To Wentzville, MO, 07032011

We set out on a 300 mile trek today. We passed Indianapolis, IN, and shot this city skyline.



Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Statium right of the I-70.

Crossing the Wabash River near Terre Haute.

Entered Illinois at 11: 24 AM.

We have been on the Blue Star Memorial Highway for a while.

The Mississippi River.

Entered Missouri at 1:20 PM Central Time. Now we have gained an hour.

Looking back to the river from the Missouri Visitors' Center.

As we progressed westward on the I-70 dark clouds were moving in from the south. This is what the sky looked like at 2:30 when we checked into the hotel in Wentzville, MO.

Next to the hotel is a Rural King country store. We had to check it out. They cary just about everything one could need for home, garden, farm, pets, hunting, fishing, clothing, and some food. We purchased some interesting jams and headed for the doors. The rain was pouring down. We hoped it would let up enough to get back to the hotel soon, and it did after a few minutes. It was a good thing we had waterproof sandals since we had to wade through a small stream in the parking lot.

We made it back to the hotel just in time. As soon as we got into our room we saw flashes of light and heard thunder. This is what we saw when we looked out the window.

By the time we were ready to walk to the Bandana Bar-B-Q restaurant on the other side of the hotel the rain had stopped, but was starting up again when we returned.

The weather is forcast to be better tomorrow. But we have come to depend on the downpours to clean the windows of the van.

Heading Home 07(01&02)2011

July 1:
We left Syracuse, New York, and headed west on I-90, a toll road. Traveling was much simpler than the day before and we made good time. There are service stops on these highways and this one had a walkway over the road to get to the restrooms and food shops.

Traffice approaching
Traffic heading away

The toll portion of I-90 ended just before entering Pennsylvania at 1:45 PM.

A short while later we were in Ohio. We spent the night in Twinsberg, OH.

July 2:

There was a thunderstorm during the early morning hours, but it wasn't raining when we left the hotel in Twinsberg. There were still storm clouds in the sky and this section we encountered along the way was very interesting.

There was rain for the first few hours of our trip today, but we did get out of the storm and had sunny skies the remainder of the way.

At our last rest stop in Ohio we parked next to a young family having lunch in their car. Dan remarked that they had beautiful babies, two little girls just like we had. When we returned from the restrooms the father of this cute little family pointed out to Dan that the front, driver's side tire was badly damaged. Dan had checked the air pressure a couple of days earlier and hadn't noticed this. He is still shaking his head wondering why.

Luckily we were just 6 miles from the city limits of Columbus. Dan located a tire store with the GPS and we drove carefully toward that store. We looked at all of the tires and they were all in the same condition, just not nearly as bad as this one we photographed. We had new tires & an allignment within an hour and a half and were on our way once again.

We feel extremely lucky that the tire held up until we could replace it, lucky that someone noticed it in the first place. Here it is:

The tire store: We ate lunch & sat in the McDonnald's next door with our computers while we waited.

We reached Indiana and drove to Greenfield to spend the night. We got here about 4 PM. It is hot & humid. Looks like thunder storms are predicted for tonight.

Twinsberg, Ohio, 07012011

We decided to head for home this morning due to several circumstances, one being the fact that we did not get our passports packed and would be unable to do the Canada part of the trip. We took the I-90 West heading for Twinsberg, PA, for the night. Being on the interstate was a relief after yesterday's very rural roads. We covered a lot of ground today and will play it by ear from now on. We are concerned about this being a holiday weekend and hope we will be able to find lodging the next few days.

Stay tuned.

Norman Rockwell Museum, 06302011

We departed Somers and headed for Stockbridge, Mass. Our hosts had told us to be sure and visit the Norman Rockwell Museum. We had planned to do this on our last trip three years ago, but didn't, and hadn't thought about it this year.

We reached Huntington, Mass. at 11 AM. Arrived at the museum at noon and had lunch before going in. A delightful woman led our group, telling us about Mr. Rockwell and his works, after which we were left to view the original paintings on our own. There was also a section on animation and the development of the characters with videos from Ice Age. Dan enjoyed the videos with the children while Linda examined every piece. Dan enjoyed the artwork, too. This was just as exciting as the Basketball Hall of Fame.
It just didn't seem appropriate to photograph the artwork, so we only have these two pictures for this day.

After leaving the Museum we reached New York state. Somehow we never managed to get a photo of the "Welcome to New York" signs, but we did enter the state a few times. We passed by Albany, the state capitol, and drove on through the country side. The scenery was beautiful, but we began to get concerned about finding a place for dinner and a place to spend the night. Many of the small communities had no lodging or restaurants. We stopped at a few motels that seemed to be open, but could find no one at the front desks. We found a great looking bead & breakfast, but the owner was at work until 7 PM and her visiting grandmother didn't know how to get hold of her, but we did find a place to eat.

We ended up staying in Syracuse were we arrived at 8 PM quite exhausted.

Basketball Hall of Fame @ Springfield, MA 06282011

Springfield, MA., the Basketball Hall of Fame
Dan was quite excited about visiting here. Well, we both were. We are big fans of basketball.
The center of the building is a huge basketball court lined with baskets on the perimeter. Every type of basketv & backboard in the history of the game is represented. Visitors are welcome to grab a ball and try their skills.

The dome is lined with photos of those inducted. We looked at them all and remembered many of them. The careers of men & women are cronicled here. One person is on this wall twice - John Wooden, as a player and as a coach. We remember him as the most successful coach at UCLA.

The game was devised by James Naismith as a sport that could be played indoors during the cold winters in Mass. He used a peach basked as the goal.

Here are some samples of the evolution of the baskets & backboards,

Dan had to join the group on the floor.

There was so much to see and take in here. It was sensory overload for both of us. History of the sport; notable players, coaches, promoters,

& announcers; the evolution of the uniform, shoes & warm ups; uniforms of the Hall of Fame inductees; samples of the announcer's booth; trophies; samples of the balls used up to the present and history of the changes. We also watched a big screen video on Michael Jordan's career. We purchased T-shirts before leaving. An exciting day.

Somers, Conn. 06(28&29)2011

Our Evergreen Club hosts for Somers, Conn., were Tom & Cathy. Wonderful people who made our vist delightful. We arrived here after visiting the Basketball Hall of Fame.

They have a beautiful yard. All of the meals we had with them were in the back yard and this was our view. Beyond the fence is one of the pastures for their neighbor's stable of valuable racing horses. Tom & Cathy told us that the horses often come to this fence in the evening to visit, but they didn't show up while we were there.

Day 2 of our stay we visited the house that Mark Twain & his wife had built in Hartford.

Is there anything not represented in Legos?

Gee, Mark Twain looked a lot like Dan!

Norman Rockwell did illustrations for some of Twain's books. There is a collections of Rockwell prints in the Museum and this is a set up for visitors to emulate his Tripple Portrait piece.

On of only two pieces of equipment designed to make printing faster. Twain was excited about this machine and invested $200,000.00 with its developer believing that he would make a fortune. However, it had too many parts and broke down often, which defeated the speed at which it could print. Another machine was made at the same time which, though slower, worked better and was more successfull. Hence Twain's investment was a loss.

Our hosts took us to their mountain. I think they said its elevation is about 1500 ft. We would call this a hill, but in the part of the country where most of the land is flat this is considered a mountain. There was a great view.

We hiked up to the observation tower to see this vista. Dan, who is afraid of heights, actually stood at the rail for a few moments.

Here we are at the top of the observation tower.

On the drive back to our host's home we passed many farms and ranches. Cathy said, "Let's go by the Orio cookie cows." We were thinking brown & white spotted cattle, but were surprised when we saw these Dutch Belted cattle. They do look like Orio Cookies!

The Mill that has long been vacant.

The river and fall at the mill.

After dinner we walked with our hosts along one of the roads that boarder their property. This is a view of the pasture and stables for the horses that live behind their place.

A corn field across the street.

The farm house of another neighbor and friend.

After returning from our walk we had ice cream.