Good
Morning,
A beautiful
Thursday morning with a little nip in the air (low 40’s) and a gorgeous pink
sunrise. Now back to vacation tales.
On Wednesday
we left the Hocking Hills area of Ohio and headed North towards Canton. We stayed at a KOA just SE of Canton. Our first stop on Thursday was at Lehman's Store in Kedron. Over the years
we have ordered some things from this Amish store – mainly cast iron things
(which now I find I can’t/don’t want to lift!).
The store is huge – ¼ mile long and a definite tourist place. But, it was fun to walk around. Fletch found a knife he wanted for splitting
kindling and a book for a neighbor who has been a ton of help to us with
electrical issues.
After that
we headed to the Warther Museum in Dover.
We had never heard of Ernest Warther, a Master Carver. His carvings are AMAZING. Such detail!
Such tiny carvings! He definitely
had a “thing” for pliars and carved so many of them:
He also
carved steam engines (that worked!!) and Lincoln’s Funeral Train:
He started
the Train on the 99th anniversary of Lincoln’s death and finished it
on the 100th anniversary. He
used a lot of ivory and ebony in his carvings as well as wood.
Along with
his wife Frieda and their children, they collected over 5,000 Indian artifacts –
primarily arrowheads – which are on display in his workroom (and the men’s room
– lol). Fletch was in heaven – he started
collecting arrowheads as a kid walking the fields of his grandparent’s farm in
Virginia. Frieda had a huge collection
of buttons and there is a cottage on the property devoted to the designs she
created with them:
The buttons
in the display under Frieda’s tools are all prizes from Cracker Jack boxes! There were more button displays in the ladies
room – lol.
Frieda was
also a gardener and there are paths throughout their property. There wasn’t a lot to see garden-wise in
October, just a few flowers blooming, but they were beautifully laid out and
would be a joy to see come Spring and Summer.
If you are
ever in the area, we highly recommend stopping by to visit this museum.
On Friday we
headed back to New Staunton.
Unfortunately we had to get off the highway to gas up the car in
Pittsburgh. Oy! I was driving, and towing a camper through
downtown Pittsburgh was NOT fun. When we
finally made it to our campground I promptly popped open a beer…and it was our
last one (someone didn’t plan very well).
But, Frank, an employee at the campground, came to our rescue. He was going out on a beer run for some
workers who were having a cookout that night and brought back an ice cold 12
pack for us. So nice.
Frank also
stopped by our campsite Saturday morning to say goodbye. Turns out he is a hunter (bow & arrow)
and had just gotten a deer that morning (which he showed us…which I didn’t
really need to see). And, as we were
closing up, one of the jacks at the back of the camper jammed. Frank just came over and lifted the back end
of the camper up to free the jack! He
wasn’t a huge guy, but man he was strong! Thank goodness he was there.
Just a
couple more pictures. We ate very well
on our trip (and I actually lost a few pounds!!) – salmon over the fire, steaks,
and the best were nachos that we did over the fire:
They were so
smoky and flavorful, that this may be the only way I prepare nachos from now
on. We had a bit of taco meat on them,
onions, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli and cheese. Yum. (And, that little bag in the upper left hand corner is filled with pieces of chocolate covered banana Turkish taffy - OMG, so good.)
Finally, I did
manage to knit a bit on my Charade sock (the 1st of (hopefully)
a pair. I started these before Nutkin
and then left them alone while knitting Nutkin.
The yarn
makes it difficult to see the pattern (just a simple two row repeat – one row
all knit, the second row is a slip stitch pattern) and even the ribbing, but I’m
enjoying working on them. The above
picture is 20 rows of twisted ribbing and 70 rows of the pattern. Last night I knit a little more on them. I want to make them longer - closer to knee sock length - so I’ve got a way
to go yet.
OK, this is
long enough – LOL. I’ve got another
crazy/busy day ahead of me at work, so I’d best get to it.
