LEXINGTON TO OHIO
We left Kentucky Horse Park around 10:00 heading out I-75 through Cincinnati and then I-74 west exiting onto Highway 127W to Coldwater, Oh. These beautiful two-lane roads carry some traffic, especially the semi’s passing by so fast and close the MH shivers. They used the blow the side mirrors back when we came up in the cars.
We always stop at the Dairy Freeze in West Manchester which is about 50 miles from Coldwater. They serve typical soft serve ice cream, but it’s just the right spot to stop for a break and we can pull our RV into and out of the parking lot. So, we stopped at the Dairy Freeze to get our requisite sundae. There was a guy finishing up at the window and we got to talking. He asked where we were headed and Dave told him Coldwater. He knew Coldwater very well, his family settled in the area. He was one of nine boys and three girls!
He further asked where we were from and we told him Florida, New Smyrna Beach. He said he had a friend who lived in New Smyrna and told us his name. Dave said, “Oh yeah, he lives five houses down from us!” Small, small, small world! Who would have thunk it …. In the middle of farmland Ohio! Buscheur is his name and now I see it on many businesses in the Coldwater area.
We finished up our sundaes and headed off to the Westerheide Family Resort in Coldwater where Dave’s brother Mike and wife Lois were waiting for us.
VJ’s “RV FAMILY Resort”
VJ’s “RV FAMILY Resort” set among the farmland on about 15 acres and is the best place to be and VJ has made some wonderful improvements (not that they needed any to the property) making this a Five Star+++ Resort!) Very exclusive place!
Our lakeside RV spot! Doesn't get any better than this!
We now have a full-up kitchen with a dishwasher and our “site” is alongside his beautiful pond/lake. Several new water toys have been added, a triple swing, a second zip line and a water slide!
The past several days have been all about family, catching up, eating and enjoying fresh vegetables from their gardens. We will all be seeing each other in about two weeks at the wedding in Leland, MI. This was just a jump start!
Great lounging around the pond!
Cooking on the Green Egg is quite an experience.
The coals get exceptionally hot so the steaks just
sizzle.
There is a ceramic insert that is used for indirect
heat cooking.
It's a great cooker at a high price!
BILLY’S PLAYGROUND!
VJ’s son is home from college for the summer and this property is the favorite for evening fishing, BBQ’ing and card playing. It is the perfect spot to hang out and we are definitely cramping their plans for the week!
Great fishing spots.
Anyway, Brent and his friends came out to do a little fishing. The pond is stocked with Large Mouth Bass, Catfish and Croppy.
Billy was absolutely thrilled. As the guys cast their lines into the water, Billy dove right in swimming out to the bobbers! To distract him, the boys threw a tennis ball (at least 25 times they said) and that occupied him until he punctured the ball and it sank to the bottom of the pond! Not sure how much fish they caught but they were very patient with Billy.
When he wasn’t chasing bobbers, he was ferreting out all the little lawn ornaments Mert has in the gardens. One by one, these frogs and squirrels and trolls were placed on the window sills out of Billy’s reach. He even found a troll that was under a small bridge. Nothing is sacred around Billy. Anything loose is fair game include aerator covers, Styrofoam covers, floating balls on a line marking off the swim and diving areas. He’s a busy, busy little boy!
He no longer chooses to drink out of his bowl as the pond water is SOOOOOOO much better. A walk around the pond calls for forays into the water at various intervals.
And….as it was last year, whenever any went up onto the zip line, Billy goes into a barking tirade. Not sure what he thinks is happening up there!
He is a tired little boy by the end of the evening but ready to go the next day.
The weather couldn’t be better. Low 70’s during the day and 50’s at night. My kind of weather.
Coldwater is celebrating their 175th Anniversary so there are all kinds of doing’s going on in town. We met for dinner to get the standard “tenderloin” sandwiches that I have only seen here.
After dinner we walked over to the Eagles Club building to see a history exhibit of Coldwater. The building was about 100 years old and originally was the movie theater with an upstairs bowling alley. We speculated if you could hear the bowling pins drop as you watched a movie....then thought that the movies were probably silent in the early days and the piano player just pounded louder than the bowling pins!
This was truly a small town event and it was great. In the middle of the room was a large train setup depicting Coldwater in the 1950s. In addition there were exhibits all around the room with articles and artifacts out of residents' homes dating back to the 1800's.
What intrigued me the most was the Montgomery Ward Catalog 1898-1899 and the Sears & Roebuck Catalog 1900-1901. I just could not put these catalogs down. What a cultural history lesson they told.
MH HAS NEW SHOES (among other things)
Brought the MH down to C.A.R.S. automotive center at VJ’s recommendation and were very pleased with the work they did on the engine and tire replacement. Tuesday morning they diagnosed the engine issues, a coil and spark plugs and had it together by the afternoon. We brought it back over to the The Pond for the night and then back to C.A.R.S. the next morning for the two new front tires to be installed. Opening and closing up an RV isn’t easy, so by Wednesday when we brought it back, it was a MESS.
KITCHENAID
While the tires were being installed, we headed over the Greenville, Oh to the Kitchenaid Factory Store. It really isn’t a “factory store” but more a Kitchenaid Store with some appliances refurbished in the basement.
I bought a refurbished $99 9-speed hand mixer for $40 and a scraper blade for my stand mixer for $10. That was the end of my bargains.
The interesting thing to see were the attachment to the stand mixer and how you need this attachment at $90 to make this other attachment at $40 to work. I was studying the pasta maker attachments and decided it would be around a $500 investment to make pasta. Would have to eat a lot of pasta!
ANNIE OAKLEY
Driving along the country road a small sign pops up saying “Annie Oakley Grave” with an arrow pointing to a side road. The first time I saw it, I said, “What?” On our way back from the Kitchenaid Store in Greenville, MI we detoured down a quiet two lane road in the middle of Ohio farms to a simple, no-frills resting place called Brock Cemetery. Here were the graves of Annie Oakley and her husband Frank Butler.
Annie Oakley story is interesting. According to the placard she was Phoebe Ann Mosey yet her grave is situated between two markers with the name Moses on them. The marker between hers and her husbands were those of children who died at 5 years and 1 year with the last name of Moses. So we speculated that the Moses were her parents and the children were her brothers. Further research resulted in an interesting story.
Phoebe Ann Moses came from an extremely poor family with her mother an early widow and no resources. Annie’s parents were Quakers from Pennsylvania. Her mother, Susan Wise (Dave’s mother’s family name so that stirred up discussions) was 18 and father Jacob Moses was 49 when they were married in 1848 and moved to a rented farm in Darke County around 1855.
Annie was born in 1860, 6th of 7 children. Her father died of pneumonia and over exposure to freezing weather at the age of 65 leaving an impoverished family. Her mother married again had one more child but was widowed a second time.
In 1870 Annie was “bound out” to a local family to help care for their infant son and spent two years in near-slavery conditions enduring mental and physical abuse. She referred to them as “the wolves” in her autobiography. In 1872 she reunited with her family, her mother married a third time to Joseph Shaw.
She did not regularly attend school but received some education and rendered her surname as ending in “ee” while it appears as “Moses” on her father’s gravestone. Variations include Mosey, Mosie and Mauzy, hence the confusion at the gravesites.
Annie began trapping and shooting and hunting by age 8 to support her siblings and widowed mother selling game for money to locals in Greenville and restaurants in southern Ohio so was able to pay off the mortgage on her mother’s farm by the time she was 15.
She became well known throughout the region and on Thanksgiving Day 1875 the Baughman and Butler shooting act was performed in Cincinnati. Traveling show marksman and former dog trainer France E. Butler (1850-1926) placed a $100 bet per side with Cincinnati hotel owner, that he (Butler) could beat any local fancy shooter. The hotelier arranged a shooting match between Butler and 15 year old Annie saying, “The last opponent Butler expected was a five foot tall 15 year old girl named Annie”. After missing on his 25th shot, Butler lost the match and the bet. But…..he began courting Annie and they married in 1876. They did not have any children.
Annie and Frank lived in Cincinnati. Oakley stage name adopted when they began performing together. Believed to be taken from city’s neighborhood of Oakley where they resided.
They joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1885 and Annie was given the nickname “Watanya Cicila” by Sitting Bull .... “Little Sure Shot” in public advertisements.
In Europe she performed for Queen Victoria, King Umberto of Italy, the president of France and other crowned heads of state. She knocked the ashes off a cigarette held by the newly crowned German Kaiser Wilhelm II.
There was a widely repeated quip relating to this event; “Some uncharitable people later ventured that if Annie had shot Wilhelm and not his cigarette, she could have prevented WWI”. After the outbreak of WWI, however, Oakley sent a letter to the Kaiser requesting a second shot. The Kaiser did not respond.
Oakley taught upwards of 15,000 women how to use a gun believing it was crucial for women to learn to use a gun to defend themselves. She continued to set records in her sixties and engaged in philanthropy for women’s rights and causes.
In late 1922, Oakley and Butler suffered debilitating automobile accident. Her health declined in 1925 when she died of pernicious anemia in Greenville Ohio at the age of 66. Butler was so grieved by her death that he stopped eating and died 18 days later. It is said her body was cremated and her ashes were placed in Butler’s casket.
This simple, no frills cemetery is befitting Annie’s no-nonsense approach to life. A significant contrast to her great fame and fortune.
You never know where they simple country roads are going to lead you.
Mike and Lois left to head back to Chicago to get ready to meet us up in Michigan and we headed over to Celina to do some laundry. That’s when we really saw the world’s longest garage sale!
Source: Highway 127 Corridor Sale map at The Full Wiki
WORLDS LONGEST GARAGE SALE!
Neighbors band together to set out their
wares, handoffs and treasures for a 4-day weekend garage sale. It’s a mutual exchange of cultures as well as an
opportunity to find those treasures
you have always wanted but were hidden in some stranger’s basement.
It’s a unique opportunity to socialize across
the states and to swap stories and see the unusual. It is Americana! It is crowded!
Cars are parked up and down Highway 127 with prospective shoppers
darting out between the cars crossing the street from one sale to the next!
CHURCHES & SEMINARIES
It was a beautiful day and we took a drive around the
farmlands of Mercer County, Ohio. The
beauty of the farms is growing on me.
Stopped to take pictures of some of the dozens of Catholic churches in
the area.
ST JOHN THE BAPTIST MARIA STEIN OH
In the early 19th Century large numbers of Catholics from northern Europe settled the area because of the activities of the Society of the Precious Blood in the region. The Maria Stein Convent was the center of the activities.
This church community was established in 1833. When the
railroad came through Mercer County the surveyors chose the path through a
small community of Maria Stein, west of St Johns. Since the two towns were separated only by ½
mile, business migrated close to the railroad and these two communities merged
under Maria Stein.
Down the road was the Convent.
MARIA STEIN CONVENT
Sisters of the Precious Blood was founded in Switzerland by
Maria Anna Brunner in 1834. Father
Francis DeSales Brunner (brother of Maria) brought the Sisters to Mercer County
in 1844 and established the foundation at Maria Stein named after a Benedictine
Abbey in Switzerland.
It was the
Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Precious Blood until 1923. Relics of saints were brought from Italy in
1875. The convent and relic chapel
(National Marian Shrine of the Holy Relics) built during 1890-1902 was placed
on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
ST CHARLES SEMINARY
Father Francis DeSales Brunner brought 7 priests and 7
brothers and began a mission for serving German speaking settlers living in
Ohio. During this time, millions of
people were coming to the US. Irish were
fleeing from the “potato famine” and Germans were looking for farm land in the
new world of America.
The Ohio Afro-Americans established the settlement of Carthagena. In 1835, Afro-Americans were given a tract
of land and boarding school named Emlen Institute in the settlement of
Carthagena.
There was resistance among
the white settlers and many blacks were not allowed to disembark the canal
boats to obtain their land. In 1861 the
Missionaries of the Precious Blood purchased the Emlen Institute and 200 acres
of land to become a training center for priests and brothers.
In 1878 a “new”
seminary was built and the population at the seminary grew. The St Charles Theologate School closed in
1969 with theology students attending Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
This organ has 1,600 Pipes. How beautiful it must sound.
Today St Charles is a
home for retired priests and brothers with church lay people renting some of
the apartments. It is a peaceful,
tranquil place set among the pastoral Ohio farmlands.
QUILT SHOW
As continuation of the Coldwater celebrations, a quilt show was held in the school. Mert and I attended.
The quilts were made by many of the Coldwater residents or were
purchased at estate sales or handed down in the families. Many were absolutely beautiful and it boggles
the mind how creative and talented quilters are, some with 3,000 pieces, form
beautiful patterns. Many would have had a
place of honor on my bed!
This Fire Fighter quilt was made by a Grandmother for her
Grandson’s high school graduation. He is
now a fire fighter.
There were many, many more that caught my eye just not the
camera lens! Too busy studying them!
Friday we met up with
another of Dave’s cousins for lunch and an afternoon of catching up and Friday night we went to downtown Coldwater for the celebratory fireworks display.
We had prime seats in the parking lot in front of Ben's and the fireworks exploded right over our heads. They were very impressive with a great finale! Small towns can really pull off the celebrations! The rest of the weekend will be a party in the park.
COLDWATER CELEBRATION
After
meeting more of Dave’s friends for lunch and devouring our last fried
tenderloin sandwich this year, we drove over to the park to watch the weekend
festivities. Of course there was a
display of farm equipment sponsored by New Idea.
CORN PICKER
HAYER
Headed down
into the park and came across one of the best fundraisers I’ve ever experienced
…. The Bakery Stand.
Along the back of
the tent are shelves of desserts and numbers 1-20 each have a different
homemade dessert whether cake, cupcake, brownies, cookies. For a quarter, you can pick a number and then
the wheel is spun and if you number comes up, you get that dessert! I couldn’t walk away. Had to bet, several times, but didn’t win
anything. It was loaded with kids and
their quarters. Some kids had cakes in
front of them that they had won but they kept playing for more. Many spins, all the numbers were sold. I could have spent $50 trying to win a
dessert!
Next was the
clown making balloon animals and then the face painting.
Across the street were kiddie rides set
up. The park was loaded with families as
this was definitely a family gathering.
In the background the band was playing in the bandstand. We left the park and headed back to the "Resort". Tomorrow we are leaving for Michigan. Goodbyes won't be too bad since we'll all be back together in about a week.
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