Ravenna, OH to Monroe, MI -- September 6 - 23, 2021

 Ravenna, OH to Monroe, MI

September 6 - 23, 2021

On Tuesday, September 7 we left Ravenna, OH and drove to Lima, OH.  We stayed the night at the Ottawa Metro Park campground.  It's $25 a night for full hookups but is first come first served.  Since we came in on a Tuesday it was no problem to get a site.  We would return!

On Wednesday, September 8 we drove to Goshen, IN for the Montana Fall Rally.  We were there for a week and had a great time.  There were lots of classes to attend, and several sponsors provided a meal for us.  There was a class on how to get out of your RV quickly in case of fire and it was really interesting.  They had the fire department there with an RV filled with smoke, a demonstration of how to properly use a fire extinguisher, we got to see a fire truck, and there was a vendor with fire extinguishers that explained what different types of extinguishers would put out and how long they would last.  We bought one that was larger and would last longer (and hope we never have to use it).

Our site for the week was a little tight, but that's the way it is sometimes.

One night we went to The Carriage House for an Amish dinner.  As usual it was delicious.  I think it's one of the highlights of the rally.

On Thursday, September 16 we drove to Monroe, MI and are staying at the William C. Sterling State Park for a week.  The park is on Lake Erie and actually not to far from the Canadian border on the lake.

We are using the park as home base while we visited The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.  This has been on our bucket list since we started watching Innovation Nation on TV.  We knew we would need a week and we were right.  We saw Greenfield Village on Friday and Saturday.

We started on the left side and did areas 1-5 on the first day.  It may not look like much but I got over 6,500 steps that day.  On the second day we did areas 6-7.  By the time we went in all the buildings and walked the streets I had over 6,500 steps that day too.  We also rode the horse drawn carriage, a Model T, and the train.

If you click on the signs you can find out if the buildings are reproductions or actual original buildings that have been moved to the Village.

Henry Firestone's home, barn and farm.

The roundhouse for the train.

The horse drawn carriage we rode in.

The Model T we rode in.

Here is the actual 15,000,000th Model T that Henry Ford produced.

The Orville and Wilbur Wright family home.

That was the first day.  The second day we did more of the houses section rather than the business section.

I asked if this is all the brighter the bulbs were and they said that they keep them turned down so they don't burn out.

Makes you appreciate our modern homes and conveniences.

Sunday we started on The Henry Ford Museum and saw the right side of the museum.

This engine was huge!

I would have liked to see this plow in action.

Who remembers these?

Then we moved on to the airplanes, although I didn't take as many pictures of those.

On Monday we toured the Ford Rouge plant where they make the Ford F-150.  Between the plant tour, the movies, and the view of the top of the plant it took us a couple of hours.  They plant a grass on top of the factory to keep it cooler in summer and warmer in winter.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the factory tour.

After we got back to the museum we started on the left side of the museum where the farm machinery is.

Remember these?

Then we looked at the Dymaxion House.  An idea that never caught on.  If you're interested in learning more here's a little about it - https://exhibits.stanford.edu/bucky/feature/what-is-a-dymaxion-house.

Tuesday we went back in the morning and finished what we hadn't already seen.  I didn't take quite as many pictures.

John's great-grand uncle Willard L. Bundy was a jeweler and watch maker.  He made one of the first time clocks.  The Bundy Time Clock Company was purchased by International Business Machines (IBM).

                                      How a Model T was made.

If you ever watch Innovation Nation this is where Mo stands with his not so real screen.

We saw some huge pieces of machinery that John understands but me not so much.  Very interesting though.

I remember using computers even older than this!

We saw the Rosa Parks bus.  Notice the picture of the restoration before and after.

I think at this point we have seen it all, and if we missed anything it wasn't intentional.  Everything in the museum was spotless, no dust to be seen anywhere.  Time to say goodbye to the museum.  It was a busy but so interesting 4-1/2 days.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

The weather for our visit was in the low 80s and high 70s, until today.  Now it's in the high 50s, raining and windy.  A good day to stay inside and relax!

Roving on...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".

Genesis 1:1

Home to Ravenna, OH -- August 23 - September 5, 2021

 Home to Ravenna, OH 

August 23 - September 5, 2021

We left home on Monday, August 23 and spent the night at the Natural Bridge/Lexington KOA.  It was a nice park and we would return.  My dad was traveling in his own car with us.

Tuesday, August 24 we arrived in Lititz, PA.  We visited a long time friend of my parents and us in Mt. Joy.  It was good to see her again.  Of course we also had lunch at the Bird-in-Hand Restaurant for their buffet.  I also visited a quilt store but (gasp!) didn't buy anything.  Since I had sprained both ankles two weeks before I was trying to keep them up so the swelling would go down and that didn't include long visits to quilt stores.  We stayed at a Boondockers Welcome location.  The hosts were super nice people and the site was roomy.  I didn't get a picture but here's one from the website.

On Friday we drove to Fayetteville, PA to the Chinquapin Campground in Caledonia State Park.  Site #8 had full hookups and was paved (narrowly) but not very level.  The sites were spaced nicely apart and were wooded.  Highway 30 was nearby but we really didn't notice it.  We would return.

We went to spend some time with John's sister's husband (John's sister has gone to be with the Lord).  We had dinner at Mazatlan Mexican restaurant Friday night and it was very good!  On Saturday we took the driving tour of Gettysburg.  Other than the Visitor Center and lunch we didn't get out of the truck because of my ankles, although I did find a quilt shop near the campground and made some purchases in a quick 20 minutes.

On Sunday we went to breakfast and church with our brother-in-law and then back to the 5th wheel for some Sunday afternoon rest.

Monday, August 30 we drove to South Fork, PA, near Johnstown.  We stayed at the 1889 Park Campground, which was very nice (full hookups) for $25 nite).  It was located at the bottom of where the lake used to be (see story below).

We came to celebrate my uncle's 96th birthday and see my cousin and her husband.  I hadn't seen my cousin for 30 years and it was fun to get to see her again and meet her husband.  Hopefully it won't be as long next time.

On Tuesday we visited the cemetery where my uncle and dad's grandparents and great-grandparents were buried.  Then we went to the top of the Incline for views of Johnstown.  The Incline was built to evacuate people to higher ground in case of another flood.  There were several more floods and the Incline was used, but nothing on the scale of the flood in 1889.  Unfortunately they are doing maintenance on the Incline until next year so while I have ridden it in the past we weren't able to ride it this time.

My dad, John and I went to the Johnstown Flood National Memorial and the Visitor Center.

Hunting and Fishing Club

Johnstown is located in a deep valley where the Stoneycreek and Little Conemaugh rivers join to form the Conemaugh River.  Between 1838 and 1853 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania built the South Fork Dam as part of a cross-state canal system.  Eventually canal systems were abandoned in favor of railroads.  The lake and dam were sold to private parties.  Henry Clay Frick led a group of speculators, including Benjamin Ruff, from Pittsburgh to purchase the abandoned reservoir, modify it, and convert it into a private resort lake for their wealthy associates. Many were connected through business and social links to Carnegie Steel. Development included lowering the dam to make its top wide enough to hold a road, and putting a fish screen in the spillway (the screen also trapped debris). These alterations are thought to have increased the vulnerability of the dam. Moreover, a system of relief pipes and valves, a feature of the original dam, and previously sold off for scrap, was not replaced, so the club had no way of lowering the water level in the lake in case of an emergency. The members built cottages and a clubhouse to create the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an exclusive and private mountain retreat. Membership grew to include more than 50 wealthy Pittsburgh steel, coal, and railroad industrialists.  In May of 1889 it rained 11 days out of the month.  On May 31, after 3 days of rain, the dam started to bulge.  Despite efforts to safely release water, between 2:50 and 2:55 p.m. the South Fork Dam breached.  A LiDAR analysis of the Conemaugh Lake basin reveals that it contained 3.843 billion gallons of water at the moment the dam collapsed.  Modern dam-breach computer modeling reveals that it took approximately 65 minutes for most of the lake to empty after the dam began to fail.  The water raced down the Conemaugh River and headed for Johnstown, 14 miles away.  On the way whole towns were erased.  The flood surge hit the Cambria Iron Works at the town of Woodvale, sweeping up railroad cars and barbed wire. Of Woodvale's 1,100 residents, 314 died in the flood. Boilers exploded when the flood hit the Gautier Wire Works, causing black smoke seen by the Johnstown residents. Miles of its barbed wire became entangled in the debris in the flood waters. It took 57 minutes for the 40' high wall of water to reach Johnstown.  At Johnstown, the Stone Bridge, which was a substantial arched structure, carried the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Conemaugh River. The debris carried by the flood formed a temporary dam at the bridge, resulting in the flood surge rolling upstream along the Stoney Creek River. Eventually, gravity caused the surge to return to the dam, causing a second wave to hit the city, but from a different direction. Some people who had been washed downstream became trapped in an inferno as the debris piled up against the Stone Bridge caught fire; at least 80 people died there. The fire at the Stone Bridge burned for three days. After floodwaters receded, the pile of debris at the bridge was seen to cover 30 acres, and reached 70 feet in height. It took workers three months to remove the mass of debris, the delay owing in part to the huge quantity of steel barbed wire from the ironworks entangled with the wreckage. Dynamite was eventually used. Still standing and in use as a railroad bridge, the Stone Bridge is a landmark associated with survival and recovery from the flood.  The official death toll was 2,208.  According to records compiled by The Johnstown Area Heritage Association, bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati, and as late as 1911; 99 entire families died in the flood, including 396 children; 124 women and 198 men were widowed; 98 children were orphaned; and one third of the dead, 777 people, were never identified; their remains were buried in the "Plot of the Unknown" in Grandview Cemetery in Westmont.  In the years following the disaster, some people blamed the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club for their modifications to the dam and failure to maintain it properly. The club had bought and redesigned the dam to turn the area into a vacation retreat in the mountains. They were accused of failing to maintain the dam properly, so that it was unable to contain the additional water of the unusually heavy rainfall.  The club was successfully defended by the firm of Knox and Reed (later Reed Smith LLP), whose partners Philander Knox and James Hay Reed were both Club members. The Club was never held legally responsible for the disaster. Knox and Reed successfully argued that the dam's failure was a natural disaster which was an Act of God, and no legal compensation was paid to the survivors of the flood.  Nonetheless, individual members of the club, millionaires in their day, contributed to the recovery. Along with about half of the club members, co-founder Henry Clay Frick donated thousands of dollars to the relief effort in Johnstown. After the flood, Andrew Carnegie, then known as an industrialist and philanthropist, built the town a new library.

You can still see the sides of the dam.  While we were in the visitor center it started raining so we didn't get pictures.

On Wednesday we went to my uncle's favorite Chinese buffet restaurant to celebrate his 96th birthday.

My dad left for home after lunch and got there the next afternoon.

It had been raining all night and day and I got a picture of the Conemaugh River on our way back to the campground.  It was high here but almost overflowing its banks in St. Michael.

On Thursday, September 2 we drove to Ravenna, OH to the Country Acres Campground.  We didn't want to travel on the Labor Day weekend.  Being a holiday weekend it's crowded but we are thankful to find this because it was the only thing available when I made reservations on June 22.  It's a good place to camp if you have children as they have lots of activities here.

The swelling is going down in my ankles so I can see them again.  Saturday we went to get groceries, we've done laundry and changed the bed, and tomorrow we clean.  Life isn't always rainbows and unicorns when you're on the road but I'll take it any day!

Roving on...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".

Genesis 1:1