Cross-country to Key West: Louisville, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the Blue Ridge Parkway
While in Peoria we took a days drive south to some small towns Cathy has never seen and we drove back via backwaters of the Illinois. There is an extensive refuge/public access area, the Banner Marshes about 20 miles below Peoria. Folks fish and boat there, but mainly fish. Crappie are a delicious pan fish and when I lived in the area you would not find walleye, northern pike or muskie. Looks like the bluegills which were common in waters like this 40+ years ago are no longer a common species. Too bad. They, like the crappies, are good eating. I suspect that the crappies have been able to better avoid the predators.
Leaving Illinois we were unable to catch up with my great-nephew, his wife and new son in St. Louis. His grandmother and aunts were due to arrive a day after we would have left and we decided that it'd be better if Dan and Laura had some open time to prepare. His job takes him around the US and he was going to be out of town until a day before they arrived. We did not want to add to their time demands.
We had an extra day to deal with before getting to Findlay, OH so we decided to head to Louisville, KY. We had decided earlier that this could be an option after St. Louis, and when my nephew in Ohio had to leave a day earlier than we had expected, we had a one-day opening to fill. So Louisville it was. This gave us a chance to visit the Louisville Slugger factory and Museum. They provide a low cost, ~$5, tour that lasts a half-hour so you can see how the bats used to be made by hand and see how they are done today on numerically controlled lathes. You get to see and handle models of the bats, from some of the first ones to ones made for players today. The bat models used by HOF greats like Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Ken Griffey, etc are passed through the tour group and the kids and adults handle them. Now, these are NOT bats used by those players but are the models that were made to their specifications and wants.
From Louisville we headed to Findlay, OH to see our nephew and his family. We caught up with my younger brother who we missed by one day in Wisconsin. Probably just as well because the youngest one and his wife would have to deal with 2 of us instead of just one. Hell, the oldest one had left just a week before we arrived. He got back to Seattle/Vashon while we were in route to Appleton.
Had dinner with Chris, Nicole, Ethan and Aidan and my brother, spent the evening catching up on events past and future, drank some good scotch and wine and headed back to our hotel. Our trip through the family ranks this year was pretty quick. Basically, except for Appleton, North Carolina and Arizona we're only spending one night because they all had plans and we had road tripping to get through.
From Findlay we went to Cherry Hill, NJ via Scranton, PA and some backroads, avoiding the interstate tollways when possible. Saw our nephew Eric and his children, Alyssa and Andrew. The little guy is 2 and tries talking, constantly, but so far not a lot of understandable words are coming out. His older sister isn't yet able to translate. I expect she'll understand him before their father. So far all the generation appear to be doing well, in good places. We're glad to see that.
After our night in NJ we took off for the Shenandoah Valley on our way to North Carolina to see my niece. The elder child of my brother Tom. We caught up with him in Ohio and he went directly to NC while we were off to NJ. Our plan was to finish the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. Two years ago we did basically the same path and drove the northern half, stopping in Harrisonburg, VA, home to James Madison University. This time we were going to do the southern half of the Skyline Drive and northern part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We covered the last 60 miles of the Skyline and the first 40 of the Blue Ridge before stopping in Lexington, VA for the night. The drive is slow. Usually it's due to traffic and stopping to catch the views of the valley. This day the mountains were shrouded in fog. The valley was clear but the ridgelines were socked in until the afternoon. Travel was slow because, at times, you had a hard time seeing the road. The same thing happened on our trek from Lexington to Roanoke. We decided to attempt the Parkway in case the fog lifted in the morning. No such luck. At least we didn't hit any deer, and there were a lot of them. Kind of like pigeons of the woods. Several times we passed them as they stood on the side of the road, materializing out of the mists and disappearing back into them.
Afternoon view from Skyline
Blue Ridge from east to west at a ridgeline.
Our next destination was Forbes Farm outside Westfield, NC to see our niece, and catch up to my brother as he was about to head west back to Sun City. We had a couple nights with him and Corrie, sitting on the porch as the rain poured down and lightning and thunder interrupted the sound of the rain on the metal roofs. We did some day trips in NC. We headed to Mt. Airy, NC, Andy Griffith's home town, and the model for Mayberry on the TV show, to do laundry. After Tom headed for AZ we went to Hanging Rock park and walked to the upper falls. Two years ago we walked to the lower two, Window and Misty falls. On the way back to the farm we headed for Dalton, and found a Confederate iron smelter, built before the war and used to produce iron bars for rifles during the war.
As my readers know, when we stop for lunch, eat dinner, or find funky little places that reflect the local culture, we engage folks in conversation and talk about traveling. Often Bozo comes out for photos. In Harrisonburg there's a small, good, Italian restaurant, Agrodolce. It's worth you time to eat there. Outside Dalton, NC is an old grocery store really similar to the Polebridge Mercantile in Montana on the west side of Glacier Park. Priddy's first opened in 1880. Jane, who was handling the place the day we stopped, told us that her mother owned the store and it's been in the family since the 1920's. As you drive through this area, it's tobacco roots are everywhere. Old tobacco drying sheds dot the side of the road everywhere. In fact, at Forbes Farm the guest cabins are often old tobacco drying sheds that have been dismantled and moved to the farm to be reconstructed and improved as vacation/temporary residences.
Well, this is enough for folks to digest in one post. It's getting to be time for dinner here in NOLA. We're off to Lilly's Cafe on Magazine St. about a 1/2 mile from here. We ate there the last trip and it's excellent.
Got to go back.
Ciao for now.