DAY 7: 6/29 (continued)
Still mourning the loss of my cookies, we made our way across New York
State, headed in the general direction of Buffalo/Amherst. I had heard
that the toll to drive all the way across the state on I-90 could get
high, so
I opted to go across the southern part of the state on Highway 17.
I was
cruising along at my normal speed, when who should appear behind me
but a
policeman flashing his lights. Now, I had only been pulled over for
speeding once in my life, and that was six or seven years ago. And
I had
never gotten a ticket. Well, that was about to change. Yes, folks,
I
received my first speeding ticket in the little town of Elmira, NY.
(Later on when I was talking to my parents, I told them about it. My
mom said,
"It can be rough in those small towns...sometimes that's the only way
they
make their money." My dad said, "Well, you didn't let it ruin your
day, did
you?") No, I did not let it ruin my day. But I did slow down
a little,
and decided not to do any more than 10 over the speed limit. (Come
on, that's
a big step for me.) When we got to our hotel in Amherst, it was late,
so we
just went to sleep.
DAY 8: 6/30
We got up that morning to go to church--awakened by our alarm clock
and
the noisy family next door. It sounded like there were four or five
of them,
and we heard every detail of their "getting ready" process. But the
best
part was that we heard them say they found some pot in one of their
drawers! (I always thought you were at a quality hotel if they
left a mint
on your pillow, but pot in the drawer? Now that's high class.)
So of
course we started looking in our room to see if WE were lucky enough
to
find anything illegal, but of course, we weren't.
We went to a nice little church called Amherst Baptist. As we were
driving there, we were remarking that they probably don't get many
visitors
from the south. But when we pulled into the parking lot, lo and behold,
there
was a huge bus from the First Baptist Church in Boaz, Alabama! They
had
sent their youth group up there to help the Amherst church with some
programs
it was doing around Independence Day. So everyone in the church assumed
we were from Alabama too, but we corrected them with a quickness.
It was also here that we learned Aliece needed to find a new way to
introduce herself. She would say, "I'm Aliece," and people would
invariably think she said Emily, Alicia, or Lisa, and call her that
name. This
is just not healthy for someone who is trying to find herself....I
mean, can you
imagine what would happen if she started looking for someone with the
wrong name?
After church, we went on to Niagara Falls. We got some food at the
International Cafe (it served hot dogs AND Chinese food!) and ate it
in
the Winter Garden that Jimmy Carter commissioned up there. We then
walked across to the park and decided to take the tram that they offer.
You could ride it to the different attractions and get on and off at
your
leisure (same idea as the tour we did in DC).
We did the Maid of the Mist boat ride, which was fantastic. They gave
you
ponchos to wear if you didn't want to get wet, but after a while we
took ours
off because it was so hot that we WANTED to get wet. The boat ride
takes you to the American falls as well as the Canadian falls. After
that,
we rode the tram to a couple of other stops where we walked around
and
took pictures. Throughout the boat ride and the tram ride, the
tour guides
kept telling us stories about the people who had gone over the falls.
Did you
know the first person to go over and survive was a sixty-something
school
teacher who built her own barrel just for that purpose? Now that's
what I
call hard core (or maybe she was just getting a bit senile).
After Niagara Falls, we drove down to Washington, PA (just southwest
of
Pittsburgh). Aliece spent four hours in the laundry room doing laundry
and
listening to a talkative truck driver. He had quite a few issues apparently--
kind of a soap-opera family situation going on there. Where was I while
Aliece
was doing laundry? In the hotel room--working, of course. =)
DAY 9: 7/1
We drove to the Palace of Gold in the community of New Vrindiban, West
Virginia. What--you've never heard of New Vrindiban? It's
just outside
of Moundsville. Never heard of that? Well, Moundsville is just south
of
Wheeling. Never heard of that? It's just west of....oh, it doesn't
matter. =)
This place is a Taj Mahal-like structure built by the Hare Krishnas.
The
directions from the internet included a couple of numbered highways,
and
then said to just "follow the signs." We realized that the reason the
directions did not include any more street names or highway numbers
is
because there weren't any more to give. Really, they might as well
have
said, "Go south until you leave any sign of civilization. Take a left
and
head straight to the middle of nowhere. Turn right on the gravel road,
and then left on the dirt road. Park in the grass."
The place itself was nice--the inside was very ornate. There were many
different kinds of marble (including one from Italy that was polished
to
such a shine that it was almost like a mirror), stained glass, and
woodwork.
Much of the place was coated with a thin layer of 22k gold as well.
They
also had an award-winning rose garden with many different varieties
of roses.
And...as we started getting into our car to leave, what should we see
wandering
around in the shrubbery by the side of the road but a pair of peacocks?
Truly a
unique place.
We then drove to Circleville, Ohio (just south of Columbus) and the
Penguin Crossing
Bed & Breakfast. There were penguins everywhere in this house--the
husband and wife
that run it are collectors. They were such sweet people.
Plus, our room had its own hot tub--you can't beat that! We had dinner
at a
local Roadhouse Grill-type place, which was good. (By the way, Penguin
Crossing was also "out there"--nothing but a bunch of corn and wheat
fields around it.)
DAY 10: 7/2
After our delicious breakfast, we bid a fond farewell to the penguins
and
their owners and set out for Wakarusa, Indiana. Never heard of that?
It's
just southwest of South Bend, in northern Indiana, not too far from
Chicago. We were going to see the Bird's Eye View Museum of Miniatures,
which closed at 5. Due to the fact that Wakarusa was not near a major
road of any kind, combined with my new self-imposed speed "limit,"
we
started to run late. So we called the man listed as the contact. It
turned out that
the museum was in his house, and he said he would stay "open" for us.
We
finally got there between 5:30 and 6:00. The man was named DeVon Rose,
and looked to be in his 70s. This guy was amazing. He was very active
and
full of energy, and was very excited to show us his museum. The "miniatures"
were miniature versions of streets--buildings, sidewalks, lamp posts,
etc.--in Wakarusa and some surrounding towns, as well as landmarks
in
Indiana (his goal is to do one from every county). Everything was very
intricate, down to the last detail. I mean, this man took pictures
of the
buildings before he made them and made sure he used the exact number
of
bricks (his were cardboard of course), and if one were discolored on
the
actual building, it would be discolored on his model. Everything had
to
be to scale, and the same shape and color. He had started with his
first
city street forty years ago. Every piece had a story, and he was eager
to tell
it. (It was especially interesting when he had a model of a building
that
had existed at the time he made the model, but had since been torn
down.
At least the building and its history were preserved there, even if
it WAS
just a model in a 70-year-old man's basement.) He even had a sound
and
light show rigged up for his little town! All I can say is that this
place
was completely fascinating and totally worth the effort it took to
find
his town and his house. I would recommend making a trip there if you
are ever
in the area (anywhere between Indianapolis and Chicago or in southeast
Michigan would be close enough).
We then headed on to Gurnee, Illinois (yeah, by now I know you've never
heard of it--it's on the western coast of Lake Michigan halfway between
Chicago and Milwaukee) and the Adventure Inn. Here we had reserved
the
Igloo Room. Yes, there were penguins there, and the wall was painted
like
an Antarctic scene. The bed was in an igloo, and the hot tub was in
an
iceberg. Needless to say, I was excited to be there--penguins and hot
tubs being two of my favorite things. =) For those of you already tired
of
hearing about the penguins, let me assure you that this is the last
of
our special "penguin" accommodations. After this, it's back to the
same old
routine of Motel 6 and Days Inn (with only one more exception in Arkansas).
DAY 11: 7/3
We set out fairly early for Spring Green, Wisconsin (just west of Madison)
to visit The House on the Rock. On the way there, we were listening
to a
radio station in Madison, and they had a guest speaker from the local
Red
Cross on there. She was advising Madison residents of what to do should
terrorists strike Madison on the Fourth of July. Apparently they had
heard
the FBI warnings and for some reason thought Madison could be a target.
Well, Aliece and I laughed about this one for a long time. Yeah, it's
the
capital of Wisconsin, but I doubt any terrorists have even HEARD of
Madison, much less planned on attacking it. If there WERE an attack
there,
it would obviously be an accident or a mistake. We decided we would
have
to check the news the next day to make sure Madison survived the holiday.
=)
We made it to The House on The Rock, which turned out to be one of the
best places we have ever been. It is fantastic, both architecturally
and for
the collections inside. The man built it around a rock column, and
apparently
just had lots of money and eclectic tastes. There is SO MUCH to see
here.
If we had known the extent of this place, we might have left early
enough
to get there right when it opened. Let me put it to you this way: We
had
walked around for 2-3 hours at a pretty good pace--not lingering over
everything, but not in a hurry either--when we came to a marker that
told
us we were only a QUARTER of the way through! (No wonder they have
three different restaurants inside this place!)
I will give a brief description of the highlights there, but if you
want more, you
can ask me or Aliece later. =) The coolest thing about it is that the
owner had
SO MANY collections--each of which is a mini-museum. He collected dolls,
carousel horses, musical instruments, paperweights, miniature circuses,
model ships,
story automatons from the 1800s, butterflies, dollhouses, Santas, cigarette
and
cigar lighters, chewing tobacco spittoons, telephones, armor, replicas
of royal jewels,
antique guns, and music machines. Those are just the ones I can remember.
The
music machines were the best--you put in a token and the machine played
a song.
When I say machine, I am not referring to something in a box.
These
machines were entire rooms full of musical instruments in elaborate
setups. They had real instruments rigged to play certain notes
at a
certain time, and some of the machines had dolls or mannequins that
were
playing the instruments. The machines ranged from the cute to the ornate
to the just plain astounding. The world's largest carousel was also
there,
with the most unique collection of animals on it--and not a single
one of
them is a horse. (Although he did collect carousel horses, they were
not
on the carousel!) There is a huge sea creature in the section with
all the
model boats that is longer than the Statue of Liberty is tall! Oh,
and
let's not forget "The Streets of Yesteryear," which is a cobblestone
street with antique buildings and furnishings. They were also working
on a new section devoted to Aviation, which looked like it was going
to
be really good--lots of model planes and such. The last highlight I
will mention
is the Infinity Room. It juts out from the house like a needle--there
is
nothing holding it up except for two rock columns near the house. The
sides of the room are all glass windows. It is built to sway and to
withstand
storms. People who are afraid of heights can't handle it, because it's
pretty high up with seemingly no support. It is called the Infinity
Room
because when you stand at the house and look out toward the end of
it, it
seems to go on forever. This is because the walls get closer together
and
the floor slants up at the end. (Kind of like drawing railroad tracks--if
you want them to look like they are going away from you, you draw the
lines closer together at the top...)
We left this place in the evening (without even getting the first look
at
the extensive gardens) and headed toward Rochester, Minnesota. By the
way, at one of the restaurants in The House on the Rock, the girl asked
us if
we wanted a bag of cheese curds with our order--like they were fries
or
chips or something. I asked her what those were and she showed me the
bag
and said, "You know, normal cheese curds, in a bag." I told her I had
never
seen cheese curds, in a bag or otherwise. She really couldn't explain
too well
what they were, so we decided to pass on the curds.
Anyway, since we spent so long at The House on the Rock, we were going
to
be pretty late getting to our hotel in Rochester, and I still had work
to do. So I
decided--just this once--to break my "10 above" speed limit and go
a little faster.
Wouldn't you know it....I got busted AGAIN! The policeman informed
me that I
had earned four points on my Wisconsin driving record. I asked what
that meant,
and he said if I got twelve I couldn't drive in WI anymore. Seeing
that I was from
Georgia, he kind of laughed and said, "Not that that really matters
to you..." So the
rest of the time we were in WI, Aliece and I kept joking about the
points. We
wondered how much I could get if I ran a red light, drove on the wrong
side of the
road, etc. I wondered who had the most points and if I could beat them.
=)
Unfortunately, I never found out. Four was the most points I
was able to score in
Wisconsin, because we made it to Rochester, MN, without incident.
Well, guys, I know this one was long, but I don't think the others will
be this long.
Don't miss Part 4, because apparently the freaks of Minnesota come
out on the
4th of July (unless they are just always out in the Twin Cities)!