Ohio - Day 28 - attack by a Cardinal

East Fork State Park
Tuesday, 28 May 2019

today's route

Today I'd planned only to stop by a CVS near my next campground to pick up a prescription refill I'd already called in and then check in at the new campground.  With only an hour's drive planned, I didn't rush out of the campground this morning.

Out of the 170 campsites here, I counted only 2 dozen campers, including mine.  Big change from this past weekend.  In the site right behind the couple next door to me are about half a dozen older teenagers/young adults who've been staying in tents there for the whole weekend.  Their tents are connected by a tarp that's hung about 3' - no more than 4' - off the ground, and that's where they all huddled when it was pouring rain over the past few days.

I was up quite early this morning and so were these kids.  In fact, as far as I can figure, they never went to bed last night.  The dogs and I passed them walking around the campground about 3:30 this morning, talking and laughing in normal tones of voice, not like people who realized they might disturb others who were sleeping.

When we went out for a second early walk, they were all hanging around one of the shower houses, talking and laughing and probably disturbing another batch of campers.  Then they came back to their campsite and kept on with their talking and laughing - and they were only about 10' from what was probably the sleeping end of the camper next to me.

Later this morning I saw the man next door talking to them and wished I had the nerve to ask what he'd said.  If I'd been planning to stay another night, I would have.  But we're leaving.

I saw on the internet that there were a batch of destructive tornadoes that came through the Dayton area overnight.  That's where I was planning to go in a few days, but I took a closer look at the weather forecast and now I'm not so sure.  I may call the campground back and cancel that reservation I made for the 31st.

Then before we left this morning I got a call from my doctor in Austin saying they didn't want to authorize any more refills of my blood pressure medicine because I hadn't been in their office for almost a year and a half.  I pointed out that it was only because I hadn't been in Texas for almost a year and a half, and that after all it was only blood pressure pills, and that I'd had a hard enough time finding her in the first place - it's really hard to figure out who to go to if you don't get a recommendation from someone - and didn't know how I was going to find a doctor in Indiana when I didn't live here either, and so forth and so on.  None of which changed the fact that I hadn't been in their office for a year and a half and they didn't want to reauthorize my prescription.  Picky picky.  So I scratched the stop at the CVS off today's itinerary.

After leaving the campground, I went back to Hillsboro one more time to go to the grocery store and the laundromat, since I knew where they were and liked them.  After a week in this one campground, I'm starting to feel at home here in Hillsboro.

In the laundromat I heard a woman say she was "fixin' to" do something and I started wondering just how far north I was.  But I think she may have been a military wife, because I also heard her talk about her husband's uniforms.  I don't know where a military base is around here, but her clearly southern expression would make sense if she was a military wife.

As I was driving down Route 32, I saw several signs telling me it was also called the Appalachian Highway.  Since I hadn't known I was in the Appalachian area, I was confused and looked it up.  This article is one of the results, and it chronicles a slice of Americana.  www.ohio-32-road-unintended-consequences

It was just about noon when we finally got on the road, and about 1:30 when we got into our new campsite at our new campground.

I'm going to take a wild guess that there's a Cardinal nest very near here.  A beautiful male Cardinal spent nearly 2 hours attacking every window we have.  I worried after a bit that he'd hurt his beak or get his claws caught in the screens.

sitting on the strut for the awning, planning his next attack

his next attack on the window by my bed

sitting on the ladder at the rear of the RV

I just thought this looked neat - his wings flapping

attacking the rear window with his claws

attacking with his beak

I couldn't figure out how to make him stop.  A couple of times I went outside and he flew into the tree at the campsite opposite mine and stared at me.  But when I went back inside, he immediately came back for another round.

I thought he must be seeing his reflection in the window and that's what he was attacking, but he kept on whether I pulled the shades down or left them up.  It quickly got too warm to leave the windows open, so I closed them and turned on the AC, and the little guy kept on attacking.

He slacked off gradually as the afternoon wore on, but I felt sorry for him and didn't know what I could do to help.

Ohio - Day 27

Rocky Fork State Park
Monday, 27 May 2019

The end of Memorial Day weekend for many folks and, with my campsite at the entrance to the campground, I could see everybody leave.  So for fun I counted them.  By 11:00, 35 had left; another 34 left just in the next hour; by 3:00 (checkout time) another 22 were gone - 91 in all, in a campground with 170 campsites.  I counted 12 who checked in during the day, one of whom had almost the whole campground to choose from, so of course they chose the site right next to mine.  Ah well.

Things were much calmer around here by this evening.

I spent much of the day trying to catch up with my blog, which had gotten really behind.

Fortunately, both my right arm and my energy level have improved greatly.  I'm just getting ordinarily tired now, instead of fighting a more pervasive tiredness.  And my arm is regaining much of its range of motion and a great deal of its strength.  Still a ways to go but far more useful than a week ago.

To balance those improvements, I've been coughing my fool head off all day long - driving me crazy - and I don't know what's causing it.  Maybe the seriously increased humidity is causing trouble for my sinuses, which then think they can't breath?

The rain's gone.  The day started out warm and got downright hot - and seriously humid, which makes heat hotter to me.

I've found some extra photos I've taken over the last few days that I haven't put in the blog yet, so I'll stick them in here.

sunrise at Rocky Fork State Park

Dexter keeping an eye on campground activities

 

Gracie, more relaxed, enjoying the AC

Lily, supervising the cabin as usual

Ohio - Day 26 - Cincinnati

Rocky Fork State Park
Sunday, 26 May 2019

I'd intended to spend the day in the campground today to give myself a break, but I looked the campground reservations up online and learned that almost everybody is planning to stay here tonight too, which means they'll all be around all day, which means I'll have serious trouble with the dogs.  So at the last minute I decided to go see a couple of things in Cincinnati.

today's route

William Howard Taft National Historic Site

Taft was born (9-15-1857) and raised in this house in a ritzy area of Cincinnati.  In fact, compared to the mansions that are still there, this house is practically a shack.  Taft's father was a lawyer and influential in many circles, serving as Pres. Grant's Attorney General and Secretary of War.

note the lace on the curtains

fireplace surround

Taft (the son) graduated from law school in 1880.  By that time, politics was so corrupt and chaotic that few of Taft's background went into public service.  Taft was an exception.  He became known for his rock-solid integrity.

• He was a federal revenue collector and made night raids on illegal stills.  At that time he controlled 115 jobs and infuriated Pres. Arthur by not filling them with political patronage folks.
• From 1892-1900, he sat on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and tried hard to improve the credibility of the legal system (which, at the time, could be bought).
• He served as Pres. T. Roosevelt's Secretary of War 1904-1908; in that capacity he was in charge of the Isthmus Canal Commission that built the Panama Canal.

This photo I found online shows Taft hearing the news that he'd been nominated by the Republican Party for president in 1908 (that was in an era when the candidates themselves were considered too above-it-all to go to conventions).

Taft ran against William Jennings Bryan, Democrat, running for the 3rd time; Bryan claimed to be TR's rightful successor because TR had enacted many of Bryan's proposals.  Eugene Debs ran as a Socialist candidate.  A big influence on Taft winning the election was support from TR, who was still extremely popular.

There was a late winter snowstorm on Taft's inauguration day in March 1909.  Taft joked that he'd "always said it would be a cold day when I got to be president of the United States."  He was our 27th president.

Taft's presidency was unique in a number of ways:

• He was the first president to throw out the first pitch of the baseball season.
• He was the first president to have a motor car.
• He was the first president to appoint a woman to head a federal bureau.
• He was the first president to have his wife ride with him in the inauguration parade (all previous presidents rode alone).
• He was the first president to preside over 48 states - New Mexico and Arizona were admitted to statehood over his signature.
• He was the last president to keep the family cow (Pauline) at the White House - she grazed on the White House lawn (ah, those were the days).
• He still is the only president to go on to sit on the Supreme Court - he was Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930.
• He was the first president to present a consolidated budget to Congress.
• He was the first to regulate communications - telephone, telegraph and wireless companies.

Taft was known as the Trust Buster: his administration filed 90 antitrust lawsuits against the powerful monopolies in steel, tobacco and oil.

Taft lobbied hard for the 16th amendment to the Constitution, that would allow the personal income tax.  He argued, "We have passed beyond the laissez-faire school who believe that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force."

He called a special session of Congress to try to lower tariffs, attacking them as promoting big business while raising the cost of living for everyone.  Congress passed the bill but it wasn't politically popular.

He called his diplomatic strategy (remember those?) in Asia and the Caribbean as "substituting dollars for bullets," or "dollar diplomacy," using trade and investment to promote peace and stability abroad and prosperity at home.  When that failed, he switched to "Marine diplomacy," and sent troops to Central America during various crises.  He negotiated treaties of arbitration with England and France, trying to settle international disputes judicially (instead of with war).  The Senate opposed these treaties, so Taft made a tour to appeal directly to the public on this foreign policy issue - another first for a president.

Like Theodore Roosevelt, his predecessor, he supported conservation, but he didn't agree with TR's doing it by executive order.  Taft pulled out 8.5 million acres and created 10 national parks.

The mayor of Tokyo sent a gift of cherry trees in honor of the Pres. and Mrs. Taft, and it was Nellie Taft who decided to have them planted along the Tidal Basin. More than a century later, Americans still owe gratitude to the Tokyo mayor and to Mrs. Taft for so much spring beauty.

Throughout Taft's presidency, he was hampered by Theodore Roosevelt, who had been instrumental in getting him elected in the first place but apparently expected Taft would be his (TR's) clone.  Taft, on the other hand, saw himself as a moderate who would make TR's reforms work, but without making radical changes of his own.  This wasn't good enough for TR.  And TR's enduring popularity and bullish personality made it difficult for Taft to get his own message across.

In addition, as president Taft inherited a Republican party that was becoming ever more divided within itself: the "progressives" were challenging the "Old Guard" Republicans over control of Congress and, between them and TR's supporters, Taft was never able to unite the party.

The 1912 election was an unusual and hard-fought contest.  TR's popularity won him primaries, but Taft controlled the party leaders and won the Republican nomination.  TR then formed his own National Progressive (aka Bull Moose) Party and ran as its candidate.  Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson, governor of New York.

This display explains the surprising differences in approach to the presidency taken by 2 people ostensibly from the same party.  Note also that, though Taft was indeed quite overweight, TR was no lightweight himself.  Taft had been large even as a boy (nicknamed "Big Lub"), and during the presidency he grew to 333 pounds.

The voters chose Woodrow Wilson.  Perhaps a factor was Wilson's clearly thinner profile?

When Taft left office, Will Rogers said, "It's great to be great but it's greater to be human.  He was our great human fellow because there was more of him to be human.  We are parting with three hundred pounds of solid charity to everybody, and love and affection for all his fellow men."  (I doubt if there's anything nicer anyone could say about anyone.)

Following his presidency, Taft first taught law at Yale Law School, a job that he later said was his favorite of all.  He chaired the Lincoln Memorial Commission - yes, the famous one in Washington, DC.  It was dedicated in 1922.

He was appointed as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court in 1921, a job he held until 1930.  During that time he streamlined the entire federal court system, which had become in impenetrable maze.  He was also instrumental in getting funding for a separate building to house the Supreme Court.  Until Taft, the Supreme Court had met in rooms on the Senate side of Congress.  None of the justices, including Taft, had official offices, or even official storage for files.  Most of them used space in their own homes for these things.  Hard to imagine now - actually, hard to imagine even then.

In my opinion, Taft was unfortunate in being bracketed between flamboyant Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson's WWI and League of Nations.  With few major national or world events during his term, Taft gets overlooked and underappreciated.  In the midst of political chaos and the patronage system, Taft still did everything he could to help the ordinary people over corporations, to stick to the role prescribed for the presidency by the Constitution instead of trying to see how much he could get away with, to organize and streamline government to make it function better, to keep America safe without appeasement and without starting wars.  And even more importantly, his integrity was unquestioned - by anyone - which isn't a given in politics by any means.  (Plus, he managed to keep TR from getting another 4 years in the White House, and I wouldn't want to think of World War I with TR in charge of US policy.  Not that I agreed with Wilson either, but he was certainly more restrained.)

Cincinnati Chili
On lists of iconic foods in each state, one list didn't have any for Ohio, while another had only something called Cincinnati Chili listed.  Of course I had to check it out.  It turned out to be a plate of spaghetti, topped with Ohio's version of chili, topped with grated cheese.

Skyline Cafe's Cincinnati Chili

The birthplace for this dish was Skyline Chili, a cafe originally located on a hill with a view of Cincinnati (thus "skyline").  This business now has 150+ locations in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Florida (huh?).  The original cafe grew too old to renovate and was razed and replaced with another cafe half a block away.  Which is where I went.

Some very nice employees instructed me in the intricacies of ordering this delicacy.  There's the 3-Way, which has the original 3 parts.  There's the 4-Way, which can include the addition of either chopped onions or beans to the other 3 parts.  And there's the 5-Way, which is both beans and onions piled on with the spaghetti, chili and cheese.  I opted for the basic 3-Way, since that's how this started.

I can say with absolute certainty that no Texan would recognize the chili part of this as chili.  I'm not sure what ingredient(s) these Ohioans added to achieve this flavor, but they aren't in any version of chili I've ever had.  And of course I've never had chili on top of spaghetti before.  Given all that, I'll say that this dish was tasty and filling.  I didn't expect it but this amount turned out to be enough for 2 lunches - I barely ate half of it today.

Now that I've tried Ohio's iconic dish, I understand more clearly why I haven't found any grocery stores more upscale than Kroger in this state.  These folks just have a different standard for food choices than folks in other states.  All other states.  At least, all those I've visited so far.

The drive back to the campground
I don't think I've mentioned the water here in Ohio.  At first I was using water running directly into my faucets from the campgrounds.  Later I filled up my water tank, which was low after West Virginia, where I'd wanted to avoid their iron-rich water.  But I started to find here in Ohio that more often than not I was getting brownish or reddish water coming through.  As I've come farther south, the brown color has become more pronounced.

Today in a suburban area I passed a pretty water feature that was quite large and included 2 ponds connected by a large waterfall, complete with a Mallard swimming around.  Nice landscaping.  Except all this very prominent water was beige.  Distinctly beige.  Beige water falling in a wide sheet down from one pond to another.  Beige water in the large pond below.  Clearly beige.  And completely ruining the look the landscaper had certainly been aiming for.  And I wondered if it's always like this and they've forgotten what color water's supposed to be?  Or if this is just an aberration and I was unlucky enough to be in the state when it happened?  Very odd.

Kings Island

I passed Kings Island Beach and Amusement Park, which I could see parts of from the highway.  They bill themselves as the largest amusement and water park in the Midwest.  For all I know, they are.  This photo from online was part of what I could see, which may give you an idea of how big it is.

I passed a sign saying turn here for Historic Lebanon and the Golden Lamb.  I didn't but I was curious so I looked them up.  They are indeed old.  Lebanon was laid out in 1802 and was named for the junipers in the area, which many people mistake for cedars - ergo, the Biblical cedars of Lebanon.

The Golden Lamb was a "house of public entertainment" when it opened in 1803.  It's still open today as a restaurant and is Ohio's longest continually operating business (I believe it).  It has entertained 12 presidents beginning with John Quincy Adams and going up to George W. Bush (oddly, those were our two presidents whose fathers were also president).

Little Miami River

Twice today at different places I've crossed the Little Miami River, which signs say has been designated as both a State and a National Scenic River.  The glimpses I got from the bridges showed it to be scenic indeed, as you can see from this online photo, which is something of what I saw.

Lots of businesses and other things have signs that remind me that the Cincinnati area is another Tri-State Area (as Huntington, WV, is).  When the Ohio River stops forming Ohio's southern border, it turns south and becomes the border between Indiana and Kentucky.  I see lots of license plates from those 2 states in this area.

When I drove into Cincinnati this morning there was almost zero traffic - the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I thought.  But driving back this afternoon I've found a great deal of traffic, much more than I expected.  I guess folks are out shopping, or maybe going back home from their weekend, or maybe going to some Memorial Day event?  Lots of them were on the move for some reason.

I stopped in Hillsboro again to walk the dogs before going back to the mob I expect to see at the campground.  Very hot weather.  They were glad for the walk and glad to get back to the air conditioning.

Back at the campground
As I expected, nobody's left and everybody's running around - or rolling around - and having a great time.  And then suddenly the heavens opened up and it started pouring rain, complete with lightning and thunder.  And people were still letting their kids play outside!  I guess they were thinking only of the rain and how it wouldn't hurt the kids to get wet.  Being from Texas, land of lightning rods on rural houses, I was thinking about the lightning.

I almost went outside myself to tell the kids' parents about the boy who got struck a few years ago in Austin by lightning that was literally a "bolt out of the blue."  Blue sky, no thunder, no warning, just a bolt of lightning that struck this kid standing out on a baseball field.  He recovered, but I don't think he'd completely returned to normal by the time I left town.  (His parents sued the coach, which I thought was just plain ugly.  The coach was just a volunteer and who on earth could have predicted something like this would happen?  I don't know how that lawsuit came out.)

I had the AC turned on anyway because of the heat, and then I was glad it was on to drown out the thunder to keep from scaring Gracie.  The rain let up around 6:30 and I quickly took the dogs out for a last walk before everybody else came out with their dogs.

Ohio - Day 25 - Serpent Mound

Rocky Fork State Park
Saturday, 25 May 2019

I've developed a plan for how to give the dogs some exercise without risking serious problems due to the abundant dog population in the campground.  I wake up really early these days anyway, no matter when I went to bed the night before, so I decided to make that an advantage.

Today I took the dogs out for a first walk about 3:45 AM and we walked all around the whole campground (it's about .8 mile).  Then about 5:15 AM I took them back out for another walk all around the whole campground.  So before 6:00 AM we've gotten in more than a mile and a half.  Gives them exercise and chances to poop and plenty of time to sniff what other dogs have done.

We were on the road before 8:30, heading to Serpent Mound.

today's route

Serpent Mound is the one thing I really have looked forward to seeing in Ohio.  I read about it and saw photos of it when I was doing research during the years before this trip and was fascinated.  So today's trip was important to me.  And I wasn't disappointed.

I was really lucky.  First, because I left the campground so early and had such a short distance to go (about 30 miles, though the online directions from both search engines sent me down roads I shouldn't have been on), I got there before almost anybody else.  Second, it started raining when I pulled in to the parking lot.  Really raining.  And that may have discouraged some people from coming.  Third, it was a Saturday on the Memorial Day weekend when most people are involved in activities other than visiting ancient Indian sites.  All of which meant I could take the dogs with me on the trail and not have to worry about masses of other dogs and people.

I'm going to start by including a link to wikipedia, because this page shows drawings of the whole mound.  en.wikipedia.org/Serpent_Mound  There are photos online that show the whole thing, but they've got copyright restrictions and I can't use them.  Here are the photos I took.

a view of most of the mound from the viewing tower

I probably could have seen the whole effigy if I'd had the nerve to walk up to the top of the viewing tower; as it was I could only go as far as the lower level for this photo.

The mound is 1,348' long with a walkway that encircles it (where the dogs and I were).  It's only 3' high in most places, and my second photo is my attempt to show the height.  On the other hand, the land it sits on isn't level, so the walkway around one side is substantially lower than around the other in places.  They think it might have originally been as much as 5' high and diminished by time, erosion or vandalism.

a few of the serpent's bend from the walkway

It was made, as the burial mounds were, by people hauling dirt one basket at a time.

They've learned from excavations that it's definitely not a burial mound and they know it's the largest serpent effigy in the world.  Beyond that, they don't know for certain much about it.

For instance, they originally dated it at around 300 BC because of nearby burial mounds from that time.  Then carbon dating showed it to date from 1070 AD, so scientists changed their minds about which group of Natives had built it.  More recent carbon dating puts the date back at around 300 BC.  They're running more tests.  So they still don't know for sure.

They also don't know for sure what it depicts.  It's clearly a serpent with a coiled tail.  But the mouth of the serpent is wide open and an oval shape is partly inside.  They think the oval shape is an egg, though some think it's the sun and others have still more ideas. 

Regardless of what it depicts scientists haven't decided what its significance is.  Some say the head+egg line up perfectly with the summer solstice sunset - but don't say why the sunset would have been chosen or why the summer solstice.  Others have decided the snake's undulations coincide with the summer solstice sunrise, the winter solstice sunrise and the equinox sunrise though, if so, it would be an unusual amalgam of astronomical data into one effigy.

And so forth.

But when you can have it mostly to yourself, as the dogs and I did, it is still a figure of wonder.  Or, as the one other person who was there when we were said to me as he was leaving, "A lot of mystery."  And that's the way it feels.

It's been designated a National Historic Landmark.  And it's been nominated for UNESCO's World Heritage List.  If it's chosen, it will be slotted in with Stonehenge, the Egyptian pyramids, and the Great Wall of China, among others.

By the time we were leaving, the rain had stopped, the sun was getting hot, and the day was very humid.  Quite a few groups of people had showed up and I was really grateful for our early start.

Along the routes both for coming and for going there are plenty of those horse-and-buggy highway signs, and for good reason: I was passing through more Amish country and actually met 2 of these outfits on the road.  Narrow road, no shoulder, so I slowed down so as not to cause them trouble.

I kept having to dodge piles of horse manure in the roadway, so I knew there were some very healthy horses in the vicinity.

I passed a field where a boy dressed in typical Amish boy attire was hauling something in a wheelbarrow.  He waved at me.

Actually, I got stared at quite a bit because, as I said, I really didn't have any business being where I was.  It would have been a little weird for a regulation passenger car to be driving around this area - very narrow country roads through farmland.  And though the signs told me I was coming into this town or that, I didn't even see a grouping of houses at these places.  Very rural.  But attractive.  Rolling hills.

Maybe because it was so rural, or because we were out so early, there were dozens of birds flying from one side of the road to the other.  And they weren't putting any altitude into it - they were somewhere about the height of my front grill.  It was hard for me to avoid them.

I learned that the small town of Belfast has a lodge of the Knights of Pythias.  I don't remember if I've mentioned seeing these before or not but, if not, here's a link to more information about them.  en.wikipedia.org/Knights_of_Pythias  You might want to check it out because they include the oath of membership, and it's actually what you might call remarkable.

We stopped in Hillsboro on the way back to the campground so I could walk the dogs again before we met up with the crowd of campers.  This time I parked next to the Masonic Lodge and learned that this year they're celebrating their 200th anniversary.

Just down the street I saw several law offices (we were near the courthouse), including one for F. Allyce Horne and one a block later for K. Danielle Whitt, showing that women can be just as silly and pretentious as men (something I'd hoped not to know).

Sure enough, back at the campground things were absolutely hectic outside our RV with people walking their dogs or their babies in strollers or just strolling along themselves.  And kids and wheeled vehicles of various types everywhere.  Once again, I managed to get the dogs out on a short bedtime walk at about 6:15 without any trouble.  And once again, I closed everything up and turned on the AC.  It was clear everyone was having fun, but I'd think they'd have more experience with nature if they'd stayed in their own driveways back home.

Ohio - Day 24 - Hillsboro

Rocky Fork State Park
Friday, 24 May 2019

My main goal today was clean clothes.  My secondary goals were a grocery store and a liquor store.  So off to Hillsboro we went.

Before we left the campground I stopped to dump off our trash and to dump out the sewage tanks.  We couldn't have been there more than 15 or 20 minutes and during that time I saw 4 campers come in to the park to register.  This is at 9:30 in the morning.  Seemed a bad omen.

I'd found a coin laundry online  (it's surprisingly difficult to locate these things because search engines think dry cleaners instead of laundromats) and learned that it actually exists in real life - yea.  While I was loading my washer I heard the laundromat owner agree to sell it to a fairly insistent (in a low key way) buyer.  Not something I expect to hear in a typical laundromat visit.  No ambiance but decent machines.

As we passed through Hillsboro the other day, I'd noticed a small grocery store on one of the main streets so that's where we went today.  Turned out to be a good grocery.  They had almost everything on my list, including the brands I look for.

Speaking of which, as far as I can tell, Ohioans aren't particularly interested in what they eat.  When I've been looking up grocery stores anywhere in the state - including in the big cities - almost all I can find is Kroger and Walmart and Save-A-Lot, none of which strike me as catering to upscale tastes.  I don't go to Walmart if I can help it and don't like to shop at stores with names like "save a lot" so I've been seeing a lot of Kroger this month.  And all their stores have all the same products, which is a selection I'm getting tired of.

The Hillsboro grocery was a Community Market and I was impressed.  Refreshing.

Finding a liquor store turned out to be more of a challenge.  An online search turned up Larry's Party Shop and Rite-Aid as my choices in town.  I decided the Rite-Aid popping up must be an instance of a store that actually sells beer and wine getting listed in a search for liquor.  That's happened every time I've tried to find one in Ohio.  So I went for Larry's.

First, the store fronts almost right on the road and it only has 10 or 12 parking places that are all straight-on parking.  Well, I can't really do that because there's no way I could back out into a busy street and expect not to hit something, so I'd need to come up with an alternative plan.  Second, I got there immediately after an enormous Budweiser truck pulled up in front, taking up most of the parking places anyway and leaving me no room to maneuver into the remaining ones.  I saw a big parking lot next door at the Senior Center, but it was nearly full and I was afraid to try to get away with taking up several of the remaining spaces.  There was a completely empty parking lot across the street, but once I got there I saw the sign saying it was private property and I'd get towed.  I knew that was unlikely to happen in the short amount of time I expected to be gone, but there's no point in asking for trouble.

So I drove around the block a couple of times and then, on the third pass, I saw the Bud truck pull out so I raced over and spent several minutes trying to back into a couple of spaces in front.  When I got done, I found I'd parked about 5" from the roof of the building.  But I was mostly off the street.

And then inside I learned that Larry (who was there) is really only interested in selling beer.  He had a small selection of wine that would have been fine for non-wine drinkers, but I couldn't find anything I was willing to buy.  He had a few bottles of some kind of vodka I'd never heard of.  Otherwise what he had was beer.  So I told the clerk what I was really looking for was scotch and she immediately said I should go to the Rite-Aid.  And gave me directions only a local could understand.

But I found the Rite-Aid and, sure enough, they had a fairly decent liquor selection.  Mostly bourbon, but they had other stuff too.  So weird buying a bottle of Cutty Sark in a standard Rite-Aid milieu.

While I was waiting in line to pay, I heard 2 locals talking about someone and one of them said, "She was raised up here so she knows all about it."  I've never heard that expression before.  When I was "growing up" I was "raised" in central Texas, but I never heard of anybody being "raised up."  I guess that's what they do in Ohio.

While I was driving around trying to find places I passed Bell's Opera House, built in 1895.  Remember I said the other day that it looked like Hillsboro once had money floating around in it?  It seemed to me that an opera house would be a good sign of that.

This is an online photo but I wanted to show that unusual roof on the tower.  This was probably once a very glamorous building.

Back at the campground, I found the place teeming with people.  Mostly kids.  Riding bicycles and tricycles and those automated skateboards (the ones that keep catching fire) and various other vehicles.  Bouncing balls and generally making a lot of noise.  Sounds like they're having a really great time but it's the sort of thing that terrifies Gracie.

I'd walked the dogs before I brought them back here, just to limit the amount of time we'd have to spend with the crowd, and I turned on the air conditioner (it had gotten hot again today) to drown out the ambient noise, and put on a dvd.  I kept a close eye on the crowd, and around 6:00 it looked like most people were eating hotdogs or something (i.e. not walking their dogs or running around), so I took my dogs out for a short before-bed walk.  And went to bed early.  Very early.  Around 7:30.  I'm sure my neighbors are starting to wonder about me.

Ohio - Day 23

Rocky Fork State Park
Thursday, 23 May 2019 

I decided to stay in the campground today and rest a bit to try to restore my energy level.  That decision was reinforced by the forecast for rain which, in fact, we got a lot of.

A good part of the day the rain was heavy and I wished people would look at the forecast and decide to stay home for the Memorial Day weekend.  No such luck.

My campsite is right by the entrance to the camping area so I have a front row seat to watch the folks just pouring in.  Really.  By mid-afternoon it was like a parade - one after another after another.  And today's just the Thursday before the 3-day weekend.  I could see the campground around me filling up, but there are still a fair number of vacant campsites, which I know are supposed to be completely filled over the weekend.

Also by mid-afternoon the rain stopped and the sun got quite warm.  I didn't know Ohio could be so humid.  I had to turn on the air conditioner because the humidity made things so uncomfortable.

Ohio - Day 22 - vet in Cincinnati

Rocky Fork State Park
Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Gracie sometimes retreats to the front seats when she's nervous about being out in the cabin.  As you can see, she's too big to fit very well.  She was actually dozing when I took this photo.  Dexter's a little smaller and a lot more agile, so he can curl up fully on the seats, no problem.

today's route

It was time for Gracie's booster for the Lyme disease vaccine, and I chose the nearest Banfield that I thought I could get to easily that also had a good Yelp rating.  Which was this one, northwest of Cincinnati.

I didn't want to go all that way (predicted to be a 1½-2 hour drive each way) without doing something else in Cincinnati in the same trip, and I actually planned a driving route to the Pres. Taft Museum and figured I could cram it in before our noon vet appointment.  Then I realized how tired I already was, let alone how exhausted I'd be after driving so much, and I gave myself a break.  So today was just about the vet and the drive.

The campground is about 4 miles outside of Hillsboro, and on the way into town I saw a sign saying this was the birthplace of Eliza Jane Thompson, who was involved in the Temperance movement.  I looked her up and learned she was more than that: she was involved in the beginning of the movement and, through her efforts, managed to close down the 20 saloons that had been operating in Hillsboro.  Impressive woman, given the lack of power women had in the 1870s, which is when she was doing all this.

I also looked up the word "temperance" in the hard-backed Webster's I brought with me and found 2 definitions - one of moderation, and the other of abstinence from alcohol.  Which is what I thought: a social movement took a perfectly good word/concept (moderation) and hijacked it to mean the opposite (abstinence).  There are several in today's life that have done the same thing (a peeve of mine).

It's clear from driving through town that there was once a lot of money in this town.  There are a number of big fancy houses on the edge of downtown and a couple of old fancy buildings around Main St.  Although I looked hard, I couldn't find anyone online - including the City of Hillsboro - that wanted to tell me when the town was founded or what industries drove its early success.  I passed an old building called Highland House that appeared to be a local museum, but they seem to be open only very limited hours.  Oh well.

Out in the countryside I passed a farm that had several donkeys in a field and a llama in a separate field.  Guess they don't get along.

I passed some fields that had been plowed and others that were still covered with weeds.

I saw what appeared to be a river otter cross the road up ahead of me, but it didn't make sense to me that it'd be an otter.  As far as I could tell, we weren't all that close to any body of water, which is where they usually live.  I've looked up other Ohio mammals that are in the same size range, but none of them looks quite the same as what I saw.  Who knows.  A medium-sized mammal crossed the road.

I passed a bunch of signs advertising a Bluegrass Bash coming up.  I looked it up and learned that it's sponsored by a nonprofit radio station that uses this annual event as a fundraiser for the station.  Sounds a lot better to me than the semi-annual pledge drives on public radio.  (Which reminds me of one of the high spots in the Melanie Griffith remake of "Born Yesterday" which is early in the movie when she's talking to Nora Dunn's snooty character who's inviting her to be on her NPR program, and Nora Dunn says, "You know NPR, yes?"  to which Melanie Griffith replies, "They're the gun people, right?" and Nora Dunn says, "Well, during fundraising we are but otherwise we're just National Public Radio.")

I passed a sheepdog in a field with a few cows, including a young calf that the sheepdog seemed to be trying to play with and the calf was trying to ignore it.  I wished I could find a place to stop and watch.

I can say with some confidence that the John Deere dealership in the area is very active.  I've seen at least one John Deere product at every farm and home I've passed.

We got to the vet's office a full hour earlier than our appointment, so I went in to ask anyway if they could take us early.  Which they could, great news, so I hustled both the dogs inside (Dexter barks constantly and scratches frantically at the window if I try to take Gracie anywhere without him, so they go together everywhere).  Gracie got her shot and, since Dexter was there, his paw got checked out - the vet said the claw seemed to be healing well.

I treated us all to a Burger King Whopper Jr. (split a separate patty between the critters) and everybody got a short walk and we drove back again.  Pleasant uneventful drive.

Ohio - Day 21 - southcentral Ohio

Rocky Fork State Park, near Hillsboro
Tuesday, 21 May 2019

On our early walk today, Dexter alerted me to a possible wildlife presence and, sure enough, when I started looking for it, I found the wake of an otter swimming in the lake.  And then suddenly the otter dived - probably for a fish - and his tail smacked the water surface and the sound echoed which, of course, terrified Gracie.  But it was a nice thing to see.

I noticed in a CNN report online that Logan County, OK, had severe weather resulting in "power polls down."  So of course I wondered if their politicians were having trouble with not having those polls available.

As I was leaving Scioto Trail State Park this morning, I noticed a sign that said, among other things, that this area was once a primeval forest, the largest deciduous forest in the world.  Sadly, it's not quite like that any more.

By the lake as we were driving out I saw 3 pairs of Canada Geese, each with several goslings - so sweet.  This isn't my photo, but this is what I saw, times 3.  There's always at least one lookout when they're feeding.

today's route

I drove on county and state roads the whole morning.  I passed what looked like a small lake with houses built all around it and noticed the lake was so full some of the houses were nearly flooded.  Most of them looked like they'd been there for a while so I guess they were used to it, but I think I'd build farther back or higher off the ground if it were mine.

One of the lotteries here is called OH! Lottery.  Very clever.

I stumbled on the Farm Report by the Extension Officer on the radio and found it very interesting.  I came in while he was reporting what sounded like the number of acres in terms of each crop planted so far this year, compared with previous years' averages.  And he did that for Michigan, too, and Iowa, Indiana, Illinois - lots of other farm states.  It sounded like planting was slower than usual this year, apparently because there'd been so much rain.

He said, "Some crops are in the ground, some are still in the bag.  Sometimes I wonder which is better."

He said because of the mild winter last year they're expecting a bad fly season so encouraged farmers to get busy inoculating their cattle herds.  He said it's important not to keep using the same method or the same ingredients year after year because the flies develop a tolerance.  He noted that some flies (he rattled off a bunch of species) lay eggs in fresh cow manure but if farmers feed cows specific minerals the eggs aren't viable and they can break the cycle.  He said farmers should consult their vets.  All this is a concern because flies carry diseases so it's important to stay on top of their herds.

All that made me wonder about the pills I've been giving Gracie for her arthritis.  She's been getting Cosequin every day for several years and it's made a dramatic difference in her life.  Before, she'd been limping a bit and had trouble getting up and down the 3 steps that led into Momma's house.  A few weeks after she started taking the pills,  those symptoms were gone completely.

I give it to her in her food, but I've noticed that now and then she'll eat all her food except the pill, which makes me think she's tired of taking them.  Her shots are due in a month or two and I think I'll ask the vet if there's an alternative we can switch to for a while.

I got to Rocky Fork State Park soon after noon and explained my problem to the woman at the registration desk.  She said this campground has 4 spaces set aside for walk-ins and 2 of them are already taken from now to Memorial Day.  So of course I grabbed one of the others and paid for a week's stay.  The majority of the campsites are empty right now, but the ones surrounding me are already occupied - with people with dogs, wouldn't you know.  It's not an ideal spot - not a vestige of shade, for instance, with a week of warm days predicted - but it's close to the entrance so it looks like we can get to a place with room enough for us to walk without parading past a bunch of dogs, so I can't complain.

Ohio - Days 19 & 20

Scioto Trail State Park
Sunday, 19 and Monday, 20 May 2019

I spent both these days in the campground, the name of which I think is pronounced sy-OH-toh.

It's a fairly small campground, and when I was choosing a camping site online, I chose one at the beginning of the campground, rather than one of those deeper in.  I've learned that when I pick a nice spot at the end of a cul-de-sac, and we have to walk past the dogs at all the other campsites just to get somewhere we can walk, it doesn't work.  Both my dogs go nuts when they see other dogs.  I've learned to pick a spot where I can walk past the fewest campsites and still get somewhere where there's room to walk.  And it turned out to be a valid concern because a whole lot of people had dogs, including all those in spaces around us.

In this campground, I was in space #1, near the camp store and the boat ramp and the fishing lake.  It would have been a good spot except that lake turns out to be a very productive fishing spot, and Gracie's fear of little kids has gotten worse.  She now doesn't wait for them to start shrieking or crying; she freaks out and tries desperately to get away when she even sees one, even from a distance.  And little kids like to fish.  So Saturday after we got here and all day Sunday were tough for her on walks.  We didn't get any peace until Monday after most people had left.

most spaces were taken when we arrived Saturday afternoon; this photo was on Monday; the lake is in the background

Oddly, even though by Monday there were only 2 other campers left in the park, there were at least 4 kids, all riding bicycles and yelling at each other as they rode along.  I had to time our walks until they'd gone in to eat supper or something.  Gracie's psychotic.  And there's nothing I can do about it while we're on the road.  Maybe never.

This is an odd little campground.  There's only a very few water spigots, and none at the campsites.  There're no showers.  I couldn't find any TV stations.  We're in a sort of valley so I'm not getting any cell phone reception or wifi reception.  The campground has a wifi signal, so that kept me from cracking up.

Of course there aren't any flush toilets, but the latrines weren't like any I'd seen.They're easily handicap-accessible because the floor of the latrine is the same concrete slab it's sitting on.  There's one toilet inside and it looks like a regular toilet but doesn't flush water.

 On the back side is a port where the pumpout service hooks up.  I didn't see a brand name anywhere.  When I asked the guy from Bud's Septic Tank Cleaning where these are made he didn't know but said they're very common in this part of the state, which seemed to be all he knew.

By Monday, I could extend my right arm a lot more than I had but still had no strength in it.  Good to see I'm improving, though it's a real nuisance not to be doing it faster.  To compensate, when I walk the dogs I hold both leashes together with both hands wrapped around each other, and I hold them up to my chest, both of which make me stronger and able to hang onto the dogs even when they charge at each other and wrestle for a bit.

Brown-headed Cowbird

I saw a flock of black birds that weren't Red-winged Blackbirds so I looked them up.  The only one I could find in the bird book that was the right size and could reasonably be expected to be in Ohio right now is the Brown-Headed Cowbird.

What gave me pause is that I didn't see the brown head on any of them, but it was the only one that could fit, so I guess I was just looking from the wrong angle or in the wrong light. 

It also gave me pause because the bird book says they're parasitic - they're like the Cuckoo and lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.  A female can travel up to 4 miles through woodlands to lay several dozen eggs during a season.  I'm not a fan of this habit because I know Cuckoos can kill the baby birds that belong in that nest and take all the food for itself, which is a pretty ugly thing for a guest to do.  I assume the cowbirds do the same thing. 

What I saw was a flock of at least 9 or 10.  How do they know how to get together if they're not raised with others of their species?

On Monday morning I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go next and suddenly realized next weekend is Memorial Day weekend.  As much as most Americans look forward to their 3-day holiday weekends, that's how much I loathe 3-day holiday weekends.  For those of us who are full-timing RV living (and there are a lot of us), these are a real problem because everybody and his aunt Lillian wants to go camping.

So instead of looking for someplace to stay tomorrow night, I started looking for someplace to stay next Friday-Monday.  And what I learned is that almost every single space with electric hookups in every single Ohio state campground is already reserved.  There were only 2 exceptions: one campground still had 3 spaces available at equestrian sites (completely out of the question because both dogs flip out at the sight of horses), and most campgrounds also had several walk-in sites available.

I couldn't find anywhere that explained the procedure for how walk-in spaces could be allocated so decided I'd better get to a campground fairly early in the day tomorrow to get on a list or whatever it was.  I picked Rocky Fork State Park, a fairly large campground that has spaces available for the next few days and that's within a reasonable distance of Cincinnati, near which are several places I want to visit.  I'll head there tomorrow.

Once the campground here cleared out I was able to walk the dogs more during the daytime (we can go almost anywhere early in the morning, but are more limited the rest of the day).  There's a road on the backside of the campground that the ranger told me leads to a logging road that's closed now, so we walked out that way several times.

Today I saw in 2 separate locations 2 pairs of butterflies - all of them a beautiful glossy blue-black and all perched on the feces of some unknown source sitting on the roadway.  I was glad I saw the butterflies, in fact, because without them I might have stepped in the poop.  Because of this incident I found a funny website that explains butterflies eat poop, which is apparently what these 4 were doing.  mentalfloss.com/7-disgusting-things-butterflies-eat  When I looked closer, trying to figure it out for myself, I saw a whole batch of greeny-silvery flies crawling around on the feces.  Odd to think 2 little piles of poop could generate so much interest.

Ohio - Day 18 - Columbus

Scioto Trail State Park, near Chillicothe
Saturday, 18 May 2019

today's route

Columbus close-up

Yellow-throated Warbler

I was lucky and started the day with a visitor on my picnic table: a Yellow-throated Warbler.  Really pretty.  And nice of him to hang around long enough for me to get a good look at him.

I was heading south to another state park today, with several sightseeing stops in Columbus, the state capital.

On the road
I started picking up even more religious radio stations than usual in the central part of the state.  I've noticed in a number of states that many of them are on the part of the radio dial (back when there was a dial) where the NPR stations are usually found, which is why I keep finding them.  Today I listened for a while until the speaker explained that liberals don't believe in freedom of religion.  Her proof?  That liberals don't want private schools to fire homosexual teachers.

As I was leaving a highway rest area, I saw a sign saying, "Buckle Up.  This may be your last chance."  I got in the habit of using my seatbelt back when I was teaching my teenage stepchildren to drive and decided it was a habit worth keeping.

Ohio has areas along the highways designated as Truck Parking.  The one I passed this morning had 20 semis and a tanker truck parked there.  My guess is that these separate areas unclog the parking lots at rest areas.

The Ohio Highway Patrol uses silver cars, and I've noticed that these are very unobvious - not easily identifiable in your review mirror.

There were long stretches of road where I couldn't find an NPR station, and I got tired of the religious and country music stations, so I had plenty of silence to think in.  The deep philosophical result of that was to notice that Ohio's major cities are: Columbus, Cleveland, Chillicothe, Cincinnati - and Dayton & Toledo?  What?  Did they run out of C names?

Topiary Park
In Columbus I once more planned my own route, with interesting results.  First I took a detour past something I'd seen on the map labeled Topiary Park.  I found the park easily but could only see one piece of topiary work from the street.  Even if the dogs and I had gotten out to walk around, I don't think I'd have appreciated it as much in real life as I can from other people's photos.  The park is said to be a recreation of Georges Sarat's famous painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte," which of course I'd never heard of.  But when I looked up the painting, I recognized it right away.  The re-creation is impressive, isn't it?

Sarat's painting

Topiary Park

The park is on grounds that used to belong to the Ohio Deaf School.  When it was established in 1829, it was one of only 5 in the US.  There's a historical marker on the grounds now.

Ohio Statehouse
It would be hard to say whether I had the most trouble driving in Columbus because of the construction blockages and detours or the road closures due to the 2019 Komen Columbus Race for the Cure (for which hundreds of people turned out).

Ohio's Statehouse

A good chunk of downtown was closed because of one or the other, especially the chunk around the Statehouse.  I'd really wanted to see this building because it's different from any capitol I've seen so far and was sorry to miss it.  I've included an online photo so you can see what I mean.  Different, isn't it?

Recycling
I was really proud of myself for being able to find an alternate route to get to the Aquatic Center north of downtown.  Of course, I wasn't interested in swimming but in the recycle bins I'd read were in their parking lot.

Ohio doesn't seem much more interested in recycling than West Virginia was, and that was starting to be a real problem for me.  I still had recycling that had accumulated since the middle of last month, and now I'm halfway through this month with no places to dump it.  And I just haven't been able to bring myself to throw it all into the trash bins.  But the only extra storage space I have in the RV is behind the toilet in my bathroom, so you can see the accumulation might be a problem.

It took me quite a while online to figure out where I could take it - I don't think in computer terms so don't search for the right things - but I finally learned that many Ohioans are able to recycle through their local trash collection programs and, for the rest of us, there are publicly available bins in a few locations around the state.  And one of those locations was supposed to be at this Aquatic Center, so by gum I wasn't going to let a little thing like construction blockages and detours discourage me.  And I found it.

Turns out the Aquatic Center is a very popular place on Saturday mornings and I couldn't find a parking place.  But seeing my goal (aka the bins) right in front of me, I had no hesitation in parking where I wasn't supposed to.  And got rid of 3 bags worth of paper and bottles and plastic and metal.  What a relief.

What's more, I managed to get past a few more detours to get back onto the highway to get out of town.

Back on the road
At a rest area near Chillicothe (the final e isn't silent) I saw a sign saying Route 23 (which I was on) has been designated United Spanish War Veterans Memorial Highway.  This struck me as odd.  The Spanish-American War?  The Spanish Civil War? Weren't they both a really long time ago so unlikely too many veterans alive to be memorialized?  (1898 and 1936-39, respectively)  But when I looked up the highway, I found almost nothing about it online.  I did find an article that said the reasons behind the special designations given Ohio highways have mostly been lost in time.  There's not even a legislative paper trail to follow.  Apparently including this one.

I've been seeing increasing numbers of hills on the horizon as I've gone south.  There are still plenty of farms, but there's a lot less flat land in the south of Ohio than in the north.

I passed an area with a sign saying it was an ODOT Pollinator Habitat Area.  So of course I had to look that up and am glad I did.

I didn't know what milkweed looks like, so I found this

The state DOT has begun a limited project of planting native prairie plant species along rights-of-way intending to restore habitat and food sources for pollinators.  They say there's still a strong agrarian contribution to Ohio's economy, and crops need pollinators.  They're especially trying to encourage monarch butterflies, which are endangered.  The DOT plans its mowing schedule around monarch migration patterns.  Incidentally, they've found they're saving about $1.8 million by not mowing as often as they usually do. 

ODOT did have a wildflower program but found the wildlife population actually decreased.  That's when they switched to this predator habitat project.  I found an interesting article online from a woman in Wisconsin who has many different kinds of milkweed in her garden and some very picky monarchs.   https://monarchsandmilkweed.com It sounds like gardeners would want to experiment with a variety when trying to promote monarch habitat.

You never know what you'll learn when you drive down our country's highways.

Ohio - Day 17 - Berlin: Amish country

Mt. Gilead State Park
Friday, 17 May 2019

today's route

I'm sorry to report that my right arm is still essentially not usable.  I can't lift it and can't use it for most things.  Apparently the muscles that got strained are very important muscles for day-to-day living.

A complication is that I have what I think is bursitis in my left elbow and have had for months.  A few weeks ago it started hurting with even the slightest touch, making my left arm not quite as helpful as it would otherwise be.  And it means it's harder for me to find a comfortable position to sleep in, with both arms being so sensitive.

Combined with that persistent tiredness that I'm still experiencing, I've been having a tough time of it recently.  I decided that since I now know the tiredness isn't caused by an ulcer, I need to assume I'm anemic and eat more iron.  So yesterday when I stopped at a grocery store I bought some spinach to replace the lettuce I'd been going to buy, and I'll see if that helps.  And I'm paying more attention to the iron content of the foods I'm eating.  Probably just need more sleep.

Today my goal was the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center in Berlin (pronounced BURR-lynn).  Turns out my online directions were nearly useless.  Roads said to have a state or county route number and a name didn't seem to exist; several routes were under construction and detours went miles and miles out of the way; several roads weren't labeled at all.

Even when I finally found Berlin, I stopped at the local Fire/EMS Station, figuring they'd be bound to know where the road was, only to find inside a group of Amish women with their hands deep in bowls of cole slaw.  Only one of them knew where the Heritage Center was.  As I left I saw the sign: Fish Fry tonight 4-8 PM.  Very sorry I won't be here.

The highway sign said Berlin is the ♥ of the world's largest Amish community.  I saw many horse-and-buggy outfits on the roads.  I ended up behind one myself at one point and didn't have the nerve to pass, but at another time I saw a big tractor-trailer pass one going uphill.

Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center

trivets that become baskets

explaining the trivet intricacies

These trivets were among the many handcrafts displayed in the lobby of the heritage center.

The primary focus of this center, and the primary reason I came, is an incredible mural they have.  They charged $8.75 for a tour, and it'd have been nearly useless to look at it without the guide.  They wouldn't let us take photos, so you might want to check out this link for at least a glimpse of the thing.  http://behalt.com/behalt-cyclorama/  The only artist was Heins Gaugle.

The mural runs all the way around the room - there's no obvious beginning or ending, except the guide showed us that it starts with the beginning of Christianity, and includes events like the Crusades, the printing of the Gutenberg Bible, the Church's 15th century selling of indulgences, and Martin Luther, but I was most interested in learning about these unusual religious orders.  Here's a nutshell version.

In 1522 in Switzerland, a small group of Christians began a study group that compared Latin, Hebrew and Greek versions of the New Testament.  They came to believe that the practice of mandatory infant baptism was wrong, that baptism shouldn't happen until a person was old enough to be able to make the choice for himself.  The first documented adult baptism occurred in 1523.  The government labeled them pejoratively as Anabaptists, those who were re-baptized.

By 1527 there was full-scale persecution of these folks, including death sentences.  Some escaped to Austria, some to the Netherlands, some to what's now the Czech Republic.  In 1537, a man named Menno Simons was asked to be a leader and he was especially noteworthy for seeking out the scattered followers and not just preaching to them but actually uniting them.  The government called his followers Mennonites, and he and his wife lived the rest of their lives in hiding.

In 1605 Europe was overrun by Turks, who found the Hutterites - those of these folks who were living in the Czech Republic - to be easy targets: they lived communally and were committed to non-violence.  There were few survivors.

By 1660 the government halted public executions of these folks, but children were taken into State custody and men were sold into slavery (I don't know what happened to the women).

In 1682, William Penn invited them to move to his land in the New World.  A hundred years later, Catherine the Great invited some to move to Russia - she promised religious freedom in exchange for them being willing to farm there.  When the military draft's religious exemption for pacifism was revoked, Mennonites and Hutterites emigrated to the US, bringing turkey red wheat with them.  This hardy grain became the primary wheat planted in the central plains states.

The religion continues to spread; for instance, there are almost as many Mennonites in Mexico as in the US.

In general, these three Christian denominations believe the same things, including adult baptism and pacifism.  Hutterites are still living communally, while the others are community-oriented but believe in private property rights.  The Amish use little of modern technology, while the other two are fully integrated technologically.  Similarly, the Amish stick to horse-and-buggy outfits while the others think tractors and cars are useful.  The Amish educate their children only to the 8th grade, while the other two want their children to be educated.  This difference in education leads to Amish children following careers as carpenters, caterers, timber harvesting and farming (though only about 30% are farmers).  Children of the other two denominations enter many varied fields of work.  Amish attend church in individual homes; Mennonites and Hutterites attend church in buildings designed for that purpose.

The area is home to about 280 church congregations.  Berlin is 80% Amish and Mennonite.  They use four different versions of the Bible in their worship services and study.

Women's bonnets are partly based on scripture and partly tradition.  Men's hats and the buggies are strictly tradition.  Many of their practises are simply tradition, not parts of their religious beliefs.  They find it a way of honoring who they are and what they believe, rather than prescribed by those beliefs.

The guide expressed some frustration that almost sounded like bitterness at the portrayal of their religion by the media and popular culture.  He said they're just people, no better or worse than anybody else.  They're not living idyllic lives, they're just living their culture.  He himself is Old Order Amish, which he said was a more conservative branch of the Amish denomination.

He covered much more ground than this and packed it all into less than an hour, talking very quickly so that I wished he'd slow down so I could take it in.  It was really interesting and I'm glad I braved the problems with getting there to do it.

As I walked the dogs around the grounds, I took a few more photos.

one-room schoolhouse

explains the school

pioneer barn built into hillside

explains the barn

Peace Oak - the sign explains it

More on the road
A primary business in this area seems to be cheese and I passed signs for at least 5 farms that advertised their cheese (Guggisberg claimed to have the #1 cheese in America).  The Holmes Cheese Co. is building a new, larger building and hiring workers.

The town of Sugarcreek claims to be the Little Switzerland of Ohio and says it has the world's largest cuckoo clock.  I'd have loved to check out all these things but I was already exhausted and still had to figure out how to get back to the campground.  Turns out there's heavy traffic in the area at 1 PM on a Friday afternoon.  I have no idea why.  This isn't exactly a metropolitan area.

I've been seeing lots of blooming things in the last couple of weeks (spring seems to be coming so much later here than in VA or WV).  Dogwoods are still beautiful, iris are really coming out, tulips, a law office had a large mass of blooming white azaleas.

Bridge of Dreams

As I neared the small town of Brinkhaven, I knew to look for something called Bridge of Dreams.  I'd expected to see it on this morning's drive, until I got detoured or rerouted in some way.  This time I saw it.

Except that all the leaves I saw were green green instead of fall brown, this is what I saw.  It's a 370' covered bridge.  Its highway sign says it's the longest in Ohio, but Wikipedia says it's actually #2 in Ohio, but it's the 3rd longest in the US.


I passed a lovely little place with a home and pond and ducks and beautiful horses and all looking very idyllic.  And a For Sale sign.

I saw a pair of Canada Geese feeding in a field with 3 downy little chicks.

I passed through the town of Mt. Vernon, which is actually quite large and obviously very old.  Founded in 1805, the buildings seem to date from around then, though it's all very nice and well-maintained.

I've been surprised to find not much litter along the roads of Ohio.  It's got multiple cross-country roads running through it, and then a whole maze of local roads crisscrossing it, but not much litter.  Either their adopt-a-highway program is very effective or Ohioans are much more responsible than Virginians (all the litter on their roads still hurts my feelings).