Our country is amazing

This is Susan again…this time leaving Ohio and entering West Virginia.

You must know how nice it is to get all of the wonderful messages from you. We enjoying knowing that all is well with the friends we have left behind. We will return!!! But the catching-up won’t be so hard since you are still in touch with us.

It was truly a surprise to find Ohio so delightful. Our destination was Wayne National Forest along the Ohio River. Getting to the campground on Monday means that the weekenders have gone home and the campground was mostly ours. The few campers that were there were treated to Chris in full measure. None of the campers were strangers long. He brings all his new friends home…but they are all retirees. When we left this morning all his new friends were very sad to see him go. What a treasure he is.
Marietta was the first settlement in the Northwest territory. It boasts (complete with brass markers) of having the very first white woman to settle there in the frontier days. It was the shipping center for the Ohio River for many years as well the shipbuilding capital. Why, right next to the downtown DQ is a momento of that industry…a smoke-stack. This smoke-stack has never been used on a ship since the company that ordered it never could come up with the money to pay for it. It sat along the shore for who knows how many years until the local citizenry said it was an eyesore and something needed to be done. Someone suggested digging a hole and burying it…which is just what they did, all but the very top, which is now a planter. It also has a brass marker. In fact, in less than a block there is over a dozen brass markers about every little known historical fact or person that stepped foot in the town. Some of them are interesting…but I already told you them, so if you come here you can find something else to do. The icecream at DQ was just as good as in Oregon. (Picture of Jerry, Chris and Rose next to the Ohio River. The site is where a fort once stood.)
Having two active children means we are limited to how many “talking” things we can do. One we choose was to go to the Fenton Glass Factory across the river in West Virginia. Think West Salem, over the river. Most of you probably have heard of Fenton glass (I hadn’t). They have been making a huge assortment of gee-gaws and doo-dads for several generations. The factory tour is rated one of the top ten by some organization that has merit (don’t remember who it was). The tour was interesting…and fun for Rose and Chris. What made it fun for them was after each station the tour guide would ask if anyone had any questions. Two short little arms would shoot up. By the end of the tour, she quit asking. But we now know why they have a fan over a machine, and why the glass is colored….just in case that question is in a trivial pursuit game. I was surprised how expensive this stuff is. Included a picture of some glass-blowers...very interesting.
Our afternoon’s entertainment was going by bicycle on a beautiful bike trail along the river to the aquatic center. It is a new 3.3 million job. I think they got their money’s worth as it was a blast! It was complete with slides and many fountains and pools. The biggy was the pirate ship with cannons that shot water. Rose spent most of her time floating the lazy river on tubes. Chris was entertained with the escape slide from the pirate ship…until he had to sit-out for going down head first…the second time. Those lifeguards are GOOD!! Of course, I think Chris was more interested in sitting next to a pretty girl than being in trouble. It was fun to watch him wrap her around his finger. By the time his time-out was over they were holding hands. Are we in trouble, or what?

Chris and Rose are still going to bed very late, but now my attitude is much different. I know that this is a once in a lifetime trip and they should not waste any more time than necessary with sleep. Our evenings are spent figuring out dinner which happens anywhere from 8 on. Then it is time to collect the magic! I am talking fire flies. There are millions of them. Our camp-spot has an unobstructed view of the Ohio River. We can sit at our table and watch the tugboats pushing the barges up and down the river. There are some huge fish that jump periodically. At night the barges turn on a bunch of lights and it is similar to the river parade in Portland at Christmas...except we are wearing shorts and it doesn’t last as long. There are a few houses across the river have that romantic reflective light at night. There is a picture with Rose, Chris, Buttercup and Spotty taken from the table in our camping site.
We rode the bike trail through our campground one morning and was surprised by a magnificient flower garden tucked away at the end of a trail. When Rose saw it she said someone should paint it. I told her that God already had. An observation platform was built so we could stand above the slough. About 30 feet out was an island that was covered in an array of wonderful flowering bushes. Some of them looked like bright pink wild roses, and then there were purple spikes of flowers amongst the roses. At the waters edge were water lilies and hyacinths. There were so many orange and yellow butterflies that they made it look like flying flowers. This evening I rode back over there again to see it and there was a deer standing amongst all that splendor, adding to the magic were the fireflies just starting to light up. It was the most beautiful flower garden I saw this whole trip. (Of course there are several pictures of what we saw, but it just doesn't do justice to the real thing.)

It is a hard campground to leave…but West Virginia beckons.