McKinley Presidential and First Ladies Libraries (6/18/2015)

The first agenda item this morning was to go up to the office and pay to stay another night because we knew we weren't going to be finished here today.  So the guys did that, then we were on our way to the first stop which was the McKinley Presidential Library.  Unlike other presidential libraries, this one was more about the time period and the area than what President McKinley accomplished.  When you turn into the parking lot, you are met with a "WOW" view of his memorial.

The library is off to the side, and there is a statue, or bust, of him just outside.

First we watched a video, then we took a guided tour. We had a wonderful tour guide, very interesting and enthusiastic.  We saw replicas of many of the rooms and furniture of his presidency.

 Our tour guide talked about the two-person desk, and he took pictures with each person's camera of the far side of the desk, since we were not allowed to be in that area.

In another room were life-like statues of the President and First Lady, and buttons to push which made them move and talk.  That was pretty cool.

President McKinley was assassinated in 1901 (for some reason, they call it "martryed").  He was hit twice, once in the shoulder and once in the stomach.  They were unable to locate the bullet in his stomach, and he died a few days later of gangrene.  He actually died on my birthday, so I should be able to remember that!

This is a replica of the pistol that shot him.

Finishing up the "rooms," we then walked through the museum of items from that time period, and a village of shops.  Joe and Mazie took a spin in a "tea cup" type ride made by Timken Bearing Co.

There were lots and lots of items on display.

The life-size indoor village were also very interesting.  You could just wander in and out of the shops, along the brick street.

DENTIST, UGH!!

Next was a train room, with a moving train.

An interesting bed with rope "springs" was on display, with some kind of feather bed or mattress ticking on top.  It was suggested that this type of bed is where the saying "sleep tight" originated, because you had to tighten the ropes from time to time to make it more comfortable (there was a special tool for that).

The tour guide told us that President McKinley's "lucky" flower was the scarlet carnation, and that became Ohio's state flower.  He always wore one in his lapel because he thought it kept him safe.  On the day he was shot, he had given the flower to a little girl who had gotten lost from her parents.  Just a few minutes after he gave the flower away, he was hit with two bullets from point-blank range.

We went outside and Joe decided we should "WALK" up the steps to the Memorial.  I wasn't going to do it, but Marilyn said she would, then Mazie said she would, so what could I do.  So we walked up the 108 steps, while Dave and Collins DROVE the cars around to the back side of the Memorial.

Remember, I'm already at the top as the photographer!

 Nice view from the top of the Memorial.

 The President and his family (wife and 2 daughters) are entombed here.

From there, we found a lunch place and had a bit of a rest.  We were planning on going to the Football Hall of Fame next, but Joe googled it and learned that tickets (seniors) were $20 each, plus $10 for parking, and none of us were THAT interested, so we took a pass on that.  Instead, we drove over to the First Ladies National Historic Site and toured that, which turned out to be very interesting.  The first part of the tour (video again) was conducted at the Education & Research Center, which used to be a bank owned by First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley's father.  This area featured five "forgotten first ladies," and are changing exhibits which eventually feature all of the First Ladies.  We then were led over to the Saxton McKinley House, the restored Victorian home that First Lady McKinley grew up in, and later lived in with President McKinley between 1878-1891 during the period he served in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Again, we had a good docent, dressed in period clothing this time, and she gave us a very interesting tour.

The first floor had been gutted and redone, but the upper floors still had some of the original materials.

The last room was filled with pictures of every First Lady.  Many of the photos had more than one photo in the frame, one a younger version, and the other one during her time as First Lady.

 We all enjoyed this tour and were glad we decided to make this stop.   By now, it was about 4:30, so we headed back to camp.  I had plans to get the laundry caught up again, and the Johnsons wanted to do that as well, so I hot-footed it up to the laundry room to get started.  Which was good, because I finished and got back to the RV just 2 minutes before the rain started.  And there were tornado warnings around us, not sure if we were included but if not, we were only one county away. Tropical Storm Bill hasn't even arrived yet, so one more night here and it's time to move on!

Arriving Akron/Canton, Ohio (6/17/2015)

We awoke to rain again this morning, and it had rained heavily off and on during the night.  We decided to wait it out a bit, so we got a late start.  We finally ventured outside to unhook the RV and hook up the car in a slight drizzle, which continued while Joe dumped at the dump station.  But we didn't have very many miles to go today -- we are hoping to get north of the rain heading this way -- and we were on our way about 11:20.  We didn't go far before we found a fuel stop (Flying J, with 3 cent discount, $2.729), and then just up the road we pulled into a Kroger parking lot for lunch.  A snail's pace, some might say.  As we finally really got moving, we saw many small creeks or rivers overflowing their banks, standing water in fields, and the water was really moving.

We went through a town named Centerburg.   "Centerburg's claim to fame is that it is the geographical center of Ohio. As you enter the village, you are welcomed to the "Heart of Ohio."  I caught a glimpse of a sign that acclaimed it as the "center" but I didn't get a photo, so I found a copy of it online.


One town, Mount Vernon, had a soldiers monument in the center of town, which the main highway circled, so we got to see 3 sides of it.  I researched it, and it was erected in 1877; "In grateful appreciation of the Patriotism and self sacrifice of the lamented sons and soldiers of Knox Co. who for their Country and for freedom, laid down their lives in the war of the great Rebellion. This Monument is erected." That is the inscription on the front.  The other 3 faces have other inscriptions.  The town was well kept, with some old buildings, one being worked on, but the others were in good shape, surrounding this monument.

We hit a detour on part of our route (our route was 36/37 to 3/36 to just past Seville, then I-76 into Akron, which became 224).  So it brought us in on the 77, but we found our way back to our destination, a little campground between Akron and Canton.  We got off the road about 3:30, only drove 125 miles (I drove the last 30 or 40 because Joe had to go to the bathroom, so we switched drivers).  The skies finally cleared off, but it stayed in the 70s.  I even had to put a sweatshirt on for a while in the RV this morning.

We were headed to an Amish restaurant for dinner, but our camping neighbors told us it was closed on Wednesdays and redirected us to "Mike's Place," back up the road a few miles.  It was good, had a huge menu and some items not found on Arizona menus.  On our return trip, the other vehicle checked out a nearby winery for hours tomorrow, and we drove back to check out another campground.  But we were in for the night by 7:30.

We only had 2 agenda items in Canton:  the Football Hall of Fame, and the McKinley Presidential Library.  But the campground host told us some other things we should see: a couple wineries, a candy factory, an Amish flea market and restaurant, a 6-acre hardware store, the First Lady Museum, among other things.  So we will see what tomorrow brings.

Finishing Columbus (6/16/2015)

We set out with a plan this morning to return to the German Village and take the CBUS (free bus ride) on its route through the Brewery District, Arena District, Victorian Village, Italian Village, Short North, and the German Village.  We didn't remember how to get to the bus stop (near the Kroger store for parking), so we stopped back by the Visitors Center and got directions, got parked, and boarded the bus.  It wasn't as exciting as it sounded, and although it wasn't raining when we left our cars, it started up again before the first stop we decided to get off at, and 3 of us had left our umbrellas in the car. 

Our first stop (fellow bus rider's recommendation) was in the Arena District at Nationwide Arena, home of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League.  The arena wasn't open, and sharing our little umbrellas didn't work very well either.

There were a lot of bars and eateries in this area, but it was only 11:30, so we weren't ready to eat.  We mostly just wanted to stay dry.  We worked out way back to the bus stop and got back on.  Our next stop (bus driver's recommendation) was on the way back, again in the Arena District, at the North Market. 

We expected something similar to a flea market, but it was more of an ethnic deli/food court atmosphere. 
"The current 36 merchants are a mixture of delis, bakeries, pastry shops, ethnic food restaurants, specialty goods stores, and produce stands."  We were there right at the lunch hour, and it was very busy.  It was similar to the 2nd Street Market we had visited in Dayton.  We were holding out for a German restaurant in the German Village, so we didn't buy anything here, but there were a lot of people who did.

Joe was in the market for a new umbrella, even though he was one of the three who remembered to get them out of the car (he said if an ant sneezed, his umbrella turned upside down), but we didn't find one there.  So we headed back out to the next bus stop, got back to the cars, and headed to Schmidt's Sausage Haus Restaurant.  This was more what we had in mind yesterday when we ended up in a deli.

We had to wait a few minutes while they set up a table for six -- so we had to stand right in front of the dessert counter!!!

They served authentic German food, and the waitresses wore German costume dresses.  The business started in 1886.  "Inside smooth wood floors, stall-like booths, rough paneling and old brick walls make a beautiful setting for the numerous original paintings of famous German Village artists."  

We enjoyed our meal here (no room for dessert), then ventured back out into the German Village to our last two stops.  The first was Helen Winnemore's, the oldest contemporary craft store in the U.S., and it was moved to German Village in the 1960s. 

There was beautiful pieces of artwork and crafts here, from artists all over the country.  The first item Marilyn picked up was made by a couple in Cornville, Arizona!  There were lots of very unique, beautiful pieces here, but nothing any of us felt we could afford.

We moved on to our last stop, the Golden Hobby Shop.  Here was 2 floors of items handcrafted  by Central Ohio seniors.  They had all kinds of things, from beautiful quilts, bird houses, to baby clothes, doll furniture, wooden side tables, scarves, and on and on.  And it was very reasonably priced -- the seniors sell their wares here on consignment.  There were several things that caught my eye, as well as the rest of our group.  I particularly thought this bowling bug and butterfly would fit into Dorothy and Arnie's yard.

Joe has become interest in gourd birdhouses on this trip, and he found two here that he decided to take back to Arizona.  Here's one of them.

Other items that appealed to me were:

Chalk Board/Magnetic Board

They just had cool stuff.  Joe and I were so glad we didn't miss this shop, and that we had saved it for last.

We had one other site on our agenda, Frank Fetch Park, but it had gotten late on us and we still wanted to make a stop at Costco, so we had to omit that stop.  Mazie, Joe and I stopped at Costco, and the others went on back to the RV.  The weather had cleared, and it was a pleasant evening, but we were all too tired to do anything.  We walked a lot today!  But I think we are all ready to move on to Canton tomorrow.