Catchup - Part three

After leaving Cahokia, we followed the i70 through Illinois and Indiana, heading for our next stop in Columbus Ohio. The difference in each state became apparent as we travelled through Indiana, where the road surface was noticeably worse than our previous route through Illinois and later when we passed through Ohio the roads improved again. Another difference was the kind and number of advertisement hoardings alongside the highway.  They changed from hardly any, to being bombarded with adverts for eating places and fireworks.
We lived on six inch Subway subs whilst on the road, because there were everywhere.  They offer the least oversizing fast food and you can decide on the exact filling. TS and family on a visit to us some years ago went into a local Subway and discovered that the then British version was disappointingly different, but over the last few years, apart from the slightly smaller portions of filling put into the sub in the UK, they seem to have got very close to their US counterparts.

However even the USA Subway sub is nothing like the real thing you will get if you go to a genuine sub emporium, where the bread is compressed to a thin shell with a filling so big there is no room for the bread.  Yum! - but they are oversizing food.
 Our lunch stop that day was in Effingham Illinois. Effingham was founded in 1814 and given the name Broughton but was renamed in 1859. Apart from being the Effingham county capital, it has two claims to fame. First it is sited at the meeting of two major interstate highways, the i70 and the i57 and second it claims to have the tallest free standing cross in the USA. So, not a big tourist attraction, but a lot of people must pass through on their way elsewhere and there are lots of hotels and food outlets.

The cross at Effingham - it is big.

After lunch, we drove on into Indiana and crossed over the Wabash River just inside the border.

We skirted Terre Haute, heading along the i70 for 76 miles to bypass Indianapolis and on to Richmond and after roughly another 70 miles, over the state border and then into Ohio.  Terre Haute is a reminder of the French influence accross that area, which was part of New France, which once stretched all the way from Northern Canada down to New orleans.  The name is derived from the French for 'high ground'.
Indianapolis is the state captital and became so in 1820.  It was purpose built and was placed as centrally as posible in Indiana by the planners.  The original state capital was Croydon, on the southern border of Indiana.  Indanapolis is famous for the Indy 500 race, one of the worlds most prestigious motor races, that traditionally takes place on Memorial Day.  The five hundred refers to the length of the race, which is five hundred miles and requires a gruelling two hundred laps around the Indiapolis Motor Speedway.
 
In Ohio, we continued along the i70 past Dayton and Springfield.

Springfield is one of the 38 different cities, towns and townships with that name found in the USA. The cartoon characters the Simpsons live in a town called Springfield, a name chosen for its anonymity, so that they cannot be accused of their satire pointing a finger at any particular place. So, no three eyed radioactive fish in any rivers near Springfield Ohio.
As we went further East, the land started to change and it became more hilly and the roads started to meander a bit, unlike Western states, where the roads tend to be perfectly straight.

Apart from passing by London, Springfield was the last major town we passed before entering Columbus. Well actually London was not so big, just a dot on the map.  There are a lot of Londons in the USA too.
Our journey to Washington took us all over the globe if you went just by the place names, we went past. We passed Bethlehem, Bristol, Cambridge, London, Rome, Carthage, Alexandria and a whole lot of other familiar sounding places, but never left the i70, eventually arriving at Columbus.

 Like Effingham, Columbus is on a crossroads but unlike Effingham, it is a lot larger. Population wise, it is about sixty four times larger. Named for the explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812, a fateful year.  Britain was already at war with the French when the American settlers, decided to get out from under and picking an ideal time to rebel and eventually won their war.  Also in 1812 Napoleon lost a major battle at Moscow.
We found nothing very notable about the part of Columbus where our hotel was, it seemed very run down. We arrived around 7:30 local time, having gained an hour when crossing the state line and went to look for somewhere to eat, but everywhere was closed for the night! We tried several places and eventually got a take out from a Papa Johns.

Apart from searching the local rather sleazy area near our hotel, we did not see a lot of the place, so my assessment of the city is not typical and I am sure there are many nice areas with splendid civic amenities in other parts of Columbus. We took our meal back to our hotel and ate in our room, then left first thing the next day.
Columbus is almost dead center of the state of Ohio,along the i70, and so the last leg of our outward journey took us across the eastern half of Ohio, past Cambridge, over the Ohio River and on into the little northern spur of West Virginia.

West Virginia is very beautiful and scattered with farms and woodland

I can only assume that many American tourists that arrive in Britain do not visit much else of their own country, because it is very commom to hear them saying how green and wonderful england is.  Most of the places around that part of West Virginia and nearby states are just that.
This part of West Virginia is very narrow and so we were only in West Virginia for a few miles and as we went past the town of Wheeling we were in Pennsylvania.

The geography of these eastern state borders becomes quite complicated as small strips and spurs of one state project into or between others and by driving only a few miles, you can often travel in three states within thirty minutes.

Although we did not stop there, Pittsburgh is an interesting city, it is on the junction of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River which join together to form the Ohio River.  Pittsburgh is famous for Mount Washington which overlooks the city where it sits on the Golden Triangle between the junctions of the three rivers. This is declared one of the best views in the USA.  Mount Washington is reached by a very early cog railway that is designed to climb such a steep incline, that the engines are built on an angle to keep the boiler level.

This photograph was taken by my brother in law when he was there some years ago.

At Washington PA not DC, a little south of Pittsburgh, we left the i70 and took the i79 south down towards West Virginia and then in that state we turned off onto the i68.

This area is close to the Appalachian Mountains and the country became very hilly and very green with forested hills interspersed with fewer and fewer farms and houses. Shortly after Morgantown, we crossed the state line into Maryland.

In Britain, the name Mary is pronounced Mare-ee, maybe otheres pronounce it differently, so most Brits would call Maryland Mare -ee land, including news readers on TV, who should know better, but like Marylebone in London, England is not pronounced Mary le bone, although it once was.   Maryland is not pronounced that way either and any tourists foolish enough, (heaven forbid) who should attempt to pronounce it as it is spelled, will be ridiculed by the locals. Much the same way that we in England may find amusement in people pronouncing the perfectly ordinary English names of Gloucester, Warwick, Berkeley or Cholmondeley other than as Gloster, War-ick, Bark-lee or Chum-lee.
The road has to cross some highish hills and we got some great views of the beginning of the Appalachians.  This is the area is not too far from  the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and the Laurel and Hardy song kept running through my head as we drove along.   If you don't know it, check it out on You Tube. Follow the link

On the edge of the Appalachian mountains

Not as high as the Rockies, this was the highest we got

At Hagerstown, we picked up the i70 again and then at Frederick the i270 which heads directly to Washington DC. We were staying at Crystal City so we crossed the Potomac River into Virginia.

Driving along the Virginian side of the Potomac River with the Washington Monument in sight.  Unfortunately it has scaffolding all around it.

One of the five sides of the pentagon

We continued to head down past the Arlington Cemetery, the Pentagon and on to our hotel.

Catchup Part two - The USA

Once The Better Half (TBH) and I arrived in Lawrence, for the next few days we stayed at The Son's (TS's) family house, where we did a bit of shopping and grandson* sitting whilst the family, who had not yet started their summer break, were still at work. (*he is not a baby, far from it, now topping his grandmother by a few inches)

One night, not long after we had arrived, I had an intensely vivid nightmare, something I rarely suffer from, where I dreamed that one of my family, who has been unwell for a long time, had died and their ghost was standing staring at me in an accusing manner.  In my dream, she was standing in the garden of the house I had lived in with my first wife when she was alive.  I felt I should be pleased to see her but instead I became unreasonably terrified and woke up thrashing about and yelling that my relative was dead and in the process woke up TBH too.  It was so vivid and unusual I worried the next day or so if it was true and that my ill relation was really dead, but after an exchange of e-mails I discovered they were still alive, if not well and dismissed the whole thing as weird but unimportant.

Over the next few days there were a series of thunderstorms and heavy rain.  This is not unusual for that time of year and we often experience storms when we are there.  The weather around that part of the world can be several times more destructive than anything we experience back home, and whilst the British are notorius for discussing the weather, it can be a matter of life or death knowing what is heading for you in the Mid West.  So being in Tornado Alley, we wartched the weather reports regularly following the path of each storm. and then witnessed live, the terrible real life drama as the Oklahoma City tornado developed minute by minute growing in intensity.  The extent of the damage began to come in as it made hundreds homeless and we watched the death toll rise, all the time wondering if it would come north and set about Kansas.

This is not one of my pictures, but it shows some of the brave people who go out and monitor these storms.  Three experienced Stormchasers died this year whilst gathering data for the news services.

Things calmed down weather wise and we all got ready for our trip to Washington DC. We hired a Chrysler Town and Country, which easily seats the whole family and luggage, but when it arrived we found it had not been cleaned out by the hire company or whoever had used it before us.  They, it seemed, were not too fussy about the state they left it in becaue there were bits of half eaten food, spilled coffee in one of the cup holders, melted icecream, candy wrappers, sticky broken toys and even a camera lens cap from a modern DTL camera in the luggage compartment. Since TS had arranged to pick it up on the morning we were planning to head off, this was a minor setback, because we then had to set too with dustpan and brushes, vacuum cleaner and wet wipes to make it habitable to a standard we felt comfortable with. We were going to be living in it for several days, so we cleaned and scrubbed until it was in a state where we did not feel uncomfortable touching door handles and such and did not feel we would regret sitting on the seats. Eventually, after working away for an hour in the baking summer sun, we were underway in an acceptably clean vehicle.

A Town and Country

The first leg of the trip, took us along the interstate highway, i70 through Kansas City into Missouri

and then on to St Louis.  Americans pronounce the S on the end and do not say St Looey as many Europeans would (and incidentally the old song lyrics, “meet me in St Looey, Looey”).  I used to have an Uncle Louis and his name was always pronounced without the S on the end.

Crossing the Mississippi at St louis

Once we had crossed the Mississippi we were in Illinois.

One of St Louis' claim to fame is the Gateway Arch, the tallest monument in the USA.  It is much taller than the Statue of Liberty.  It is so big, it does not look like much when you are close to it, but from a distance you can see how large it really is.

The Gateway to the West, but we were travelling East

The Gateway Arch seen from several miles away shows its true size

That evening we stopped at our hotel for the night, just outside St Louis and the following morning after an early breakfast, we went on a few miles to the Cahokia Mounds.

This is the site of a once thriving Mississippian Native American society. At its height, there was a busy town with a population measured in the thousands, not the small huddle of tepees which is the common image of the Native American. The residents traded manufactured and did all those things any present day society does on a day to day basis. Around 1250AD, the population declined and signs of malnutrition in the remains found, suggest that they had exceeded the location’s ability to feed such a large population. This coupled with climate change, which shortened the growing season and reduced rainfall, further reduced the food supplies. So it seems they were unable to feed themselves adequately causing a reduction in overall health and the population dwindled and eventually the place was abandoned. The original inhabitants had created some huge rectangular flat topped mounds on which all their important buildings were erected. The exact purpose of these is not fully understood, but it is presumed from the digs made that the most important citizens had houses on smaller mounds and important civic buildings were at various times on the larger mounds. The largest of these is now known as Monk’s Mound after some Trappist monks lived there in the early 1800s. Long before that at its height around, 1150 AD, Cahokia was larger in population than the contemporary City of London, at the time the largest European city of the same period and no city in the USA exceeded that population until 1800.

The Monk's Mound

Half way up

We went up to the top of the Monk's Mound and after recovering my breath, I was able to look around at the site.  We then had to come down again...

It is a long way down too.

Catchup part one - Canada

Well I am back in the fold with a huge backlog of blogs to post, assuming there is someone out there who is still interested after all this time. We have been very busy. I have finished off two novels that I have been writing for some time now and then we went off on our long anticipated trip to Canada to visit cousin Kaybee. From there we went on to Kansas to visit our family who live there for a much longer stay. With them we drove across to Washington to do the tourist bit in DC. Since arriving home we have been to Bletchley museum for a reunion and to see all the spy stuff there plus the world’s first digital computer. I have been for a helicopter flight and we have been on holiday with another branch of the family in Cornwall. On top of all that we have taken care of a deceased relation’s affairs which have been very complicated and time consuming. The latter taking up the bulk of our time.

May in Toronto

So May and off we went, The Better Half (TBH) and I, to Canada to visit cousin Kaybee for a few days and then on to Kansas to stay with The Son (TS), Daughter In Law (DIL) and The Grandson (TG).

The cliffs by Lake Ontario

Canada was kind to us and the weather was pleasant with sunny and warm days.

As usual there were lots of squirrels around

A Garden ornament?

Anything for a small and very cute hungry squirrel?

If I stand like this, people will think I am a meerkat - people like meerkats.

 

Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario lies between Canada and America, with New York State on the south side.  The lake is the most eastern of the great lakes and is also the lowest. It was formed during the last ice age when the St Lawrence river valley was excavated by the glacial ice.  At that time the whole area was  buried under a sheet of ice several thousand feet thick.  When ice sheets melt the ground experiences what is known as a rebound, as a result of the relief from the weight of all that ice, and it starts to rise.  Whilst this effect is slow by human standards, it is happening relatively fast geologically.  The ground is rising faster on the Canadian side which is causing the lake bed to tilt towards America.  As a result the American side of the lake is being slowly submerged.   So don’t buy lakeside real estate on the south shore of Lake Ontario as a long term investment.

We strolled by Lake Ontario and chatted and did very little but it was relaxing and enjoyable and we got to meet some more of Kaybee’s extended family for the first time.

The latest addition

 On one walk along the lake, the water was a series of bands of different colours, which have not reproduced quite so strongly on my pictures.   

 

The water had three distinct colours

Although the lake is a fresh water lake, to us forigners it is so large it looks like the seaside and even has sandy beaches which compare with the best seaside resorts back home.

Because we do not live in Canada, the wildlife is strange to us and although this bird must be fairly commonplace, I had to admire its coloured plumage, which showed different colours as it moved.

Who are you looking at?

Kaybee lives in a quiet street with a lot of mature trees around, making a pleasing back drop to the surroundings.

The view from the front window

One day, whilst we were sitting in Kaybee’s living room, we experienced a mild earth tremor, which was centred on Quebec. We were a long way from the epicentre and it caused no damage.

Trees around her back yard

Time passed much too fast and we were saying goodbye once again.

A two and a bit hour flight, took us down to Kansas City airport and we collected our bags wondering why no one was meeting us. Suddenly we saw TS hurrying in to see where our flight would arrive. They had been held up in traffic but since neither of us had to wait for each other, it timed out well, apart from the family having to sit out a traffic jam.

More to follow

A Visit From Africa

I am almost back to normal and have some time for a short blog.

Micro sand dunes

I want to report that we were visited by the Sahara desert recently during the night. It left both our cars dirty and a few micro sand dunes on our patio table. This happens now and then when the wind is from the south and there have been dust storms in north Africa, lifting the dust to stratospheric heights. This can lead to yellow or red rain if it happens in the daytime.

The patio table top should be the same colour as the legs and shiny

This dirty rain fell overnight, so we were unable to see what colour the rain was. There was a particularly bad fall of red rain many years ago when I was working in London and one morning, when getting ready to drive to work, I thought that someone had deliberately thrown a bucket of muddy water over my car in the night. I later discovered that I was not the only one and lots of other cars looked the same. I am not sure how far these muddy rains extend up the country, because I never experienced it when working in the North of England.

I am back on Planet Earth again but my feet have yet to make contact with the ground. SNAFU does stand for 'Situation Normal All Fowled Up' and life is living up to my blogger name. Things have been happening at express train speeds and busy is not adequate to describe my life over the past two months. I have returned home to be faced with two major tasks that need most of my attention and I will have little time for blogging. There is a stack of posts lining up to be written but they will have to wait. My apologies for the sparse showing on other people's posts. Hope to be back in form after a few more weeks.

May Day

May Day lived up to its expectations of spring this year.  It was warm and sunny and being close to The Better Half’s (TBH's) birthday she chose a day out in her old home ground of the five valleys in Gloucestershire.

First we went to the Edgemoor Inn at Edge and ate lunch overlooking the Painswick valley, with the town of the same name in the distance.

Painswick on the other side of the valley.  The church has a very distinctive steeple, right of centre
Click to enlarge any picture

Now and again a large buzzard would fly past, low down in the valley, but never staying in view long enough for a photo.

After lunch, we went to St Mary’s church in Rodborough and looked for TBH’s grandfather’s grave.  She recalls his death and going there for the funeral in 1963 when she was a teenager.  

 We had no difficulty finding the grave, but TBH discovered that her grandfather had a sister and she, along with her grandmother have been buried in the same plot.   TBH had not known about his sister, her great aunt, who had died in the 1930s.  Another name to add to the family tree.

The ground slopes a lot and the graves are on narrow terraces.

   

St Mary's Church

 The graveyard overlooks the Stroud valley and almost dead centre of this picture, her old school is still there.

From there we went up onto Rodborough Common for a walk in the sunshine.  If you are not familiar with this area, it is one of the more interesting places to visit if you are ever in the Cotswolds. 

The common is quite high as hills go in England and this open area overlooks the Stroud valley and Stroud itself  on one side, the Severn valley with the Welsh hills in the distance to the west.

Whilst the sun was hot in the valleys, up on the top of the common, the wind was brisk and cool enough for TBH to need another layer.

 

Taking advantage of the breeze, a young man was flying some Japanese style kites he had just received an hour before, so he told us,  from a mail order company.  He competes in kite festivals and was getting ready for the forthcoming Weymouth festival taking place over the May bank holiday weekend.

 

His newest kites were quite spectacular and I could imagine the sight of hundreds of such things flying over the beaches at Weymouth. 

On one edge of Rodborough Common is a Fort built 1764.  It is not an ancient defensive building, but  was built as a ‘folly’ and is used as a residence.  In  1886 it was extensively rebuilt in a grander style.

 

Rodborough Common and the nearby Minchinhampton Common are renowned for the rare wild flowers and orchids that grow there.  There were the usual cowslips and daisies and several patches of anemones, but nothing else.  

On many occasions we have driven past these two commons and found them both carpeted with yellow dandelions, but this time, despite every grass verge in our local area being covered in them, there was not one.  

Dandelions nearer our home

 We can only assume that the commons being a lot higher than our home, the weather has not warmed up as much up there.

Today was the hottest day of this year so far and we went on a short trip and we had another day out in the sunshine.  I took some more pictures of the Cotswolds and I have added some of them to this May Day post.

  This is Fosse Way, an ancient Roman road that runs through the heart of the Cotswolds

Who says Roman roads are straight!  This one bends down a long way before climbing up the other side of Fossebridge.

This is one of the tributaries of the river Thames, which is not too far away.  

That is it for the time being.