Wednesday, Sept 3, 2014 Comfort Inn Rm 125 Rochester, Indiana
The sunset last night in Ashtabula was just magnificent—what a Maxfield Parish display! Went to sleep around 10:30—me with the A/C turned down in compromise, Barb with the extra blanket she ordered up from the desk around 6pm. She watched TV huddled in bed with the bedclothes up to her ears—LOL I on the other hand was just comfortable and actually got warm during the night. Woke up at 330 with a splitting headache and didn’t get back to sleep til around 5 after two Aleve—most unusual for me. We arose at 7, got ready for the day, packed the car, ate a well balanced breakfast and headed out on the road about the same time as yesterday.
Bill had called last night and reminded me of the route we took to Columbus to miss all the Cleveland mess and so we followed 271 to I 71 and picked up 30 West at Mansfield. Didn’t take many pix because those who’ve traveled with us before know the scenery and those who haven’t—well most of Ohio and Indiana look pretty much the same—corn on one side of the road and soybeans to replenish the nitrogen the corn ate up last year, on the other.
I always take crazy shots as we go along—I missed a great one yesterday—a piece of machinery with the brand name Vermeer. It even had an arm hanging off to the side—was going to post it and say there used to be an earring, pearl, I believe, hanging from it—but alas, I was too slow and you must use your imaginations. Today, I managed to get some shots of a train car on a flatbed, not once but twice. The flatbed had Quebec plates as did the cab which was from Montreal. The car in back of the wide load appeared to be an official escort car from New York State—governmental? Is there still a Bombardier train car company in upstate NY or did they close it and return manufacturing to Quebec?
Unlike yesterday, when we just wanted to get the whole trek to Buffalo out of the way, we took our time and stopped in a nice quiet rest area to have a healthy picnic lunch. Note my sales face for Joseph’s flax, oat and wheat mini pita breads! We walked about to stretch and took in the beauty of a gigantic shelf mushroom with weeds growing through it, several very strange wasp creations ( though it wasn’t until we looked a the pix that we realized a few of the residents were checking us out-shivers))) and picked up several of what I think may be black walnuts. When we resumed our drive there was the train car again—he must have stopped somewhere, too, since we’d seen him way back near Cleveland originally. Shortly after getting on the road again 30 heads to Fort Wayne—we don’t like urban traffic so I directed us to go through Van Wert, Ohio on rte 244 to enter Indiana at Decatur. Van Wert is the start of the Lincoln Highway but we did not follow it for any distance before we headed out into farm country. The clouds were just beautiful in Decatur, which is not and in Markle, whose water tower gave us a few chuckles. For a town that would be unreMARKable, we left grinning and happy after just the very few minutes it took us to go through. This is why we love these backways—you’d never see such an enjoyable sight on the interstates.
We had decided this leg of the journey after lunch finishing our beverages—tea for Barb, water for me—we even called and made our reservations for the night in Rochester Indiana. After passing through Decatur and Markle, 244 took us to Huntington, In which is the home of Dan Quayle, though we’d not known this. There Is a museum but it was now almost 230 and we were not interested in museuming it, no matter the subject. I must say he comes from a very affluent town—those mansions are now mostly funeral homes but some of those prairie farms must have brought a pretty penny for in town winter homes.
From Huntington we took Indiana 5 north to South Whitely—Indiana’s favorite home town, they claim. It is nice and pleasant with tree lined sidewalks and homes with front porches looking out upon the scene. But there was nary a soul on sidewalk or porch—not at all as American Graffiti would indicate. Maybe on the Fourth of July—but not today!
As we drove along we found a plot of Sunflowers—thank heaven. All I’ve heard from Barb is –I didn’t see sunflowers in the midwest or moose in the west last time. Well, she’s wrong—we did see sunflowers in Kansas in 2000 around Sept 5—not my fault they’d already been hit by frost. Hopefully, we’ll see many more this time before frost hits.And by the way, unlike Bill, Barb does not clean the windshield of bugs in order for me to create these photographic masterpieces!!! As for moose, well, she saw elk and American bison and even one Mountain Sheep late at night on a hairpin curve coming down from Rushmore—don’t know why she’s so greedy—lol
Soon we were in Rochester but we were coming in on Indiana 14 and the directions were for I 33 to Indiana 25 north. We passed 25 north but I said no, I think it is throught town—so we followed 14 west toward 33 but that was 25 south—I had her turn around –but then realized –yeah that is 25 south but it is 25 north when you come off 33—I hate when I get too circular in plotting course. So she was going to turn around again, but we’d seen the melon stand so we stopped, got a melon ( which smells sooooo good) and then turned around. And of course, came to the motel. Lost about 10 minutes but gained dinner.
Must go—we had them bring in a fridge so going to have cantaloupe, cheese and wine for dinner—melon no points, wine is 5 and cheese is one—and I still have 13 points left –so maybe two glasses of wine. We got here at 515, it is 630 now and it is time to eat and get comfy.
May check out Rensselear tomorrow though we are a day early for the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. Who knows we may have to spend the night. Until then—have a terrific evening. The Nutsy Sisters in the Midwest—Kathy and Barb.
PS—ohhh, soon we’ll have the Everly Bros singing Illinois to start the next CD—can’t wait!
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