Angie got a wonderful compliment to start the day. Hank's cousin, Marty, a retired casting director, was struck by Angie's beauty. "If I had a movie now I would cast you in a second!" she said.
The family travelled by motor coach from the hotel in Sugar Creek to the site of the Revolutionary War Fort Laurens, where two of Ludwig's sons (including Hank's ancestor Feidt Wysong) helped build the western frontier outpost of the Revolutionary Army in the fall of 1778. Our visit coincided with the annual re-enactment by men and women dressed as Continental Army, militia, camp women, British soldiers and even an Iroquois Indian! We were privileged to visit with people in character complete with period tools, weapons, clothes, and tents. We watched formation drills and firing drills. We saw a man using a clamp bench to hold a piece of hickory firmly while he peeled the bark with a hand tool, in order to fashion tool handles and furniture legs. The visitor center told the story of the construction of the fort and the one difficult winter that soldiers occupied the fort. It was meant to be a stepping stone in a supply chain along with Fort Pitt and Fort McIntosh to support an attack on Detroit. Ultimately, the plan and the fort were abandoned, when they saw how impractical it was. We had a light lunch followed by a tour at the Ernest "Mooney" Warther Gallery and Gardens. Warther was a self-taught, world-renowned master carver, who lived in Holmes County from 1885-1973. He was a brilliant man who visualized intricate designs in his head, including the number of cuts and the amount of time it would take to complete highly detailed, moving wood and ivory sculptures. He was fascinated with the history of the steam engine and created highly accurate scale models of all the seminal models of steam engine from ancient Egypt through the dawn of the diesel locomotive. These sculptures were made of walnut, bone, ebony and ivory and consisted of thousands of pieces, assembled with pins. Wood carving was a sacred hobby. He refused to sell any of his carvings. Although he made gifts of them to people such as Dwight Eisenhower. He did exhibit his carvings to raise money to support his family and his hobby. Moody made his own carving knives with interchangeable blades. He also manufactured and sold cutlery as a main source of income. One of the amazing exhibits at the gallery is a working model of the steel mill where Warther worked for nearly 24 years. The model features Moody and his friends doing their jobs (and even eating their lunch). He mechanized the mill using pulleys, gears and belts. Another amazing piece was a walking stick he carved out of a single piece of wood. Abraham Lincoln's head was featured at the top of the stick. In the body, there was a cage that contained a cage ball. Inside the cage ball was a solid ball. Both balls looked perfectly round. He carved this all in place from a single piece of wood! You cannot take the stick apart. The solid ball inside cannot be touched by human hands. After dinner, a family meeting was held to elect officers, award college scholarships and decide the location of the next two family reunions. We won the award for the longest distance traveled to the reunion.
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We got an early start for our six-hour trip to a reunion of all the progeny from Hank's Pre-Revolutionary War ancestor, Ludwig Wysong, who had a homestead in York, PA, in the mid-1700s. We had a tearful goodbye with Hank's Aunt Jean, then rolled out by 8:30 a.m.
We took the Pennsylvania Turnpike (first in the US) west towards Pittsburgh. We had to transit several tunnels through the Allegheny Mountains. It was clear why most pioneer emigrants chose to travel through the Cumberland Gap to the south. Finally, we dropped into the Ohio Valley. We soon left the highway and travelled over many miles of two-lane roads to the Ohio Amish County in Holmes County. We learned that this county has the largest concentration of Amish people in the US. They actually constitute more than 50% of the county's population! In a surprising contrast to Lancaster County, PA, many of the Amish here ride bicycles, in addition to horse-drawn buggies. Some of the bicycles were even e-bikes. We learned that each Amish community's rules are determined by a local Bishop. Rules change when the Bishop changes. Many of the Amish in Ohio wear muted colors, rather than the consistent black dress we saw in PA. After docking, we headed to the Carlisle Inn in Sugar Creek for the reunion's opening dinner. There were about 40 family members in attendance, representing three of Ludwig's five Revolutionary War-era sons. We met a delightul pair of brothers from Georgia, accompanied by their lovely wives. After dinner, the family proceeded as a group to a musical theater performance at the hotel. There, we met a couple of sisters still living on and working their parents' farm in Missouri. The play was "Josiah for President", a story about how an Amish farmer stumbles into the Presidency during a tumultuous election. Josiah's common sense and goodness transcends the corruption and petty partisan politics of Washington and transforms everyone in the government and the country. It sounds corny, but by the end of the play, we were ready to vote for an Amish man for president! Is it really that complicated for us to stop serving ourselves and focus on the greater good - and the good in each other? For a few brief moments, at least, we let ourselves bask in the glow of the possibility. Our last full day in Harrisburg was earmarked for trailer maintenance and baking caseroles in Jean's kitchen to restock our fridge and freezer. Check and check! It felt good to get well prepared for the last third of our summer trip.
We met Hank's nephew, Ralph, for dinner at Carrabas - one of Angie's favorite restaurant chains. Ralph has been dealing with some upheaval in his extended family. We were glad to be able to support him through this time. Hank's cousin, Adrian, and his pit bull, Kam, led us on a hike up the nearby Appalachian Trail where we connected to the Mason Dixon trail for a hike of about five miles and a few hundred feet of climbing. We didn't get any more than a peek-a-boo view from the ridge. But we met a mid-20-ish couple from Flint, MI, who were hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, having started in Georgia in mid-April. They expected to finish the hike in September in Maine.
We enjoyed talking with Adrian about live music, nutrition and future plans. The dogs got a great workout! Adrian joined us for a lunch of leftovers from our lunch at Heather and Rabiou's and dinner at Tina and Kurt's. Then we gave him a tour of our trailer. We dropped in to visit Hank's cousin, Aaron-Nicole, to see her travel trailer she drove from Texas to PA to live in while she decides how to invest the proceeds from the sale of her home in Texas. Her 35-footer with three slide-outs, was quite a bit more spacious than our 19-footer, which has no slide-outs. What would we do with all that space? Later we met Hank's brother, Joe, his sister-in-law, Jenny, and their 15-year-old nephew, Will. Hank's niece, Heather, joined us, too. We had a delicious meal at their favorite restaurant - Gilligan's. It wa fun to catch up and reminisce together. The hike earlier in the day, exacerbated Hank's cold symptoms, which had shown up on Sunday. So we had to make an early night of it. We got some work done on our blog before heading off to the Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster County with Jean. We make an annual visit to this Christian musical theater, which is broadway quality in terms of the sets and talent. They always feature well trained live animals in their performances, which add to the realism of the story. This year, we saw, sheep, horses, a llama, goats and doves. For the first time, there were digital effects employed in the set backgrounds.
This year, the play was "David", which told the story of King David from his life as a boy being trained as a shepherd to his rise to royalty, fall from obedience and communion with God, his reconciliation and death. It was powerful and inspiring. My favorite quote from the play was "Men see the outward appearance of a man. God sees the heart." The special effects were incredible, as usual. There were five giants slain. (Goliath had four brothers.) Afterwards, we went to a Pennsylvania Dutch restaurant - Shady Maple. This farm to table buffet had an incredible selection and the quality of the food was outstanding. It was Hank's fifth different Pennsylvania Dutch restaurant and by far his favorite. Food and Wine magazine called it "one of America's best buffets." Our route to the restaurant took us through the large fertile farms of Lancaster County, which are largely farmed by Amish and Menonite families. The harvest is amazing this year. Unlike the Harrisburg area, Lancaster County is getting normal rainfall, which was readily evident in the relative size of the corn plants. We also saw fields of soy beans, tobacco and hay. We saw many horse-drawn buggies on the road. We saw a farmer sowing and fertilizing corn in a rig drawn by size horses abreast. Hank had to see a dentist because a crown broke. The dentist glued it back on temporarily. Hopefully, it holds until we get back to Seattle. In the meantime, Angie took the opportunity to get an oil change and a haircut.
We had lunch at the home of Hank's niece, Heather, and her husband, Rabiou, in Union Deposit. Rabiou cooked a delicious meal of lamb, rice and salad. We all ate too much. We enjoyed coffee while getting a tour of their yard and vegetable garden. For dinner, we travelled over the mountains and up the valley in Perry County to the home of Hank's cousin, Tina, and her husband, Kurt, in New Bloomfield. Their home sits in a narrow rural valley. Kurt was born and raised in Perry County. He and Tina have a large circle of friends. Their home is set up for large social gatherings around meals and football games. We had drinks in their covered pavillion in the background while some played with their grandchild, Ronin, and the dogs. We moved inside for a feast of Puerto Rican white rice and beans, smoked pork loin, deviled eggs and salad. For dessert, we enjoyed orange cream pie, prepared by Hank's cousin, Aaron-Nicole, who Hank hadn't seen in 15 years. At 5 am, Hank awoke ready to get the day started. He woke the dogs up for a change and they all went out on a short one-mile run. After a shower and breakfast, he got a lot of work done on the blog.
The three of us drove to Jean's church, which met on a shady lawn. Jean is mobility-limited, so she had not previously attended the outdoor service. Having Hank and Angie along to help gave her a chance to check it out and enjoy church in the great outdoors. After the service, Hank and Angie made a quick costume change and headed to the Susquehanna River where we met Hank's nephew, Ralph, and his half-sister, Rose for a kayak trip. Susquehanna Outfitter drove us up the river and dropped us off so we could float with the current back to our cars. The river level was extremely low, less than a foot deep for the first 30-minutes. We had a challenging time finding a route through the rocks, especially since we were initially paddling upstream. We quickly tired and turned downstream. Soon the depth increased to about 18 inches for the middle part of the trip, which was a lot more relaxing. We beached the boats on an island to wade around among the crayfish and get a good group photo. The last part of the trip was an easy paddle through three feet of water back to our cars. The view of the state capital on the east shore, with City Island in the foreground, was a highlight. Also, the views up-river to the gaps the river had carved through the mountains were captivating. Another highlight was an impromptu sculpture some created by a clever passerby who placed a plastic deck chair on top of large tree trunk and root ball sticking up out of the water. Ralph's half-sister, Tracy, met us for a meal after the float trip. Ralph discovered these two half-sisters just last year, as a result of a genetic test. They have had a delightful time getting to know each other over the past year. Hank and Angie were enjoyed meeting them. Hank did a short trail run with the dogs. By 8:30, after showers and coffee we were on the road. We only needed one gas stop (in Stanton, VA). We arrived at the home of Hank's Aunt Jean by 2:45.
There was much trepidation as we approached Jean's house, because we needed to back up an S-shaped driveway, avoiding tree branches and a carport awning to park transvers to a three-car garage/barn. Angie called it our "final exam" of trailer backing. The scariest part was that her driveway entrance is on a pretty busy road. Luckily traffic was light and we nailed our first approach, which allowed us to get the truck off the road pretty quickly. The rest was pretty easy, because we had ample time. Even though the driveway is narrow, the grass was hard from lack of rain. So we got away with coloring outside the lines of the driveway. Jean is one of Hank's favorite people in the world - sweet, kind and gracious. We spent a couple hours catching up, before Hank turned in for a nap. That gave Angie a chance to have uninterrupted one-on-one time with Jean. Later we went shopping for a new pair of water sandals for Angie. We also got some Stromboli for a late dinner. The sunset over the cornfields and mountains was amazing. Later a first quarter moon shone through broken clouds. The greatest Artist was in rare form. Facing an 11-hour drive to Harrisburg, PA, (Hank's hometown) we decided to stop back in Radford, VA to explore a camping spot we been unable to reserve our first time through town during Hank's Family Reunion. We could only get a primitive campsite, but we were very interested in checking out the state park that we had heard so much about. The centerpiece is a 21-mile long reservoir.
We made a mid-morning stop at a brand new Buc-ee's in Crossville, TN. A couple of people had raved about this travel stop chain and they did not exaggerate. It was huge, friendly, well stocked and cheap! We paid $3.99 a gallon for gas, had amazing brisket and stocked up on some drinks and snacks. Fuel pumps were arranged in a large matrix that had about 80 pumps. They hard a large dog play area, too, but we didn't have time to enjoy that. If you ever get a chance - don't miss a visit to Buc-ee's. They started in Texas, where they have the most locations with sites in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennesee. They plan to expand to Missouri, Colorado and Mississippi. A drizzle started just as we arrived at our campsite, which was adjacent to a a couple of sites where two families with a pack of kids were having a loud game of cricket. We didn't appreciate them walking through our campsite, especially while we were backing our trailer into our campsite. We didn't expect anything more than a light rain, so we took a three-mile hike to the lake shore. About half-way through the hike, we were hit by a pretty steady rain that lasted about 15 minutes - enough to soak us and the dirt track. Angie slipped in the mud and fell onto her injured wrist. Her brace helped absorb some of the impact, but it still smarted. We were almost dry by the time we arrived back at the campsite. We fired up the grill and turned on some country music to drown out the loud cricket game of our neighbors. The rain started again, so we ate inside the trailer. We had a delicious meal of leftover pulled pork, which Angie had vacuum sealed and frozen at the start of our trip, along with roasted brussels sprouts and salad with strawberry vinagrette. My girl knows her way around the kitchen! We started our day with a two-hour visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Hank was most looking forward to learning about the history of country music, which turns out to be very eclectic. The old-time music was derivative of folk music from England, Ireland and Scotland. The movie "Song Catcher" is a delightful re-telling of how this was discovered and documented. The banjo was introduced by African Americans, the accordion by Germans and the mandolin by Italians. There were many regional and stylistic variations over the years - bluegrass, cajun, blues, cowboy songs, rockabilly, and outlaw. After Elvis, many people thought that it would be the end of country music but it just absorbed the influence and continued to evolve. Quotes on the outside of the museum capture a couple of artists view of what country music is. Hank Williams said that what it all has in common is "sincerity". Merle Haggard said "Country songs are the dreams of the working man."
We also visited the full-scale, detailed replica of the Parthenon, which was built for the city's centennial exhibition in 1897. For a small entrance fee you can: - Read about the design and construction of the original Parthenon in Greece as well as the replica in Nashville - See a full-scale replica of the statue of Athena (42-feet tall!) - Learn about the Centennial event - See exhibits of classic and modern art work At the time of the centennial, Nashville viewed itself as the Athens of the West, due to it's commitment to knowledge and education. So the Parthenon seemed a fitting centerpiece. We returned to camp to feed and exercise the dogs and take a short rest for ourselves and then headed back to Broadway for one more night of live music. Our first stop was Kid Rock's Honky Tonk, where we hoped to see our favorite front-woman again, but there was a different band on the stage where we expected to see her. On their main stage we found another great act - Noah Gardner and Fiddlerock Noah's description of Fiddlerock says it best: "FIDDLEROCK combines the honesty of a country lyric with the energy of rock ‘n’ roll, with me sawing my fiddle like a rock guitarist shreds his guitar." Noah fiddled on the dance floor and up and down the aisles of the bar. He danced and sang on the bar along with a dozen women he had invited to join him for the song. They played a combination of rock classics and country. We enjoyed every tune. We spent most of the night there, before dropping back in on Kelley's Heros at Robert's Western World. It was a fitting way to wrap-up our last night in "Music City". |