HitchHikers of America, International Rally

Well, it's been awhile since the last post. A very busy while. We arrived in Du Quoin, IL Wednesday 9/30 at the state fairgrounds. On Thursday afternoon six Haulin' HitchHikers couples started planning the parking of all the incoming RVs. Some of us walked the entire parking area and again Friday morning. It has been raining a fair amount and the grounds are wet. When the first HitchHiker arrived Friday afternoon we got them stuck, had the fairgrounds tractor out to pull the 2 wheel drive truck & RV out. We all had long days Saturday, Sunday & Monday waiting for the 94 HitchHikers to arrive. None were stuck after the very first one.

The best part of the rally was socializing with friends; Bill & Judye, Ron & Lois, Steve & Susy and many others. We had a great time with our friends. At the closing ceremony Judy and I won a door prize, a $500 certificate toward the purchase of a new HitchHiker, we love ours too much to consider a new one so we'll have to find someone who can put it to good use.

Made in the USA.....a sock factory tour

Well, we haven't done too much since we have been here. Judy has been to Curves in Bloomington a few times, routine meals at some restaurants, cleaned bugs off the RV cap, walked around the campground, watch a fair amount of rain, messing with a leaky tire, visited with neighbors, routine week. Today we went to a sock factory tour, spent over an hour, it was quite interesting. Thousands of socks for the NFL, MLB, NBA and holidays, occupations, animals, colleges, plus socks recycled from soy, plastic bottles, bamboo & cotton, you name it they have a sock for it. It was started in the 1980's by a single mom with 5 kids who wanted to stay home when her son became very ill. She got a $1200 loan to purchase and old old manual sock making machine she put in the basement and 25 years later 140 employees working 3 shifts making a good product in the USA in an old home, former school, and a few new buildings beside the school.

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!

Armstrong Air & Space Museum plus Fort Amanda

This afternoon we drove north of Wapakoneta 9 miles to Fort Amanda. It was built to protect American supplies in the War of 1812. There are 75 unknown US soldiers buried there, one officer "murdered by Indians" and we found one 90 year old Revolutionary soldier who fought at Bunker Hill. A very nice peaceful place today with a 103 foot tall monument at the edge of a river & a soybean field.

After we slept in this morning we I stayed put while Judy went to Curves. When she returned we decided to visit the Armstrong Museum. We were both disappointed, we expected the museum would focus on Neil Armstrong who from Wapakoneta. Instead it was much more on the US space program than the first man to walk on the moon. That's me checking out a moon rock Neil came back with.

You can tell it's a weekend, the campground is filling up & a couple parties and in progress.