Exploring Dresden and Zanesville, Ohio

Sunday, May 26, 2019

We started out our day with a quiet and peaceful walk thru the Mission Oak Gardens in Zanesville.  This garden is a beautiful urban garden of over seven acres.  It is in a residential neighborhood.  First, we walked through the Conifer Garden.

Then across the parking lot is the Mission Oaks.  It was a pleasant walk with flowering plants, ferns and all sorts of other plants.

Big Dude Magnolia

Iris

Shield Fern

A pleasant surprise was the Fairy and Gnome Garden.  I love the miniature world of fairies.

Next, we drove to Dresden to see the world's largest basket.  We visited the Longaberger Office building back in 2016.  Now we have seen both.

A view of the 23-foot high side.

The seven-story office building from a past trip.

Next, we search out the #11 river lock.

Back to Zanesville.  We stopped at the Historic Lock #10 Canal Park.  Although we walked quite a way along the canal, there was no lock.  We knew this was a working lock for boaters on the river so we assumed it was much further downstream.  After returning to the truck, we tried to find it by driving.  What we found was the Cottrill Sculpture Studio and two blocks of fantastic sculptures.

There were so many more, but I only have so much room.  We did find Lock #10 along with a very nice lock keeper.  We had a nice chat and took pictures.

Friendly lock keeper.

After all this exploring I was tired.

Closets, Bridges and Tornados, oh my!

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Today was fix the closet day.  Actually, it wasn't all that bad.  Bruce got some stainless steel screws slightly larger than the old ones and reinstalled the hanging rack.  Then a trip to Lowes for a good size dowel to use as a center support.  The roads are so bad everywhere we thought that would help with the bouncing.  After a few additional organizing items, our closet is better than ever.

Now it is time to do a little exploring.  We started out going to the Y Bridge.  On this bridge, you go to the middle and make a right or left. While at this overlook our phone alarms went off warning of tornados.  Then a siren started blowing.  No one else seemed concerned.  A lady at the park said, "we get a lot of those here in Ohio."  Still a bit nerve-racking, but there were no tornados today.

The Y Bridge

Overlooking Zanesville from Putnam Hill

We just drove around and found some quirky things.

Giant Circle of Vases.

Bruce having fun with a pano.

Car or Buggy?

Happy Battery Day, I mean Birthday Bruce

Friday, May 24, 2019

After coffee and a nice breakfast, Bruce disconnected the old battery and off we went in search of a new Interstate battery.  Only two stops later, success.  Close by too!  Poor Bruce.  Batteries are heavy and the position of the coach made it very difficult to lift the battery into the battery box.  After a mighty acrobatic feat, he got the job done.  Now off to do a little shopping and get the dust rinsed off the truck.  Once that was done we went off in search of some local sights.  As it is Memorial Day weekend it seemed quite appropriate we saw some awesome memorials.  First, in a small park downtown was this pile of helmets.  Each had the name of a fallen hero from WW II and the Korean War.

Also in this park was this stone with a poem to all fallen heroes

.

We moved on to Zane Landing, another closeby park where we found this statue.

1. John McIntire, Founder of Zanesville.
2. Noah Norris, Enlisted in the first black Ohio Regiment (Civil War)
3. Zane Gray, author of many westerns.
4. John Glenn, astronaut, first American to orbit Earth.

There were more war memorials.

Vietnam

Iraq

The Eternal Flame dedicated to Medal of Honor Recipients

This park is also the home of the Lorena Sternwheeler.

Back to the RV to relax with a cocktail and some snacks.  Then I made Bruce a nice steak dinner for his birthday.  Now I am ready for nighty-night.

Our quirky thing for today:

Random Rino.

Off to Zanesville, Ohio

Thursday, May 23, 2019

The alarm goes off at 4:00 am and it was not hard to get up and get it moving.  We are so excited to be on our way.  Since we were almost completely ready last night it didn't take us long to pack up the fridge and freezer foods, make a boatload of coffee and pack up the kitties.  Trying not to wake the neighbors we hitched up the truck in the Aldi's parking lot.  We were on the road by 5:30.  The weather was great and we beat the traffic getting away from DC.  Check-in is at 1:00 pm and we had a 4 1/2 hour drive.  We planned on using up some time stopping at a rest area halfway to install our new Snap Pads on our jack feet.  That went unbelievably well and our timing was working out.  Then things decided to not go so well.  First traffic decided to slow down for no particular reason.  Next, we pulled in to Pilot to gas up and the turn was really sharp.  But, using all his driving skill Bruce managed to make it without dropping the truck.  Now our Pilot card wouldn't accept our pin number.  Discover to the rescue.  Pulled in to Wolfie's Campground about 2:00 and set up.  Realized headlights were still on and discovered the battery was dead even though they were not on long,  Looks like we are going to need a new coach chassis battery.  It has been about seven years so it is about time. Then I opened the closet and found the hanging rack had pulled away from the ceiling and everything was in a jumble.  Oh well, went to Steak 'n Shake and had the best burgers, onion rings and dark chocolate shakes ever.  Picked up new screws for closet repair tomorrow.  Hot shower and an early night.  It is all good.

Site #35

Capitol Chapter Rally in Williamsburg, VA

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Off to Virginia for the Capitol Chapter Rally.  Bruce had a little bit of a rough start in the driveway, but he will power through.

We got to the Williamsburg KOA and got set up.

Thinking all was ready for our weekend, we discovered the truck wasn't ready.  After a jumpstart, we went off to the AAA garage and purchased a new battery.  Now we are ready for the weekend.


Friday, May 17, 2019

The rally officially starts tonight so we had today to explore.  We started out with a morning hike to the Tomb of an Unknown Patriot Soldier who fell during the American Revolution at the Battle of Green Spring.  This hike started out behind an elementary school and continued down a very pleasant wooded trail.

Along the way, we came across a bird watcher on this bridge.  He was so enthusiastic and was very eager to talk about his passion.  He was watching a family of owls.

We hiked along the Powhatan Creek Trail to the site of the Tomb.  As well as the site of the Tomb it was also the site of the Church on the Main and Mainland Farm.  Near here was the Battle of Green Spring on July 6, 1781.

During the afternoon we went to the Silver Hand Meadery.  This was quite an interesting experience.  We decided to do both the honey tasting as well as a mead tasting.  I am not, or at least I wasn't a big fan of honey, but by the time we finished with this tasting I am now a honey lover.  We purchased several kinds of honey and a couple bottles of mead.

That evening we got together with the other rally members and met our host and hostess, Ken and Jackie Koch.

Ken and Jackie

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Today we all went to the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.  We toured the inside of the museum and even took in a few short lectures.  Then on to the outside where we visited a colonial encampment.  We talked with "doctors" and "cooks" and saw what life was like in a camp during the Revolutionary War.

The highlight of the day was the firing of the cannon.  I got to be a Molly Pitcher.  This was a heroine of the Revolutionary War.  A nickname for a woman said to have carried water to American soldiers and then stepping up to take over her husband's position after he was unable to fight.  My position was to clean the cannon with the sponge to remove all sparks, filth, and dirt.  Once the powder and shot were added I then rammed the cannon.  We then took a position with our backs to the carriage of the cannon.  This served several purposes.  First, we were behind the blast so it was a safe position and then we provided a spot to reset the position of the cannon so that the next shot could be fine-tuned  Ken, our camp host played the role of Captain.  We had a really good time going through the motions of firing this cannon.  Of course, the soldiers did a real firing after our demonstration.

After our time at the museum was over we all met at a local restaurant, Riverwalk, where we had an excellent dinner.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

After meeting for a nice breakfast we had to say goodbye to our new friends.  Hoping to attend another Capitol Chapter rally soon.

Easter with Candice's Family

Sunday, April 21, 2019

We were so happy to accept an invitation to join Candice's family for Easter Dinner this year.

Visit with Great Grandpop

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Erich and Jayan were here for a visit so we took the opportunity for Jayan and Brandon to visit with Great Grandpops.