East to Branchville, New Jersey

   A beautiful mauve tints the soft hazy blue sky. The sun, a huge red ball,  rises on the horizon as we head east on the long, grey ribbon of interstate highway in a new Winnebago motor home to be delivered this first week in October.  The neon colors of the leaves accent both the smooth harvested fields and the golden brown of the corn and beans standing in straight lines waiting for the combine.


    Counting the new green John Deere combines coming west on flatbed trucks. Watching the dust rise from the combines working in the fields.  Over the Mississippi River into Illinois.  Following I-80 through Indiana.  Brilliant red leaves accent the deep wine and different shades of green, orange and yellow.

     After a rainy night we continue across Ohio on I-80.  A yellow orange sun rises on the horizon ahead of us.  The Cuyahoga River cuts through the hills of northeastern Ohio.  We can see the fog rising from the valleys in the distance.
The colors of the leaves on the trees give depth to the forests.  In the summer it is one green wall, but now we can see individual trees.  

     Into Pennsylvania driving through the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains.  Beautiful drive even without the sun to highlight the colors.  A soft, velvet, multicolor blanket lays over the hills as we curve along the valley on I-80.  A valley of green pasture and fields with neat farm buildings.  Lots of orange triangular signs, "Road Work Ahead."  Crossing the Susquehanna River, much history lived out along its banks.

    Crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey. In the past we have driven The Delaware Gap scenic area that follows the river north.  Beautiful hiking trails, water falls and mountains.

     Our last leg to dealership is a two-lane drive curving through small towns and countryside.  We are driving behind a large oversize load that is taking out limbs, hitting electric wires, and covering all lanes in a round-about in the middle of a town!!  Called dealership to explain the situation. They graciously  waited for us.  On our way back to Branchville to our motel we saw a black bear coming out of the woods beside the road!

      Piper Cub Museum

    Lock Haven, Pennsylvania has the Piper Cub Museum with an original aircraft hanging from the ceiling!   When Mr. Piper introduced the Piper Cub in 1937, he had a dream. He felt that everyone should fly. And he believed that Piper could provide everyone with that freedom.  It was interesting to see the ads that were put out by the company.  They offered a monthly payment plan for buyers, built it large enough to carry a spinet piano, encouraged ranchers to use for checking herds, farmers to use for spraying and sponsored long distance world record flights.  A map shows how Max Conrad, who made many record flights, flew across the US landing in each state!  

    The Cub was called the "Grasshopper" during the war.  It could take off in a short distance.  In 1943 the Navy LST (Landing Ship Tanker) was set up for Piper L-4 planes to take off and land on the land.

     Mr. Piper is called the "Henry Ford of Aviation."

     Their international sales started by shipping planes in crates by air freight, then shipped kits for a "build your own," and finally made agreements to build in other countries.

      The Flood of 1972 when the Susquehanna River rose 31 ft above normal  destroyed the plant and 252 airplanes.  The FAA would not let the company use any of the planes or parts.

     Jim remembers when a roller skating rink in our small town was used for converting Piper Cub airplanes for use in Alaska by bush pilots.  They would strip it down to the frame, sand blast it, and put on new fabric. A larger engine was installed and the wings lengthened.  In the 1950's the townspeople would see the airplanes taking off using the 2 block long Main Street as a runway!   The manager of the museum said that there were several places in the US at that time that was converting the Piper Cubs.  

   Check out the museum website for more articles about the early years of this airplane.  www.pipermuseum.com  


McKinley Presidential Library and Museum

  We drive past the huge city cemetery in Canton, Ohio to the entrance to the McKinley National Memorial located on a rise with one hundred steps leading to the entrance.  At one time there was a reflecting pool at the base.  To the side of the memorial is the Presidential Library and Museum

  Because President McKinley was interested in education much of the building includes interactive exhibits.  

• Discover World ( a science center)
• Hoover-Price Planetarium
• A Research Library
• An Auditorium for presentations
• Keller Gallery for changing exhibitions
• Stark County Story--  exhibits chronicle the history of this county during the 19th and 20th centuries.  Some of the features are:

1. A video of a canal lock in operation. The Ohio and Erie Canal and feeder canals were used to move products at 3 MPH which was faster than land transportation until the Railroads arrived on the scene.
2. A giant Timken bearing ride demonstrates how the ball bearing provided more with less power.  The company was located in this area.
3. Sit in a chair and turn on the Hoover vacuum.  The suction will raise you to new heights!!  Hoover was also located in the county.
4. The first personal computer purchased in Stark County in 1980 from Radio Shack.  A TRS-80 priced at $4961.20 included a monitor and printer!
5. A transitional piano--between the harpsichord and grand piano to the upright piano.  A harp-like structure with strings attached sat perpendicular to the keyboard.  It cost $1,000 in 1858.  Only a few were produced
6. We hear of many tax incentives given to business to locate in certain areas, but the 1886 story of John C. Dueber is a classic!  A German immigrant making watches and cases in Massachusetts offered to move his business and its employees to the first  community to pay him $100,000.  Canton raised the amount in 3 months and added 20 Acres of land and a rail spur!   Deuber brought his company, his 1000 skilled workers and their families to the city.  He was known for the fine quality of watches that he produced.  He thought that wrist watches were a passing fancy and continued to make pocket watches.  In 1920 he sold the company which later went bankrupt.

• Street of Shops give you a feel of life in the late 1800's.  

The highlight for us was the model railroad depicting the historic sites of the Pennsylvania Railroad as it once traveled through Stark County.  All of the cars and the scenery are handmade to scale.  They were featuring a scale model of a "secret" train that ran from New York to Chicago in 1942 carrying the lab equipment for the top secret code named "Manhatten Project" to develope the Atomic Bomb.  It was being moved away from a possible German submarine attack by a specially engine built to run on three different systems. It was equipped with a third rail bar,  pantagraphs to convey current from overhead wires and a 22 cylinder diesel engine and generator!

• McKinley Gallery with artifacts from President McKinley's life.     Some highlights of his life are:

1. He was of Scottish/Irish ancestry.  Family lived above the country store his father owned.
2. He served in the Civil War as a cook taking and serving meals on the front line to the soldiers earning him the nick-name of "coffee!"
3. He always wore or gave away a red carnation. The red carnation was developed in Ohio and is the state flower.
4. He and his wife had 2 daughters who both died at a very early age. The loss of their daughters cemented their relationship.
5. He was known as a man of integrity as a lawyer and during his political life.  He was honest and friendly but formal with people.
6. He campaigned from his front porch. People came from all over to hear him speak. You will see it in all the pictures.
7. He was the first president to campaign by telephone.  Thanks a lot for starting robo calls, Mr. President!!
8. He was greeting people at a public reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.  A little girl who had lost her parents came up to shake his hand and he gave her his red carnation.  Later an anarchist offered his bandaged hand which held a gun and shot him at point blank range.  The wounds did not appear life threatening, but because of the poor medical treatment in those days gangarene set in and he died.

 Across Indiana, Illinois and back to Iowa listening to the audio book, West with the Night, an autobiography by Beryl Markham.  She was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.  She included her adventures in Africa growing up with her father who was a horse breeder, adventurer and farmer.  Definately worth a read to see how she uses words to make pictures!

     
Thank-you for traveling with us!
Prairie Schooners



     




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Calera, Alabama

A 2013 model of Winnebago Aspect needed to be delivered to Calera, AL.  Gas powered, mid-sized compact motor home on a Ford chassis with a cozy cab. Traveler friendly with lots of cup holders and holes to store stuff in console in the cab!

A 6 AM start on a clear, sunny July day in Iowa, which has been suffering from lack of rain and 100+ heat index for most of the last 2 months.  We can see crops burnt, burning, curling leaves and some nice green fields as the miles pass. Rainbow colors of the yellow coneflowers, blue chickory, white Queen Anne's Lace, and yellow birdsfoot treefoil line the highway in contrast to the dry brown grass.

With its limestone rock bluffs and trees bypass I-270 is a pretty drive around St. Louis, Missouri.  We chose to take a four lane state highway south and east instead of the interstate east through Illinois.  Driving through a heavy rain and hoping that it continues north to our Iowa prairie!

The Flying J RV parking lot looked like a RV dealership by morning with at least seven new campers being transported to dealers!  An early morning start after breakfast at Denny's ( we've never had a bad meal at their restaurant.)  Some ground fog, clear blue sky with a large red sun rising in the East.  Irrigated fields of corn, soybeans & cotton growing behind tree/shrub lined ditches.  Past New Madrid. Site of an earthquake that changed the area.  Need to write a blog about that visit!

Over the Mississippi River, into Tennessee.  Driving through forested area with large trees covering the rolling hills leading to the mountains.  Kudzu vine is covering acres of trees and roadside. Cypress trees growing in the swampy area around rivers.  Crape myrtle trees blooming are a bright spot as we pass through the small communities, past small country churches, small businesses, logging mills and large homes with ponds and landscaping. 

Into the state of Mississippi.  Unbelievable, but gas is $2.99/gal!  Driving in and out of rain. Grass is actually green! Passed the entrance to Natchez Trace Parkway.  A great drive we did years ago.  It follows the trail of early settlers & traders who floated their wares down the Mississippi River from Nashville to Natchez, Mississippi then walked back on the trail.

Corn fields are dry with large ears ready to harvest.  Fruit & Vegetable stands & BBque stands line the highway.  Into Alabama, nearing Birmingham, climbing and winding through forests of tall pines and hardwood trees with the tree covered mountains all around us. 

A good, fast check-in at the dealership and on the road heading north in the rain to Hendersonville, TN.

Rock Castle

We were expecting to see a building with turrets and a moat,  but found a limestone two story Federal Style home set on the banks of a lake with a large grassy lawn.  A doe and four fawns crossed the grassy area while we were sitting on the porch waiting for our tour to begin.

Construction was started in 1784 and it is the oldest house in Middle Tennessee listed on the National Register of Historic Places.   Daniel Smith moved to the Tennessee frontier with his wife, Sarah, and two young children in 1783.  They lived in a log cabin  while building the house.  They had the basement kitchen  and a room above finished when a band of  Indians moving through the area burned their log cabin.  The family moved into the rock house using the kitchen and the room above as a bedroom.  Because the house was built from rock they did not have to have the kitchen separate from the rest of the house.  Interesting to find a box of sand beside the fireplace--their fire extinguisher!  Also a long narrow wooden board with a handle on top and notches cut all the way to the bottom.  That was their washboard! 

Daniel was a licensed surveyor.   This was a new country and he was often away on business leaving Sarah to manage their home alone.  He received a land grant of 640 acres from the State of North Carolina in payment for surveying land boundaries in Middle Tennessee and another grant of 2500 acres for being a Captain during the Revolutionary War. The country did not have a lot of money, but did have land! (Today most of that land is covered with a lake.)

Daniel added to his house with a basement area beside the kitchen and a dining room/living room on first floor with an attic above making a total of 3,000 sq ft.  The tour guide told of Daniel's daughter's marriage to Andrew Jackson's brother-in-law in defiance of her father!  Her father wanted Polly to go to a school in the east for an education, but she was in love!  Andrew Jackson lived as neighbor to the Smiths and helped Polly elope.  They were good friends, but this marriage caused a rife in their friendship until a grandson was born!  The house was passed down through five generations before it was sold to the state. It is over 220 years old.  Some of the window panes date back to the time period of George Washington.

Some interesting items in the home:

• A floor cloth--cotton canvass stretched on floor, a design painted with linseed paint & sealed with a varnish.  A forerunner of our linoleum or what we call vinyl today.
• Tea came in large squares from China, stamped with Chinese symbols, to Great Britain who then sold it to the colonists!  Each 12" X 12" square was divided into smaller 3"X3" squares for sale.  Having the larger square symbolized wealth.
• A locked sugar chest to hold sugar cones which was imported from the Caribbean and very expensive. The  bottom 4 inches of the legs of the chest were very dark.  They were set in cans of oil to keep the ants from getting into the sugar in the chest!
• A house was taxed on the number of rooms.  A closet was considered a room.  Many  homes did not have closets, but pegs on the walls for clothes.  This home had huge closets in each of the rooms indicating wealth. 
•  Pine wood panels faux painted to look like burled oak.
• A mourning picture.  The custom was to embroidery/needlepoint a picture depicting the life of a loved one while they were still alive.  Often some of the person's hair was used.  This way you could show the person by how ornate the picture was how much you loved them and that the picture would always be a reminder to you of them after their death.

History comes alive when you walk through this house and hear the stories the tour guide tells about the families who lived here.  Letters and diaries make the people real.

Back to the Interstate, north to Kentucky, over the Ohio River on a beautiful new bridge and into Indiana.   North to Vincennes past fields of watermelon. Fruit & vegetable stands selling wholesale and retail.  East across Illinois and back to our Iowa prairie thanking the Lord for safe travels on this adventure!

Thanks for traveling with us!

Prairie Schooners