Featherless

There is an artist (Peter Wolf Toth) who created a series of wood sculptures called Whispering Giants all around the country.  He is paid expenses, a town supplies him with the wood, and he creates a sculpture of a Native American that is similar to the type of people who lived in the area in the past. 

 

The problem is that he makes this out of wood and perhaps doesn’t treat or preserve the wood well.  The sculpture pictured is called Rotaynah (the Tuscaroran name for Chief) and was created in Akron Ohio in 1985.  It used to have 5 feathers that were 16 feet tall and weighed 3,000 pounds (older picture  below from the internet).  Unfortunately the wood deteriorated due to water and termites until the town was worried about safety.  It turned out the wood left that was holding up the feathers was only a 3” diameter section.  They removed the feathers and put them in storage two years ago. They also filled the damaged spots with foam and stained it.  There is no news if the feathers will ever return.

Historic Tallmadge Church

The Historic Tallmadge Church was built back in the 1920’s.  It is the oldest church in Ohio still in continuous use.  It’s built in Greek Revival style similar to New England churches.  It was featured on the front page of Life back in 1944 (10 cents a copy!).

Nowadays it’s used for weddings.  The church is right in the center of a busy roundabout.  I laugh thinking about the weddings held here.  Does the bride stand there in her gown looking for an opening in the traffic so she can dash across?

Later we visited by brothers along with my saint of a sister-in-law.  I love their dog and cat who play together all the time.

 

Haunted Tavern

Back in the 1800’s, the National Road went through Pennsylvania.   You traveled by horseback or in a wagon.  There were taverns all along the road where you could pay for food, drink, and a bed (though not necessarily in a room or even a bed by yourself).

This picture is the barroom at Mount Washington Tavern.  Now I know it’s not a good picture, but I thought the ‘orbs’ were cool. 

 

I’ve looked online.  It turns out there have been sightings of ghosts in the barroom right at the bar.  Cool!

If I were a ghost, I’d like to hang out at a tavern.

Oh, and more falls…

 

 

George Washington Wasn’t Perfect

In school you hear about George Washington as a hero and the Father of Our Country.  We stopped at Fort Necessity in Pennsylvania.  Washington was 22 years old and was fighting with the British in 1754.  He entered this area of the country with orders to negotiate with the French and to defend a fort in the Pittsburg area, but the fort had already been taken by the French.  Instead, he ended up attacking a French encampment killing 10 men including the commanding officer.  This attack essentially started the French and Indian War with conflict spreading around the world.

Realizing the French would retaliate, he built a fort.  But he built the fort near the woods, in a marshy area, and it was small.  He had 400 soldiers (though many were hurt) along with horses and cows.  He could only fit the wounded inside the fort.  The other soldiers lay in a trench.  That wouldn’t be bad but when the battle started it began to rain which meant the gunpowder was wet.  

I’m always amazed when I see the reconstructions of British battle.  You know, those lines of soldiers just aiming at each other instead of hiding behind trees or rocks.  Well, Washington believed the French would fight this way but instead they fought from the nearby woods.  Many of Washington’s men were killed along with the horses while the French outnumbered the British and fewer were killed.  Washington soon surrendered.  This battle was the only time George Washington surrendered to the enemy.

 

 

Family Pictures

We’re in West Virginia visiting family and friends. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

It was unplanned, but it turned out that we were here for the family reunion.  Plenty of kids running around, LOTS of food, and a good time.

West Virginia Camping

Boondocking has a different feel to it.  We boondocked without any electric, water, sewer, wifi, cable, satellite, or cell phone service in Blue Bend Recreation Area.  While it doesn’t have all those services, it does have a stream and lots of trees surrounding you.  As soon as you step out of the RV, you feel peace and calm. 

Which is good, because the trip in was one of the scariest drives we’ve taken.  The road was a single lane with some gravel shoulders.  It was very, very twisty so that which each bend you don’t know if you’re going to be hit by an on-coming car. There were several times John had to drive the RV (and car) on the shoulder as some car headed our way.  I never screamed, but I closed my eyes for a big portion.  I mentioned to the camp host that we drove in from the south to which she replied “Oh Lordy! We never drive that way in an RV!”

 

I thought these rocks look like a face carved into the hillside.  VERY roughly.

Coming out to the north was better.  We saw a turkey cross the road.  At one point we saw a big black creature on the shoulder.  We thought “bear!”, but it turned out to be a steer that escaped its fence.

Our last stop was Blackwater Falls in West Virginia.  While it rained most of the time, it cleared enough for us to see the falls…and the falls was BIG due to the rains.  We thought the water was dirty, but it turns out that it is called Blackwater since it’s always a dark amber color from tannins from leaves and moss.

 

West Virginia Stops

We did a short stop at a radio observatory in West Virginia.  It wasn’t as big as the VLA in New Mexico but more like the observatory in Arizona with all types of radio dishes in various locations in the area.  We didn’t take the time for the tour, but went to the visitor center and played with displays like this one.  You can move the model dish but not the real one!

I’m sure kids would like the displays, but we enjoyed playing too.  This is us in the infrared spectrum.  I’m holding a camera in front of me, in case you’re wondering.

Lost World Caverns was interesting. Here’s a bear fossil from the museum.

It’s one of the few caverns that allow you to wander a path unescorted. Here’s some Hex Blocks.  They are formed when a bed dries up.  You can see what the top surface of the mud would have looked like.  The pieces tend to separate into hexagonal blocks.

The cavern has a large problem with mold due to the lighting.  They said that every winter they close and spray down the formations with water and hydrogen peroxide.  It’s better than bleach since it doesn’t hurt any insects or animals.  But by fall, the mold has all come back. Personally, I think it’s time to try buying some energy efficient LED lights along with motion sensors.

In 1971, a man from Parkersburg West Virginia sat on top of this column called War Club for 15 days 23 hours and 15 minutes setting a Guinness World Record.  I’m not sure if the record still stands but you have to wonder why people do these things!

Here’s Seneca Rocks.  It’s a rock formation that’s big for the East.  When they built a visitors center, they found traces of Native Americans who had lived here for thousands of years.  John’s pointing at a guy that’s standing at the top.  Lots of climbers travel to here due to the difficulty of the climb.  The only way you can really see the guy is with binoculars, so don’t try to find him!

Fossils

 

The Gray Fossil Site is an active fossil site.  The state found this site in preparing to build a highway.  Instead they moved the highway a bit and started up a paleontology degree at the local university.  They’ve been digging up all sorts of animals from an ancient water hole and expect to continue digging for years.  Did you know rhinoceros lived in Tennessee years ago? You can see the dig site from an observation point, watch people in the labs cleaning bones, and see displays in the museum.  The yellow bags contain the dirt from around the bones.  They have to sift everything to find small bones or plant pieces.

 

If you’re a “Game of Thrones” fan, here are some Dire Wolf teeth.  Winter is coming!

Morning walk at a park in Virginia

 

 

 

Knoxville

 

Today we had an afternoon in the Knoxville area.  Besides being stuck in construction traffic, we enjoyed two museums.  The first was the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.  There is a LOT of things to see in this museum related to work done to help make the nuclear bombs in World War II and displays on energy in general.  For instance, this is a model of Little Boy that exploded over Hiroshima.  During the war, not only did scientists need to learn how to separate uranium, but the project had to build a secret city of 75,000 people quickly.  One method was to build these small houses.  Given that our RV is half the size of this house, we’re jealous!

The best part of the museum is the toys…oops; I mean scientific equipment that you can operate.  There is a Jacob’s ladder, Tesla ball, and things like this mechanical arm.

 

The Frank H. McClung Museum is a bit bizarre.  While most of the museum has fossils and Native American artifacts from the Tennessee area, there is a great section on Egypt.  Some of the items were replicas, but a surprising amount were actual Egyptian pieces.

 

Finally, the Sunsphere was built for the Knoxville World’s Fair in 1982.  We considered going to the top, but couldn’t find a parking space plus we were exhausted after a long afternoon.