Mid-October: We're Into Our 4th Month on the Road

Lucky for Us - Octoberfest Is Celebrated in September

I’m not sure why we decided to spend a week in the Columbus, Ohio area, but we’re glad we did.  We had a fairly short, uneventful ride to our next RV park, Hickory Hollow Campground in Berkshire, Ohio.  This very nice park was pretty quiet since kids are back in school.  On the weekend, we went to Columbus to a farmer’s market at the fairgrounds, and an Octoberfest Celebration in another part of the enormous fairgrounds, and a Home & Garden show at another part of the fairgrounds.  Some good German oompah music and some wonderful beer was the highlight of the day.  Sunday was a day of rest to watch some football.  Glad to have football back.

One of three "barns" with exhibits

Festival Sponsored by One Family Owned Company

Many days of Great entertainment

The Oompah Band with 3rd Generation Performers

Some folks are truly dedicated to their beer.
These folks are part of groups with similar headgear!

However not everyone wore beer stein hats.
A Tyrolean Hat sits on the chicken's head!

This $20 stein full of great Octoberfest beer was a great purchase

Two Beautiful Garden Spaces and Wonderful Calzone

On Tuesday we headed to the Franklin Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, a truly wonderful place to visit in Columbus, OH.  Great gardens spaces, indoors and outdoors, accompanied by some amazingly beautiful Chihuly (Dale Chihuly) Glass. A G-gauged model train display and wooden structures created by the artist is Ray's favorite part of the experience. The Chihuly Glass is Lalia's choice.

Some of these are shown below

#1 Silver Plum and Cobalt

Ray in the Tropical Forest

The Flamingos are Topiaries

Each Bonsai is labeled with its age.

Blue Herons

Niuima Floats & Anemones

The Palm Court

Army Corp of Engineers Is Almost Invisible to Most Americans
It's Too Bad

The next day we went to the Alum Creek Visitor Center. Alum Creek Lake was created after a major flood in 1959.  To control flooding and have a steady water supply for central Ohio a group consisting of federal, state, and local government agencies plus local citizens groups decided to build a dam. The dam was completed in 1974 and has served the area with flood control and a dependable water supply since.

In addition to the information on the dam, wildlife information, primarily intended for children was really informative regarding wildlife and how to handle animals.

Although Past Perfect, the Rose Garden Was Grand Lady

The Columbus Rose Garden was our next stop.  Although most of the roses were well beyond blooming season this is a very nice garden.  There were some roses to view and many other plants that were exceptional.  In addition, the park has many trees and bushes with name tags, as did all the flowering plants.  We’d love to see this park again when roses and other plants are in bloom.  The other nice thing about this park is that it is a great place to walk and we saw quite a few people walking with kids or dogs. 

Each rose has a label

We particularly loved Julia Child

One of many inspirational plaques

Among these flowers are Monarch Butterflies

After walking around the rose garden, we drove to see an art display called the Corn Field.  A local piece of art that we thought was kind of strange as you can see by the pictures.  We left the Corn Field and went to a nearby Italian deli called Vincenzo’s for a delicious calzone.  While we were there the chef told us that each of the ears of corn in the Corn Field cost the city $7,000 to install and they still have to maintain it.

Our last day in Galena was spent walking around IKEA and Costco and getting ready to move to Rockwood, Pennsylvania which was our next stop.  We selected Rockwood because it is very close to The Flight 93 Memorial and also the Johnstown flood area.  

This was our first visit to The Flight 93 Memorial and it was a very emotional day for both of us.  This site explaining 9/11 is very well done and gives a great overview of the day. The only words to explain this memorial is that it is a memorial to 40 passengers and crew members who are American Heroes.  Visiting this site is something we will never, ever forget.

We walked the path that starts at the Visitor's Center

No words can capture the feeling

Thru this gate you can see the boulder which marks the impact point

So simple, so poignant

On Tuesday we went to visit the Johnstown Flood Visitor Center which has a very nice display explaining the destruction this flood caused and the death of 2200 people in Johnstown, which is 14 miles downriver from this dam.  One of the walking trails took us along what remains of the earthen dam and it was amazing how high this dam was and yet it still could not hold the water back.

This structure and the next are part of the original resort

The original lake reached almost to this porch

Part of the earthen dam

Original caretaker's house next to Visitior's Center

We looked up at the top of the dam

Another great part of Pennsylvania

On a lighter note, here's a picture of one of the interesting perks of living in Pennsylvania.

Certainly a shorter line than Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks early in the day

From Pennsylvania we headed to the Holder RV Resort and Yacht Club where we visited with friends Colleen and Charles Holder in our old neighborhood in Sanford, NC.  While in Sanford we made final arrangements to have body work done on the car and RV.  Our three nights in Sanford were very busy.  One night we had dinner at friends Barbara and Fred Berman house with Holders and Jacqui and Joe Danek.  Another night Lalia and I had dinner with friends Marsha and Red Davis and our final night Colleen made us pizza on the boat dock after a nice ride around Lake Trace.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends.

From Sanford we had a short ride to Cross Winds Campground in Linwood, NC where we’ll spend two weeks while our vehicles are repaired but that will be left for the final blog on this trip.