Carol and I got here a little after 3. Jim & Danicia and the kids were at a wedding and wouldn’t be home ‘til later so we moved in to our cabin and then walked down to the lakeside. It was windy and cool.
Alayna had been a flower girl at the wedding and when she got changed out of her flower girl dress she had to work off some pent up energy.
Tom & Carol
We spent the day with Carol’s cousin Susan. This is the country where Carol grew up so she lived here most of her life. e have also visited frequently. I mentioned yesterday that this is Amish country. As we were driving through Middlefield this buggy crossed in front of us.
Many of the buggy horses are retired race horses. Not like the derbys but sulky racing. They are beautiful horses none the less.
We stopped at an antique shop and Carol found some dolls to browse through.
Later we stopped in Chardon. A beautiful little city only about 40 miles East of Cleveland but with much more small town feel.
They were setting up the farmer’s market, held every Friday, June through August.
Tom & Carol
does have wifi so I’m able to get a blog post off tonight.
The photo art club I belong to has monthly print competitions. Half of them are open and half are themed. One f our themes for this next year is “old barns” so while Carol drove today I tried getting some grab shots out the side window. This is one of the better ones. I’ll need to do better yet if I want to be one of the finalists but I sort of like it.
We drove I-70 through Indiana and into Ohio. Usually when you get to a state line there is a sign along side the road marking the line. Ohio welcomes you in grand style.
Finally, I’ve been carrying one of our girls along this trip as a travel doll. Susan has a very feminine and luxurious bedroom and when Lanelle got out of her carry case and saw that room she was absolutely in heaven. I got a photo and she is still there. I’ll have to work on her so she doesn’t get too comfortable.
Tom & Carol
That is the name of an art photo book I have of images from the heartland. These are from the same general area and have what seems to me is the same look. Creating art images in flat land with big sky.
This first image is morning light streaming through breaks in the cloud cover
We stopped at an art and craft gallery and outside they a giant metal sculpture of a huge bird and a sunflower.
Central Kansas has lots of limestone and not a lot of wood. Limestone, when first dug up, can be worked with hand tools. Many farms still have limestone fence posts.
Tonight we are in Effinghham, IL. To get into Illinois from Missouri we needed to cross the Mississippi River. This is a grab shot out the window as we crossed that river.
Tomorrow we will be staying with Carol’s cousin Susan. Susan works on a computer all day and doesn’t have a personal eMail account. We don’t believe that she has wifi so I may not be able to put up an update for a couple of days.
Tom & Carol
Bills itself as the Czech capitol of Kansas. As Carol’s maternal grandparents came here from Czechoslovakia she wanted to stop and look at it.
It seems like it was a really nice town maybe 40 years ago. It was on Rt 40 which was a major East/West highway then. It is now 2 miles South of I-70 and it is dying.
We stopped and browsed an antique shop. Carol found a pair of dolls made in Czechoslovakia.
We had lunch in a diner and soda shop that was frozen in time.
some photos of the plains…
Tom & Carol
The past 4 days we’ve ben in the mountains. Today we left that behind. We drove Rt 24 into Colorado Springs, detoured to the Current outlet store so Carol could pick up some stickers and stuff for the PNW Sasha Fun Day which the Portland Sasha club in hosting this summer.
Leaving Buena Vista. (well named I think)
Approaching Colorado Springs the mountains reach almost to the city. This scene is ~30 miles from Colorado Springs
East of Colorado Springs you’re on the plains and the sense is that the land is flat. Today the heat spawned some petty major thunderstorms. We were fortunate in that we didn’t need to drive through any of them but we saw where a wind gust had overturned a double trailer and we saw hail which looked like snow had fallen.
Tonight we are only a few miles from the Kansas border so tomorrow we will be mostly in that state.
Tom & Carol
You can drive from Glenwood Springs, where we were last night, to Buena Vista, where we are tonight, in about 2 hours if you drive I-70 East and then take Rt 24 South. Rt 82 is somewhat more direct but it goes through the mountains and over Independence Pass so actually takes a few minutes longer. Well we managed to spend something over 5 hours driving it.
The highest point in Oregon is the top of Mount Hood at 11,250’ Today we drove over Independence Pass which as the name implies nestles between higher country. The elevation of the pass is 12,500’ so 1000’ higher than the top of Hood.
Once on the East side of the pass we could look down on a small river
Tomorrow we’ll be driving through Colorado Springs.
Tom & Carol
