Thursday-Friday, May 12-13, 2022

No photos for this blog, I'm afraid-- we spent our time driving, antiquing, and driving home. We left Tom, Kent, and Andy sometime in the late morning, after filling our tank with fresh water and rearranging the RV and Jeep so we were all hooked up again. Then we headed south-east toward Ravenna, OH to a large antique mall just at a ramp to I-76. We got a little bit lost, and ended up taking a scenic backroad tour of the edge of Ohio, arriving at the mall at about 2pm, I think. 

We had some lunch, and then I went in to see what I could find, while Joe and Cassie relaxed in the RV. Alas, despite the large size of the building, I had no luck whatsoever in finding anything memorable or desirable for my collection. It would be worth a return visit, because it WAS large. But there wasn't anything much of interest. 

From there, we got onto I-76 and drove due east, connecting with I-80 after an hour or so. The rest of the day was uneventful. In the late evening, we found a Walmart at about Exit 80 (almost 1/3 of the way across Pennsylvania) and parked far away from the store for the night. The entire stay was uneventful.

Friday morning, we continued on our way, with our "goal" being Tannersville, PA in the Poconos, the site of yet another supposedly large antique mall. On the way, we found a Flying J with a functioning RV dump and were able to empty our tanks after 5 nights (high time!) Other than that, we just drove, arriving in Tannersville at 3:30 pm. I had plenty of time to go through the antique center, which was only about 1/4 the size of the last place in Ohio. This one had a dealer with a LOT of Roseville, all of it priced as if it were made of solid gold. I went through the place slowly, but all I found that I truly coveted was a wonderful mid-century-modern lamp with a red mica shade and a red and white base. 

It was a bit before 5pm when I left the antiques, and we had already decided, it did not make sense to do anything but continue home from there. We were only about 90 minutes away, it was still early and light outside, and why not go home and have the entire weekend to get resettled? So that is what we did, pulling up in front of home at about 7:30 pm. And that was the finale of our "shakedown trip" this year. Not so much Roseville, but lots of family and friends. Less rushing around than usual, which was also good. And of course, new projects to fix on the RV before we go to Delaware in a month. 

And that was that for this time around.

Long Live Rock

 

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

“I know it’s only rock and roll, but I like it.” And today we spent all day with it. We finally got to spend a day at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. We were there once before, but we only had a very short time. Today, we spent about 6 hours.

We arrived at around 11:15, and decided to go down to the lower level of the museum first to see the special Beatles “Let It Be” exhibit. I am not sure the entire set-up was “special”, or only the Beatles portion of it. We started out at a large display featuring all the musicians who had an early influence on rock, mostly blues singers and some early folk singers like Woody Guthrie. I could have spent an hour just at this part--with headphones, we could choose an early musical icon such as Muddy Waters, and then were presented with four songs by that artist. I was in the mood to hear them all! But there was so much to see and I was afraid I would run out of time! There was also a lot about the early artists who influenced the Beatles, such as Elvis, Little Richard, etc. I ended up skipping most of that, including Elvis (!) because we had seen a lot of that material presented in Memphis at the Museum of Rock and Soul.

I spent quite a bit of time absorbed by a display of photographs Baron Wolman, the first photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. His amazing portraits of rock stars were fascinating, and there was a video of interviews with him and others about his work. Then we entered a section which discussed the different cities which had produced influential styles in the R&R genre-- Liverpool, San Francisco, Detroit, etc. Different groups from each city were highlighted with memorabilia, costumes, etc. The historical retrospectives were very interesting to read. This was followed by more costumes and memorabilia of various artists in no particular order, as I recall. And then finally, these displays segued to the Rolling Stones, who had a large video section with snippets from their many years of concerts. And adjacent to them was the beginning of the Beatles information.

It began with a huge display of memorabilia to accompany the historical retrospective on the group’s development. My favorite item in that display was a few copies of The Howl, a mock newspaper John Lennon wrote and illustrated when he was in grammar school. It already had hi trademark style of humor, “Charles turned around... suddenly, quite suddenly, all of a sudden suddenly, he could see in the distance quite near ....”  Another excellent exhibit was a video which went progressively through each Beatle album, with snippets of comments from the Beatles about the particular songs or the album as a whole, and how it related to the development of their music.

Finally, we arrived at the Let It Be portion of the exhibit. Here there were four small “theaters”, each with a segment from the recent documentary about the recording of the Let It Be album. We sat there immersed in the conversations of the four Beatles about the compositions they were recording, and then the final playing of the music as they made it all come together. The videos were completely engrossing and we sat through each completely, and sometimes more than once. The final one was the concert on the roof at Apple Studios, with split screens showing the people on the street, the constables coming to keep everything under control, and people climbing out onto their roofs nearby to see and hear the Beatles playing. The music, of course, is just fantastic anyway, and the sound system and intimacy of the experience was fabulous.

By the time we left there, it was about 2:00 and we needed some sustenance, so marking our place in the exhibit, we exited and went upstairs to the cafe/snack bar. After a short break for lunch, we went back downstairs--by this time it was almost 3pm, and i realized we were STILL on the bottom floor of the museum! I was worrying we’d need to come back tomorrow to see the rest of the place.

We went in the “exit” side of the show, going back in time to see a Janis Joplin display and videos, read about the Doors and Jimi Hendrix, and listen to the video in a room about the Cleveland rock scene. Our last visit was to a small theater which had videos playing of songs that were sung during various R&R Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. The focus was still on the Beatles, and there were several of Paul and Ringo singing together (A Little Help from my Friends and I Saw Her Standing There.) But the best one was a group that (I think) was honoring George Harrison, playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps. They (including Tom Petty, George’s son Dhani Harrison, Prince, and several others whose names I am blanking on) honed musically very close to the original Beatles recording from the instrumental perspective, enhanced by Tom Petty’s vocals; his voice sounded very much like George’s. But the best part was the guitar solos at the end, recreating George’s incredible guitar work on the album. Prince stepped up suddenly and took over the solo, and he just SHREDDED it. It was totally incredible! It so happened that this number was where we entered the theater, and we listened to all the other musical numbers until that one came around, when we listened for a second time, with the exact same reaction. It was absolutely amazingly great.

Joe on Drums

We finally stumbled out of there, just saturated by the sound, and I was thinking that the rest of the museum had to be an anticlimax. It was now 3:30 and we’d only been on one floor! We took the escalators up to the 2nd floor (the first was the entry and cafeteria), and found “The Garage.” This was a hands-on studio experience for people who wanted to become rock musicians. We had the option of playing guitar, keyboard, or drums. Joey went into the drum booth (totally soundproofed) and played a few drum riffs for old time’s sake. Then he made me try out the keyboard. I played a C-chord with Aretha’s Chain of Fools recording. It was a very cute “tutorial”. 

We were about to leave that floor when one of the museum staff saw our hesitation and grabbed us. “Go over there to the theater-- it’s the last showing of our film on Hall inductees!” So we went into another theater and got tiny snippets of dozens of Hall of Fame concerts and honorees singing during the presentations. The last scene was--guess what-- Prince’s solo at the end of As My Guitar Gently Weeps. He got far more minutes than anyone else--at least a minute or two, and that was the finale! So I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought it was an incredible performance.

By this time, Joe was feeling kind of tired. So we went up to the 5th and 6th levels quickly. The 5th floor had a lot of costumes; I vaguely remembered it from our earlier visit years ago. The 6th level was interesting, though. It had four exhibits only, each one featuring a specific guitarist with a distinct style, and a video of him describing how he learned to play guitar that way, why he liked his particular approach, etc. We watched Keith Richards and Tom Morrelli, both of whom I love, and a third guy whose name i can’t remember, from Quicksilver Messenger Service in the 1960s. (The fourth was Eddie Van Halen; we heard his interview while we looked at the other three and read the materials.)
 

By this time, we had finished everything except the 3rd floor-- Pink Floyd’s The Wall. And since I don’t like Pink Floyd and their anti-Semitic front man Roger Waters, we skipped that and at 4:30, finally left the museum. We’d spent 5+ hours there, mostly on that one floor. And I would not mind going back and doing it all again.

The museum was great, but like any museum, can’t cover everything. The depth of material on soul music was much greater at the museums in Memphis, where that music was recorded, for instance. But we loved what we saw, and feel so lucky to have lived through this part of musical history. When we left the place, we sat for a little bit looking at the view of Lake Erie from a bench between the Rock Museum and the Science Museum next door. And then we drove back to Kent & Tom’s, where we had a casual dinner and ice cream for dessert. All in all, an excellent day.

Friends & Family

A view of the Arts Castle

 Monday-Tuesday, May 9-10, 2022

Monday was our day to spend with friends, Gary and Jan, who we have known since Joe’s medical residency in Chapel Hill. We had plans to go over to their house at noon for lunch. So we decided to run to Walgreens to pick up a few items we needed. That took up about 45 minutes, and then we got ourselves and Cassie together and walked over to their house, only about 4 blocks away.

The weather was absolutely glorious, and we ended up sitting outside on the deck almost all afternoon, chatting and catching up. Around 2:30, we went for a walk around the neighborhood, including a stop at the Arts Castle, a gorgeous large estate which has been made into an arts center offering classes in everything from painting to dance. Jan showed us around the inside of the building--she had been on the committee which had decided to buy it--while Gary waited outside with Cassie. Then we walked to the local park and sat on a bench for a while before heading back to their house.

We were all tired by then, and not really in the mood to go out for dinner--it turned out that they, like we, seldom eat out anyway. So we decided to order a pizza instead. Joe reminded me that we’d planned to pick up some Graeter’s Ice Cream, which is fantastic. So I drove with Gary to the Kroger where we bought several pints of Graeter’s, and then we got the pizza, and then drove back. After dinner (out on the deck again--the weather was still fantastic), we went inside and watched Jeopardy. After that, they walked us back “home” to our RV, renewing their acquaintance with Sarah and John before goodbye hugs. It was a very lovely day with old friends.

Today we got a late-morning start. We drove the two vehicles separately as far as the Walmart. Then Joe went into Walmart and Kroger to pick up a few items, including more Graeter’s and a new walkie talkie. Our old one seems to have stopped working. Meanwhile, I drove the Jeep back to the center of town and visited two small antique malls as well as stopping at the Goodwill Store on the way. I didn’t find any Roseville, but I bought 4 jigsaw puzzles for a combined total of $7.00. That was a score for me!

Stocked Up on Graeter's!

 

I went back to the RV, and Joe and I had some lunch, then hooked the Jeep back to the RV. We spent the next couple of hours driving up to Cleveland. We did make one stop on the way, at Sweeties Chocolates/Grandpa’s Cheese Barn. Gary had mentioned that Sweeties ice cream was really good too. So we picked up some cheese and crackers to bring with us to Kent & Tom (our “in-laws”, as well as a LOT of chocolate!

We got to Kent & Tom’s place in Kirtland, OH, outside of Cleveland, at about 6:30. We unhooked the Jeep and carefully backed the RV down their long driveway. Then we had a delicious dinner and chat, before Joe and I went “home” to our RV, only a few yards away.

Tomorrow’s plan: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Mother's Day

 

Our site tonight at "Desiderata", Boondockers Welcome

Sunday, May 8, 2022

Today was a transitional day. We left Buck Creek State Park at a little after noon, after sleeping late, having breakfast, enjoying a few Mother's Day phone calls, packing up, and then negotiating dumping our tanks and filling up the fresh water. We stopped 10 minutes later at Heart of Ohio Antiques, where I took Joey inside for the first time since last year. I wanted him to see the pedestal I was buying to hold a Roseville jardiniere that Aimee gave me for my birthday. He liked it, so we made an offer to the seller via the system used at the antique center (a manager had to call the dealer and relay our offer, which was about $50 less than the asking price.)

While we waited, I showed him some other really nice pieces of Roseville that I had liked, but in the end, I didn’t buy anything. Joe looked around briefly and left the building, and I waited a little longer before going to the desk. The dealer had okayed our offer, so I paid for the pedestal and a young man carried it out to the Jeep for me. Joe and I spent some time cushioning it and stablizing it for the ride home in the back of the Jeep. Then, it was about 2pm, and we had some late lunch.

By 3:00 we were ready to head for Delaware, Ohio, and tonight’s anchorage in the driveway of another Boondockers Welcome host. You can see from the photo it’s a nice little neighborhood. Our hosts came out to greet us-- the first time in 3 stays that we’ve gotten to meet the hosts! We spent a long time chatting and getting to know each other (Joey and I got a tour of their renovated shuttle bus, which they turned into a fully contained RV by themselves.) I also spent some time chatting with our hostess’s mother, who lives right next door. Her daughter lives across the street with HER children, so there are 4 generations living in the same cul-de-sac. I thought it sounded lovely!

Now Joe and I are just hanging out for the evening. I spoke to Gary, and we will go over there at noon tomorrow to visit and just hang out. Having a low-key no-agenda day sounds good to us!

My Life as a Museum

 Friday-Saturday, May 6-7, 2022

Today started out rainy. VERY rainy. And almost all day continued getting wetter and wetter. But somehow, we were very lucky. The rain let up while we drove into town, filled the RV with gas, and hooked up. From there we went straight to the Zanesville Art Museum to finally get inside and see the pottery collection.

Roseville and More Roseville

The collection lived up to its billing-- it was fantastic. SO much Roseville, as well as Weller, Owens, and other examples of the Zanesville pottery industry. We ooohed and aaaahed at the gorgeous glazes and examples of all kinds of shapes and techniques of pottery decoration. Joe said that seeing all the examples of Roseville made him more impressed with MY collection--I actually have two exact pieces which are on display in the museum! We really loved seeing it all.

I own 2 of these!

The rest of the museum, while not large, was also very enjoyable. There was a special photography exhibit by an Ohio photographer which we thought was excellent. There is a nice collection of art from various periods--a little bit of everything, really. It’s a small city and a small museum, but extremely well done and well worth the couple of hours we spent there.

Before leaving, we almost took a vase home with us! It turned out that we had noticed in the back of the museum there was a large painted vase in the vicinity of the back door, looking very forlorn and unloved. We surmised that it was one of the 7' vases we’d looked for yesterday, part of “Vasehenge.” We asked the man at the front desk as we were leaving what had happened to the Vasehenge display downtown, and he said the vases had become so decrepit that they had been taken down, because they couldn’t be saved. He added, “We have one of them out back.” So we were right! We asked what they were planning to do with it, and he said, probably throw it away. So we said we wanted it! He wasn’t sure what the plans were, but he took my name and number so they could get in touch with us about it.

We went back to the RV for some lunch, but about 10 minutes later, there was a knock on our door. A young woman working at the museum said, “The man at the desk told me you were interested in taking the big vase outside--was that a serious inquiry?” We said yes, it was (with Joe adding, “Uh oh!”) So I went with her to look at it more closely. She said they had been “trying to find someone to take it for a while.” Joe and I both thought it would be cool to bring it home, renovate it somehow (perhaps asking Beth to repaint it) and put it outside the house as a piece of sculpture.

Alas, I had to let my common sense overrule my heart this time. The vase was, indeed, about 7 feet tall, and dilapidated. There were chunks of plaster chipped out and the paint surface was significantly peeled. The plaster where the paint had come off had also started flaking off. That part didn’t bother me so much--I thought it could be sanded down to get all the old peeling paint out of the way, replastered, and repainted. The problem was the SIZE. It was simply too big for us to manage. I could not figure out any way to do it. It was too big for inside the Jeep (especially with the spare tire in the back) and the only way to take it in the RV, assuming the diameter wasn’t too wide for the door, was to let it take up our entire living space for the next week. I thought that would be a little bit too much--we would have to climb over it or squeeze around it constantly. As we ate lunch, we discussed putting it on the roof of the Jeep. But, it was so heavy (undoubtedly 100 pounds or more) and I couldn’t imagine how we’d get it up there and secure it. Sadly, we had to leave it for some other fool(s) who might want to rescue it.

Roseville Olympic

We left the museum after lunch, and drove for a couple of hours on I-70 to Buck Creek State Park. It rained on and off as we drove, but the heavy rain (and some lightning) arrived just as we were arriving at our destination. I scooted quickly into the office to register, and miraculously, the rain let up just then to let us unhook the Jeep before heading for our campsite. It began to rain again just as Joe was hooking up the electricity, so we curled up inside our little den and listened to the rain hammering on the roof for hours. At some point we had some dinner; I was deep into my book and I think Joe was reading and dozing on and off. Cassie was curled up by the bed too. And that was how our day ended-- LOTS and LOTS of rain. There was some pause around 11pm, so we walked Cassie then, and went to sleep as the pounding rain started up again.

Saturday: We woke up to a very wet campground, but at least the rain had stopped. However, the sky was heavily gray and it was quite chilly. We dressed in several layers, thinking how cold it seemed for May. I felt bad for the campers who had tents-- they looked pitiful. Most of us are in RVs though. The park is enormous, with a huge reservoir for boating and fishing, walking paths, and all kinds of amenities. But the weather certainly wasn’t great for enjoying them.

However, we are not huge outdoor enthusiasts anyway (except for Cassie). My day was spent antiquing. I left Joe and Cassie at about 10am and drove to the Heart of Ohio Antique Mall. I spent hours there, but wasn’t hugely inspired by the choices of Roseville I found. I had a small list of items i was interested in, but nothing made me jump for joy. I had some lunch at their small snack bar, then went out and drove 2 miles down the I-70 to the Springfield Antique Malls 1 & 2; yes, TWO huge buildings full of MORE antique dealers. The first one was a bust, but the second one had quite a bit, including a wall pocket for my collection at a very good price. There were also some more expensive items I was interested in, but I decided to wait, think about them, and come back tomorrow morning--I was very tired, and felt as if I wasn’t at my best.

I went back to Heart of Ohio, where I had left one piece that I thought was interesting and a good price, and before I bought it, I went back to look at the pieces I had been considering. I suddenly found a pedestal which I thought would be perfect for the new jardiniere Aimee got me for my birthday. I took a photo of it and sent it to Beth, who agreed it would work. By that time, the place was starting to close. So I decided the pedestal, too, could wait for the morning. I bought the piece I had had put aside earlier in the day, and drove back to Joe.

Joe, meanwhile, had spent the day with Cassie taking walks, resting, and just hanging out. He said they had a wonderful time! He made us a lovely steak dinner while I told him about my adventures, and he approved both my purchases and the idea of the pedestal for tomorrow. It’s made by Weller, not Roseville, but as it happens I have always liked these large Weller pieces. It should look quite attractive with my new jardiniere standing on it.

We finished the evening by listening to the Nava Tehila concert on the Anshe Emeth live feed. Now Joe’s asleep, and I am going to upload this blog. I hope I can get the photos of the museum up to go with it. Tomorrow, our plan is to leave here, stop at the Heart of Ohio right down the road again for the pedestal, and then head up to Delaware to our next Boondockers Welcome anchorage. The drive isn’t more than a couple of hours, so perhaps we will find a place to stop along the way as well. Meanwhile, I think I might be tired of antique malls for at least a little bit. (Or.... maybe not....)

A little bit zany in Zanesville

Thursday, May 5, 2022 

Yet another day which did not go as planned... that is starting to be the theme of this trip! I woke up expecting to go to the Zanesville Museum of Art to see their extensive art pottery collection. Then I had decided, based on the wonderful full color magazine touting all of the activities and attractions of Zanesville and Muskingum County to see an outdooor "exhibit" of 7' tall pottery vases ("Vasehenge"), the famous Y Bridge, perhaps have a lovely lunch, perhaps visit the National Road-Zane Grey Museum about 10 miles east in  Norwich. And of course, in case we passed any tempting-looking antique stores, hunt for the perfect piece of Roseville for my collection.

We woke up to gray skies, but it was not supposed to rain, and most of our activities were inside anyway. So we walked Cassie, had breakfast, and then headed into Zanesville to the art museum. We are staying a little south of the city, in Blue Rock, so we got to drive through the main north-south road, under I-70, and through some very nice neighborhoods until we got to the museum. I had made sure that it was open-- it is open Wednesday-Friday. But when we got there, the doors were locked! I called the museum phone number, and was told that oh, they are closed to do some work on their inventory, or repairs, or SOMETHING. But they will be open tomorrow. I sighed. I thought about our itinerary, and decided we COULD come first thing tomorrow on our way out of town. So... what can one do. It was now about 11:30.

The Y Bridge viewed from Putnam Park Overlook

 We decided to go see the circle of pottery vases. These were left over from one of those fund-raising exhibits where different organizations sponsor different artists to paint vases (like the cow parade in Chicago). They were placed in a circle in a clearing next to the Y Bridge, and locals called it "Vasehenge." It sounded like just our kind of thing. I found the description in the tourist magazine, but couldn't find a real address, so we headed for the Y Bridge, figuring we'd see both at once.

View of Zanesville, Ohio from overlook (with train on trestle)

The Y Bridge is the only Y-shaped bridge in the world-- it stands at the spot where the Licking River runs into the Muskingum River (which then flows to the Ohio River), and allows traffic to cross either or both rivers using one structure. It was first built in 1814, but this is the fifth version of the original (the first was washed away in a flood, and the third fell into the river.) We found ourselves driving onto the bridge itself, and then "turning right" in the middle of the bridge to get to the park with an overlook of the city, rivers, and bridge.

From the overlook, we had a fine view, as promised. A train approached the river from the southeast as we watched, and it had to use two bridges to cross in order to be north of the Licking River--first a trestle below the confluence of the two rivers, and then another one a little way upriver which crossed the Muskingum again--the larger river makes a curve around the city and the train tracks crossed it twice, ending up northwest of both rivers. But there was no sign of "Vasehenge."

7' Vase in Museum

We got mixed reviews by using Google--one saying it was no longer there, the other saying it was there as recently as a few months ago. So I suggested we go to the Visitor's Center, which was only a few minutes away. As we drove, we crossed the Y Bridge again, thereby utilizing all three of its "arms". Joey noticed an open green area on the northwest corner of the bridge, but there were no vases, and we guessed that they were indeed gone, and that that was where they had been.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center-- a beautiful new building with light and airy windows and excellent bathroom facilities, but with no one at the front desk or anywhere to be seen. I think if I had stood there and yelled "Hello!!" at the top of my voice, someone might have appeared from one of the offices or downstairs, but I decided not to bother. 

 

So now it was almost 1:00 and we had done nothing other than look at the Y Bridge from above (and drive over it twice.) We decided to go to the other museum--the National Road-Zane Grey Museum. This time we called to double check whether it was open, and it was. Ironically, it was at the same exit we took last night when we left I-70 to get to our camping spot. So we drove about 10 miles east, discussing the fact that we hadn't had any lunch yet. I suggested getting off at an I-70 exit and getting Arby's, but Joe said, "Let's just go to our exit, and see what we find there. So we did that--and there was NO food whatsoever at the exit. We went into the museum and explained our dilemma, and the nice lady there sent us back 4 miles west again to the previous exit, where we had a lovely luxurious lunch at McDonald's. NOT what I had planned, as I said.

We returned to the National Road museum after lunch, around 2:00. We had finally made a good choice-- the museum was actually quite a find, really three museums in one. The first part was dedicated to the history of the National Road. I had been noticing "Historic National Road" signs from time to time ever since we had started driving in southwest Pennsylvania, but didn't know what was "historic" about this particular road. Turns out that the "National Road" was the first interstate "improved" highway, running from Cumberland, MD on the Potomac to Vandalia, the then-capital of Illinois. It was built between 1811-1837, and was a major east-west route for settlers and for goods to be sent east and west, allowing major interstate commerce.

Original Roadside Marker on National Highway.

Through the years, the landscape of the road changed--it became lined with inns for travelers, rest areas for drovers of herds of various beasts; later it gave rise to motels and small towns catering to travelers. It was, in short, the eastern version of Route 66, which runs west of the Mississippi. The museum had an excellent series of dioramas showing the development of the road through the years, along with very good descriptions and insights into life on the road. In the center of that room was a Conestoga wagon, the primary transportation before the railroad was built. I had forgotten how enormous those wagons were! The funny thing was, we drove through Conestoga, PA in Lancaster County a few days ago-- that was where the wagons were built, and why they are called Conestoga wagons!

The Conestoga Wagon wheels were almost as tall as Joe.

Diorama of Conestoga. It was driven by the guy on the horse in front.

After learning all about the National Road, we segued to the exhibit on Zane Grey. It turns out that the original Mr. Zane was the first to try to find a route to take commerce west, and was involved in the original creation of the National Road. Zane Grey, who grew up in Zanesville, was his great-grandson. Grey, of course, is famous for his stories of the wild west. He was a great outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman, and he eventually moved out to California to be closer to the movie studios which produced movies based on his books. The exhibit on his life was very interesting, with original documents, first editions of his books (with their colorful covers), movie posters, etc. He was the best selling author of his time, and there was even a magazine advertisement warning people to buy new tires, which included an original story by Zane Grey of some poor guy who had run off the road when his tire blew out. Another link to our trip!

Zane Grey movie posters and displays

I didn't mention, but just before we went to the museum, we had driven a few miles further in hopes of finding some food. We came across this historical marker, commemorating the first highway fatality on the National Road in Ohio! It happened when a stagecoach was confronted with a herd of pigs--the horses shied, the coach turned over, and the man who was killed died when he was thrown from his seat next to the driver and the coach landed on him. Joey's comment: "What a way to go. "Cause of death: Hogs." 

The third part of the museum was unknown to me until we arrived--but they had a nice little exhibit featuring the art pottery studios of Zanesville. It was quite heavy on examples of Weller pottery (which I admire but do not collect), and very little Roseville. But they had a lot of other examples from other companies as well, including tiles, utility wear, and figurines, as well as decorative art pottery. It was just a taste of what I expected to see at the museum in the morning, but hopefully I'll get there tomorrow.

We left the museum at about 3:30, and after stopping at two antique places (Joey stayed in the car, and I didn't find anything), we retraced our drive of yesterday evening through the back roads and some rather roller-coaster hills back to Blue Rock and our RV. I felt quite tired by this time, and took a nap before Joey woke me up at some point to have dinner. And that was our evening--napping, dinner, and blogging.

Tomorrow we will hook up the Jeep again, and head back to Zanesville to the art museum. Then we have about a 100 mile drive to our next stop-- Buck Creek State Park in Springfield, where we will stay until Sunday.

Driving Again

 

Muskingum River, Blue Rock, OH

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

For a while today, our day was fairly frustrating again, and tiring. It began with us unable to find our spare Jeep key, and we spent 30 minutes searching just as we had finished dumping our tanks and were ready to hit the road. The delay made me nuts, plus we left without finding it. It's important, because the key is needed to operate the auxiliary brake system. We did have Joe's key, but that would mean that if the Jeep decided to lock its doors, we'd be sunk without a way to get in. We finally used his key and left the window cracked enough for him to get his arm through to release the aux brake if it did indeed lock.

Then we hit the road, and the GPS led me a way I had not expected. It wanted me to go back up the hideously steep road we had just come DOWN-- so i went a different way, and i think that added time to our trip because i was facing the wrong way to begin with. I was livid and ranted for the first 10 minutes after that. Then it turned out that the highway we were on, US 40, is so steep going over the mountains that there are signs FORCING trucks over 10,000 pounds to STOP at the top before heading down--the road is so steep and winding! I had the RV in first gear the entire way down, and still had to keep pumping the brakes. It was harrowing-- thank God it was a dry day, albeit not what you'd call "clear"-- the sky was gray all day, and it had rained while we were dumping the tanks (a miserable job in any case.)

But we did get down the mountain safely, and when we reached Washington, PA, we stopped at a Walmart for lunch, and then for a shopping trip. Oh, and Joe found the keys at that point, too (on the floor in the bedroom--they probably fell out of his pocket two nights ago when we arrived at the campground.) It was a long stop, and i was really tired the entire time (I am still really congested--at least i could get meds for that at Walmart.) So Joe drove the last 2 hours of our trip.

I have to say, though, that our site tonight did put me back into a much happier frame of mind. It is a Boondockers Welcome site. BW is a group where people can offer a parking place at their home or property for other RVers to spend the night for free. (We stayed at our first BW site last fall in Chattanooga.) The owner isn't here, but we communicated this morning and he said his plans had changed, but the site was all ready for us. So we followed the GPS and then his detailed instructions, and found this lovely location along the Muskingum River. We are on a dead-end road about a mile or so long, and many of the homes here have boats, as does our host (we can see inside the shed.) His "guest quarters" has a fire pit, a wooden swing, and chairs to relax outside. And it's quiet. It was just so much nicer than we'd anticipated! 

Our site for the next 2 nights--fire pit, swing, and all!

 So we had some dinner, and I've been catching up on my blog now. I picked up some brochures at a rest stop, and now have some other things we can go see in Zanesville tomorrow besides the art museum. I am hoping the weather is nicer than today-- it was occasionally warm, but mostly gray and a bit chilly.

Fallingwater

 

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Today I got to cross out another item on my Bucket List. Joe and I went to visit Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic house in southwestern Pennsylvania. And I have to say, the experience exceeded my expectations. the house was just stunning!

 But first, when I woke up, I had to put last night's plan into effect. I took a Covid test, which thank goodness came out negative. Then I went online and reserved our same campsite for tonight. And then I put my feet up for a little while and relaxed!

 We had a 12:30 pm reservation for our tour, but all too soon, I realized we needed to hustle. We took the Jeep  down the mountain, commenting at how incredibly steep the road was even for a Jeep. No wonder we'd had so much trouble getting up to the campground last night! Fallingwater was only about a 15 minute drive away once we made it down. There is a small touristy town at the base of the mountain, with the park office, a lot of places to rent rafts, kayaks, bikes, etc, and of course ice cream and souvenir shops. I made a note of some good places we could pull up to tomorrow in order to reattach the Jeep to the RV-- we'd already decided NOT to hook up until we reached the bottom of the mountain.

We arrived at Fallingwater, and went to the Visitor's Center, where our tour was confirmed. We had some time to wait, so we checked out the little cafe and I looked in the store at all the FLW-themed items. You an furnish your whole house with the FLW "look", but it's nothing without the architecture.

Our tour began with our guide handing us ear buds and a small speaker. When she spoke, our little speakers picked up her voice for us. This way, she could talk and we could hear her even if we weren't walking right beside her. They started this system during Covid, and Joe and I thought it was brilliant-- we could hear her even when we were looking around at the scenery, hear her answers to other people's questions, and all in all, it was a very good system.

 We walked through the grounds and heard about FLW's career and about Edward and Liliane Kaufmann, who commissioned the house. They had been coming to the property for years in the summer just to get away from the city (Pittsburgh), but they wanted to live there during the year. Their son, Edward Jr., had studied architecture with FLW, and he recommended that they hire Wright.They realized soon enough that although this was their private residence, Fallingwater was much more than that-- it deserved to be seen by the public. So they set up a trust and donated the house and grounds to the state, with the understanding it would remain open to the public.

As we came down the walkway and got our first glimpse of the house, I was just blown away. I had the same feeling I've had with other sites (and sights!) that I've seen numerous times in photos, and then got to see in person. It was just so much MORE than I'd expected. I could fill this blog with photographs of the exterior alone, it was just so stunning.

The tour took us through the entire house, although photos are only allowed on the first floor. The first floor was designed on the same kind of "open floor plan" that is so popular today (but was rare then)-- the dining room and living room/conversation areas are all just one huge space, surrounded by windows looking into the woods around the house. The river runs beneath the cantilevered terraces, and there is even a staircase directly from the living room down to the riverside. When the glass encloser to the stairs was open, it provided cooling air coming off the cold water. The kitchen was also on this floor, and although we couldn't go in, we could look at it through the doorway. The entire space was constructed of only four materials-- stone, glass, wood, and steel. We wandered all over while our guide pointed out small details and answered questions. 

Joe looks at stairway down from living room

From there we went upstairs-- the second floor had the "master bedroom" and Mr. Kaufman's study. The latter had this great window configuration by his desk, which allowed the window to actually swing into the room and open completely, allowing the sound of the rushing river to come into the space. Every bedroom had its own bath and its own terrace. The hallways, in contrast, were narrow and felt like little tunnels leading between the living areas. There was plenty of natural stone in the walls, adding to the tunnel effect.

View from first floor terrace of river rushing away from house

We went out onto the second floor terrace and from there walked up an outside staircase to the third floor, which had Edward Jr.'s bedroom. He had moved his bed to a little alcove on the other side of the floor (still connected to the main room) where the sun poured in from three sides--it was delicious! The walls of the staircase going down from that floor were lined with bookcases filled with Edward Jr.'s books. In fact, all the furnishings were original--the family's own stuff. They had wanted the space to really represent the fact that it was a HOME first and foremost before it became a public space.

Finally, we walked from the second floor up to the guest quarters, which were a separate building. The staircase canopy was an amazing concrete ribbon which swooped around with the curving stairs. At the top, the house had a small living room and bedroom, plus of course a terrace. There was also a "plunge pool" fed naturally from the natural stream dripping from the rocks. Apparently the family used this pool quite a bit for a quick dip.

Stairs down to the river from the living room

All in all, we thought the tour was very well done and the buildings were simply fabulous. We were so glad we had come. When we were finished with our tour, we went into the gallery (part of the visitor's center complex) and looked at photos and original documents related to the building of the house. We got something to drink, and then came home. The tour tickets allow you to wander around the grounds, but we didn't do much wandering-- climbing all those stairs, and then walking back to the visitor center was enough activity for us.

Kitchen

 

After that, it was a quick trip back "home" to the RV. But we did make one more stop-- at Cucumber Falls, which is in the park and was right on our way back up. The falls were very pretty and worth the 10 minute stop. Then when we got back, Joe immediately took a nap; I walked the dog and did some reading, and then I took a nap too. And that was our day-- dinner, and I started blogging this trip. I would consider today a success!! And I was SO glad that I had changed my plans... neither of us would have been up for driving for almost 2 hours just to spend the night in a Walmart lot. We can drive a little further tomorrow instead.

Cucumber Falls

One of Those Exhausting Days

Monday, May 2, 2022

Today was one of those exhausting days which just seems like slogging through mud and getting nowhere. We slept just fine, but woke up without much "ooomph", still very physically drained from all of our efforts the night before. It was about 9:00 before Joe was ready to call tire places. Our plan was to find a new tire and get it installed before leaving the Lancaster area. However, the tire places were all pretty busy, and although we found several with the tire in stock, no one could take us before the afternoon. In the end, we decided to just buy the new tire and keep it as a spare, and continue driving on the spare we'd put on the night before. The only down side to this is, we did not re-attach the tire pressure monitors to those two tires, and we will miss having them to warn us if another tire springs a leak.

It was about 1:00 by the time we got our new tire (the old one was not worth keeping, it was too old to begin with) and we stopped not long afterwards at at Lancaster visitor center to have some lunch. So it was after 1:30 by the time we left Lancaster. Oh, and we'd acquired one more problem: the pulley which stores the spare tire decided that although it worked fine last night, it was now stuck and would not come down. So we put our new spare tire in the back of the Jeep until we get home, or until Joe decides how to fix it while we are traveling. Yet one more thing to deal with.

I don't know why we had so much trouble deciding which route to take, frankly. We were planning to go on I-76 (the PA Turnpike) and we did that, but when the tunnels appeared, Joe was worried that we shouldn't go through them with our propane (one of the "danger" warnings on the signs). So we took an exit instead, and continued on a circuitous route on several other roads, 3 other interstates, going south of the border into Maryland before coming back up into southern Pennsylvania. Every time I looked to see "how much longer", it seemed like more time than when I'd looked before. And it was all so slow--The roads were quite steep through the mountains, with very long grades, and I drove up most of them in second gear. 

 We stopped a couple of times for gas. The second time was at a Pilot station which had an Arby's attached, and as it was already almost 7pm, we decided to have Arby's for dinner. After that, we had our last 90 minutes to go (the road never seemed to get shorter, and the time seemed to constantly get longer) before finally getting to Ohiopyle State Park, where we had a reservation for tonight. It was not QUITE dark by the time we got here, but we were so tired, we just drove head first into what is normally a back-in site. Luckily, it was long enough to keep the Jeep attached while we were here. I lay down on the bed immediately and simply passed out for a couple of hours, I was that exhausted. I think Joe must have slept, also. When I woke up at around 11pm, I needed to eat something, and then had trouble falling asleep.

One of the reasons I felt so tired was I seem to have developed a cold, or else an allergy situation (everything is blooming, of course.) It was already bothering me a little bit yesterday, too. And I was also worried that maybe it was Covid, evven though I am fully vaccinated. I decided that my plan for tomorrow was ridiculous-- I didn't want to go to tour Fallingwater at 12:30, then drive another hour-90 minutes to spend the night at Walmart, and get up tomorrow to run into Pittsburgh to the museum and then hit the road AGAIN for another 3 hours. It all just seemed too much.

So I decide on a plan. I would first take a covid test if I still felt lousy. If the test was negative, I would book another night in this campground. That way, we could hang out in the morning, go to Fallingwater in the afternoon, then relax when we got back here and have a quiet evening. If the test was positive, obviously we'd just turn around and come home. After I'd made these decisions, I felt like things were a little more under control, and I finally fell back asleep.

 

2022: Shakedown Trip Begins

Sunday, May 1, 2022

  So here I am, with my 2021 travels still incomplete, staring a new journey for 2022. As this trip is only 2 weeks or even less, I will try to keep up this time!

We decided to take the RV someplace again during the spring months for a "shakedown trip", to see how it is running after a 6 month winter hiatus, and to see what managed to break despite nothing being used for all this time. As usual, Joe found plenty to repair or replace before we even left-- most notably, a last minute discovery of a leaking over the cab due to the sealing tape coming off. He was resealing it this morning before we could leave. About a week ago, he had to figure out why the refrigerator was no longer cooling--something was wrong with the propane connection. So he handled that, as well as dewinterizing the vehicle. I should have been scrubbing and cleaning inside, but of course I didn't do that. So when we packed up to go, I was kind of unhappy with the surfaces. I am going to work on that during our trip. 

 We had plenty to do before we could leave today, including errands in town which were made more difficult by Highland Park's 5K race which blocked both ends of our street. Joe had to park a block away and walk around the corner so he could get home after a quick errand around 9:30 a.m. I, meanwhile, had last minute packing to do, as well as choir practice all morning. Surprisingly, we managed to leave on schedule-- 4:00p.m.

 Oh! So where are we going? We are heading through Pennsylvania to Ohio. Our schedule includes a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House in southwestern PA, a quick drive via Jeep into Pittsburgh to the Carnegie Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs, a stop in Zanesville Ohio to see the collection of art pottery (Roseville!) at the Zanesville Art Museum, a couple of nights at a state park in Springfield, where I plan to visit the Heart of Ohio Antique Mall as well as several other antique malls while Joey and Cassie relax at the park. Then we will head northeast, stopping for a couple of nights in Delaware, OH to visit with some old friends, then on to the Cleveland vicinity to stay with our in-laws and go into Cleveland to spend a day at the ROck & Roll Hall of Fame. And after that... we will play it by ear. 

Tonight's plan was to stop at the home of an online friend, someone who I met through my Talmud class. The congregation hosting the class is in Lancasater, PA, and I shamelessly trolled for some "home hospitality" at our last class. Stacy very generously offered to let us park in the parking lot adjacent to her barn. I figured that stopping in Lancaster would leave us only about a 4-hour drive the next day to get to our next stop. 

Our drive was uneventful, but we got off the highway after about an hour to pick up some water. We have a list of food items (mostly) that we didn't have at home but want during the trip, and water was the primary necessity--we had absolutely none on board. We stopped at a Wegman's big parking lot, and I ran in to pick up the water. I also talked Joe into letting me buy some kind of pre-made food for dinner, because I knew that fixing the roof and then packing up to leave had exhausted him, and I didn't want him to have to cook tonight. I picked up some soup and some cornbread--I realized that I, too, was a little out of it, and too tired to really think more about what to buy. 

I got back to the RV and we took off toward Lancaster. What I'd forgotten was that this is Amish Country! We were charmed by the countryside, but not so much when we got stuck behind a horse-drawn buggy trotting ahead of us. I hated to pass in a 29' RV towing a jeep, but managed it anyway. We were only 10 miniutes from Stacy's house, though, when our tire pressure monitor began screaming at us-- and Joe grabbed it, took a look, and said, "Pull over!" Well, there were no shoulders on these roads at all, they were narrow and windy, and there WAS no place to pull over. Luckily just then, a business sign appeared with a large parking lot, and I turned into that. 

A quick look at the tire monitor and the actual tire showed that indeed, the tire was quickly losing air. In fact, we could hear it. To make matters a bit worse, it was one of the inside rear tires. And it looked as if it might rain any moment. AND, it was 7:00pm, and was getting toward dusk. And Joe and I were exhausted. So of course, he insisted we could change the tire ourselves. This is not the first time we've had to change a tire; but the last time I was involved was several years ago. We did it, though-- we had to unhook the Jeep, jack up the RV, remove the outer tire, then the inner tire, lower the spare from its storage place and get that on, tighten everything up, toss the leaking tire into the back of the Jeep, hoist the spare tire cable back up into the RV (the spare is stored underneath), and finally, with all the tools put away again, we were ready to go. The owner of the property showed up just as we finished--apparently he'd been away from home (which was behind the business's garage; I'd wondered why no one had come out to see what was going on.) It was, of course, pitch black before we finished working, so I moved the Jeep over and we used its headlights along with a couple of flashlights to see what we were doing.

I was very proud of myself--after having my 70th birthday just a couple of days before, I proved that I'm not old yet! I lowered the spare alone, tightened the lug nuts on the tires when they were all back in place, and helped GET the tires back also (Joey tends to work "hard", whereas I was trying to work "smart" and figure out some helping strategies to make our job easier.) I was proud of us, but MAN, were we EXHAUSTED by then. 

I do have to add that, adding insult to injury, there must have been several dozen horse-drawn buggies that trotted past us on the road while we were working. I was convinced that the horses were sniggering and the drivers, who eschew modern transportation, were smugly telling their wives and kids when they got home about how these people had to change a tire while their old-fashioned vehicles just kept on trotting along. 

Anyway, at about 10pm, we straggled into Stacy's parking lot. Joe passed out almost immediately; I was hungry, and heated up the Wegman's soup before walking Cassie and going to bed. Later that night, Joe got up and had some cornbread. And thus ended our first day. It's hard to know who got "shaken down" more-- the RV, or us!