Road Trip 2021 - Dayton OH

As I mentioned in the previous post we left Denver with the intent of making good time to Dayton.  Well we did pretty good, but take a couple hours for a stop in Hannibal MO.  The home of Mark Twain and Molly Brown.  We were here before in August 2017 and did all the sightseeing then, but missed taking a river boat ride.

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We can now cross that off the ToDo list :)  I’m glad we did it, but the whole time I’m thinking more of the chores ahead than the beauty of the Mississippi River.  Perhaps more references to Twain’s writings would have kept my interest better.  No mention of the ‘Cave’ nor ‘Injun Joe’ as the boat passed those sites.  But quite a bit of time was spent on ‘Lover’s Leap’.

We arrived at Fran’s childhood home a little behind schedule.

The  A/C was not working.  It's hot, it's humid, it's not at all comfortable to me.  It was a no-brainer to have that repaired quick.  Five Star did some testing and was out the next day with a new unit.  Whew!

The master bedroom with stained gray carpet and pink walls .. keep or change?

The bathroom is fair, but dated and needs a good cleanup. 

The kitchen isn’t all that bad, but needs a facelift.

The hearth is missing from the living room fireplace.

And the hallway?  The upstairs bathroom leaked!  And damaged the lath-and-plaster ceiling and walls.

If these repairs are not demanding enough on our time, nephew Joey and Kathy were married during Covid, but are having a reception in her hometown of Niagara.  It’s 450 miles one way ... just-a-day-away!  We’re there!

We’ve enjoyed Niagara Falls before and again camped at Four Mile Creek State Park.  We had a great site with Lake Ontario just across the grass. 

As before we were directed to Lot #3 on Goat Island for RV parking.  With a limited amount of time we decided to walk the island, last time we took the shuttle to the main sights off the island, on both the US and Canada side.

From Goat Island the tops of Bridalveil and American Falls are seen.  There’s a long line to ride the Maid of the Mist on the bridge.  Fran did that last time while I did a rim hike.  She says I had the better option.

Horseshoe Falls is the big draw.  It’s better viewed from the Canadian side.

The reception was held at Kin Loch Farmstead.  Am awesome informal barn and outdoor setting.

In my previous post we met Lucca while we were in the Denver area. Now Grandpa Joe is meeting her for the first time.

Meet Joey and Kathy with his parents, Joe and Marsha, and Joey's sisters, Lora and Katie.

No cake, but an ice cream truck for dessert.  Clever idea since a cake would have melted!

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As I mentioned Joey and Kathy were married in August of last year.  They are expecting their first child November this year – a boy.  The car decorations reflect that … fun.

Back at the house, I’m still busy with demolition.  While Fran is removing years and layers of paint from the door jam and window sills.

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Junk King came the next day to cart off all the discards.

While Junk King was collecting the discards, we were moving the remaining furniture from the two bedrooms.  Simpson Flooring arrived the next day to resurface the hardwood floors hidden under the carpeting.

It’s hard knee cracking work, but WOW!, what a difference!  Hard to believe all that hardwood flooring was under ugly gray carpet.

Now we’ll have more contractors doing their assigned tasks and I expect time for some fun.

The Dayton area has some really great history, preserved at the Carillon.

Some Fun Dayton Facts: 
1.  The Wright brothers, two Dayton sons of a preacher, taught the world how to fly.

2.  The Dayton Triangles won what is considered the first NFL game, October 3 1920 on their home field at Triangle Park, defeating the Columbus Panhandles 14-0.

3.  In 1934 Dayton was home to the world's first soapbox derby

4.  In 1909 a Dayton built Stoddard won the the first race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an average speed of 57.4 mph.

Westward Bound!

We saw some of the Oregon Trail on the way out as we crossed Wyoming, I thought we might follow it west on our way to Idaho.  But that idea was short lived as the date of the eclipse grew closer.  Then going north to collect North Dakota as a state (our map rules: do something unique in that state and spend the night).  There’s still time to do some exploring along the way, if we do not dally too long.  But in the end we decided to follow the Great American Eclipse route backwards, but that idea got sidetracked too.

Illinois is the Land of Lincoln and although we’ve driven through the state a few times, we have not been to Springfield before.  The Lincoln family home, Presidential Library, museum and tomb are all located within a few miles of each other.

Lincoln lived in this home nearly all his adult life.  Not only is the home preserved but those of his neighbors.



Fran tried knocking on the door, but Abe wasn’t there.  The only way in is via a free tour with a docent.  A ticket is required, free at the Visitor Center, to limit the nuber of people in each group.  The tour schedule did not fit our schedule, but there is a movie shown in the VC that shows all that would be seen on the tour, that we were able to do.


After his election as our 16th Presedent Linclon provided a moving farewell speach to Springfeld.


The Lincoln Tomb is a tribute to the man and his family.




From Springfield it is a short drive to Hannibal MO, the childhood home of Samuel Clemens.  Twenty years after leaving to seek his fortune, Clemens was finally published nationaly under the riverboat term Mark Twain.  The term means ‘safe waters’ of at least 12 feet.  I expected we’d see some memorebilia at a museum and be on our way.  Well not quite, all of the Tom Sawyer books are rooted in this little town.  Having read the books long ago, it takes a long afternoon to see most of the highlights.

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum is really eight buildings including a museum of memorbilia in town that has two floors of tribute and displays.




And a third floor of memoribilia.  A full wall of Rockwell originals depicting the adventures of Tom Sawyer, along with personal items donated by his daughter Clara.  The $9 gains admission to all 8 buildings.





I was kinda hoping Fran would not discover the correspondence and newspaper clippings, we’ll be here awhile


Many of the furnishings of the home are original with period pieces used to fill in what life was like growing up in a small Mississippi River town






The Becky Thatcher home is accross the street, next to the Law Office of John Clemens the father of Samuel Clemens.



What Tom Sawyer Story would be complete without a visit to ‘the cave’?  That would require spending the night in Hannibal.  The Mark Twain Cave RV Park is older, but reasonably kept and reasonably priced and very well wooded providing some welcome shade.


And the cave?  I did not go in, but Fran says it is by far THE BEST! and we have been to a few caves.  Long narrow passages that intersect, but it is mostly level and no crawling is required.


Several colorful side slots.  The cave is still alive as water continues to erode the limestone.



Even a wedding chapel.


There is no doubt that it is Mark Twain that supports the tourist industry of Hannibal.  But there is another famous Hannibal resident, Margaret ‘Molly’ Brown.




Whoot – Whoot! finally a decent red wine!, at least for this area …


The entrance to Cave Hollow West Winery has a display that is a kaleidescope, while looking thru the prism the flower bowl is rotated to see the various illusions.


This is really a tasting room as the winery is in mid-MO.  They offer 3 tastings FREE, additional trials are $1 ea. They do import grapes from CA and WA, but offer 3 dry red wines with MO grown grapes, if you want sweeter wine the options increase.  I liked the label on the ‘Mischief’ better as the label is a photo of a statue in town.  But the Signature Red is just a better balance and will be entered in the 2017 ‘Wine Off’.


We’ll try to get on the eclipse route in the morning, but this was indeed more interesting than seeing how Carbondale is preparing for over 20,000 visitors next week.  It'll be fun to see where we 'should have stopped' vs where we 'will stop'.

Here's a fun little eclipse tracker, just put your zip code in and see how much and what time the eclipse will be in your area. 

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/7/25/16019892/solar-eclipse-2017-interactive-maplipse 

Where will you be next Monday Aug 21?