Halfway

This blog - Parkersburg to Medina

Original wooden floor and pressed tin
ceiling panels - fantastic

Followed the Ohio River down to Parkersburg.  Had an interesting moment when we were in downtown Parkersburg.  Drove down a one way street to get to our destination.  At the crossroads – look to the right there is the river and a full car park; look to the left there is an overpass with a 9’ height restriction; look straight ahead there is an overpass with a 12’6” height restriction.  Fortunately between the 2 overpasses there was a car park and, with a bit of creative manoeuvring we were able to wiggle our way out of trouble.

Inside the Oil & Gas Museum -3
floors of interesting bits and pieces
gathered over the years

 After some more creative manoeuvring we were finally able to get the RV parked – this part of town is not RV friendly – and visit the Oil & Gas Museum.  An interesting insight into the origins of oil discovery by the settlers in USA.

We're everywhere (you people are so lucky)

Inside Robinsons Cave - the water
is a recent addition

Crossed back into Ohio and cruised through Coolville (we were) on our way to New Straitsville.  A short walk had us at the mouth of Robinsons Cave where miners used to hold secret union meetings giving rise to the unofficial birth place of the Miners Union.  During one strike over 100 years ago, some of the miners set fire to the coal mines, one of which is still burning today.  Underground though so couldn’t see it.

There were another couple of dozen Zane Grey books here

Then it was north to Zanesville.  Called in at Muddy Misers to see an exhibit on the American writer Zane Grey who spent some time in New Zealand at the Bay of Islands.  Was pleasantly surprised to discover that

One of his more
famous books

Muddy Misers was a bar so we had a beer of course.  Plus we remembered to look at the exhibit.  While in Zanesville we crossed a Y bridge – unique in that it splits off in two directions while over the middle of the river.  Good thing we were heading to the right as both of us missed the sign with a height restriction going to the left.  That would not have been good.  Off to the right we discovered a sidewalk full of sculptures.  The sheep in roller blades was intriguing.

Wouldn't be a Kiwi blog without one sheep in it
(the roller bladed one is further down the flock)

One of the many life-sized sidewalk sculptures

Our next stop was at Sugarcreek where were planning on stopping only for a few minutes to see the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock.

World's Largest Cuckoo Clock - the cuckoo cuckoo's, the dancers dance
and the band plays every half hour

What we found was a town that was settled by the Swiss who are very proud of their Swiss Heritage which is reflected in a lot of their

Brick Wall Sculpture in Sugarcreek

buildings.  Walked through the town (I’ll be honest – that only took a few minutes) but spent an age at the museum that had some very well done exhibits.  Sugarcreek is home to one of the largest Amish communities which was evident by the number of horse and buggy combinations we encountered.

Swiss-styled building in Sugarcreek

From Sugarcreek we headed north to Cleveland where we got as close to downtown in a big city with the RV on tow as we dared.  Even though it was a Saturday there were still a lot of people and vehicles around.  Crossed a bridge on State Highway 10 to see the Guardians of the Traffic – huge

Guardians of the Traffic

statues on the four corners depicting various modes of transport over the years.  Crossing the bridge took us directly to a bustling market.  Oh yay.  Love the many considerate drivers in this country too – they wait for you, they back up for you, they stop to let you turn.  Except for the clown that cut us off on the Interstate later that day, that’s another story and involves lots of swearing.

Marie Curie is in the
Polish Garden

Slightly north of the city we called in at the Rockefeller Park Greenhouse and Cleveland Cultural Gardens.  The greenhouse had a multitude of lovely plants including many fruiting citrus trees while the cultural gardens acknowledge the many countries Cleveland citizens have hailed from.  No New Zealand garden so I guess there are no Kiwis in Cleveland.  No Aussies either but there are some Irish.  Despite the absence of Antipodeans it's a beautiful park to go wandering in.

Following the Lake Erie shoreline we found one of the many covered bridges in Ashtabula County.  What is great about the Smolen-Gulf bridge is that it supports full legal load traffic.  We consider ourselves to be just that so over it (through it?) we drove.  This bridge claims to be the longest covered bridge in the US which it may well be but it’s new so we don’t think it counts.

Even the RV fits in this one

Our first stop back in Pennsylvania was the Wooden Nickel Buffalo Farm and their corn maze.  Their theme for 2014 is Volunteer Fire Brigades so how could we not. 

Jean & Sue ready to head into the maze

To make the maze more interesting they have hidden 16 letterboxes throughout the maze, each holding a sticker with the name of a local volunteer brigade.  Couldn’t pass up the challenge so off we went.  Just as well it was a beautiful, sunny, not-too-hot day as it took us over 2 hours to complete.  As luck would have it there is a restaurant attached to the gift shop showcasing their farmed buffalo so that was lunch sorted.

Took a while but we found all the letterboxes hidden in the corn

Back on the road we stopped in the Meadville to check out a display outside the Dept of Transport made from old road signs.  There were a few metal flowers where we had parked and we could see more along a fence line so made our way over to it.  We then discovered the fence, which went on and on and on and was covered in both 2D and 3D sculptures.  Woo hoo, more exercise.

PennDot lightning storm

3D balloon

Called in at the town of Tionesta which is umpteen dozens of miles from the nearest body of water that would require a lighthouse but they have one.  It was built just because it could be as a landmark for the community.  It is maintained by the local Lions who have public tours 3 times a year.  We missed all of them but, as luck would have it, we arrived on a day where the lighthouse was open for a private party and they invited us to go on up.  We don’t need telling twice.  Lovely views from the top.

Our next stop was just shy of the New York State Line in the town of

Bradford.  Bradford’s main claim to fame (in our eyes) is the Zippo & Case factory.  Who hasn’t had a Zippo lighter in their lifetime – neither of us smoke but we’ve had Zippos.  Hadn’t actually heard of Case knives but they’ve been around since the late 1800’s.  Spent a good hour wandering around the museum and learning more than I thought was possible about lighters.

Some of the disasters that have befallen Zippo lighters - dump truck bed, pellet mill, taxiing airplane, weed cutter, earth mover, ball and socket of a truck crane, license plate press, railroad train, sileage chopper, sledge hammer, cocker spaniel, commercial dishwasher

A New Zealand Zippo and, what a surprise, another sheep

We then headed into New York state stopping at Rock City Park in Olean.  These rock formations are quite amazing and we spent some time in and around them while on the trail.  Some of the defiles are quite narrow and had me wishing I was 10 years old again.  Definitely a disadvantage of age and a beer diet.

Jean & Sue about to enter Fat Mans Squeeze

Jean at Rock City Park

Mind the gap

We weren’t planning to go to Niagara Falls as both of us have already been but our next destination was only 20 miles from the Falls so we took a quick detour and visited Niagara Falls from the American side.  A totally different outlook but on the whole, I think the view is better from the Canadian side.

Horseshoe Falls at Niagara

Sue at Horseshoe Falls

Running across New York state is the Erie Canal.  We stopped at Lockport to check out the Lockport Cave.  The cave is actually a water tunnel developed in the 1850’s to supply water to three industries along the

View of the locks at Lockport

canal.  We got some of the history of the locks also built in the mid-1800’s, before entering the tunnel for both a walking tour

Inside the water tunnel - so
old now that stalactites
are starting to form

and a boat ride.  Staying with the Erie Canal we also visited the only tunnel under the canal at Medina.  Had to walk a ways to get to it as the tunnel itself is 7’6” and we didn’t want to get caught with the RV down the narrow country road with limited turning opportunities like we have in the past.

Fortunately they give plenty of warning for this height restriction

We are now at the halfway point of our meandering journey across the US.  Hoping the next six months are just as interesting.

Beautiful West Virginia and a Pitt-stop in Pennsylvania

John Denver was right when he said West Virginia was almost heaven.  This state has some beautiful scenery.  Several times the last couple of days I could swear we’re driving the Napier-Taupo road. 

New River Gorge Bridge, Fayetteville

Stopped off at Fayetteville to check out, at the time, the World’s Largest Single Arch Steel Span bridge.  Approximately 876 feet down to the water.  Yeah, it was large but not a bungee jumper in sight.  The walk down to the overlook was pleasant, the walk back up not so much.  Ah well, got to be good for us.

From Fayetteville we made our way to the ghost town of Thurmond.  I

Former railway station now
National Parks Office

don’t think it truly deserves the moniker of ghost town as there are still a handful of residents, the National Park Service has a visitors centre and museum of sorts in the old railway station and Amtrak still stop there.  No matter.  There are 3 of the old commercial buildings still standing along with the coaling station, post office and a handful of private residences.  The town itself was squished between

The three remaining commercial
buildings in Thurmond

a hill and the river.  The train track ran through the main street and the verandah of the hotel reached the track.  There was also a huge steam train maintenance yard and turntable all built in that narrow area.  The town started to die when they converted from steam to diesel.  An interesting bit of history in that one small town.

On our way to the mountains we passed through and interestingly named town of Sam Black Church.  Stopped outside a marker that reported on the trial of a man who was convicted by a ghost, the only known conviction of its type in the world.  Not sure how the official who conducted the original autopsy missed that the woman had been strangled but justice prevailed in the end.

Conviction by ghost

Then it was into the mountains.  Not as high as in Colorado but, oh so beautiful.  Many steep grades and switchbacks galore.  Love driving these kinds of roads.  Not sure the people behind the RV enjoyed it as much but we did pull over whenever possible to let them pass.  We stayed in an RV

We're gonna climb up to the
top of those rocks

park at a farm that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere.  In reality it was just a few miles from the town of Elkins.  Once we had our camp organised we headed into the mountains for a bit of exercise climbing Seneca Rocks.  Was quite knackered by the time we climbed the mile and a half to get to the scenic overlook.  We then did a bit of scrambling over the rocks to get a better view

Lily white faces and big smiles
at the beginning

from the top of the rocks.  They do recommend that you don’t do that last bit without climbing gear.  Hey, we’ve got arms and legs.  It’s okay Mum, we were careful.  Focussed on having a cold beer once we hit the bottom even if it meant we had to drink it surreptitiously from a brown paper bag given there wasn’t meant to be any drinking in public here.

Great views from the top

Rosy red faces and if we're smiling it's only because we're having a beer out of brown paper bags

More scenic driving the next day, same steep grades and switchbacks but this time with the added pleasure of a thunderstorm.  Just lovely.  Stayed at an RV park just outside Pittsburgh.  We were planning to head into Pittsburgh and see a few sights but decided to do some laundry instead.  Truth be told, we got settled and couldn’t be bothered braving rush hour traffic plus we really did need to do some laundry.  Walmart carparks are great but they don’t come equipped with washing machines.

Beautiful Lake Arthur in Moraine State Park

 

Spent a few hours the next day north of Pittsburgh in both Moraine State Park and McConnells Mill State Park.  Did a drive through first on the south side of Lake Arthur (we’d heard a rumour there was a sword in a stone a la King Arthur here but it wasn’t to be) then went for a hike on the Sunken Garden Trail.  It is well named.  A lovely hike, some beautiful flowers but very boggy in places.  Needless to say, our white running shoes became a lovely shade of brown.  McConnells Mill State Park is just up the road from Moraine and boasts a mill, a waterfall and a covered bridge.  More exercise (yay) walking down a lovely old shaded track to the mill and bridge.  Took the obligatory dozens of photos then walked back up the track to the pick up.  Not too onerous but, combined with our earlier hike, enough to make us forget about the waterfall in this park.  My story and I’m sticking to it. 

Covered bridge (yep, another one)

McConnells Mill

Road out of the park - glad we didn't bring the RV

We then headed into Pittsburgh proper where the highlight of our visit was a stop at Randyland.  Randy Gilson is a waiter-cum-artist who adores 

Could be one of our
mottoes for this trip

bright colours.  His yard is like a kaleidoscope – everywhere you turn there is a new image and more colour.  He likes to receive donations of paint but throws away all the dull colours.  Probably a good thing I have polarised lenses on my sunglasses.

Randyland in Pittsburgh

It just screams "come on in"

Another brightly painted wall with a chairway to heaven

Leaving Pittsburgh and this corner of Pennsylvania we headed back into West Virginia where our first stop was the Hare Krishna Temple and Palace of Gold in New Vrindaban. 

Palace of Gold, New Vrindaban

The palace was originally to be built as a workplace for Prabhupada,

One of the many beautiful
stained glass windows

the man who introduced Americans to the Krishna way of life.  He died before the building was complete, however the devotees carried on with the construction and turned it into an elaborate memorial to Prabhupada.  A word of warning if you’re planning a visit – the last 4 miles to the palace is on a narrow, windy road with lots of potholes.  If you’re towing an RV, find somewhere to stash it for a few hours.

 



Outside the Krishna Palace of Gold

We had originally planned to visit another penitentiary – this one the old West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville.  As this was hot on the heels of Ohio State Reformatory (see the last blog) we thought “how could this compare” and decided to pass.  Since we were driving through Moundsville on our way south we decided to do a drive by anyway. 

West Virginia State Penitentiary

2½ hours later we found out how it compared.  Pretty darn well.  Thanks Chuck, you were an awesome guide.

Original entrance - it's also where they used to hang condemned prisoners

The cells are 5' x 7' - Tom here is 6'3" so they're not very high either

Sue protesting her innocence, Jean looking horrified (only because a stranger has her camera)