The Ray Adventures: Amish Country and Cleveland

It's a beautiful time of the year to be in Ohio. It is so green everywhere, the trees and flowers are in full bloom and the birds are so happy they start singing before dawn. The rolling hills here in Holmes County are similar to parts of the Willamette Valley. One word of advice, do not run out of beer in Amish country.

Saturday, May 2nd, Gary left for Ft. Ligonier after lunch, I stayed behind to do some quilting and of course the ever present laundry. We both had great days. In Ft. Ligonier Museum Gary was really impressed with a pair of "saddle" pistols given to George Washington in 1778 by Lafayette, 46 years later an heir of Washington gave them to Andrew Jackson. Also inside the museum was a small art gallery that had at least a dozen original portraits of the leaders of the time the fort was in existence. Another item on display was the Navy Frock Coat worn by captain Philip Sausmarez of the Royal Navy who was killed by grape shot from a French cannonball, he came back from the fort "pumped", he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Sunday, May 3rd, A beautiful day! It is our last day here before heading to Amish country and Canton, Ohio. A metal detecting club has been in the park all weekend, Friday the organizers poked metal objects in the grass, the club members then searched in grids to find the metal. We didn't get the "scoop" as to what was planted and if there were prizes for whoever found the most. There must have been about 30 people involved.   We had a nice visit with Loren and Donna, our neighbors, then in the afternoon walked along the Five Star Trail (former railroad bed) in Youngwood, a township just a few miles away. We picked up 12 geo caches, walking about 4 miles along a nice creek. After a quick trip to WalMart and Jo-Ann's we headed home to prepare for our move Monday.

Monday, May 4th, Another beautiful day for our drive to Scenic Hills RV park in Berlin, Ohio, the heart of Amish Country. Holmes County has the greatest concentration of Amish in the U.S., that means we won't have to go to Lancaster. Pa. Our drive of about 150 miles  took us through secondary roads, very curvy, along the top of a ridge, I had to avert my eyes a few times, it was steep with no shoulder. The park is really nice, across from our space is a deer refuge, about 20 or so. They did keep their eyes on Luci. We got there about 2 and starving, we parked, plugged in the power and went to Boyd & Werthmann restaurant touted to be where the locals eat. On the table beside the usual ketchup and mustard condiments were two squeeze bottles, one had apple butter and the other, we had to ask what it was, a blend of peanut butter, marshmallow crème and Karo syrup, which they sell in all the shops around Holmes County.    I had the Trail and Swiss sandwich with coleslaw, don't gag, Trail is a local brand of bologna, tasting a little bit like a hot dog,I hadn't had a bologna sammich for years. Now I know why, I got the worst belly ache that lasted all night. Everything is made from scratch, the pies looked yummy. After lunch we walked across the street to a quilt store that sells fabric as well as finished quilts etc. the quilts for sale, costing from $800 to $1800. were of course hand quilted, they had two quilt frames set up with Amish women quilting away. The town is a mecca for tourists, many furniture shops, antiques, foods, the usual tourist "stuff" with an Amish flavor. We checked out more shops before heading back to the coach to set up.

Tuesday, May 5th, We woke up to heavy fog, I was able to faintly see the deer across the fence. This is the day I get to cross another thing off my bucket list. We drove into Canton, first dropping Luci at a doggie day care, then to the Football Hall of Fame, I never, ever thought I'd get to see it. The busts of all the Hall of Fame inductees since 1920 was impressive, I don't know how many there were in the room but most of the years had 4-7 new members. We saw many of the men we've heard of over the years, we of course saw Steve Largent, Walter Jones and Cortez Kennedy. They have an area for Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch showcasing their Super Bowl records even though they are not in the Hall of Fame. We spent about 3 hours inside, this was one museum I didn't race through. Oh and we tortured ourselves watching the highlights of this year's Super Bowl. Behind the Hall is the Wm. McKinley Presidential Library and Museum, the 25th president of the United States and was assassinated shortly after his second term began. A native of Ohio who fought in the Civil War, became an attorney, moving to Canton, became governor of Ohio then became president. He and his wife, 2 daughters who died in childhood are entombed in a granite monument atop a hillside.

Wednesday, May 6th, Before the railroad system arrived in the area they had a series of horse drawn boats along canals, I'm sure you've heard of them, the Erie Canal system. We drove out to Coshocton to ride on the Monticello III, well we dawdled too long, since it's a little early in the year for tourists, especially during the week, they just make one trip a day and we missed it. The lady in the visitor center said if we "hot footed" it down the .8 mile long trail we could see the boat returning with a bunch of 4th graders. We got there just after the horse was put away. Timing is everything. We walked through historic Roscoe Village, we were too late for the tours so we just walked through the shops. The usual tourist fare. Gary had a beer in the Warehouse Stein and Stein. On our way home we ran into a real "gully washer", it rained so hard the wipers couldn't keep up. The roads in Holmes County are rutted by the horses, causing hydroplaning. I felt bad for the Amish who were either in their buggies or bicycling in the storm. We had left the windows and vents open in the coach, we were afraid we'd have a real wet mess, as it turned out it had not rained at all at the park, just a few miles away from the torrential rain we were in. I decided to pick up something to BBQ for dinner at the market, would you believe no one sells fresh meat in Berlin only frozen. I did pick up some veggies and Amish baked bread. I ended up defrosting some fish I had in the freezer.

Thursday, May 7th, Another beautiful day, we left Luci in the coach while we explored Holmes county. Our first stop was Lehman's hardware, it had opened up in 1955 to supply the local Amish with hardware, morphing 4 pre- Civil buildings under one roof, now it is a destination. If you can't find it at Lehman's it doesn't exist. A local Amish man has an exhibit of the most gorgeous wood carvings I've ever seen.   He starts with a 2'x3' block of oak and carves scenes, it's hard to describe how beautiful they are. He does not sell them, it's just a hobby, so he just has them on exhibit at the hardware store. Our next stop was Yoder's Amish Home, they have tours of the 2 homes, barn, one room school house and buggy rides around the property. Our buggy driver, Levi, was quite the chatty Cathy, I expected an Amish man to be more reserved. The school teacher, Chris explained the Amish children do not go past the 8th grade. She just finished her first year of teaching at the age of 19, she'd held various other jobs since she left school in the 8th grade. The first house was built in 1866, the smaller of the two, 3 bedrooms, one for the boys one for the girls upstairs and Mom and Dad downstairs, they raised 6 children. The newer house, built in 1888 belonged to one of the sons, a larger home with some new modern features like gas lights and a bathroom. The young man who led our house tour is Mennonite, he not only showed us the houses but informed us about the Amish customs and their clothing. The men wear the black suit, the Amish do not use belts, buttons or zippers on their clothing, the women wear long sleeved long dresses with a white apron over attached by straight pins. Neither men or women can wear jewelry of any kind including wedding rings.    Men shave until they marry then they must grow beards but no moustaches are allowed. All the rules of Amish life are dictated by a list of oral rules past down for generations. One thing I found odd, I never saw a pregnant woman, considering they all have large families you'd think percentage wise I'd see some. In the barn we saw piglets, kittens, sheep, baby goats, draught and carriage horses and cows. There is nothing cuter than a baby goat. The Amish houses are always white and two stories, very well kept and more modern than I expected.

Friday, May 8th We left Berlin after 10:30 for our drive to Grafton, Ohio, touted as the closest campground to Cleveland, a drive of 60 miles, it's about 30 miles into downtown Cleveland. American Wilderness RV park wasn't as nice as Scenic Hills but the same price. Go figure. There's a lake and swimming beach, no dogs are allowed.   There are a lot of permanent spaces here, as it turned out they are week-enders, the place was really busy over the weekend. I drove into Grafton (5 miles) for some fresh meat and other groceries.

Saturday, May 9th, We left Luci in the coach to go to Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Brown's stadium, both are walking distance from each other and Lake Erie. The Rock and Roll Hall of fame was established in 1983 and houses 55,000 square feet of artifacts and displays. There are 7 levels of exhibits, the lower level is the main gallery. It starts with the roots of rock and roll, blues, jazz, etc. from the 30's on. An exhibit on the many protests of R&R was interesting, I remember my Grandma saying that Elvis was sinful, what will become of the world with people acting like that? I wonder. Major exhibits of Elvis, Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix and other major artists. There are many theaters throughout the museum. The second level has interactive kiosks and contemporary musicians. the 3rd has a wall with all inductees signatures, the 4th a 3-D theater and the top 2 levels are temporary exhibits. You could spend days in the H o F, we spent about 3 hours. We left there to walk to the football stadium, the 11th stadium we've visited. No tours were being given due to construction, so we visited the pro shop and walked around. We had to get back to Luci, we hope to get back to explore the city.

Sunday, May 10th, Happy Mother's Day! Another beautiful day, it's been in the mid-80's all week. We drove to Akron, about an hour drive through the countryside. We wanted to tour the largest home in Ohio, the 64,500 sq ft mansion, that is not a typo, 64,500, 65 rooms including 23 bathrooms and 23 fireplaces with a pool downstairs.  It took 3 years to build, they moved in 1915. The Stan Hywet estate has a carriage house, beautiful gardens and a conservatory. The admission was free for Mom's which was a nice surprise. Hywet and his brother were co-founders of the Goodyear Tire Co.
The carriage house served as garage, stables and living quarters for some of the servants. Now it is a café, gift shop and admissions. The café was cute, the individual stables served as seating areas. Gary asked what else I would like to do, I immediately said get a pedicure. We found a nail salon on the way out of town, mmmmm felt so good. We stopped at Rockne's for "linner" We both had salads, mine was a steak salad, yum and Gary had Taco. Since it was Mother's Day we finished up with peanut butter mousse topped with peanuts and chocolate. Pretty sinful. We came back to the coach to walk Luci and walk off the dessert.

Enjoy the pic's,

TTFN,

Gary and Pam