No trains here!

We made the 220 mile trip to Cedar Ridge CG south of Bloomington, Indiana on Monroe reservoir. No water in sight of this CG but NO trains either! Seems most CGs are near railroad tracks. It's been very quiet this afternoon but there are lots of empty campers around us so we expect there will be weekenders here tomorrow. We will be here 6 nights before moving to southern Illinois for the HitchHikers rally next week.

Temple of Tolerance

Today we paid our respects at the Temple of Tolerance...or...whatever you do there...or are suppose to do there...or whatever the place is. You can see something of the front of the downtown Wapakoneta house; you just walk down the driveway into the back yard. The free spirit that lives there started it in the 1990s & it started to grow.....he purchased adjacent backyards and kept fertilizing the fauna & rocks until they took over the whole place. I didn't see any wacky weed growing there but I suspect it was somewhere. We were so inspired we returned & did the laundry in preparation to hitting the road tomorrow.

MaryLou & Sam, Miami Erie canal, Bicycle Museum & Fort Recovery

Yesterday we met Judy's sister & BIL for dinner. MaryLou & Sam were driving south to make some withdrawals from a couple casinos & Visit their daughter, Diane, & her family. We had a nice visit with them over dinner at Bob Evans.

Today we took a 5 or 6 hours drive along the Miami Erie Canal. Did you know there was a canal from Toledo (Lake Erie) and Cincinnati (Ohio River)? We didn't. It was dug from 1825 to 1845; in 1850 it was pretty much replaced by the railroads.
We also visited the Bicycle Museum of America in New Bremen. They have an 1816 wooden bike, police bike with siren & lights, Gene Autry bike, Pee Wee Herman's bike, a 109 mph speed record holding bike, big wheeled bikes from the late 1800s, a Wright Brothers bike....you name it....they have it. The most expensive was $103K for a custom bike built about 1890 for the founder of Schwinn, his wife & their child.
We stopped in Fort Recovery at the memorial for the soldiers killed by Indians in 1791. We all know about General Custer's defeat in 1876 by Sitting Bull at the Little Bighorn. There were 258 killed & 52 wounded but at Fort Recovery and General St Clair's disastrous battle at the Wabash River over 900 soldiers were killed and wounded. 250 women with the soldiers were either killed or kidnapped. That's a lot more than George lost but I never knew this!!

Wright monument; 1st airport; Diane, Pat & Josh

On Saturday we went to Dayton & the Wright Brothers Hill Interpretive Center/Monument & viewed two movies about the Wright brothers and Wright Patterson AFB before touring the facility. We walked to the overlook to view WPAFB & the 84 acre pasture where the brothers learned to control & maneuver their powered machine & learned to fly. While there we were able to watch a hugh air force cargo plane scream over us & 4 fighters doing touch & goes.

We then drove to the Huffman Prairie Flying Field & walked around the worlds first airport. There is a replica of the trolley car station that the brothers used to commute from their Dayton home, & replica's of their second hanger & catapult they developed to launch their plane regardless of wind direction. After their first straight flight at Kitty Hawk all the rest of their development was done here. This was a very enjoyable afternoon, we had the field all to ourselves, no other visitors.

After this we drove just south of Dayton to meet Judy's niece Diane along with Pat & Josh. We had a very nice leisurely dinner and visit with them. We all were caught up on the Kipf family happenings.

Today we went to church, grocery shopped on the way home & now that all the weekenders & their kids have left are enjoying a very & empty campground!