things of interest in Ohio

We add Ohio.
One of the things we noticed on entering Ohio was the number of truckers. And almost as plentiful were police. In the first 15 miles we saw 4 people stopped and that was only the beginning.




The tree across the road fell after we passed that area looking for Lock 11. We never found that one due to the tree so we settled for Lock 10
Lock 10 is part of a lock system on the Muskingum River. These manually-operated locks are similar to those built throughout the United States before the turn of the century. http://www.ohiodnr.com/parks/parks/muskngmr.htm
Opened in 1841, the system provided navigable waterways from Marietta to Lake Erie.



Zane’s Trace is part of the National Road and was built in 1828. The National Road was authorized in 1804 as the “New State Road”. At this point you could see 5 major roads into Ohio.



The tree lined street was on the road to the campgrounds where we stayed. Most of the roads are like this if you do not take the freeways.

other bridges in Ohio

The Covered bridge was built in 1876 – 5 ton limit

The single lane bridge was interesting as you have to honk to go through as it is on a curve. At 10 ft 7 we could not go through this with the coach - & it is important to know where they are.

The rest of the bridges had no information on them but were of interest as they are all different.
The suspension bridge is no longer in use.
The wooden bridge goes over a railroad tracks and you can not see anyone coming from the other side. Bill thinks it would have been fun to take the coach over that one. The arch bridge is a welcome to Ohio Bridge

Neat bridges in Ohio

The “S” Bridge built in 1830 was part of the National Road






The “Y” Bridge the first one built in 1813 and rebuilt several times this one in 1984
Note the lights/arrow on the top of the bridge.

sights in/around Ohio

Trabant 601 S “Delux” was a car built in the “Cold War” the communist used East Berlin as a showcase for the succcess of socialism.The car was a stark example of how it failed to provide the promised workers paradise. It was a 2 cylinder, 2 stroke engine with about 28 horse power.
The body was made of compressed plastic and cotton panels attached to a galvanized steel chasis. After reunification of the two Berlins the company could not compete in a free market with such an inferior product and the last one was assembled in 1991.



a couple of planes from the museum


A trip to the National Air Force Museum

on to Illinois and Indiana

We add Illinois and Indiana today. We stayed went through Beloit on the 10th. This city is noted as half way between the equator and the North Pole. We visited with Bill’s brother in Illinois and then on to Indiana.

We stayed in a campground in Attica IN just one night due to a big noisy bug, the Chicada. It has a 17 yr cycle and we hit it at the wrong time. It sounds like millions of crickets chirping at the same time. The noise was enough to drive you out. But we looked over the town before we left. Neat old town, the old town photos are all Attica.
We also saw the remains of a bridge that now serves as a garden of sorts.

Odds anyone! What are the chances of parking in a campsite right next to your twin rig? That is what happened in KOA Chicago west. They were from Kansas and had a rig made 2 months after ours. On leaving the area we experienced a deer crossing the freeway in front of the coach. Fortunately we missed the deer and it cleared our side of the freeway.

Unfortunately we have experienced that same noisy bug in the next couple of areas also.

We headed through Indiana and decided to spend a couple of days in Greenfield. Nice campgrounds and close enough to Indianapolis so we went to the state fair. It was fun but hot. We also celebrated Bill’s birthday today.

We are on to Dayton Ohio tomorrow and a stop at the Wright-Patterson Air Force museum.

leaving Minnesota

We left Minnesota for Wisconsin on the 10th and stopped in Taylors Falls MN before crossing the state line. Saw a really neat farm that has a small windmill and covered bridge as part of his landscape. Amazing what you can do when you have acres of land.

Taylors Falls has natural potholes. These were caused when a glacier melted causing fast river flow which caused rocks to swirl in the river wearing on the rocks. When a small one was caught in a larger hole it swirled rapidly leaving some deep potholes. It is not known how deep some of them are. One we saw was 60 ft deep and about 10 ft across. The river was the St Croix (the dam now harnesses the power). Also saw a rock climbing class in action.

We passed through a couple of towns that have hanging plants in bloom on all light posts, very pretty.

We also saw by a street sign in Chetek that they are apparently liberal democrats.

The “Great Pumpkin” lives on. We found it on top of a silo in Wisconsin.

On to Illinois & Indiana.

Wild life in MN

We saw a great array of wildlife in Minnesota, everything from the Blue Heron to the Bald Eagle. Geese & ducks, the state bird the Loon, and storks, we also saw Sand Hill Cranes.
We saw several deer. One in our headlights on the way home, fortunately we did not hit it. Nor did we hit the one that ran across the freeway headed toward the Chicago area after we resumed our travels.
Bill went fishing with an old high school friend and they caught lots of fish. The Walleye is generally a large fish and one most people want to catch. However, seeing Bill’s first Walleye, I am sure you can see why he practiced catch and release. Our friends have a place on Knife Lake, as shown in the photo it is quite large. You would expect big fish from a big lake but that is not necessarily the case. But the Crappie they caught were very good. They did catch some Walleye that they could keep later in there fishing adventures.

This was great as it kept Bill busy while I spent a month with my mom. I think a great time was had by all. Now on to Illinois and into Indiana.