OUR TRIP – JUNE
8-21, 2006
We took our time leaving – left Paris at 3:50, but had
everything on our “to do” lists done, so we could relax and enjoy the
trip. Well everything except Mittens: Kenneth’s cat had raced into the garage the
second Tommy opened the door and then would not reveal her whereabouts after
that, even after I rattled a cup of food around. But we figure she will be thirsty by Saturday and she’ll come to
whomever will open the door!
We decided to take the most direct route to our first
destination, so we headed for the Dyersburg bridge to get across the
Mississippi River – since we were not sure if the Tiptonville Ferry was still
operating. This took us on the bypass
around Union City – our first time on that section of road.
Once across the river, we headed for Kennett, MO and from
there along a series of state and local highways through northern AR to Thayer,
MO – our first objective of the trip.
It was a beautiful drive – the land in MO and AR is so
incredibly flat, and crops were up enough you could tell whether it was corn or
cotton. But the rice! The rice was BEAUTIFUL! The fields were flooded and the late
afternoon sun made the water silver between the rows of absolutely gorgeous
green rice – so that rippling pattern that you get when you drive by the ends
of the rows instead of being green and brown, it was green and silver – as if
the green was sitting on a gigantic mirror!
Beautiful!
Also, they were harvesting wheat, and so there were
fields being burned off in various places (there would be rice fields next to
wheat fields or cotton fields) and since the land is so flat, you could see the
smoke miles and miles away.
We drove the last few miles in the dark – it would have
been a beautiful drive in daylight, I’m sure:
up and down hills and around turns – even around turns and up hills at
the same time! Nothing like the hairpin
turns of the Smokies, but long, sweeping turns that would still put you 180
degrees from where you had started.
Several of the dips had warnings that they were impassable in high
water, and then they had a gauge that had 3 ft. printed, but went higher than
that; the water in those creeks was really swift; we could easily imagine the
flood there after a rain.
We asked at the police station about a place to stay (theirs
were the first lights with people around that we thought might be
reliable). They recommended a place in
Thayer. It turned out to be where the
railroad crews stayed and was full except a “Jacuzzi suite.” We decided to follow the policeman’s other
directions and go 2 miles further to Mammoth Springs and get a motel
there. We found a really nice motel –
Riverview – with a nice view of the Spring River from our balcony and the
railroad track between us and the river.
We had come to Thayer because back in the 60’s Tommy had
ridden the train from Memphis to Raton, NM to go to Philmont Boy Scout
Ranch. He remembered a river in AR
which wound around the hills and ran right beside the railroad tracks. Also, the train had stopped at a town and
picked up some box lunches for passengers who wanted them (they came through
the coaches earlier and took orders and radioed ahead so they’d be ready when
the train arrived.) Tommy and I had
gone through the area several years ago and found that the river was the Spring
River which starts at Mammoth Springs (absolutely incredible flow of water –
constant – just hard to believe that much can flow from a spring for so
long!). We had driven along the road
and found Thayer and gone in the library there without much success. The reason
he thought it was Thayer was because from the train he could see a town with
gravel streets going up the hillside form the railroad.
Today
Tommy talked to one of the older trainmen and he said there was Overstreet’s
Café located on Front St., right at the railroad, and probably that was where
the lunches were fixed. He said “Red,”
the owner, had been in a nursing home, but had recently died. We went to the library again today, and I
found a history of the county which had information about the railroad and the
fact that the town had been built by the railroad as a division headquarters
where they had a yard and a roundhouse and crews were changed. The roundhouse is gone today, but crews
still change there and the railroad still calls the yard there Division.
While Tommy was looking for train history, I went to the
computers and checked my e-mail (what else would you do in a library?). I found that we had Donald Eugene Claxton’s DNA
results back and that the 25 marker test matched exactly! Exactly!
How excited we were about that!
From Thayer we went cross-country on Hwy. 142 to Moody to
find the cemetery where Hiram Madison Claxton and his family are buried. We found it – Mt. Zion Cemetery on County
Road 7400 – and got pictures of all the Claxton stones. We also found Moody Cemetery – there were
graves of many Wrights in both cemeteries, but the Claxtons were only in Mt.
Zion.
From Moody it was time to head for OK. We chose to follow U.S. 412 all the way (I
didn’t get to Eureka Springs AGAIN!!).
It was a beautiful drive – the road was up and down and somewhat curvy,
but not as bad as the one coming into Thayer.
There were hay fields EVERYWHERE!!
Some not cut, some cut and not raked, some raked and not baled, and some
with beautiful bales dotted all over the field. The views were great – across valleys we could see row after row
of mountains in the distance.
Absolutely beautiful views and dotted here and there would be green
fields with white “dots” of hay below scattered around them. BEAUTIFUL!
In Bakerfield we pulled off the highway to call Wanda and
tell her we were on the way (had to find a good place to pull off AND cell
service, which was tricky). Where we
pulled off was a parking area beside a road that turned off the highway. Just
as we pulled up, we saw two Road Runners, and, just as their name implies, they
ran across the road and into a field. I got a few pictures, but, naturally,
nothing very good after they got in the grass.
Still, they were fun to watch.
(Didn’t see Wile E. Coyote, though.)
We continued on through the same type scenery to Harrison
and then into Springdale. I remembered
from when I was young that Cannon sheets and towels came from Springdale – so
today I got to see where they were made (just in passing of course!). We were looking for a restaurant for a late
lunch/early supper, but all we seemed to see were fast food places and Mexican
(with a few Oriental and one Thai place also).
We kept going and when we thought we wouldn’t find anything, we saw
Venetian Inn: Italian food and steaks
since 1947. The food was great, and you
could tell the place had been there since ’47 – solid wood paneling, the
original tables, and one inside restroom (men had to go outside and across the
parking lot!). The food was just great,
though – well worth remembering and doing again.
We were now on our way to Wanda’s – should be there in
about half an hour (it is 8:10 now – sun is still up with maybe 30 minutes till
setting – different from home now that we are toward the middle of the time
zone!)
Up “early” (7-ish) to get to the reunion. Wanda was finishing up the food to go to the
reunion and getting last minute things together. The reunion was at Shahan Freewill Baptist Church whose cemetery
has several Claxton graves.
Only the “Shoffner girls” and their parents – our
connection with the church – were there and had things set up and ready for us to
put things out. There was a place for
the silent auction and two tables where we spread our display out with our
notebooks in front. Les set up a video
projector for his slide show display of pictures from past reunions. Wanda put up the “family tree” poster for
Hiram Madison. The tables were already
set up for the meal which was to start at noon. A ping pong table in back had been set up for some albums and
photos. There was plenty of room for
people to move around all of the displays and room to move between the food
tables.
We checked out our computer to make sure it would work
with Les’ projector and then went around helping where we were needed. People were coming constantly with food – a
really good variety of meats, vegetables, potato salad, and desserts.
Our display attracted a lot of attention and Tommy was
very busy explaining what we had found through our DNA project, and what the
different parts of the display showed.
We got to meet Merrell Claxton, whose summary of Hiram Madison’s family
we had received many years ago from Marvin Claxton. Merrell’s daughters, Stephanie and Kim, were there with him along
with Spike, their four-footed friend.
Stephanie and Tommy had a long conversation about the DNA testing and
the results and about what was on our display.
Tommy also got to do a lot of talking with Dwight Claxton whose DNA for
the Hiram Madison line matches Tommy’s exactly. It is always fun to finally meet face to face with people with
whom you have been communicating electronically.
Lunch was promptly at 12:00 and after everyone was pretty
much finished, Wanda introduced me (and put a microphone in my hand!). Of course my computer did not want to work
with the projector (it had worked perfectly before I removed the video cable;
lesson 1: never mess with
success). I had been told to “keep it
short” (yeah, right – talk about DNA and keep it short . . .). I started and then Tommy and Les got the
PowerPoint working. I think I said just
enough – and said it fast enough – to get them thoroughly lost, but at least
they understood where the DNA was coming from and what it could do for us. Some of them had questions after the
presentation, so I know they were interested.
I think one very positive result came from the
presentation and the display: John H.
Claxton, Jr., descendant of David Claxton’s line, took one of the two DNA kits
we had brought with us, filled out the paperwork, and did one sample (with
Tommy’s direction) while he was there.
He will do the other two samples at home and get them sent off by
Monday. This is going to be
interesting: to compare his results
with those of the David descendant that we already have, and with the other
lines.
When I finished, Les hooked his computer up to the
projector (and had to do a reboot as had to be done to our computer), and
started his slide show (with music!!!!
Very good!!!!) of pictures from past reunions (even had one of us from
the first time we attended!). That was
VERY well done, and had people riveted to their spot, watching for their
pictures to come up.
Next they had bingo with prizes for that. Several of the more than 70 people there,
had to leave for other activities, so things began to break up about 2:30. They had the drawing for door prizes (4 very
nice clear “cookie jars” with etching on the side and filled with four
different types of “goodies”). One of
our tickets was drawn, so I picked the one with the hot chocolate in it (I
figured farther down the road on our trip it might come in handy!) _____ etched a “C” on it (and, also, at the
same time did initials for the other three people who won), so we got a really
nice gift as well as meeting lots of really nice cousins.
After the reunion we went back to Wanda & Les’ house
and “crashed” – well, sort of: Tommy and
Wanda started comparing genealogy and copying pages from each other’s
files. I worked a little on our trip
itinerary. Having Wanda’s cable access
on the computer made looking things up (and checking e-mail, of course!) really
fast.
Up at 7:00 to get ready to go. Wanda had breakfast ready, then it was some last minute genealogy
and we left about 8:45, bound for Kansas City.
We made Kansas City in short order and then set our
sights on Council Bluffs, Iowa. We
found an Olive Garden Restaurant on the north side of Kansas City and had a
good meal and break from the riding.
Once we were back on the road, we really enjoyed seeing
the varying terrain: for quite a way,
the bluffs were on our right and the flat farm land on our left. After Council Bluffs, however, the bluffs
were farther and farther away and huge expanses of farmland came between us and
the hills. Mostly corn; there had been
a lot of wheat in OK and southern MO, but as we moved north it was more
corn. Here in Iowa we are seeing a lot
of grain bins, but wonder if they are left from when dairy was the more
dominant form of agriculture – the fields of corn we see now would never fit in
the small grain bins we see: a mystery
we have not yet solved.
We got to Sioux City about 8:00 p.m. and got a room at
the Econo Lodge which had free Internet.
Of course we checked our e-mail, but then I took the opportunity to
change some things on our Claxton DNA results page and get it uploaded to the
web page.
We spent a little time looking at our route around Lake
Superior. Tommy wanted to know some
“wheres, whyfors” and prices for a couple of things, then we slept – and slept
well!
We woke up about 7:30 and thought we were going to eat at
a little restaurant in sight of the motel.
But no, it was only a lunch and supper place (we guess – it had appeared
closed the night before when we checked in and was closed now!) So it was “go down the road” and look for a
place. Well, you’d think there would
have been something besides the usual chains in a city with a Sam’s Club; and
I’m sure there were some, but just not close to the interstate. We tried the parallel street for a ways, but
only found an I-Hop and a Perkins. So
we decided to move on a few exits.
Well, a “few exits” put us in South Dakota! Finally . . . . found “The Choice Cut” at the exit for
Jefferson. The food was great, but I
think they had to go find where the chicken had laid the eggs before they could
cook them!
10:30 – finally on the road to Fargo – corn fields to the
right of us and corn fields to the left of us (with a lot of soybeans mixed
in!). Crops are not as tall here –
wheat is not ready to harvest; interesting how the climate changes in such a
short space (well, 550 miles; maybe not exactly “short.”).
At 12:28 p.m. we entered Minnesota – had not particularly
planned on it, but saw Pipestone National Monument sign and wanted to go
there. Fascinating! The pipestone (Catlinite) is a soft red
stone that was laid down as mud on top of the quartzite(compressed sand)
bedrock and then later overlaid with quartzite so it is actually “sandwiched”
between the quartzite layers, all about 1.7 to 1.6 billion years ago. The Native Americans prized the stone
because it is soft and could be carved with simple tools to make their peace
pipes and other items. The stone layer
began as an outcrop thousands of years ago.
Quarrying of the rock has removed the easily found surface rock and made
quarrying beneath the overlying Sioux Quartzite layer necessary. So now yards of the top layer are being
removed in several small quarries on the site.
Why does this take so long?
Because, by tradition, the rock can only be removed by hand using hand
tools (shovels to remove the soil on top, then sledge hammer, wedges,
etc.). Luckily the quartz layer has
splits where they can drive the wedges and take off large, thin layers at a
time. It is still very hard work,
though, as the pipestone layer is 10-15 ft. down.
Inside the interpretative center, they had sculptors set
up to demonstrate pipestone sculpting.
They were out to lunch (of course), so we could only observe what they
had been working on. And of course they
had pieces there for sale – incredibly beautiful work!
There were also some petroglyphs in the interpretive
center. They had been found on the site
close to three large boulders (The Three Sisters) which had apparently been a
huge erratic left by glacial action 800,000-500,000 years agoand then split
apart by weathering of the eons. There
had once been several thousand petroglyphs, but many had been removed over the
years before the area became protected as a park. These in the interpretive center had been removed to the building
to protect them.
Now we are back in North Dakota and watching the crops
turn again. Still corn and wheat, and
some beans, but a LOT of alfalfa – and more cows, mostly in areas which could
not be “row cropped” and had access to water.
The terrain could be called “gently rolling” though it is very flat
between the “rolls.” We can still see
much farther to the west than we can to the east.
And there is some VERY interesting road construction
going on. We just went through 12 miles
of two lanes while they were constructing – actually de-structing the
road. They had machines to break up the
concrete. Then they were taking the
concrete, crushing it, and using it to put down the base of the road. They then came along with water and rollers
to pack it down. Then they put new
concrete down (you would not believe the MOUNTAINS of sand we’ve seen that were
conveyored from huge trucks!), “extruded” in long sections, apparently
requiring fewer expansion joints, and these joints only being cut half-way down
the concrete layer. Fascinating! And riding on the already completed part
gave us a real appreciation of how much better road this process creates.
Glacial moraines!
We had been going through these short rolling hills and remarking about
how different it was from what we’d been seeing. Suddenly I said, “Oh – glacial moraines!” and Tommy said just as
I said “oh” that glacial moraines popped into his head! There were rocks everywhere, and no row
crops; grass and cows (where there was water), but no long flat fields as we’d
been seeing. We stopped at a rest stop
which was built right on the edge of an “escarpment” beyond which we could see
for miles and miles (actually into MN, we found out!) The ladies inside said we were right about the moraines and gave
us a paper telling about Lake Agassiz (ancient glacial lake in Canada and
northern U.S.) and the last glacial period.
Where we are driving now (85 miles south of Fargo) is very flat, but
looks high. There are glacial “lakes”
(kettle lakes) on both sides of the road.
5:38 p.m. – North Dakota! Our 49th state to visit. We are seeing virga (rain that doesn’t hit the ground) in the
distance. But we just noticed that we
missed the Continental Divide where waters flow either to Hudson Bay or Gulf of
Mexico – had really wanted to stop there; don’t remember seeing any signs, but
it is marked on the maps, so must have been something we missed; maybe through
a construction zone. Area here is more
sparsely settled than SD – a lot more seemingly abandoned farms. Still the same crops pretty much, but more
grassland and hay than we saw in SD.
We got into Fargo at 6:30 p.m. We got some gas and then located the Econo Lodge here as it also
had the Internet connection (which Tommy is still trying to get to hit as I write
– at least half an hour after he started trying!). After we got our room, we went looking for a place to eat. Found all the major chains, of course, but
were looking for something different.
Then I looked up and saw a Johnny Carinno’s – we had eaten at one in
Raleigh, NC once and the food was GREAT – so we decided to give it a
go. Again the food was delicious: stuffed mushrooms and then Tommy had Chicken
Milano and I had a seafood and pasta in alfredo sauce (had shrimp and mussels,
and a couple of other meats – very good!).
I worked a little last night and got a few reunion
pictures put up on the web site and Tommy sent out an e-mail today (I think) to
say the pictures were up.
We decided to pay a visit to an acquaintance here in
Fargo: at one of the computer companies
that supplied computers to the Henry County School System. John Tupa is one of the partners in Byte
Speed Computers and we had met him for many years at TETC and TETA conferences. He was, of course, surprised to see us, and
we had a really nice visit. While we
were there, he had one of his tech people look at our laptop to see if we could
add any more memory to it, but the technician said it is maxed out and none
could be added.
After our visit with John, we decided to eat, but since
it was 11:30, we decided on lunch instead of breakfast (a real red-letter day
for us: don’t remember the time, except
for illness or medical tests, that we didn’t have SOME kind of
breakfast), so we wound up eating at Northtown Grill. On our way now toward Grand Forks and then to International Peace
Garden (by way of “North America’s
tallest structure” and Devil’s Lake).
We found the “North America’s tallest structure” – the
KVLY-TV tower, 2,063 ft high, at Preston, just east of the Elm River, off ND
highway 18 (from State Hwy. 18, turn west on County Rd. 3, go 6 intersections
and turn right - of course you can see the tower long
before you get to Hwy 18!). It took
some “eyeballing” and comparing roads to get exactly to the driveway – no
signs. BUT – it was VERY tall and worth the effort to find it!!!
After that, we found Devil’s Lake, but did not go across
it. It is like MANY much smaller
water areas that we saw on both sides of the highway. These are glacial in origin and the whole area is covered with
glacial moraines, so there are these rolling hills (piled up stones from the
end of the ice age glaciers) interspersed with these low areas, filled with
water. These are full of a variety of
waterfowl and birds, especially Red-winged Blackbirds – they are almost as
common as sparrows back home.
We also saw a huge set of what we thought were grain
storage bins, but the sign on them said “Crystal Sugar.” Then it occurred to us that sugar beets were
one of the main crops in the area; that explained the different, lighter-color
green crop we had been seeing and not identifying. As we moved more north, we saw more sugar beets – and very few
cows; in fact, we saw no livestock until we got almost to Rugby.
Rugby – no, not TN, ND – location of the geographical
center of North America. An obelisk
marks the spot, but you can’t STAND on the spot like you can at Four
Corners in the Southwest. We did the
picture thing and then went across the street to The Hub Restaurant for supper.
About 10:30 we remembered we had said we were going to
the Dairy Queen across the street for some dessert. When we got there, the seating area was closed, but the
drive-through was open. We got our ice
cream and left, noticing there was STILL light in the northwest sky! We figured this was because we were so far
north – had not thought about that change.
We also got a look at a sculpture in town that was
supposed to resemble the aurora. It was
interesting, but the display was not very effective; maybe it would have been
better without street lights and on a dark night, or maybe if we could have
been farther away?
Happy Birthday, Chris! We left Rugby and headed north for the International Peace
Gardens. The IPG was really great! It is built right on the border and
celebrates the long-standing peace between Canada and the United States. There is a huge 4-panel monument and the
gardens that straddle the border, and from the monument you can see a LONG way
in the distance where they keep the border cleared. I had seen a picture of IPG on a Viewmaster slide when I was a
very small child, and I had always wanted to go there – really wanted to see
the floral clock that was there. When I
did see it, they had just planted it, so it was not as colorful as I had
expected, but impressive anyway. An
unexpected part of the gardens was a monument to the World Trade Center – some
actual steel-and-concrete girders from the building. Incredible the size and weight of the pieces and to know how
quickly they were reduced to what we saw here.
At one spot where the bolts were close enough to the walk that people
had been touching them, the metal was worn smooth: here these nations still remember.
From there we headed south and now east going through
Rolla (where we got gas and ate lunch at the North 40 Restaurant) and then St.
John and Rock Lake and on toward I-29.
The terrain is still rather rolling, but becoming more flat as we move
east. There are still small ponds and
lakes occasionally, but not as many when we got up on this higher level. Farmland EVERYWHERE! And every lake/pond has birds and
ducks. We are on state highway 5, and
there are few houses – only in the distance.
The “towns” on the map are clusters of grain bins, often beside the
railroad.
We finally crossed into Minnesota after 6:00. We were headed for Bemidji, but decided to
turn south and go to Lake Itasca and the headwaters of the Mississippi River
first. We headed for Lake Itasca State
Park’s historic Douglas Lodge. There
was only one room available, but it was a little out of our price range. The lady was very helpful, however, and
found a motel in Lake George (where she lives) and we are staying in the Lake
George Pines Motel – very nice with refrigerator and microwave even!
On the way to Lake George, we saw something move quickly
across the road in front of the car in front of us. Suddenly it turned and started back across and we realized it was
a Bald Eagle! We stopped and watched it
fly to the top of a tree where it ate whatever it had caught on its flight
across the road. I got pictures – from
a distance, so not as good as they could have been – but it was my first real
encounter with an Eagle in the wild like that.
We saw a “release box” back in the woods beyond where the bird stopped
to eat, so we figure he had either just been released or had returned to (or
remained in) the area of his release.
We got up and had a nice conversation with the motel
owner, then back to Lake Itasca State Park for breakfast at Douglas Lodge
(build 1904-1907). After that we headed
for the headwaters of the Mississippi
River. The rocks where you walk across
the river (we did that, of course – WALKED across the “Mighty
Mississippi” about 12:50 p.m.) is a CCC construction project of the 1930’s –
originally the area was more swampy due to some logging in the area which had
muddled the actual beginning of the river.
This is a beautiful park with many wild flowers – we saw Lady’s Slipper
and Columbine, among others.
From Itasca we headed for Bemidji and Paul Bunyan country
via the Great River Road. There is a
huge statue of Paul and Babe the Blue Ox right on the shore of Lake Bemidji,
close to where the Mississippi River enters the lake. The visitor center there had a neat collection of Paul Bunyan
“items”: a huge walking stick, a huge
fishing pole and landing net, a huge rifle with “PB” on the stock, and – really
great – a huge curling broom signed by the 2006 Olympic curling team! Also, the fireplace there was very
interesting: it was composed of stones
from all over, most of which were labeled with who gave them or where they came
from (like a stone from the original capitol in Washington, D.C.).
Moving on down the road, we had been watching for rocks
on the road right-of-way or some place where it was obvious they would not mind
our getting a few: I wanted some rocks
from actual glacial moraines. So we
were driving along and saw a couple of places which were being cleared,
probably for building a house. Anyway,
we stopped and got some rocks – some for me and one for Donna.
No other “points of interest stops” before Duluth. In Duluth, we got our first view of Lake
Superior and a VERY busy harbor. We
also got gas, did some stocking up on groceries, and grabbed sandwiches at
Subway before setting out on our marathon drive up the shore of Lake Superior to Grand Portage. We made one stop – at the Split Rock
Lighthouse. Absolutely beautiful - and
up HIGH! The rocks below were a LONG
way down! Yet there were pictures
inside the museum building of a storm with waves that had put spray all the way
up to the buildings on the top of the rocks!
We made our way to Grand Portage, MN – inside the Grand
Portage Indian Reservation where the only place to stay was at the Grand
Portage Lodge and Casino. We thus had
coupons to go to the casino, but were too tired for gambling and had to get up
early to catch the ferry to Isle Royale National Park.
Well, of course the ferry to Isle Royale will make its
first run this season TOMORROW!!
So we had breakfast at the lodge and then just walked around the Grand
Portage National Monument which had some excellent interpreters for the
buildings and we even got to see a real birch bark canoe in the last stages of
being built, pieces of bark were sewn together with tree roots, (part of a
“class” that had been taught, and the instructor and a class member were there
working, so we got to see some design instruction and got to ask questions).
Since we could not go out to Isle Royale, we cancelled
our reservation we had made at the hotel for the second night and made our way
to the border crossing into Canada. Our
crossing into Canada was interesting. I
had joked to Bobbi Estes before we left home that our crossing would be
interesting with all of our genealogy.
Yep – it was interesting all right.
They apparently had x-ray technology and were scanning what we had in
the trunk – so could not figure out the genealogy display nor the boxes of
books underneath. The questions were
like, “Do you have any firearms or knives or other weapons?” Of course we didn’t – answer was no. “Do you have any potatoes?” Potatoes???
No . . . then a few other “how long will you be here” and “what are you
doing here” kinds of questions as he was busy writing and obviously intent on
the monitor in front of him. So he then
asked us to pull over and park and someone would be with us. We were to stand 5 feet in front of the
vehicle while they searched it. Sure,
no problem. Tommy asked that – if they
needed to get into the trunk – he be allowed to remove the display as it had a
“combination” to getting it out without damaging it.
So they consulted the yellow piece of paper - the list from the guy inside telling them
what he couldn’t figure out – and started searching the car. Found the “potatoes” inside the car (mine
and Donna’s rocks). I asked one of them
if they could get a vacuum and clean while they were at it because they were
getting into some places that I knew were pretty dirty since we rarely cleaned
under the seats! He laughed, but didn’t
get a vacuum.
When the other man opened the trunk, he immediately
motioned for Tommy to come and take the display out, which he did (it was kind
of “iffy” looking when the trunk came open, I’m sure). The officer then did a good bit of looking as
everything was slightly rearranged when we looked at it later. But they did
finally find our “gun” – the monopod for the camera! I’m sure on the x-ray it looked VERY suspicious!
Satisfied that we were not dangerous terrorists, they
waved us on. The one who had been working the inside made a move to repack the
display, but the other man stopped him and explained that Tommy would repack
that. Then we took our “gun” and our “potatoes” and moved on into Canada.
From there we moved on along the highway (CA11 and 17)
along the north shore of Lake Superior.
We stopped at the Terry Fox lookout.
Terry Fox was the young man who, in 1982, had lost a leg to cancer and
wanted to walk across Canada to raise funds for cancer research. The cancer struck him again and near the
lookout he was forced to stop. There is
a monument there to him and what he did.
At that point we were supposed to be able to see “The Sleeping Giant” –
a land formation on a peninsula out in Lake Superior, but the haze was too
thick and we could barely make out the fact that there was land there much less
what its shape was.
So back on the road.
At the information stop just across the border, the young lady told us
about several “must see” places along our route, and the first was Kakabeka
Falls. She was right – it was BEAUTIUFL!!! Very similar to Cumberland Falls in KY. The rocks it was falling over were black
shale, and the white water and black rocks were a beautiful contrast – and the
roar of the water made conversation difficult.
We left Kakabeka heading for Amethyst Mines Panorama – a
working amethyst mine where you could dig for you own stones. Sounded like fun – and was, sort of – the
ground was littered with pieces of amethyst – you just picked it up and put it
in your bucket. Of course you’d have to
be there more than the 1 hour I had to dig to find anything very valuable. They charged $3.00/lb., and I got 2 lbs.
(they had some nice pieces on a table that you could get, and I got one of
those) They had some really nice things
in the gift shop, but, of course, no time to look. But amethyst is everywhere in Ontario – only 3 places on Earth to
get it, and Ontario is one of them.
Back on the road we headed for another attraction the
information girl had told us about:
Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park, and, particularly, Eagle Canyon
Adventures. This is an area before the
park that is commercial – they have two suspension bridges across the canyon –
one 300 ft. long and one 600 ft. long; the long one is Canada’s longest
suspension bridge over a canyon. REALLY
beautiful – a lake below the bridges and beautiful rock walls on either
side. In winter, they run water over
one of the rock walls (vegetation has been cleared from it) and make an ice
climbing wall!
From there we went to Rainbow Falls Provincial Park. This was even more spectacular than Kakabeka
– it started in a lake and fell in a wide falls at the top, but then continued
down . . . and down . . . and down . . . , part of it through a very narrow
space in the rock which made a spectacular (and noisy!) run of white
water. There is a great board walk and
steps system all the way down beside the falls and just spectacular views all
the way down! The walk made it easy to
get down and up, and reduced impact of visitors on the environment. No way to describe how beautiful this falls
is, and no way to get just one picture of the whole falls.
Only drawback at Rainbow? The mosquitoes found us almost before we opened our doors! I had put my polartec jacket on because I
figured it would be cool, so could pull my hood up tight around my face. Tommy had started out toward the falls, but
before we got there, he was RUNNING back to the car for his polartec! He then had it pulled up around his mouth –
looked like he was freezing, but he was just trying to keep the ‘skeeters away!
From Rainbow Falls we had planned to go to Marathon, but
we encountered MAJOR fog at Terrace Bay and decided to stay the night
there. Had a very nice room with
“window air” – 2 windows open and electric table fan in the room; but we were
totally comfortable. We had supper at
Wah’s Chinese restaurant as the girl at the information center had suggested,
and she was right again – the food was very good.
Fog is still with us.
We didn’t see any place to eat with local cars around it, so decided to
head on toward Marathon again. We came
to Neys Provincial Park before we found food, but had to stop and check out the
park (another on the list the girl had given us at the border). This had been the site of a Prisoner of War
camp in WWII. Today it is a beautiful
access to lake Superior – great beach and huge, smooth rocks. A small creek came through the park and emptied
into Lake Superior at the beach. While
we were there, we watched the river first with a strong current emptying into
the lake, and then, in just a few minutes, the lake was pushing the river back
– the lake level was actually rising like a tide! Then, just as suddenly, the lake began to recede and the river
again pushed its way back out. Very,
very interesting to watch!
This is where I got to “dabble” my fingers in Lake
Superior (Tommy had done his earlier).
The water was COLD and VERY clear (it is the coldest and
clearest of the 5 Great Lakes). We had
put our “mosquito pins” on our clothes, and they seemed to work as we were not
bothered by mosquitoes even though they were around.
Back on the road, our route took us up in elevation and
away from Lake Superior and thus into the fog.
There were beautiful lakes on both sides, I’m sure, but they were
invisible in the fog. We had planned on
stopping at White Lake Provincial Park, but were afraid the fog would make
viewing impossible. But White Lake was
lower! No fog, but sunshine and a much
warmer temperature – and a warmer lake!
Here we found people swimming and found two things we’d never seen: a rock-hunting dog and a man building a dock
by himself (and finished as we watched)!
The dog belonged to the man building the dock. The dog was a big, fluffy dog, and he would
wade in the shallow water, feeling the bottom with his front paws. When he would feel a rock, he would put his
head under and get the rock and bring it up.
He’d then bring it up on the shore, over to a spot he’d picked out, gnaw
on it a little and then go back for more!
Once Tommy threw a rock in for him and he went through the same
procedure and didn’t bring it to Tommy, but stopped a little way in front of
him and barked at the rock; then he took it over behind Tommy and gnawed on it
a little and then went back to his “diving” expedition. The man sitting near there (turned out to be
the father of the man putting in the dock) said the dog barked because he
wanted you to throw the rock for him.
That took some real intelligence on the part of the dog to figure out
how to feel for the rock and then how to find it once he had located it with
his paws.
The guy with the dock:
Tommy went over and sat down beside the father who was watching his son
put up the dock. Tommy said the man
explained that they rented a lot for $1300/season. With the lot they got to put up a temporary dock. His son had developed this process for
putting up the dock by himself; he said now other people were copying the
process. He had the dock already built
and he floated it out to the end of his “walk” and then drove his metal posts
through holes in the corners of the dock.
He then took a heavy metal bar and put it across from pole to pole at
one end, put a winch on top of the bar, hooked the winch to a metal loop on the
dock, winched it up to where he wanted it, and then hooked chains from the dock
to holes in the posts and “hung” the dock.
Then did that at the other end, then he put 2 poles in the middle and
secured the dock ther with chains, and his dock was ready to use! Ingenious!
After we left White Lake, we began going through
beautiful hills with “kettle lakes” between them. The hills became rounder, not as sharp – evidence of past
glaciation, I think. The lakes would
have spruce(?) and fir trees down to the water’s edge and white granite rocks
showing right at the edge below the trees.
Beautiful! And some of the lakes
had little rocky islands in the middle also covered with trees. Every one would be a photographer’s
heaven! And we just kept seeing one
after another after another.
Finally we got to WaWa which was where we were going to
get our last gas before going back into the states. We stopped at Young’s General Store – an old building with all
kinds of souvenirs and containing the original counter, floors, shelves,
drawers, etc from when it was built (really interesting). I got some souvenirs (naturally) while Tommy
got gas. Now we are on the last leg of
the Lake Superior run from WaWa to Sault Ste. Marie. We are in Lake Superior Provincial Park.
An interesting sight has been the “art” of the “cairn
builders” – small piles of rocks set up by people along the road, some shaped
like people, others just in whatever shape the rocks they found would
make. I don’t know the story of the
rocks, but hope to find out eventually (see note at end).
One of our favorite signs is the “Moose Night Danger”
signs. They are like our deer crossing
signs back home, but have the picture of a moose and a sign below saying “Night
Danger” meaning they are a problem only at night(?). Since we did not drive at night, we’ve not seen any. Just as well: I figure they would be a much more serious hazard than our deer.
Just stopped at the Montreal River where it empties into
Lake Superior. A very narrow gorge went
far up the hill and the road crossed over the gorge. There was a power generating station (we think) to the side of
the river. This river is where I got my
Canadian rocks (and one for Donna).
Absolutely beautiful cliffs and the water was clear and running fast.
The rest of our trip was along the last of the Lake
Superior shore before Sault Ste. Marie.
We stopped once to let me drive and then on to S.S.M. Customs was uneventful as we had not
purchased the items for declaration and so were waved on (THEY didn’t want to
check everything as the Canadians had done at our entry at Grand Portage – so
our “gun” and “potatoes” went unnoticed).
We went on down I-75 to St. Ignace and then finally got a
room at the Rodeway Inn there (with Internet so I could answer some genealogy
questions we’d seen at the library earlier today). Also called Bobbi Estes after checking e-mail at the motel. Will go to see her in southern Michigan
tomorrow. Went to eat at the truck stop
next to the BP (only place nearby that was open after 10:00 p.m.!).
Have answered e-mails and am ready for bed. Ordered tickets for Tut, so we will be at
Tut in Chicago 9:00 Tuesday morning.
Got up as usual, about 7:30 and had breakfast at the
truck stop where we ate last night.
Went down to the dock and got a ferry ride to Mackinac Island – really
wonderful historic island: original
buildings from late 1700’s and 1800’s then more modern ones in early
1900’s. No motorized vehicles are
allowed on the island (except a fire truck, an ambulance, and one police
SUV). Everything is done walking,
riding bikes, on horseback, or horse-drawn carriages and wagons. We took a carriage ride to some of the
points of interest and to get a feel for the history of the island. Saw a tamarack tree – a deciduous conifer –
only one still living on the island (their seeds require high temperatures to
germinate – like with forest fires – so they do not reproduce well when fires
are controlled; fire has been controlled on the island because it is estimated
that the whole island would burn to the ground in a couple of days if a large
fire ever got started). These trees
were used for many things in building the town, but especially for pipes in the
early town construction due to the oil in their bark. Recent excavations and renovations have found some of these
“pipes” still functioning! Macinac
Island was very interesting – and VERY beautiful.
And
shops! Every place was a shop on the
main street. And fudge! I think the driver of our carriage said
there were 15 fudge shops! So of course
we had to get some fudge, and I got some cups and saucers, etc. It started to sprinkle rain on us at Arch
Rock – a rock formation which has been hollowed out by wind and water: Very beautiful.
With
the sprinkles of rain, we decided to come on back to the mainland. It began to rain seriously as we came back,
but we were on the bottom of the ferry where the windows kept us dry.
We ate
lunch in St. Ignace at Clyde’s Drive In and then set off for our trip down
Michigan, heading for Bobbi Estes’ house in Brighton, just west of Detroit to
do some serious Claxton DNA project talk (and have a pleasant visit with
friends).
We
first found a place where we could go to the edge of Lake Huron – I dabbled my
fingers in it (Tommy “waded” in it), picked up a few rocks and a shell and now
we are back in the car getting ready to go across the Straits of Mackinac
Bridge (the whole reason for coming this direction in the first place: a bridge I had heard about “always” and
wanted to go across). It is truly a
long and impressive bridge, but of course the rain and fog made visibility
lousy for seeing much of the water below with Lake Huron on our left and Lake
Superior on our right.
At
Bobbi & Jim’s house. It is
BEAUTIFUL! With a gorgeous yard and
deck on the back looking out over a lake (where there were egrets). The family (Bobbi’s daughter and friend were
also there) had a late supper and then we all had dessert: Jim’s homemade strawberry shortcake –
absolutely delicious!!! And we got to
meet two of the cats and the dog (we met the third cat later), who were all
very sweet and absolutely starved for attention (or at least that was THEIR
opinion!) After supper, we moved to the
living room to look at our genealogy display and talk DNA and research needs
and theories. (Actually, we pulled the
chart out before supper and Bobbi almost missed the meal because she got
interested in the chart!). We finally
(reluctantly) wound the conversation down and headed for bed.
Up about 7:00 and downstairs to fix my tea. Bobbi and Jim wanted to take us to one of
their favorite breakfast places – Cheryl’s – so we relaxed with the cats and
enjoyed the view (and checked e-mail, of course!). When Bobbi and Jim came out, we talked more DNA – got some good
answers to some questions we had – and got to talk some more about their house
and its construction. We then went to
breakfast.
It was,
indeed, as good as they had said – well worth repeating if we are that way
again. More genealogy talk through
breakfast and after, then outside we were still talking on all kinds of topics
– Bobbi and I and Tommy and Jim (theirs was computers, of course!). It was hard to say goodbye, we were enjoying
the company so much. But we had to hit
the road for one more marathon run.
Heading for Chicago.
We stopped at Chesterton at the Econo Lodge to find out about trains
into Chicago. We have tickets for Tut
at 9:00 a.m. and did not think driving in and parking would be a good idea at
that time of day. So we went to the
nearby train station and got timetables and then headed for Indiana Dunes
National Lakeshore.
We had been to Indiana Dunes with Chris and Kenneth years
ago on our trip to Baraboo and Chicago.
We had climbed the dunes (specifically “Mt. Baldy”) and gone down to the
water of Lake Michigan. Today we found
the same place we had been before and climbed the dune, but decided that we
were older than before and that going down to the water wasn’t really
that important. The view from the top
was spectacular – the lake was deep blue and so was the sky. Some shade trees on top made a great place
to rest and clean out our shoes. I
decided to go down the hill barefooted (I had worn my “outdoor” shoes and no
socks going up because I didn’t mind getting sand in them). Going down was easier than going up (of
course!). It is amazing that the lake
keeps producing the sand and it keeps moving, overtaking trees in its
path. I think it had also covered an
area that had a boardwalk and steps on it last time we were there (or maybe
those were off to the left – we didn’t go there to look).
After the dunes, we headed for Chicago. We knew from the schedule we had that we
wanted one of two motels close to the train stations that would be close to
I-57 – our route out of town after Tut.
We found an Econo Lodge about 10 min. from the Metro line (the “El”)
that would take us to the museum area.
We went to the station to look it over, see what we needed to do about
tickets and where we could park. We
found two lots (one for $1.00/day and one for $1.50/day) which may fill up
rather early, so we are going to try to get an early start, take our breakfast
with us and get an early train. We’ll
see how it works out.
In Chicago. We
left a wake-up call for 5:00 (which never came: he had put it in for 7:00!), and were awake and up on schedule
and got out with no problems. Traffic
was VERY light – absolutely no hint of the back-ups we had experienced
yesterday. Our $1.00 parking had a nice
selection of parking spaces, so we took one next to the street in view of the
quick mart across the street. We walked
the block to the train station, got our tickets from the electronic vending
machine, and went up on the platform to await our train.
The ride into town was smooth with several stops. We got off at our planned stop, Roosevelt
Rd. I saw the museum right away and we
found a walkway across the el tracks and then a tunnel under the highway to put
us on “the museum campus,” and we walked on up to Field Museum. I took some
pictures in front of the museum and then we moved to the east side of the
building where we were to enter for the Tut exhibit. There were picnic tables there and we found one in the shade and
stated to eat our “breakfast” of Lunchables and bananas.
While we were sitting there, a metro police car drove up
and the policeman asked what we were doing, where we’d parked, where we were
from, etc. Then we got into quite a
conversation. He stayed in the car and
talked the whole time we were eating our Lunchables, then got out of the car
and came over and sat down at the table with us! We talked about a lot of things, and he mentioned he had property
he had bought in FL – a condo – which he hoped to live in when he retired;
until then, he rented it out to his friends at work. He gave us a business card and said if we wanted to rent a condo
on the water, to let him know!). He was
VERY nice – about 4 years from retirement – we talked on a variety of
topics; had a VERY pleasant wait for the museum to open.
We saw people going in and lining up, so bid our
policeman goodbye and went in to await the opening. Our tickets were there and were for 9:00, so we went to the main
floor and saw “Sue” the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever
found. “She” (they don’t know the sex,
just named her for the archaeologist who first found “her”) is in the main hall
along with the elephants and totem poles that we saw on our previous
visit. We went through the nature
exhibit while we waited; it was really beautiful and clearly labeled so you
could tell what was in each case. Some were very old, but still very beautiful
specimens, a great variety of birds and animals.
About 8:30 we went back down to Tut and they let us
in. It was REALLY well laid out, but
was a little disappointing, having seen the earlier Tut exhibit in New
Orleans. There were a LOT of pieces from
the tomb of Tjuya and Yuya, very high class couple in the reign of Amenhotep
III and Tuthmosis IV; their tomb was plundered early, but still held many
treasures when located in 1905. There
were several rooms of things that showed what was probably Tut’s family
circumstances and things that would have been familiar to Tut, but many came
from the tomb of Tjuya and Yuya. You
did not actually get to any Tut items until the last 3 rooms, but what you saw
told a very clear story of their beliefs and the mummification process and
ceremonies.
It began with the familiar carved wood statue of Tut’s
upper torso with a yellow-painted flat-topped crown with Uraeus on front. One room was set up as “the burial chamber”
and had a National Geographic video of what the nested shrines which housed
Tut’s coffins would look like if you could remove each one by lifting it from
the others; this was followed by the same “removal” of the coffins down to the
last, solid gold, coffin and then to the mummy with its gold and jewel
mask. The video was very good and gave
a real sense of how the assemblage was actually put together. In the middle of the floor was a diagram of
the nested shrines, and in the center was a case with a gilded coffin, but it
was not Tut’s coffin – it was the coffin of Tjyua. Still, it gave you the impression of what Carter saw as the last
of the shrines was removed.
Breath-taking!
The last room had 5 pieces from Tut’s mummy (no, not the
mask; that was in the previous exhibit).
There were two gold collars – both familiar pieces – but they also had a
small gold “coffin” that held Tut’s internal organs. It was open enough you could see the inside and see all the
writing and pictures on it. It was
truly a very, very beautiful piece.
There was also a video and a series of displays about
things that had been done to examine Tut’s mummy: x-rays in 1968 and 1978, and in 2005 a CT scan The x-rays had revealed a hole at the base of
Tut’s skull, so it was thought that he had met with foul play. The CT scan, however, showed that the hole
had happened after he died and was probably part of the embalming process. The CT scan also revealed a break in his
left leg, just above the knee that had happened only a few days before he
died. It is now THOUGHT – though
still not definite – that he died from complications from the broken bone. All the theories about his death are
explained, and, in the end, it is left up to the viewers to make their own
determination.
Of course, on exiting the exhibit you enter the gift shop. I HAD to have a magnet, and I wanted a paper
version of the exhibition book – but of course they didn’t’ have one – only a
hard-back at $49.95!! That hurt! So I didn’t buy a lot of souvenirs – the
book cost enough!
Once out of the exhibit, we went to the information desk
to enquire about Marta service back to Hazel Crest (we didn’t take time to get
the tickets and info in the morning).
The lady had a lot of time-tables, but none that seemed to do what we wanted
it to do. We finally found one that
looked promising and had a number to call for information. So Tommy called the number and got a totally
automated information center which gave us the train number, time schedule and
fare .
And, based on that schedule – there would be a train for
us at the Roosevelt station at 11:35; it was already after 11:00, but I wanted
to go to the restroom, so I went back in the building. But . . . like all women’s restrooms
everywhere, there was a line; I waited a couple of minutes and it didn’t move,
so I decided to head out; I’d rather catch the 11:35 train (and not have to
wait for the 12:07 train) than go to the restroom – I’d just do that later.
Our train was # 119, and it was right on time. We had found the electronic ticket vendor,
but it wasn’t working (of course).
Tommy called to report it (because they charge $2.00 extra if you buy
your ticket on the train when there was a vending machine at the station). Tommy then explained this to the conductor,
and he understood and didn’t charge us the extra $4.00.
Again the ride was smooth and we were back at our car in
half an hour – much faster than if we had been driving, and a lot less
hassle. Back at the car, everything was
as we had left it, so we found our way to I-57 and started on the last leg of
our journey: homeward bound.
As we got down around Effingham, Tommy voiced something
that had occurred to me earlier, but I had not yet said: maybe we could stop in Benton and look up
Betty Claxton Beard’s daughter and maybe get a lead on the other line of Claxtons
in Franklin Co. – to see if we could get one of them to participate in the DNA
project. So here we are at 8:30 in West
Frankfort having met with Ellen, Betty’s daughter, in Benton; gone to Betty’s
house; and looked in the phone book for Claxtons. FOUND! The Claxton family
who ran the boat company are VERY successful.
The man we contacted years ago has died, but the son and daughter run
the business now (and it is doing so well, they only come in half a day or so
and then leave!). So Tommy is going to
call and see if they would be interested in learning about the family and
contributing a DNA sample.
We stopped to get gas in Paducah and I drove from there
home. We also stopped in Murray and got
groceries. Got home at 11:25 p.m. (I only had 73 e-mails on my Hughes account
and 87 on my Direcway!)
3336 miles round trip direct –
not including “in-site driving” at parks and other stops along the way
$$ (lots and lots, especially
for gas!)
Buchanan, TN to Dyersburg bridge through MO and northern
AR to Thayer, MO: Farmland observations
Thayer, MO to Moody, MO to Tulsa, OK: Thayer railroading connection, Spring River
and Mammoth Springs, Mt. Zion cemetery in Moody where Hiram Madison Claxton and
family are buried
Claxton Reunion at Shahan Freewill Baptist Church in
Broken Arrow, OK
Tulsa, OK to Sioux City, IA: Farms and terrain observations
Sioux City, IA to Fargo, ND: Pipestone National Monument, interesting road construction, and
more terrain observations including glacial moraines
Visit with John Tupa in Fargo, “North America’s Tallest
Structure,” Devil’s Lake, sugar beets, geog. Center of N. America at Rugby, ND,
late evening light
International Peace Garden, terrain descriptions, Eagle
at Itasca.
Itasca Lake/Mississippi River headwaters (Douglas Lodge),
Bemidji/Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, our first rocks, Split Rock
Lighthouse, Grand Portage, MN.
Isle Royale National Park (NOT!), Grand Portage National
Monument (birch bark canoe), border crossing into Canada (our “gun” and
“potatoes” story), Terry Fox Lookout, Kakabeka Falls, amethyst mine, Eagle
Adventures (two swinging bridges), Rainbow Falls and mosquitoes, Terrace Bay
“air conditioning.”
Neys Provincial Park/Lake Superior (reversing river
flow), White Lake Provincial Park (rock-diving dog and dock construction),
“kettle lakes,” Young’s General Store,
“cairn builders,” Lake Superior Provincial Park, “Night Danger” signs, Montreal
River (gorge and more rocky “potatoes” for the car), U.S. customs, Sault Ste.
Marie, ON, St. Ignace, MI
Mackinac Island (no motorized vehicles, etc.), Lake Huron
(more “potatoes”), Straits of Mackinac bridge (Lakes Huron and Superior), Bobbi
and Jim’s house in Brighton, MI, GENEALOGY AGAIN (naturally), and more DNA
talk!
Breakfast with Bobbi and Jim, Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore, IN (climbing Mt. Baldy), “scoping out” the Hazel Crest area of South
Chicago (trains and parking).
Our train “adventure” and the policeman at the museum,
Field Museum, “King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibit, our return
train “adventure,” one more genealogy quest:
Benton and West Frankfort, IL, home at last!
Note about the
cairns along
CA Hwy. 17 on the northern shore of Lake Superior:
I looked on the Internet and found the following comment
by Barb and Scott at the “Movin’ On” web site <http://www.movinon.net/Newsletter/NL2-9.htm>:
“Cairns are a grouping of rocks
placed on top of each other pointing the way on a trail. This was no trail;
this was a highway. It puzzled me why I was seeing them quite regularly. We
were watching the Canadian National news later that night and they told about a
movement started by an artist who has a shop in Toronto and sells cairns. They
are not sure who started placing them on the highways but they are there. I
guess people put them along the highways just for
fun.”
Thanks to Barb and Scott for
recording their finding so others could learn from it.