Day 20-23 Outer Banks, Charleston, Savannah

Okay, it looks like we are finally winding down our trip. We are presently heading to Savannah, GA after spending some time in Charleston, SC. I haven’t had time to write in the hotel rooms, so I’ve been trying to get some of these updates done while driving. Of course, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I also tend to take photos from the Jeep as well! Cindy has been joking that I should put together my own photo book; but instead of a photo book of scenic places and cities, which usually entails actually getting out of the vehicle, I should make one of scenic drives as seen through the windshield while driving! I actually like that idea, though I’m not sure I want to be driving all over the country again until I get some rest. J

Anyway, day 19 found us driving from Harrisburg, PA toward the Outer Banks, NC. On our way we decided to go around Baltimore rather than through Baltimore to save a little time and head to Ocean City, MD to check it out (though I’m sure I would have gotten some more awesome “windshield” shots for a future photo book!). I had been to Ocean City as a kid, but I didn’t remember anything about it. It was a nice drive through Maryland and we were looking forward to walking a bit on the Boardwalk, but when we got there it was just way too busy. We didn’t want to try to find a place to park and then to fight through the mass of people. It looked like it would be a fun place to spend a whole day or weekend, but not to just get out and walk for only an hour or two. So, we just drove down the strip and back out towards the hotel in Chesapeake, VA where we were staying that night. The Outer Banks would have to wait until the morning. Day 19 was basically just a “driving” day.

Day 20 Outer Banks

We got up early and headed to Cape Hatteras National Seashore and other places along the Outer Banks. Our first stop was Jockey’s Ridge State Park (between Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head) to climb the highest “living” sand dune in the…U.S.? Anyway, we were going to scale it: can anyone say HOT?! Cindy says it was like walking through hell in a desert with the sun just relentlessly beating us down. I had taken off my shoes so that I could walk in the deep sand but eventually I had to put my socks back on because my feet were burning. At one point I thought I saw smoke actually rising from under my feet! We didn’t even make it to the bottom of the dunes before we had to head back because of the heat. This may be highest sand dunes around, but we enjoyed the dunes at Cape Cod much better—we could actually walk on those (well, I could, Cindy would sink in them!) and we were able to enjoy the beach and water as well. Oh well, we decided to get back into the truck and head to Cape Hatteras Light House which is the tallest in the nation (248 spiral steps and equivalent to climbing a 12-story building) and is supposedly the most photographed.

And it was still HOT! In fact, because of the heat and the difficult stair climb facing her Cindy didn’t want to try the climb up into the lighthouse. There is actually a disclaimer discouraging certain people from climbing. It said: The climb is strenuous. The stairs have a handrail only on one side and a landing every 31 steps. There is no air conditioning. It may be noisy, humid (understatement!), hot (again understatement) and dim inside the lighthouse and there is two-way traffic on the narrow stairs. Visitors with heart, respiratory or other medical conditions or who have trouble climbing stairs should use their own discretion as to whether to climb the tower.

The rangers who guided the groups up to the top would even try to discourage people from doing this unless they thought they were really up for it. Cindy didn’t feel up to it because her back was beginning to bother her and her knee wasn’t up to the task; so I ended up going to the top myself.

…and I got to pay them $7 for this! I asked the guy at the ticket counter, “You mean I actually get to pay you $7 to walk up 12 flights of stairs in a claustrophobic, hot and humid spiral stairwell in 100 degree heat with a mass of other people?” He said, “Yep”. So I paid the man and then waited in the heat for another 15 minutes until my “group” was called. While walking up I would occasionally see some individuals hanging out on one of the landings seemingly on the verge of passing out from the heat! All the while I was thinking how much you, Jerry, would have enjoyed this (based on your Panama Canal story). J All in all, though, the view from the top was worth it. Being up so high and on the coast brought a nice, cool breeze; so strong, in fact, that you would have to hang on to your hat so it didn’t blow away. Again, my photos don’t do the place justice. I wanted to stay up there longer, but Cindy was waiting for me below…and I wasn’t looking forward to the trip back down!

The lighthouse wasn’t quite all the way at the southern tip of the Outer Banks, but it was far enough for us. After this we headed back up and stopped to see the ocean. The sand walking to the Atlantic in this area was soft and thick (and hot), but the ocean view was spectacular. The waves were pretty good, too. This is supposedly one of the best places on the Atlantic, in the States anyway, for surfing. The trip down to the lighthouse was longer than we had anticipated and it was so hot outside that we decided to head west to Raleigh, stopping in Rocky Mount for the evening.

Day 21 Raleigh, NC

We went to Raleigh specifically to visit a bookstore. Stevens Bookstore is advertised the largest used bookstore between NYC and Chicago. I believe it. It was huge! It was much bigger, though not as architecturally pleasing, than the bookstore we went to in Harrisburg. And they specialize in Christian books. We spent a long time there and ended up getting 13 books. A couple of them were books that were out of print and the rest were priced low enough to splurge. And of course I’ve started them all already! I’ve read the Preface and Introduction to them all and they all seem like they will be very interesting reading…if I ever get to it. Actually, I think I’ll start a couple of them as soon as I finish the two books I bought (seemingly ages ago) in Minnesota at Woodland Hills Church (Day 4 or 5 of this seemingly endless journey J). (This is Cindy and I’m sorry that my husband keeps writing seemingly endless emails! Insert smiley face here) Raleigh was a nice, relaxing few hours. We then headed to Charleston, SC.

Oh, but first Cindy wanted me to tell you what happened when we left the bookstore. Do you remember the story of me leaving our Atlas on the top of the Jeep when we left our hotel on the North Shore (Minnesota) and having to drive back about 3 miles to get it? Well, it happened again! No, not the Atlas. This time it was the passenger side floor mat that flew off the car. For reasons too long to go into, the floor mat under my feet had gotten completely soaked with water. So, I had the brilliant idea of leaving it on the hood of the Jeep to dry out while we were in the bookstore. And it was a brilliant idea! We discovered that it was completely dry…after seeing it fly off the hood straight into the windshield and onto the pavement as we were driving down the road! After Cindy pulled into a garage and sent me walking back down the road to retrieve it, I brought back a clean, dry floor mat!

Day 22-23 Charleston, SC

We stayed the night in Florence and arrived in Charleston in the afternoon. After unloading our stuff (again), we headed to the historic district to see the water and eat some seafood. The “Historic Charleston” area is really very beautiful. If you look on a map you will see that the historic district and “downtown” are on one peninsula with Mount Pleasant, Daniel Island West Ashley and James Island surrounding it with bays and rivers scattered throughout making the region very appealing to look at and a boater’s paradise. And all the bridges connecting these land masses are very cool. And of course it is rich with history from the Revolutionary time and especially with regard to the Civil War. We think we’d like to come back here to spend some time visiting all the historic sights and learn more about the history of what they call the “holy city”. They refer to it as such because of all the churches that were built back in the day.

Anyway, we spent the afternoon/evening walking through one of the harbor parks and then eating at supposedly the best seafood restaurant on the east coast—Hymans Seafood. And it was HOT! Have I mentioned that yet? Before eating, however, we enjoyed a waterfront pier and park for a while and then we almost got caught in a thunderstorm. We saw it coming over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge (the bridge you will see in the photos) and managed to jump into a bar/restaurant before getting drenched. We waited it out while having some…hmm…refreshments? I also ordered something called a “she-crab” soup. Cindy had heard of this before, so we got it. This soup is really a type of clam chowder bisque, as differentiated from a clam chowder soup. Anyway, it was awesome! After the rain stopped we headed for Hymans.

Cindy had the Captains Seafood Combo (fried fish, shrimp, and scallops) and I had, of course, Fish-n-Chips. Now, I had forgot to mention that I also had Fish-n-Chips at the Outer Banks. The fish there was Flounder. I’ve learned that Flounder is not my favorite fish. At Hymans, the fish is Haddock. And I’ve learned that I love Haddock. It is a white, flaky but chewy fish (if that makes sense). Anyway, Ken, I’ve found another awesome Fish-n-Chips place; though it’s a little far away from Colorado Springs. Their “signature” dish was a flounder dish and, needless to say, I didn’t want to try that; though I’m sure it would have been good. They served us boiled peanuts as well. Boiled peanuts? Whatever. Boiled peanuts didn’t do it for me! After dinner we walked around a bit more and headed back over the bridge to the hotel to get ready for our tour of Fort Sumter in the morning.

Day 23 Fort Sumter, Savannah

The hotel manager allowed us a later check out time so that we could take the tour in the morning. Fort Sumter is the place “where the Civil War began”. The history behind this place is fascinating. It took the boat ½ hour to reach the fort and then we spent an hour on it before heading back. We wanted to go first thing in the morning so that it wouldn’t be as hot, but I don’t think it mattered. We were drenched in sweat before we even got off the boat! And it was brutal on the island. But it was well worth it. Visiting the site of the start of the war has made us both more interested in this history. Cindy had bought a few books on the Civil War and now I want to read them (along with the books she bought on the Revolutionary War). Actually visiting such historical sites makes our history seem more real and tangible and interesting.

Well, the tour of the fort was incredible; and incredibly hot. Have I mentioned that it has been hot out here? We made it back to the hotel in time to shower (again) and pack (again) before checking out. So we loaded the Jeep and headed for Savannah. And this where we are now as I type. We checked in a little while ago and went to the “historic district” to have some dinner: subpar Mexican and then some homemade ice cream. Tomorrow and Saturday we will investigate the historic district and relax on the beaches of Tybee Island.

Well, as I said we’re winding down our trip (or maybe I didn’t say it. This is already page 4 and I can’t remember what I said on page one). After Savannah we will head to The Villages where we will spend the next few months. I will update again with a run-down of our time in Savannah with pics. Photos of the last few days will be uploaded (probably) tomorrow. Right now it’s time to read one of my twelve latest books. Okay, I’ll probably read a couple of them! J

Check back tomorrow for the pics of Outer Banks and Charleston. And for those of you who have managed to make it this far in this post J, please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are enjoying our more focused pursuit of Christ (in relationship) and are still eager to know what He has in store for us. He hasn’t let us in on His plans yet, so please pray that we will hear His voice when He speaks.

God bless,

jj & cj

Fallingwater and Quilts

Here are the pics from Fallingwater, Hershey and the Quilts. The first few quilts are specifically Amish from the early 20th Century. As I said, they seem somewhat plain, but the beauty is really in the intricate stitching. You can't really see this from the photos. If you can zoom in you might be able see what I'm talking about. At any rate, they were incredible; but I still really like the more "abstract" modern quilts.

Day 14-15 Cleveland & Pittsburgh

Yes, we’re still here (though I’m beginning to be not always sure of where “here” is…or even what day it is). I believe this is day 19 (August 7). We just left the hotel we stayed at for the past three nights (outside of Harrisburg, PA) and are heading to the Outer Banks (NC) by way of Baltimore and (possibly) D.C. We may decide to skip D.C. on this trip and make a special vacation to spend a few days there. Our main objective right now is to get to the Nag’s Head area and enjoy some of the NC coastline before reaching Savannah in a few days. Surprisingly, we’ve been sleeping pretty well throughout this trip (motel “dives” included!) and are ready for a major day of driving; if we decide to skip D.C., that is.

So…where did I leave off? Oh yeah: Last week we found our fearless heroes enjoying Michigan as they marched effortlessly (and casually!) toward “Camp Villages” in central Florida. Along the way they have enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation in its variously distinctive forms as well as the cultural distinctives of God’s children as they’ve settled throughout the land. They’ve enjoyed mountains with faces looking out of them to alien landing spots; they’ve driven through thick forests hiding all kinds of wildlife as well as dry, dusty canyons where nothing could possibly live over-looking beautiful green plains that once was home to many settlement villages; they traversed through cornfield after cornfield after cornfield after…(well, you get the idea) to gorgeous stream and river drenched lands; they’ve eaten fresh fish from three Great Lakes and seen the wonder of God in waterfalls emptying out into great rivers; they’ve witnessed picturesque homes and farms settled throughout hills and valleys as well as an incredible home practically built into a rock in a forest; they’ve seen beautiful metropolis’, country villages and harbor towns as well as depressed cities that have seen better days (and hopefully will again); and now they’ve just entered Maryland where we now resume our program, “Cross Country with Googly Mooglies”.

Well, the last four or five days have been fairly relaxing. We spent a day in Cleveland and were not overly impressed. Downtown was not very interesting though I enjoyed seeing the home of the Cleveland Browns; but we enjoyed spending some time in the Cleveland Museum of Art. This building was in the “cultural” section of Cleveland that was very pleasant. There were numerous areas along the scenic drive devoted to various ethnic people groups of the world and the museum was right next to the Botanical Gardens. We didn’t have time for the Gardens or to stop at any of the “cultural” parks that lined the drive, but we thought this place was pretty cool. And I saw some Picasso paintings at the museum (very, very cool) which, by the way, had free admission (also very cool). We then headed to Pittsburgh where we spent two nights.

Pittsburgh was an interesting city. I love to see big cities and drive through them (loved Minneapolis) and Pittsburgh is very cool because, as most of you know, it is situated on a peninsula that basically splits the Ohio river into two (the Allegheny and the Monongahela). Now I already knew this of course, since I’ve enjoyed baseball for years and I was well aware of where Pittsburgh was located. But to be driving through the beautiful hills and forests of Pennsylvania and then to have the road just “open up”, so-to-speak, to this large city sitting between two rivers was an awesome sight! I also loved the yellow bridges; painted to match the colors of the Pirates and Steelers, I assume. We weren’t staying downtown, so we had to drive over one bridge taking us over the Allegheny River and into downtown (around the two stadiums) and then over the Monongahela Bridge taking us out of downtown. That was cool enough, but as soon as we got on the second bridge to leave downtown we were immediately face-to-face with the side of a mountain (well, maybe a “hill” to us Coloradoans). Thankfully there was a tunnel! J We went through the tunnel and came out on the other side of the mountain where we found our hotel room (converted apartments) and settled in. We enjoyed a quiet evening in this area and got tickets for a baseball game for the next day. We needed to hang out somewhere for a day since Fallingwater was closed on Wednesday.

So, on Wednesday we got some business completed and spent some time in downtown Pittsburgh! It was overcast all day and it rained lightly during the game, so the photos don’t do the city justice (not enough light); but I thought Pittsburgh was very cool. We had fun walking around a little bit and then watching the game. I took lots of pictures, as you can see, because this is a unique area. The riverboats were constantly operating, taking people up and down the two rivers. We didn’t have time to do that, though I think it would have been fun. We also didn’t go check out Ted Nugent who playing just down the street after the game. Cindy and I had seen the Motor City Madman years ago while we were dating and she said that once was enough. Really?! Can you get too much of Uncle Ted?! Don’t answer that.

So, after the game we went back to the hotel to get ready for a wonderful day at Fallingwater. And it was!

We left Pittsburgh in the morning and travelled down 51 thinking we would be in some scenic territory. There were some scenic areas down this stretch but the traffic was horrendous. The traffic was pretty bad in and around downtown Pittsburgh, but this was awful. We began to wonder if we would make it to Fallingwater at our appointed time. After seemingly forever, we finally made it through “metro” Pittsburgh (really though, some of it was quite nice) and into Laurel Highlands, where we arrived at Fallingwater with two minutes to spare. I can’t begin to express how lovely (yes “lovely”! I’m a man and I can use the term lovely if I want to!) Laurel Highlands is. The gorgeous rolling hills interspersed with picturesque farmland and beautiful red barn houses seemed so surreal to me—like something you could only see in movies because it is make-believe. But here they were! Right in front of me! Everywhere I looked! I wish I had taken some photos but I don’t know where I would have begun and if I could have stopped. We would have never made it through if I had started taking pictures. You have to experience this area for yourself!

But the highlight, of course, was Fallingwater. This house is incredible. You’ve seen the pictures on TV and in magazines (and much better pictures than mine, of course), but until you see it in person you can’t grasp the marvel of this architectural wonder. Cindy has wanted to see this for over twenty years and it was worth the wait. The rooms were much smaller than I would have thought; but then again, it was built in the 1930’s when rooms typically were much smaller. The living space was about normal size, but the bedrooms and bathrooms (especially) just seemed quite small considering this was such an important house. And it was an important house even as Frank Lloyd Wright was building it. From the visitor’s center up the road, it was a five minute walk to get to the house. I’m so glad that they left the ambience of the location unspoiled. The house is tucked into the woods and literally built into the hilly rock and over a flowing stream. I could write about this for a long time, but you would do better to read about it yourself. Needless to say we (especially Cindy) loved it!

After the scenic drive through Laurel Highlands (we were on 381 and 653), we headed to Hershey for some…you guessed it…fish! No, that’s not right. We wanted to go to Hershey’s Chocolate World and also (per Cindy’s moms suggestion) to hang out in Lancaster County to see all the quilt places out there. We stayed three nights in Harrisburg. One day was devoted to Hershey and a huge used book store in Harrisburg, and the next day was devoted to Amish Country for the quilts.

Hershey was a bit of a disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, the chocolate was great! But they didn’t have a tour of the actual factory; just a “Disneyesque” moving car “tour” through animation that told the story of how they make their chocolate. It was interesting, but not what we expected. And of course, at the end of the ride you exited into their huge Hershey store where you can buy all the candy and novelties that you want. Can anyone say Disney? Oh wait, I already did! Still, it was fun. And yes, I bought some candy (fudge, actually; and chocolate, of course).

From there we went to Harrisburg to the book store. I think I could have spent two full days in there and still not be satisfied. It was located in a renovated theater, so it had plenty of charm. I only bought two books (can you believe it?), but I thoroughly enjoyed looking around. We then went back to the hotel to rest for our big day in Lancaster County (Amish Country) looking at quilts and experiencing a bit of Amish culture.

We went to two quilt museums and they were both awesome! Thanks mom—you were right on the money with this suggestion! Even I (a real man, don’t forget—even though I use the term “lovely”), thought these quilts were incredible. The Amish quilts seemed a bit nondescript at first look, but a closer inspection revealed quite exquisite (there I go again) stitching. I mean these things were absolutely stunning! (I had better stop with the superlatives. I think I’ve tapped into my “feminine” side enough already!) But they were! And the quilts at the next museum were arguably even more amazing! (Yes, I know; I’ve been using a lot of “!” in this paragraph. I can’t help myself. I was very impressed with this stuff) I wish I had my large tripod so that the photos were better. But even so, when you see some of these that make your eyes seem to go cross-eyed…that is a good representation of the quilt itself. Some of these looked very three-dimensional and abstract. These (including the Amish quilts) are really “fine art’ in my opinion. See for yourself!

We also enjoyed watching the Amish driving their horse and buggy carriages around town. We didn’t take any of the tours. It was just fun watching them drive through town and around corners (sometimes pretty fast). A tourist “village” was also a lot of fun. I had a shake (chocolate, of course) made with local Amish cow milk. I don’t know what makes a cow “Amish”, but I wasn’t going to go do any research on it. I just wanted to enjoy it. And I did. We also saw something we never thought we’d see—an Amish woman hitchhiking! I guess she’s not breaking any oaths if she’s not the one driving, huh?!

All-in-all, I must say that Pittsburg, Fallingwater, Laurel Highlands and Lancaster County were all very enjoyable in their own way. I’m finishing this email at a hotel in Chesapeake, VA. Today we drove around Baltimore (we’ll do D.C some other time) to Ocean City (too many people!) and down the Maryland/Virginia peninsula to our hotel. This was a very scenic route in places especially going across (and through) the very long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Yes, you heard right: a “Bridge-Tunnel”. The area where the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean connect has a bridge/tunnel that connects the Maryland/Virginia peninsula with Virginia Beach. It was so cool to be driving on this bridge and then twice driving down through a tunnel under the water and then rising back up out of the tunnel back onto the bridge. The sight was magnificent!

All right, I guess I’ve written enough. I’m back up-to-date. Tomorrow we are heading down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina before heading over to the “Research Triangle” area of Raleigh/Durham. I hope to find another used book store there. From there we will be heading towards Hilton Head, S.C and then Savannah.

I’ll try to keep up with this more frequently so that I’m not writing a book for you to read.

Until then….

jj & cj

p.s. wi-fi is very slow. I will try to upload day 15-16 (Fallingwater and quilts) photos tomorrow.

Day 11-13

Hello Everyone!

I know…it’s been a few days. But we are on vacation after all!  We are now driving through a heavy thunderstorm in Ohio along the coast of Lake Erie and since we really can’t see anything, I thought I’d start typing an update for the last few days. Okay, we’ve now decided to pull into the parking lot of Happy Hooker Bait and Tackle Shop (along with a number of other vehicles) to wait out this storm. We are on our way to a vineyard in Sandusky (on the scenic route, supposedly) and then off to Cleveland. But I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? I have a couple of days to catch you all up on first.

Day 11 (July 30) Lake Michigan eastern coast and northwestern Wine Country

We left Mackinaw City in the morning after a wonderfully relaxing day on Mackinac Island. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention something cool about Mackinac Island: no automobiles are allowed on the island. Everyone gets around via walking, biking (or rollerblading, etc.) or horse and buggy. Even supplies are off-loaded at the docks and onto horse drawn buggies for delivery all over the island. Trucks with supplies are ferried over to the island and then off-loaded onto the buggies. Instead of car engine noise, all we heard were hooves of horses hitting the pavement as they transported supplies and people. And there were a lot of horse and buggy operators up and down Main Street because there were a ton of tourists! Of course this also means that instead of oil leaks all over the roads there was…well…other kinds of leakage (and we’ll leave it at that). The problem is that the street cleaners (you guessed it, people walking behind the horses dragging a container attached at their waist), well they just couldn’t keep up. It was funny to see all the bikers (and there were a ton of those) trying to avoid the…you know. Anyway, Mackinac was a highlight.

So, back to day 11

We decided to head out to the Old Mission Peninsula and Leelanau Peninsula in the Traverse City area. This is part of Michigan’s extensive and state-wide “wine country”; and it was beautiful! I’ve never been to Sonoma, California, but I can’t imagine it being any more beautiful than this. I suppose it is, but this was awesome. The photos (again) don’t do this area justice. The scenery up and down Old Mission Peninsula was absolutely gorgeous and the vineyards of both peninsulas were incredible to see—and the wine tasting was delicious! The entire Traverse City area and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was great viewing. The whole trip down the east side of Lake Michigan took us through quaint little towns that seems the epitome of the ideal small-town, harbor living. We wanted to stop at these towns all along the way, but if we did we may have just now made it to Traverse City! Oh well, sometimes you have to make some sacrifices…right?

We couldn’t find a room at a hotel/motel at all in or around the dunes or even as far away as Muskegon (I was considering the unfortunate circumstances of Mary and Joseph at this point) until we finally happened upon a room at Lakeside Inn in Ludington. The name sounds so good! And after finally finding a place to stay at 7:30 in the evening we should have been very happy—and we were—until we saw the place. What a dump! O, it was right across the street from Lake Michigan (and the very nice beach and park). And the town was another pretty, quaint town; but the motel? Forget about it! Cindy says it was better than Hilltop Motel in Newcastle, WY. I don’t agree. But we remembered how truly blessed we are and how so many people (here in the US and abroad) that have no place to stay or food to eat; and so we checked our ungratefulness at the door and were appreciative that we actually found a room to stay the night. After a fairly fitful night sleep (but sleep, nonetheless), we packed up and headed across the state to “Little Bavaria” Frankenmuth, MI.

Day 12 (July 31) Little Bavaria and Largest Christmas store in the world!

Yes, that’s right! Frankenmuth, MI is home to the largest Christmas store in the world (Bonners CHRISTmas Store—and that’s how they spell it). And the property also includes a to-scale replica of the original Silent Night Memorial Chapel in Oberndorf, Austria (the site where Silent Night was first sung). The store really was Humungous! It had a map of the store including the different entrances so you wouldn’t get lost. I took lots of pictures (which they encouraged…much to Cindy’s chagrin), so you can get the idea. It definitely felt like Christmas. And they totally emphasize the Christness of Christmas. I get the idea that the Bonner’s were devout Christians who were definitely not ashamed of Christ! Scripture references abounded throughout the store and every mention of Christmas on a sign was spelled CHRISTmas. But to me the spirit of Christmas was felt even more so at the chapel. Personally, I enjoyed the chapel very much. They memorialized “Silent Night” in numerous ways and the song was played continuously in various languages. They also had placards throughout the property with the lyrics in various languages. They also had the story of Silent Night and the history of the original church and chapel displayed within the building. This was a very nice dedication.

Frankenmuth is also known as Little Bavaria and that was evident up and down Main Street. We enjoyed this little town very much, though it was much smaller than we expected. There were all kinds of gift shops (of course) and fudge and candy shops (of course) and cheese shops (of course); and pubs! We ate at the Famous Zehnders Restaurant and it was great! They are known for their all-you-can-eat Chicken plate, but after all the preliminary courses you are served, you really don’t have enough of an appetite to eat more than the chicken they serve you. In fact, we took a couple of pieces back to the hotel! Little Bavaria was a nice place.
Next stop—Ohio

Day 13 Ohio

Well, here we are now in Ohio (by way of Detroit—yawn. Nothing special there.). The rain has stopped and we pulled out of the Bait and Tackle shop to continue on our way along the coast of Lake Erie. Oh yeah, before the rain got real heavy we spotted 5 doe standing off the street in the woods. We tried to take some photos, but they didn’t come out very well. When we got back on the road we stopped at Fireland Winery outside of Sandusky to enjoy some wine and scenery. We are staying outside of Cleveland to spend a couple of days in the region before heading to Pittsburgh. We don’t know yet what we are going to do here, but we want to go to Falling Water (Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous house that he designed and built) outside of Pittsburgh and since they are closed on Wednesday we are forced to wait an extra day. Well, if this is God’s providence then we will find things to do around here! I suppose a day in Cleveland is just what the doctor ordered for us!

Lots of pictures coming soon!

Hopefully I’ll talk to you again at this same googly time and same googly channel.

Jj & cj