June 20, Ohio. Fairfield to Dayton

 June 20, 2016  Monday

Happy Birthday, Greg! We talked with both Bryan and Matt yesterday and Mom called with her Happy Birthday rendition.  Lots of good wishes on FB too.

Good night’s rest.  We decide to do a little laundry, as they have a guest laundry area here at the hotel and we can hang out in the room.  We watch the news and plan the next few days in Ohio while having  coffee and some tasty pastries from downstairs.

Two spots we had hoped to visit in Cincinnati are closed Mondays, so we move on to Jungle Jim’s International Market in nearby Fairfield. 

It is an immense complex of 285,000 square feet and includes 1400 different cheeses, 1.5 acres of produce and over 400 kinds of beer.  There are international food sections for many countries, including some odd ones like Bosnia and South Africa.

And there is a section with dishes, cookware, appliances, etc.  Would be fun to shop if we had a kitchen but as it is we buy just a few staples and some grits.  We are thinking of making shrimp and grits at Gwynne’s.

Throughout the store there are animated displays, as a stated goal of the owner is to make grocery shopping fun.

 Prices seem  reasonable.  This whole thing began as an outdoor produce market in 1971 by a recent college grad whose parents thought he was nuts.  Hasn’t done badly!

Next stop is the National Museum of the Air Force, in Dayton.   It is a million square feet in 4 different hanger/buildings – all air-conditioned (Yeah!).  A pleasant volunteer named David gives us a map and explains the layout.  There is also an Imax theater, small café and gift shop.

We decide to go to the last hanger first, which houses experimental and unique aircraft.  Many are one of a kind or one of a few produced and some were from the early age of aircraft.  There are some odd shapes and sizes, as they experimented with sizes, shapes, power, etc.  This one had forward thrusting wings,

  Another was developed to take off vertically.

 Some were failures, some worked but not well enough, some had funding cut.  It was easy to see how some could be identified as UFO’s – especially this Australian number!

Next hanger had many missiles and a mock-up of the space shuttle that you could walk through and four presidential Air Force One's....from FDR, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Next was the Korea era and Southeast Asia,  the cold war era, followed by World Wars I and II.  Couldn’t help wondering what our Dads and my brother flew in when they were in the service.  There were Japanese zeros, German Messerschmidts , and French, Australian and other aircraft as well as US.

There was also an exhibit on Bob Hope and his entertaining the troops, which included entertaining film footage.

We were “planed out” by the end, but pleasantly so.  The Air Force pays for ½ of the upkeep of this museum and the other half is funded by admissions, the Imax and some simulator rides.

 Greg got a kick out of the various artwork on the planes.

From the museum, we headed east to Xenia and then north to Yellow Springs and Clifton Gorge.  We walked about a mile trail through Clifton Gorge nature preserve. 

Photos were difficult as it was late in the day and very shady to boot.  A few signs gave some history, such as a spot where Daniel Boone and another man in his party escaped from Indians.  Once again we see work by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

There are supposed to be some covered bridges in the area but we didn’t see anything – will research more tonight.  We went to an Applebee’s for dinner and then found a quiet spot at Walmart.

June 18 Driving KY, IN, June 19 Louisville

June 18, Saturday  Driving, driving, driving...

Only 70 degrees this morning...ahhhhh.  Even a little chilly when I got out of the shower - nice change!  There is a bit of a breeze as well!

To celebrate the cooler weather, we have a nice relaxing breakfast of blueberry pancakes, bacon and an orange, plus coffee under the tall trees.

We travel into Kentucky and take the Audubon Parkway, which we thought would be scenic and slow, but it is 70mph limited access so folks are flying.  Nice scenery.  We end at Owensboro, where we stop at their library for a while.  Beth blogs, Greg reads and we catch up on computer stuff. Nice library and fast internet!

We continue east and cross the Ohio river into Indiana.   We are in the Hoosier National Forest and find a good campsite at Saddle Lake.

 It is more of a fishing lake than swimming and has about 10 free campsites, only three of which are occupied.  We relax and have cheese 'n' crackers and soup for dinner.  Quiet and nice breeze.  Took a total of 4 photos today!  All time low, I think!

June 19, Sunday  Happy Father's Day!

We wake early, have a quick breakfast of cereal and fruit,

and head back into Kentucky, to Louisville.  Our first stop, since it is rather early, is Cave Hill Cemetery - a Victorian era cemetery established in 1848.  It is a huge place with 17,000 graves and 25 miles of road.  We are given a map which highlights the most popular monuments and graves.  Muhammad Ali's is most recent - no headstone or monument yet, but lots of flowers and items left in tribute.

  There are some gorgeous fountains and monuments.

 One mausoleum has a picture of the Last Supper painted on it's rear window.
 Another well-known person buried here is Colonel Harlan Sanders of KFC fame.

 One section is also dedicated to civil war and other military soldiers - so beautiful and sad.

Then we head into town, find a parking place and visit the Louisville Slugger factory.  Fun place!

 They have a film "The Heart of the Game" which is mostly about great hitters in baseball (and the importance of the bat, of course).  They say that of all sports the most difficult thing to do is hit a baseball. We then take a 30 minute tour of the factory where they make 2-5,000 bats per day!  They started in 1884 and made bats by hand until 1980. It used to take 30 minutes to make one bat, and now it only takes 30 seconds!

The name Louisville Slugger came from the nickname of a Louisville player named Pete Browning, who was the first player they made bats for.   Many players have bats made specifically for them, 10-20 per season, for which the teams pay.  Lots of displays of famous players and their bats, all of which have their signatures.

 They use either ash or maple, mostly ash, from Pennsylvania and New York. 80% of the hitters in the Hall of Fame used Louisville Sluggers.  Maple is more brittle, breaks more easily but some players prefer it.  At the end of the tour we get small size Louisville Slugger bats - Greg gets a special edition black one which also says "Happy Father's Day".

From here, we walk a few blocks to the Muhammad Ali Center, where an escalator takes you to the 4th floor for an introductory film.

 Well done, it shows several sides of Ali, from the brash, young, vocal Casius Clay (presented as a "ring" personna, not his true personality)who was totally dedicated to being a champion from age 12 and worked very hard to accomplish his dreams, to the gentle soft-spoken humanitarian he grew into.  Part of the work at the Center is to encourage people, young and old, to work hard and follow their dreams.

The Olympic torch Ali carried.

Each floor has displays, videos and stories.  My favorite is how he got started in boxing.... his prized bicycle was stolen when he was 12 and he told the policeman he reported it to that he'd like to "whup" whoever stole it.  That policeman, Officer Joe Martin, happened to be a youth boxing coach and asked him  if he knew how to fight, and invited him to come work out.

  It was a difficult world for Ali, who won a gold medal for the US but was still refused seating in many restaurants in his country.  His conversion to Islam and his conscientious objection to the draft are covered , as well as his foreign humanitarian travel.

The final display on the 1st floor showed a collection of Leroy Neiman paintings, most of Ali.

From Louisville, we head north.  Before we cross the Ohio River again into Cincinnati, we stop at a Holiday Inn near the airport.  Our luxury to celebrate Father's Day AND Greg's birthday tomorrow and to watch the NBA final game!

We have a nice dinner at the Greyhound Tavern, recommended by the hotel desk person.  We had a Father's Day Buffet with some excellent shrimp, fish, chicken and more.  Beth especially liked the warm butterscotch bread pudding dessert!

The NBA game was a great one and our team, Cleveland, won.  We suspect they will still be celebrating when we get there in a few days!

The Beatles, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, June 17

Friday, June 17 Arkansas – Missouri- Illinois

The Fantastic Fan in the Trek has provided the only breeze for the past few days.  It is 75 degrees at 7:15 this morning!

We head east this morning to the small town of Walnut Ridge.  We have been enjoying lots of wildflowers in Arkansas, including tons of Queen Anne’s Lace.  In combination with blue cornflowers, it reminds me of summers growing up in PA.

We pass one small area of kudzu – didn’t know it had made it this far!  We have also seen several barn quilts, which we first saw in Wisconsin but have seen many other places too.  They are such a nice pick-me-up boost of color.

Lots of rice fields in this area.

We stop in Walnut Ridge to see a silhouette memorial of the Beatles, who visited here in 1964. 

They had a one day break in their US tour and wanted to go somewhere they wouldn’t be mobbed.  The man who arranged the tour had a dude ranch near here, so they flew into Walnut Ridge.  It was one of the few airports in the area that could handle a jet because it is a former military airport.

There is a nearby shop called “Imagine” after John Lennon’s song and it looked interesting to me, so we popped in. 

The owner, Carrie Mae Snapp, was there and it didn’t take long before she began the story of those few days.  She was a fantastic, animated story teller! 

She was 14 at the time and she spent at least ½ hour telling how she and some friends broke into their plane (well, she couldn’t fit in the narrow emergency door opening, so had to watch through a window.)  Her friend sat in every seat on the plane so she could say she sat where the Beatles sat.  She stole a pillow for Carrie (which her Dad made her turn in to the sheriff the next day, saying the Beatles had put her on a path to a life of crime).  She is sure someone at the sheriff’s office kept this piece of memorabilia and resents the heck out of it.

Anyway, she was fabulous and did get to touch George Harrison’s elbow as the foursome returned to the jet on a Sunday morning. Not exactly a mob, but about 20 people learned of their presence and showed up.  She had photos (blown up) that her Dad had taken on a little Brownie camera too.  Too many hilarious notes – like how she wore her Easter dress that day in case Paul McCartney saw a chubby 14-year old in a pretty dress and fell in love. Or how she and her friends were wafting “Beatle Air”, thrilled to be sharing anything with the fab four.  I told her she should record her story, which also involved other family members: her mother pouring coffee at a café for the pilot of the plane and trying to milk information from him,  her dad admitting that the Beatles might not be Methodists and allowing the family to miss  Church that Sunday morning, and a cousin who was offered a swig of whiskey by the Beatles on the tarmac (he said he put it to his mouth, but didn’t drink any – followed by a comment about Bill Clinton not inhaling.)  “We Arkansanians are pretty conservative, but we like to have a good time with friends. “

From “Imagine”, we went over a street to a memorial to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Highway 67, which was a popular route for traveling musicians and saw the likes of Elvis, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and more.

Got gas and wine in the next large town east, Paragould, then continued to the Missouri state line.  The rice fields are gone, replaced by lots of sorghum and corn fields as we pass into Illinois about two hours later. We called the Shawnee National Forest station and got directions to a nice campground called Oak Point at Glendale Lake.  The campground and beach were run by concessionaire and campsites were spacious.  There was a fee to use the beach, which was closing as we arrived. 

Temperatures cooled and it was delightful to be outside among the tall trees.  Millions of trees this trip and surprisingly a majority are hardwood, though there are some pines.  Celebrated with a small campfire as the almost-full moon rose and once again the lightning bugs put on a show. 

Experimented with some fire and moon pictures.  None of the National Forest campgrounds have had cell service, but we manage quite well nonetheless.

Moon edged by leaves

Nice showers – everything is very well maintained.  We enjoyed our rotisserie chicken, carrots and a Reese’s Cup for dessert.  What a diet! Lovely quiet night.