomb was ready to receive him. The permanent tomb has large bronze statues that were cast from melting down Civil war cannons. We walked down to the temporary crypt and noted a tower like structure across the road from the crypt. We walked over and found out it was a bell tower donated in honor of Lincoln. Embedded into the wall was a concrete slab which stated that this was the slab that Lincoln's casket was placed on while interred in the temporary crypt. Then suddenly the bells started to ring and mom and me almost jumped out of our skin. It rang for who knows how many counts. Nothing was explained about this tower other than what it was.
After lunch in a nearby park we started out of Springfield for the 200 mile drive to Indianapolis. While the Lincoln sites in the city were impressive we found the city of Springfield to be a little run down. The city seemed lethargic and did not seem to have the life that a capital for a state as populated as Illinois would have. Perhaps the legislature was not in session.
After arriving in Indianapolis we selected a Super 8 right where I-74 joins I-465. The room was advertised at $29.50 for about 20 miles before the exit and sure enough that was the rate. Not the best or worst hotel we have stayed at but the price was right. It is spooky as there are only thee cars parked in the long wing that we occupy. It feels like we are on the set of "The Shining". We took a ride towards downtown and past the darkened Indianapolis Speedway. It is impressively big.
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Day 61 August 21, 2002 Wednesday, Indianapolis, IN to Dayton, OH (miles driven 152)
We awoke this morning and found out we really didn't stay on the set of the movie "The Shining". We headed downtown to Indianapolis with a couple of objectives on our agenda. First we shopped for some tins for a friend and struck out at 5 thrift stores. We didn't lose much time on this as the attractions we wanted to see didn't open until 10:00 am so for the first hour we were really killing time. After this failure we headed to see the Cathedral of the Scottish Rite which was listed as a gem in the AAA book. We expected to see a church but were surprised to find out that we were entering a building run by the Scottish Rite Masonic Order. We were led on a guided tour by a kindly older gentleman. He explained that the word cathedral means "place of authority" so this was the Indiana place of authority.
The inside of the building was fantastic. It was built between 1927 and 1929 and has many stained glass windows that were created in Germany for this building. Most of the building interior walls are magnificently carved walnut panels. The guide said that the carvers of these items had been brought in from Italy. The building has two huge ballrooms and an auditorium that seats around 1200. Plays and entertainment functions are put on in the auditorium and the ballrooms are available for weddings. I tried to take some pictures of the interior but the darkness of the paneling did not lend itself to taking good pictures.
The guide explained that the Scottish Rite Masonic Order has 33 degrees. He was a 32'nd degree and the 33rd is an honorary degree bestowed only for extraordinary service to the order. He stated that in his time it took him over three months to get to the 32nd degree while in today's life it takes place on one day. The guide was close to 80 years old and had a real good sense of humor. He showed us the women's powder room attached to the ballroom and explained that besides powdering their noses and doing whatever else in there he suspected that the women were really discussing the hunk or the clunk they were with that night. He was OK.
After the Cathedral we drove up to visit the Benjamin Harrison house. Benjamin or "Our Ben" as referred to by the guide was the 23rd President of the United States. He was a one term president and had the distinction of being preceded and succeeded by Grover Cleveland. Ben's grandfather William H. Harrison was also president but held that office only for 10 days. WHH made a long inauguration speech without wearing an overcoat, contracted pneumonia and 10 days later was gone. WHH was famous for the "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" campaign slogan. Ben's first wife Carrie was a very talented woman. There were many of her paintings on display in the house. Carrie is credited with cataloguing and saving the Presidential China that was scattered in the White House. She also designed the pattern for Ben. The guide showed us a beautiful after dinner coffee cup in a cabinet and explained that the museum had acquired this piece on e-bay. She didn't say how high the bid was. Carrie died of tuberculosis while in the White House and four years later after leaving the office Ben married a woman who was 30 years younger. This caused quite a stir. He fathered a daughter during this second marriage and died in 1901 while the child was quite young.
The house was in magnificent shape. Many of the furniture pieces were from the Harrison's. Since Ben's life approximated Queen Victorias period, the emphasis was on Victorian decor. Ben's second wife left the house and leased it to a music school with the proviso that the first floor formal and family parlors as well as the president's bedroom were kept intact and available for public viewing with the music students as guides. In the 1930's the house was passed to the museum association. One of the interesting items in Ben's bedroom was the portable gym that he had brought to the White House and also to his home in Indianapolis. The gym had Indian Clubs and hand weights that could be put on pulleys and used for exercise. Another was a desk with with a swivel front that allowed the desk to be folded shut and locked. In the shut position it would probably look like a small upright piano. After the tour we had lunch at the picnic table on the grounds.
From Ben's place we headed to the Western and Indian Art Museum. In this Complex is an Imax Theater, the Indiana Museum and the Western and Indian Art Museum. The fee for the museum was $7.00 each and included parking, but we only had one car and didn't get a break for that. The first floor of the exhibits contained traditional western art by masters of the Taos school as well as Bierstadt, Remington, Russell, Georgia O'Keefe(2 works). The bronzes by Remington and Russell were great. There were only a few works in this exhibit that we didn't enjoy. The other exhibit on the first floor was an exhibit on the wild horse in art, sculpture, taxidermy, film and photography. It was put together by Buffalo Bill Museum from Cody, Wyoming. This in itself makes for a great exhibit.
The second floor of the exhibit deals strictly with the Native cultures of North America, what we call Indians. I have never seen such a comprehensive exhibit of native dress, customs, implements etc. The displays were broken out by geographical regions and covered all of North America. The beadwork and other decorations were something to see. Photography was not allowed in the exhibits so I will not be able to share it. There was an emphasis placed on the history of the Miami tribes from Ohio and Indiana. These were the people defeated by William Henry Harrison. He was not held in high regard here. It was a great museum to see.
Indianapolis is so much more than the speedway. It is a true mid-west crossroads. Just look at the map. We didn't have time to see the state capitol or the Indiana Museum or the Basketball Hall of Fame along the road to Dayton. Next time.
We didn't leave Indianapolis until after 4:00 pm and got as far as Dayton, Ohio. When we arrived in Dayton we learned that we had lost an hour of sightseeing time by passing into the eastern time zone. We almost feel home but there are two more days before we get there. we could drive the approximate 500+ miles in one day but there is no sense to that. Besides we need to see a wood carver in Dover, Ohio. Saturday or Sunday is soon enough.
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Day 62 August 22, 2002 Thursday, Dayton, OH to St. Clairsville, OH (miles driven 383)
After finding a Jiffy Lube in Dayton we started heading east on I-70 with the game plan to stop east of Columbus in Zanesville for lunch and then after reaching Cambridge to head north on I-77 to Dover, OH where we wanted to see the Warther Museum. The Warther Museum is supposed to have many intricate wood carvings. We learned about this museum on the "to the west" leg of the trip when we stopped east of Cleveland in the Ohio welcome center. At that point we said we would see it if we were close to it on the way back.
We stopped at Zanesville at a Wendy's as planned and then left. About 10 miles east of Zanesville there is the Zanesville Pottery and I half kidding said we should stop. Mom said to keep going. We arrived in Dover around 3:00 PM. As I got out of the car there was an urgent call for help from mom's side of the car. When I got there mom was standing next to the car with nothing physically wrong. However she could not find her pocketbook. It was obviously back about 60 miles in Zanesville. With the help of the cell phone I reached information and called the Wendy's. They said no there was no pocketbook. For some reason I asked if this was the Wendy's attached to the Exxon Station. The voice said no but that I would need to call the Underwood Street Wendy's. She was good enough to give me the phone number. The second call located the missing pocketbook. So back it was back to Zanesville and no Warther Museum this trip. Although the manager of the Wendy's said it wasn't necessary, mom left a small reward of $20.00 for the girl that turned in the pocketbook.
We left Zanesville again and this time when we passed the pottery, we stopped. If I would have stopped earlier mom would have noticed the missing accessory and we would not have lost the two hours that we did in the round trip to Dover. So it is my fault. Since the museum would be closed by the time we reached it again, I altered the route and drove to St. Clairsville, OH which is directly across the Ohio from Wheeling, West Virginia. After checking in at the motel I decided to take mom to dinner in Benwood, WV to Undo's restaurant. We had been to this restaurant last October and liked it then. We were not disappointed this time either. They serve a family style salad and the bread is a pizza like soft dough topped with cheese. When the waitress Gigi served it I started to remember from last year. The whole neighborhood around Undo's should be on the National Register of Historic places. The restaurant is under an abandoned toll bridge which had been owned by a private individual who has now skipped town. I remember driving over this bridge in the 1970's when I worked for Allied Chemical and visited the Moundsville plant. The neighborhood is an ethnic neighborhood and from the look of the houses and schools when compared to photos inside Undo's, the neighborhood has not really changed much over the years.
We left the restaurant and I started to wander a little to take some pictures as I was experiencing camera withdrawal from not taking any pictures during the day. Somehow a conversation sprang up between me and a man on the sidewalk getting ready to go into the bar portion of Undo's. Turned out he knew a lot of the industrial history in the area. He knew about the Allied Plant in Moundsville and its demise to its "brownfield" status. Some of his friends had worked there and two had been injured by the phosgene from the TDI process there. He had also worked at the Wheeling Steel plant on the other side of the road form Undo's when over 3000 people had worked there in the continuous butt weld pipe division. He told me to drive around the corner and thru the gate if it was open and see if I could get a view of an old locomotive. He said that this locomotive had been with the Allied troops in North Africa and is one of two that had been brought back after the war and used in the plant up through the shut down. He said that it is still in running condition. We bid this gentleman goodbye and drove around past the unmanned guard house and sure enough there it was.
This turned out to be an interesting day after all. The only pictures I took this day was of the 4th Street neighborhood in Benwood, WV. If you are ever in Wheeling and are looking for a good restaurant then head down WV Route 2 towards Moundsville and get off at the 4th Street exit in Benwood. It is a piece of American industrial history and the food at Undo's is excellent.
This might be the last night that we are sleeping in strange beds during this trip. Tomorrow night we hope to be home in High Bridge. I am kind of sad that the trip is almost over but it is time to face reality again.
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Day 63 August 23, 2002 Friday, St. Clairsville, OH to High Bridge, NJ (miles driven 433)
The picture on the left is Beaver Stadium, Penn State
The day's plan was to leave early for the last leg of the trip to home. Along the way I intended to stop in the Altoona, PA area to see the Horseshoe Bend National Historic Site and also the Portage National Historic Monument. The Portage site has been on my list of places to see as it was the place where canal barges were taken by steam rail up and over a mountain to continue the canal journey on the other side. After that we would drive to Penn State to buy my son Greg a birthday gift from the Penn State Creamery. The gift consisted of three half gallons of Penn State ice cream.
After we got east of the Pittsburgh area the skies opened up and my windshield wipers were on high speed when the sign for the two historic sites came into view through the windshield. So much for visiting these sites today. The rain continued all the way to Penn State. I hadn't been to Penn State in years and there were some changes on campus which made for an interesting search for the Creamery. After two inquiries we were set. The Creamery will bag the ice cream in an insulated bag with dry ice. They ask you to advise them how long the trip will be and then they put in sufficient dry ice for the journey. The service charge for this is $3.00.
We arrived at Greg's house before 4:00 Pm and when the ice cream was removed from the bag it was hard as a rock. It was harder than it had been in the freezer display case at Penn State. We got to see three of our grandkids for a while and arrived at home around 5:30pm. Everything was well at the house. Some trees had received wind damage from wind storms. Our new birch tree has been killed by the drought. Our next door neighbor advised that there is a complete watering ban. We also learned that she is expecting. Congratulations were in order.
Now I have to take a break from this web site until I decide what direction I will take it from here. That will probably take a few weeks. I have enjoyed putting it together immensely.
Summer 2002 Trip Journals Home Page
