Hi everyone! We will be starting our latest cross country trip on Monday, 4/15/19 in our 1978 Corvette. This is a small loop through the mid-west to visit areas we had to skip due to time constraints last year. Hopefully we will be telling you and showing you our adventures daily. Stay tuned!
April 15, 2019
Our first day on the road and it snows!! The pictures are from Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, WV. Dave braved the weather and went out to take these pics. Believe it or not it is supposed to be in the 60’s here tomorrow (when we’re not here!)
April 16, 2019
Today, we visited a Beckley, West Virginia coal mine, operated around 1890-1910. A very informative guide took us on a ride into the mine. The miners received $1.20 for each ton they mined a day. The average was about 3 tons. But housing cost $4.00 a month if you lived on the mine property. Does anyone know what a “kettle bottom” is? The answer will be in tomorrow’s blog.
April 17, 2019
For those of you who didn’t Google “kettle bottom”, it is a petrified log that can fall from the ceiling of a mine. It can be recognized because the wood is petrified, but the ring of bark is coal.
On to today: We went to the New River Gorge National Park in Fayetteville, WV. Couldn’t get too close to the river, but the scenery was beautiful. On our way to our next destination, we stopped at the Fenton Glass gift shop and of course I bought something!
April 18,2019
We arrived in Cleveland, OH today. We went to Cleveland Harbor. The lighthouse in the picture is usually totally covered in ice during the winter. We also went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The museum has 7 floors of all kinds of memorabilia and walls of all the inductees. Can you identify the 2 gentlemen in the last picture? .
April 19,2019
It was a real rainy day today, but we went to the West Side Market in Cleveland. It was mostly indoors. I have never seen so much fresh produce and all kinds of fresh meats. I certainly wish we had something like that near where we live. No pictures today. I didn’t think you needed to see a whole slab of bacon.
The answer to yesterday’s question is: Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino.
April 20, 2019
Still raining all the time, but we went and visited the Ford Rouge Assembly plant and the Ford Museum. The assembly plant was busy cranking out F150s in various colors and trims. Personally, I liked the GM Bowling Green tour better, but it is interesting watching a car come together as it winds around the assembly line. The Museum was really a surprise, much more than an ode to Henry. It had a little bit of everything: steam trains, early airplanes, agricultural equipment, steam plant engines for belt driven manufacturing, furniture, art glass, and, of course many cars, including competitor models.
April 21,2019
Happy Easter everyone.
April 22,2019
Today was a great day…sunny and fairly warm. We went Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MI. It is a 96,000 s.f. of all kinds of all things Christmas. We then drove the the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Auburn, IN. It’s in the original art deco styled showroom building. Wonderful array of cars as you can see.
If you are wondering how Rhonda is doing, she is doing very well. During all the rain we were in, no leaks, the wipers worked, the a/c worked and both front and back defrosters worked!! Yeah!
April 23,2019
Today we visited the Gilmore Auto Museum and saw some interesting machines (below). Note the sliding door on the 1954 Kaiser, long before Plymouth hung one on a minivan. The Cadillac was a one-of, built to pick up people heading to a hotel. It has 4 rows of seats as well as luggage space in the back. The 1912 Pierce-Arrow motorcycle isn’t the oldest I’ve ever seen, but it really shows the strong relationship to bicycles at the root of both product lines.
April 24,2019
Today we drove to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Fortunately, this time I did not have to ask a cop for directions and get escorted out of the city. They have a full sized WW2 German U-boat (U-505 story) in the basement. It was too big to get a picture, but the story of how it came to rest there was quite interesting. They also had a 2008 Tesla, something the auto museums have ignored so far, so we took a picture. Later we went for a stroll along the Lake Michigan shore and took a couple of skyline shots.
April 25, 2019
Today we visited LeClaire, Iowa; home to the American Pickers on the History channel. Turns out their shop is quite small and didn’t have many antiques to sell. LeClaire however, is also Buffalo Bill’s home town and there is a small museum and a painted rock about him. LeClaire is right on the Mississippi river and hosts a river boat cruise. As you can see in the pictures, the river is in flood and the shore park area is pretty wet. Currently, we are in Janesville, WI and hope to do a river cruise tomorrow in the Wisconsin Dells, provided the predicted snow storm leaves us alone.
April 26,2019
Today we visited Wisconsin Dells, a river section running through a 12 mile long sandstone gorge. In spots, the river is deeper than it is wide and very swift. It has cut many interesting rock formations as it cut the gorge, especially a side stream called Witches stream which produced a very narrow deep side canyon. Note the last photo, Stand Rock, which was widely known in the 1880’s due to a picture of a boy jumping from the cliff top to the other top taken by Wisconsin photographer Henry Hamilton Bennett. This was the first ever stop action photo using his invention, a shutter (which he called the “snapper”).
April 27, 2019
It is really chilly in Minnesota. There are still snow piles in parking lots!! We drove the North Shore. scenic route 61 along Lake Superior and stopped at the Gooseberry Falls State Park (see the pictures of the falls). We also visited the Split Rock Lighthouse. We are staying in Ironwood, Michigan – heading back toward home – maybe a couple more weeks on the road.
April 28, 2019
Today we were back in Michigan, the upper peninsula this time. It is still winter here (check out the ice on Lake Superior and the road view). We made two stops; Presque Isle Park, where we photographed the little lighthouse, and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, where the ice and snow was heaviest. Oddly enough, the two parks yesterday on the north shore of Superior in Minnesota were nearly ice free.
April 29, 2019
It started out raining again today in Wisconsin, but ending up fairly nice in Indiana. We saw Wequiock Falls in Green Bay, one of the many waterfalls off of Lake Michigan. We also stopped at Mars Cheese Castle where we had lunch. Can you guess what we had? Yes! Grilled cheese sandwiches. It really is a cheese palace – so many cheeses from everywhere. AND … we went back to Chicago to see the beginning of Route 66.
April 30, 2019
Today, we visited the Brickyard in Indianapolis. That is Rhonda in front of the main building in the infield. One of the curves as we rode around the track. The Honda engine I wish I had in the Ridgeline (690 HP)… Dave wandering around the start/finish line (which is still brick). A closeup of one of the bricks with a 100th anniversary dedication inscribed. Finally, some of the former winning cars from past Indy 500s.
May 1, 2019
Another day on the road. We stopped at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY. The pictures are just a few of the over 600 quilts they had on display. Here is the link if you’re interested: National Quilt Museum.
The last two pictures are of a wooden quilt!!
Rhonda had her first sort of breakdown on this trip today. The A/C belt ceased and kind of melted and the A/C wasn’t even on. I guess she just doesn’t like A/C. We are in Central City, KY tonight, which we found out is the home town of the Everly Brothers. Google it if you’re too young to know who they are!!
May 2, 2019
Thunder storms and more thunder storms today, but we managed to go to the Kentucky Horse Park in between. The picture is of Go For Gin, the 1994 winner of the Kentucky Derby. He is now 28 years old. The park is very informative and has many breeds of horses. Hey, look… Dave is about 17 hands tall!
We are about 5 1/2 hours from home. It has been a great trip. It goes a lot faster when you don’t have to wait for a flatbed truck from AAA 6 times like the last trip! We have completed our goal of driving and seeing sights in all 48 states and it was WONDERFUL!!
If you are interested in more info about the horse park, check out this link: Kentucky Horse Park
