We’ve actually finished the trip, but the days were so packed I had little time to catch up in the evenings, not to mention the spotty internet performance in hotels. Part 1 ended with our arrival in Ohio and a lovely stay with the MacDonalds, specifically (from right to left and a bit wind blown) John’s sister Carolyn, her youngest daughter Kathlyn, visiting nephew William, and visiting aunt Kathleen. To the right is the photogenic Kirby at his front door spot where he looks out for visitors.

From Ohio on we had 6 continuous days of stays with family and friends, which meant great company and home cooked meals! So there are no accessibility updates in this installment.

Our stay in Vienna

It was a short day’s drive to Vienna, Virginia, just outside of DC, with William riding along. There we stayed with Kippy and his human companions Ellen (John’s younger sister) and Brian.

 

 

First night we were treated to a lovely fancy fondue meal to celebrate multiple recent and pending birthdays. With apologies to Ellen for the photo, but this was the kind of fun we had, sampling from multiple pots of cheese and chocolate, stuffing ourselves with melted goodness and generally making a mess.

 

 

 

The visit was about family and friends. One evening was a large extended Klemm family gathering — 19 guests as I recall. Here we see surprise guests Aunt Joyce and her daughter Vicky, plus John looking startled as he shares a laugh with his brother Jerry.

On the final day in Vienna our Kurdish friend Heval came down from his summer job in New York to travel with us for a few days, and we had a nice dinner out with a bunch of John’s friends from high school that he stays in touch with.

Heading north

We got a very early start on our drive to Massachusetts to avoid the horrible DC beltway traffic — the estimated travel time dropped more than an hour from a later estimate.  We needed the time because this was the only day we had to visit with my sister Madelyn.  A long hike by the Smith College lake gave us time to relax and talk, Here we see Madelyn communing with nature and Heval cavorting on a precarious log while on the phone!

We sadly had to say goodbye to Madelyn as she went off to Provincetown, a long planned outing with a good friend from high school. We enjoyed the hospitality of Dennis and Elizabeth, both formerly of Stanford, for our two day stay. We met their new furry children, sisters named Moxie and Sprite (despite different patterning, they share the same small white mittens and long white leggings).

Day 1 we had an outing to the Beneski Museum of Natural History at Amherst College, a rather amazing collection.  That’s Heval and Dennis behind John in front of Triceratops, and Elizabeth confronting Tyrannosaurus Rex.

We had lots of time to relax at home. Here we see Heval exploring Dennis’ new (to us) tree house, and Elizabeth showing Heval how to shuck corn for the first time — fresh sweet corn for the aforementioned home cooking.

The second day Dennis had to leave for New York while we explored nearby sites just north of Amherst, some new even to Elizabeth … Poet’s Seat Tower, Turners Falls (former falls actually, now a dam-controlled spillway into a canal), and Mount Sugarloaf overlook. That’s the never camera shy Heval perched atop the corner of both the tower and overlook.

Final Morning …

… we had a fine breakfast that included home-made corn fritters from the preceding night, then we headed West, dropping Heval off in Springfield for his return to NY.

To be continued …

(If you are here for a followup to the award winning 19 part series on motel accessibility from our last big trip, check the end of this post)

Here we are, already on day eight of our latest driving adventure, but our somewhat driven pace (pun intended) hasn’t left me time to write.  Here is a map of our journey (click image for a larger view),

We wanted to start the trip putting as much distance as possible under our wheels and backload the trip a bit more so the return trip didn’t seem so punishing. Plus we have travelers joining us for segments — cousin William from Ohio to DC, our Kurdish friend Heval from DC to Massachusetts, and finally Tony and Joy with us from Chicago all the way back to Ashland.

It’s a different kind of travel for distance, sticking to the interstate at the expense of enjoying backroads. But middle American offers a number of great diversions just off the road.  Or should I say “greatest” diversions.

 

We saw the “World’s Largest Easel” in Goodland Kansas, which is better described as a giant work of art on the worlds largest easel. Note John sitting in the van down at the bottom left for scale

Look for it next to “Bubba’s Meat Block and Wild Game Processing” and “Bill’s Shootin’ Shop”

 

 

 

 

Then there’s the “World’s Largest Ball of Sisal Twine” in Cawker City Kansas. Some 43 feet around, over 8 million feet of twine weighing in at over 20,000 pounds. Started by one man, it was adopted by the town after his death and added to by townspeople and visitors.

Note that this is NOT the largest ball of twine by a single person, as has been pointed out by someone who cares 🙂 That honor belongs to a ball in Darwin, Minnesota.

 

Next comes the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle in Collinsville, Illinois. However, skeptics must ask — can it claim to be the world’s largest catsup bottle if it contains no catsup, only water? We think not!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally in our “greatest” lineup, is this wonderful office building and world’s largest basket, the former headquarters for the Longaberger Basket Company now sadly out of business.

 

 

Fellow explorers Kathleen, William, Kathlyn, Carolyn and John. (click image for a larger view)

 

 

 

 

Two other special stops. This large and quirky Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument was at a Rest Area just east of Laramie Wyoming. A 12.5 foot bust of Abe sits atop a 30 foot granite pedestal. It’s rather impressive gazing in person, and looks a little less like a giant robot Lincoln.

Our favorite roadside attraction was the Kaskaskia Dragon in Vandalia, Illinois, built by a local propane expert for the hardware store of the same name.

Buy a dragon coin at the mart across the street and here’s what you get:

 

Another great thing we saw … there were lots of warnings about watching for animals in the hilly parts of eastern Nevada, but a number of these bridges as well … they are animal crossings!

Finally a parting shot, John with a friend at Little American, Wyoming.

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A tale of accessibility, part 20

In this trip I have decided to omit remarks about the homes so generously opened to us by friends and family en route. It’s the to-be-expected steps and doors and has been hardly been an inconvenience. One place lacked a bathroom on the main floor, but a nearby rec center provided a fabulous accessible shower in a private cabana.

So only two motels to comment on. I give both low marks for handicap parking (the few spaces were filled by the time we got there somewhat late) but high marks for interiors.  Wide doors with no thresholds, rooms easy to get around in and good bathrooms:

The Microtel Inn and Suites in Salt Lake City

The Best Western Plus in Columbia Missouri

A closing story about the second motel. I checked in at the desk, giving my name and saying we had a prepaid accessible room. “No problem Mr. McRae” … we got our key and went to the room, and no way was it accessible. You’d be lucky to get a wheelchair even into the bathroom. So I went to the front desk, to the very same person I had checked in with only 10 minutes before, and asked if we had been given the right room because we needed accessibility. Here I paraphrase for brevity:

“Oh,” she said, “I’m afraid the accessible room is booked”.

“Someone is in it”, I asked?

“No, but it was prepaid.”

“And no one is in it?”

“No, they haven’t shown up.”

“Is the name on that reservation ‘McRae’?”

You can guess the rest.