We look like we've covered a lot of ground, which we have, but also we've been cutting through the corners or tips of
states and have made it from Missouri through Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and are in
Pennsylvania!
Sunday and Monday we were at Ozark National Scenic Riverways
The rivers there are spring fed and are very clear and cold
The puppers and I went down to explore
She wanted to get in SO badly that she about pulled ME in!
We did get in the water enough to find lots of little fish who were super interested in nibbling on me
On Monday we left and headed to Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park, in Missouri. I saw this beautiful sunrise while walking the dog in the national park campground that morning.
We were following the river road again!
Ste. Geneviève has deep French influence in their architecture, culture, and history. See the fleur de lis on the road signs?
We got to see this really cool diorama of the town as it was in 1832
Lots of models of the architecture
I "borrowed" this photo from Wikipedia because although we drove past a few of these types of buildings, I didn't take pictures of them through my dirty car windows
There were models that showed how the houses were originally constructed
Across the street from the visitor center is the Jean-Baptiste Vallé house, which I had to "borrow" this photo from the NPS site because I took lots of other photos but forgot to take one of the house!
Cool door knocker/doorbell and doorknob at the house
Beautiful flowers in the gardens out back
Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park used to be Jean-Baptist Vallé State Park and as of October 2020, is the newest (to my knowledge) NPS unit. This was the original main state park site.
We crossed the Mississippi again (no idea how many times we've crossed it on this RV adventure!) as we headed across the bottom of Illinois and into Indiana, the first of "cutting corners" of states
Our doggy kept her cool by parking herself by the air vents in the front
And we crossed into Indiana!
Tuesday we went to Grouseland in Vincennes, Indiana. This was the home of William Henry Harrison, you might remember "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" or that he was only in office for a month before he died of pneumonia. The house was undergoing renovations so there was a lot of construction inside and out, but we could still take a tour!
So many things stacked everywhere as different rooms in the mansion were being worked on
We learned that Indiana has a state rifle and this thing weighs 50 pounds!!!
Grouseland was named after the bird, which I didn't realize was about as big as a turkey! I thought it would be more pheasant or quail sized. Harrison loved grouse as his favorite meal.
This was the main bedroom, they had moved two portraits of Harrison to that room from the rooms under construction.
Some of the windows had been removed and were being refurbished
This was a ribbon handed out at the funeral services for President Harrison
The main staircase, with period appropriate wallpaper
The servants' staircase (so narrow and steep!)
We rolled past 100,000 miles in our rig, we've put on 50,000+ of those miles ourselves.
A fun painted barn
We drove past Santa Claus, Indiana. We had stopped there before and mailed postcards that get a really fun and unique postmark
We cut through Kentucky
And made our way into Ohio
Wednesday morning's beautiful sunrise--we were boondocking (staying for free) at a Flying J.
We headed over to Hopewell Culture National Historical Park--another "pile of dirt" as my kids said. There are actually lots of mounds to be seen in this area, the visitor center just happens to be by one specific set. You can drive around and see all of the different mounds. This set had a military encampment here, some of the mounds were destroyed by the camp. Many mounds we have seen were in farmers' fields and were destroyed in an effort to farm
Some of the cool artifacts found in the mounds
Comparisons of the sizes of the mound areas
The coolest part: getting to walk out among the mounds but not ON the mounds. Many of the mounds we have seen have trails around them, sometimes (like Cahokia) have boardwalks or the like up the mounds, but you generally have to stay on the trails or sidewalks. We could walk out among and around the mounds themselves!
Our dog earned a B.A.R.K. Ranger patch at Hopewell!
We headed to Athens, Ohio (beautiful little college town) for some yummy lunch at a cute little hot dog restaurant that serves all kinds of fancy hot dogs.
Then we headed to Wheeling, West Virginia
To find another Madonna of the Trail statue! We started in January 2018 by finding the one in Upland, California and only have a few left to find.
The puppers kept her cool some more by constantly hanging out by the air vent
We followed the National Road between statues
Crossed into Pennsylvania
and found the second to last Madonna of the trail in Beallsville, Pennsylvania
We also saw these interesting signs, in orange, black, red, and green. I guess they're detour signs for accidents or construction?
Thursday we discovered how intense our dog's concentration is when staring out the window at the rabbits in camp. She didn't even care that I balanced my plate on her head!
She wasn't getting anywhere near the rabbits when we were outside (on leash) but she was so hopeful!
We took care of some other things in the campground and found a dog park to take the dog to go run around in. She was a happy dog to be off leash and couldn't decide between the toys that were left at the dog park!
Friday I walked the dog in the morning and we checked out the RV park more. Lovely little lake to walk past.
We headed east, I always find these road signs interesting
We followed the Lincoln Highway
We were headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial
The entire memorial is so beautiful, surrounded by fields of wildflowers, in rural Pennsylvania
This is the flight path walkway, which leads past the visitor center
It is marked by the times of the crashed of the different hijacked flights
At the end of the flight path is this view of the memorial below and the fields surrounding it
The exhibits in the visitor center were thought provoking and enlightening. It was crowded in there, lots of people visiting Flight 93 National Memorial on the 4th of July weekend. I saw somber faces and some tears as people viewed the exhibits. This showed who was sitting where. It was kind of startling to realize how empty the flight was, compared to flights today.
There was an exhibit on the targets
This showed the flight path
I didn't listen to any of the sound exhibits, this is where a lot of people got really weepy
At the very end, they had all the names of those who died on September 11, 2001
I walked the dog down to the memorial wall. Pets are not allowed on the flight path walkway or by the memorial wall, but are allowed in the parking lot areas and on the trails.
We traded off walking the dog and saw the memorial. The wall on the left is the boundary of the debris field from the crash
On annivseraries, this gate is open and family of those that died on Flight 93 are allowed to walk through
And walk out to the boulder
This giant sandstone boulder marks the impact site
The marble panels at the end, by the gate, are inscribed with the names of those who died
J and S earned their Junior Ranger badges here from a park ranger who gave a really amazing presentation down at the memorial wall. We only heard bits of it because we couldn't hang out up there with the dog.
Our last stop was the Tower of Voices, forty wind chimes for the forty people that died
The chimes were really mellow and beautiful
We headed to Johnstown Flood National Memorial and I saw the coolest exhibit I've seen in a long time (and I was a museum studies minor and have seen a lot of museums)! This was life-sized and really helped you feel the immensity of the dam failing and sweeping away everything in its path, including Johnstown
Over 2,000+ people died
This house was the dam's caretaker's house. It overlooked the dam
The hill in the background was part of the dam and the roads and railroad run through where the dam failed
This was humorous, on the door of the visitor center
Saturday we went to Norvelt and Fallingwater. We saw this sign along the way
Norvelt was named for EleaNOR RooseVELT. We listened to Dead End in Norvelt on audiobook, as read by the author, on one of our many excursions in the car. When I realized the book was semi-autobiographical AND Norvelt was a real town, we had to put it on our list! It was only a few minutes from Fallingwater.
Fallingwater is probably Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous work and what revived his career in the 1930s.
Since we are doing things as we go, it's hard to plan ahead. We were able to get a grounds tour, but not a house tour as the house tours were all sold out.
It's pretty amazing that this house is built over a waterfall
Even though we didn't get to go inside the house, we got to walk right past the front entrance
I snapped this photo through the window. Many of Wright's creations also had custom built furniture that matched the house's architecture
This was the garage--but now was more like guest house and office space, even though there was already a guest house built by Wright on the property
Exterior view of the garage
Coolest thing ever: when the house was built, there was a tree here. Wright literally designed around it! The tree has since died, but they planted a new one in its place!
The trails around the house wind through so much greenery. I took a lot of photos of flowers!
On our way home we saw a steam shovel! Ever read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel?
This is our state map so far. We need to see more of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but this is what we have left to see!
Sunday we attended the Monongahela Ward, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Stake
Sunday and Monday we were at Ozark National Scenic Riverways
The rivers there are spring fed and are very clear and cold
The puppers and I went down to explore
She wanted to get in SO badly that she about pulled ME in!
We did get in the water enough to find lots of little fish who were super interested in nibbling on me
On Monday we left and headed to Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park, in Missouri. I saw this beautiful sunrise while walking the dog in the national park campground that morning.
We were following the river road again!
Ste. Geneviève has deep French influence in their architecture, culture, and history. See the fleur de lis on the road signs?
We got to see this really cool diorama of the town as it was in 1832
Lots of models of the architecture
I "borrowed" this photo from Wikipedia because although we drove past a few of these types of buildings, I didn't take pictures of them through my dirty car windows
There were models that showed how the houses were originally constructed
Across the street from the visitor center is the Jean-Baptiste Vallé house, which I had to "borrow" this photo from the NPS site because I took lots of other photos but forgot to take one of the house!
Cool door knocker/doorbell and doorknob at the house
Beautiful flowers in the gardens out back
Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park used to be Jean-Baptist Vallé State Park and as of October 2020, is the newest (to my knowledge) NPS unit. This was the original main state park site.
We crossed the Mississippi again (no idea how many times we've crossed it on this RV adventure!) as we headed across the bottom of Illinois and into Indiana, the first of "cutting corners" of states
Our doggy kept her cool by parking herself by the air vents in the front
And we crossed into Indiana!
Tuesday we went to Grouseland in Vincennes, Indiana. This was the home of William Henry Harrison, you might remember "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" or that he was only in office for a month before he died of pneumonia. The house was undergoing renovations so there was a lot of construction inside and out, but we could still take a tour!
So many things stacked everywhere as different rooms in the mansion were being worked on
We learned that Indiana has a state rifle and this thing weighs 50 pounds!!!
Grouseland was named after the bird, which I didn't realize was about as big as a turkey! I thought it would be more pheasant or quail sized. Harrison loved grouse as his favorite meal.
This was the main bedroom, they had moved two portraits of Harrison to that room from the rooms under construction.
Some of the windows had been removed and were being refurbished
This was a ribbon handed out at the funeral services for President Harrison
The main staircase, with period appropriate wallpaper
The servants' staircase (so narrow and steep!)
We rolled past 100,000 miles in our rig, we've put on 50,000+ of those miles ourselves.
A fun painted barn
We drove past Santa Claus, Indiana. We had stopped there before and mailed postcards that get a really fun and unique postmark
We cut through Kentucky
And made our way into Ohio
Wednesday morning's beautiful sunrise--we were boondocking (staying for free) at a Flying J.
We headed over to Hopewell Culture National Historical Park--another "pile of dirt" as my kids said. There are actually lots of mounds to be seen in this area, the visitor center just happens to be by one specific set. You can drive around and see all of the different mounds. This set had a military encampment here, some of the mounds were destroyed by the camp. Many mounds we have seen were in farmers' fields and were destroyed in an effort to farm
Some of the cool artifacts found in the mounds
Comparisons of the sizes of the mound areas
The coolest part: getting to walk out among the mounds but not ON the mounds. Many of the mounds we have seen have trails around them, sometimes (like Cahokia) have boardwalks or the like up the mounds, but you generally have to stay on the trails or sidewalks. We could walk out among and around the mounds themselves!
Our dog earned a B.A.R.K. Ranger patch at Hopewell!
We headed to Athens, Ohio (beautiful little college town) for some yummy lunch at a cute little hot dog restaurant that serves all kinds of fancy hot dogs.
Then we headed to Wheeling, West Virginia
To find another Madonna of the Trail statue! We started in January 2018 by finding the one in Upland, California and only have a few left to find.
The puppers kept her cool some more by constantly hanging out by the air vent
We followed the National Road between statues
Crossed into Pennsylvania
and found the second to last Madonna of the trail in Beallsville, Pennsylvania
We also saw these interesting signs, in orange, black, red, and green. I guess they're detour signs for accidents or construction?
Thursday we discovered how intense our dog's concentration is when staring out the window at the rabbits in camp. She didn't even care that I balanced my plate on her head!
She wasn't getting anywhere near the rabbits when we were outside (on leash) but she was so hopeful!
We took care of some other things in the campground and found a dog park to take the dog to go run around in. She was a happy dog to be off leash and couldn't decide between the toys that were left at the dog park!
Friday I walked the dog in the morning and we checked out the RV park more. Lovely little lake to walk past.
We headed east, I always find these road signs interesting
We followed the Lincoln Highway
We were headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial
The entire memorial is so beautiful, surrounded by fields of wildflowers, in rural Pennsylvania
This is the flight path walkway, which leads past the visitor center
It is marked by the times of the crashed of the different hijacked flights
At the end of the flight path is this view of the memorial below and the fields surrounding it
The exhibits in the visitor center were thought provoking and enlightening. It was crowded in there, lots of people visiting Flight 93 National Memorial on the 4th of July weekend. I saw somber faces and some tears as people viewed the exhibits. This showed who was sitting where. It was kind of startling to realize how empty the flight was, compared to flights today.
There was an exhibit on the targets
This showed the flight path
I didn't listen to any of the sound exhibits, this is where a lot of people got really weepy
At the very end, they had all the names of those who died on September 11, 2001
I walked the dog down to the memorial wall. Pets are not allowed on the flight path walkway or by the memorial wall, but are allowed in the parking lot areas and on the trails.
We traded off walking the dog and saw the memorial. The wall on the left is the boundary of the debris field from the crash
On annivseraries, this gate is open and family of those that died on Flight 93 are allowed to walk through
And walk out to the boulder
This giant sandstone boulder marks the impact site
The marble panels at the end, by the gate, are inscribed with the names of those who died
J and S earned their Junior Ranger badges here from a park ranger who gave a really amazing presentation down at the memorial wall. We only heard bits of it because we couldn't hang out up there with the dog.
Our last stop was the Tower of Voices, forty wind chimes for the forty people that died
The chimes were really mellow and beautiful
We headed to Johnstown Flood National Memorial and I saw the coolest exhibit I've seen in a long time (and I was a museum studies minor and have seen a lot of museums)! This was life-sized and really helped you feel the immensity of the dam failing and sweeping away everything in its path, including Johnstown
Over 2,000+ people died
This house was the dam's caretaker's house. It overlooked the dam
The hill in the background was part of the dam and the roads and railroad run through where the dam failed
This was humorous, on the door of the visitor center
Saturday we went to Norvelt and Fallingwater. We saw this sign along the way
Norvelt was named for EleaNOR RooseVELT. We listened to Dead End in Norvelt on audiobook, as read by the author, on one of our many excursions in the car. When I realized the book was semi-autobiographical AND Norvelt was a real town, we had to put it on our list! It was only a few minutes from Fallingwater.
Fallingwater is probably Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous work and what revived his career in the 1930s.
Since we are doing things as we go, it's hard to plan ahead. We were able to get a grounds tour, but not a house tour as the house tours were all sold out.
It's pretty amazing that this house is built over a waterfall
Even though we didn't get to go inside the house, we got to walk right past the front entrance
I snapped this photo through the window. Many of Wright's creations also had custom built furniture that matched the house's architecture
This was the garage--but now was more like guest house and office space, even though there was already a guest house built by Wright on the property
Exterior view of the garage
Coolest thing ever: when the house was built, there was a tree here. Wright literally designed around it! The tree has since died, but they planted a new one in its place!
The trails around the house wind through so much greenery. I took a lot of photos of flowers!
On our way home we saw a steam shovel! Ever read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel?
This is our state map so far. We need to see more of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but this is what we have left to see!
Sunday we attended the Monongahela Ward, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Stake
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